Charles Leclerc was not present on media day at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after the Ferrari star picked up an illness ahead of one of his squad's two home races of the 2025 season. In a statement released on Thursday morning, Ferrari explained: "Charles is feeling unwell and will not be coming to the track today. He will rest and focus on recovering, and we expect him to be in the car tomorrow."

If Leclerc is unable to recover in time for Friday's practice outings, Ferrari will have to call upon one of their reserve drivers. Zhou Guanyu and Antonio Giovinazzi are the officially selected reserves, although the Italian constructor also has Arthur Leclerc, Antonio Fuoco and Dino Beganovic in their stable who could be ample replacements.

This would mark the second time in as many years that Ferrari have utilised a reserve driver. At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last year, Oliver Bearman stepped in to replace Carlos Sainz, who was suffering from appendicitis, and scored points on his debut. This ultimately led to a full-time drive with Haas for the 2025 campaign.

However, Leclerc will expect to bounce back from his illness and step behind the wheel of the SF-25 at the legendary Imola circuit. This will be an emotional weekend for Ferrari, with the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix expected to drop off the calendar for 2026 and beyond.

When he does return behind the wheel, Leclerc's attention will be focused on salvaging Ferrari's season. The Italian constructor heads into Sunday's race fourth in the Constructors' Championship standings, with a daunting 152-point deficit to leaders McLaren.

Both Leclerc and new team-mate Lewis Hamilton have struggled to extract performance from the ill-handling SF-25, and the Monegasque racer's third-place finish at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix stands as the team's only podium so far this season.

"On my side, this year, we've gone in quite extreme directions in terms of setup in order to extract a bit more out of the car," Leclerc explained in Miami. "So I feel like I'm changing quite a lot of my driving style in order to fit the new requirements from this car. However, there might be things now that it's been seven years that I've been with Ferrari.

"So now there are most likely things that are also very natural to me now after so many years with the team that I don't realise enough. Even though I feel like I've been driving quite differently this year, just because this car requires a different setup and a different way of driving."