Charles Leclerc had a slight detour before reaching the Circuit of the Americas for the F1 US GP, as he explains the airport mix-up.
Ahead of the F1 US GP weekend, Ferrari and Leclerc shared about the Monegasque having a mix-up at the airport and instead of making it to Austin, he reached New York. Both the team and the driver had fun with the fans on social media, with the mix-up.
In fact, there was some confusion as well if this was some sort of a prank or Leclerc actually had issues. Having reached COTA, the Monegasque explained the ordeal, which took place at the Nice airport with his National Interest Exception paper.
Anyone entering America, will have to get the NIE card, but for Leclerc, the airport personnel didn’t know what the card was for and until he realised, it was too late by then. He booked a flight to New York instead and spent a day there with his trainer.
He was due to travel to Milwaukee with Pierre Gasly for his first-ever NBA game. “It was very cool, it wasn’t actually planned,” Leclerc said in the press conference. “My NIE hadn’t been accepted at the airport, so I couldn’t take the original flight, so we changed the flight and went to New York last minute.
“I managed to spend one day in New York, which was my first time, which was incredible, what a city. I really, really enjoyed it. And then I went to Milwaukee for the first NBA match of the season, which was crazy with the ceremony of the rings too.
“It was just an amazing experience, and here I am in Austin, ready to be in the car,” Leclerc summed up, as he was pressed on to explain what exactly happened at the Nice airport. “It was just one guy at the airport of Nice that for some reason didn’t really know what an NIE was, and I got stuck there,” he added.
“He only realised one minute before closing the flight that the NIE was OK, but I didn’t have my passenger locator form, so I had to stay in Nice. But anyway, it’s no big deal. With the same papers I could take a plane to New York, which helped me visiting this city for the first time,” summed up Leclerc, who spent some time between Turkey and USA, at Fiorano where he gave a triple-seater car ride to his family and some team members.
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