Charles Leclerc open to the inclusion of motorsport in the Olympic Games

It's not just Sébastien Loeb who is one of the personalities from the world of motor sports to have carried the Olympic flame for the Paris 2024 Games! Charles Leclerc also had the right to a few hundred meters with the legendary flame in the streets of the Principality of Monaco, where he won a few weeks earlier, during his Grand Prix of F1 national. Interviewed ahead of this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix at Red Bull Ring, Leclerc is very favorable to the inclusion of motorsport in the Olympic program in the future, while understanding that this is something difficult to put in place.

“It was a huge honor for me to be able to carry the Olympic flame, especially in my native country, Monaco. It was a very special moment. It would be great to have a motorsport presence at the Olympic Games. That said, it would probably be more difficult to organize than other sports. We all drive for different manufacturers, with different cars in F1. To ensure that everyone has the same equipment, there will clearly be choices to make, on aerodynamic downforce, the horses available, but it is clearly possible. »

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Being one of the rare athletes to represent Monaco in competition, Charles Leclerc understands the pride that can rest on athletes qualified for the Olympic Games for “small” countries, as he says himself. During the Tokyo Games in 2021, six athletes represented the Principality, three women and three men. In Monaco's Olympic history, a certain Prince Albert II participated in the Olympic Games five times, this time in the Winter Olympics, between 1988 and 2002, in bobsleigh...

“I would love to be able to represent Monaco, I am very proud to come from there, there are few of us in the world of sport to come from there, and it is something very pleasant to represent a small country, but which is magnificent. I don’t think that’s in the IOC’s plans for the next few years though! »

Max Verstappen much more cautious about Olympic participation

The inclusion of motor sports in the Olympic Games was formally impossible, due to Article 52.4.2 of the Olympic regulations. The latter stipulated that “sports, disciplines or events whose performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion cannot be included in the Olympic program. » This article was withdrawn in 2007, five years before the FIA ​​very officially joined the federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee. If the use of an engine remains a more sensitive point with regard to Olympic rules, nothing prevents the holding of a motorsport event as part of the Olympics. One thing is certain, if ever motorsport were to join the Olympic Games, it would be without Max Verstappen !

" It's not for me ! Motorsport is too focused on the mechanics available. Coming from a family steeped in motorsport, I didn't really grow up in this Olympic atmosphere. I wouldn't like it very much, I don't think we have a place in the Olympic Games, and that's fine with me, because we have our own championship, which is very popular. I really like watching the Olympics in front of my television, though! », explained the three-time Dutch world champion.

However, let us end by recalling that the stable Classic Ferrari for sale was involved in an edition of the Olympic Games, in Turin in 2006. A Ferrari F2004 actually performed a short demonstration during the opening ceremony, in front of a captivated crowd, obviously made up of many Tifosi.

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