F1 debutant Rafael Camara penalised for ‘dangerous’ Charles Leclerc incident

Formula 1 debutant Rafael Camara has received a reprimand for a “clearly dangerous” incident with Charles Leclerc on his first day as a grand prix driver. 

Camara, who has been drafted in to replace the axed Esteban Ocon for an earlier-than-expected F1 debut at his home Sao Paulo Grand Prix, impeded Ferrari’s Leclerc during second practice on Friday. 

The stewards investigated the incident and issued a warning to Camara, who they deemed had caused a dangerous situation by blocking Leclerc at one of the fastest sections of the Interlagos circuit on the run up the hill that leads onto the main straight. 

“Car 51 [Camara] was warned multiple times that car 16 [Leclerc] was arriving on a fast lap. Yet, Car 51 was weaving and moving well into the racing line,” the stewards explained in their verdict. 

“Car 16 had to take evasive action to avoid a collision by moving to the right, with a significant amount of the car off the track. The situation that was created was clearly dangerous and car 51 should have taken more care to avoid impeding car 16.

“While the typical penalty for impeding in a free practice session is a warning, in this instance, we are of the view that a reprimand is warranted.”

Camara ended up eight-tenths slower than Haas team-mate Ollie Bearman in FP1 but cut his deficit to half a second in FP2. 

“It’s been a really nice weekend so far, really special,” said Camara. “Going into FP1 was getting a bit more emotional, with the intensity of the crowd in front of you and fans getting excited. 

“Once you get into the car, and you start driving, it goes back to the normal thing that you’ve been doing your whole life. There’s a lot going on, but so far it’s been a good two sessions, learning a lot and improving throughout the day. 

“Tonight, I’ll work with the team and put more in place for tomorrow.”

Haas was impressed with Camara’s first day in the car in Brazil. 

“Obviously a massive learning curve today, it's pretty intimidating, but he did brilliantly,” said Haas’ head of car engineering Hoagy Nidd. 

“He built up steadily through FP1. He was sort of almost a bit reticent to give too much feedback from FP1 and obviously for FP2 he was improving all the time and building with his feedback and his driving, so a pretty strong day I would say.

“Working on procedures, you probably saw us go out, do a few starts, things like that, just the normal bread and butter things that we almost take for granted with most drivers, so we're very pleased with him I think.”