"Thanks for lunch": Ferrari icon and Michael Schumacher's close aide to Charles Leclerc after 'catching up'

Scuderia Ferrari stalwart and Michael Schumacher's close aide, Gino Rosato, thanked Charles Leclerc for lunch as the pair seemingly caught up for a meal at the beginning of the summer break. Rosato was a key figure within the Ferrari F1 setup for years, before leaving the Italian team in 2023.

Gino Rosato was a long‑time, behind‑the‑scenes veteran at Ferrari, whose role was never on‑track engineering but rather logistics and dealing with internal team affairs. Often described as Ferrari’s fix‑man, the Canadian also had a close relationship with Michael Schumacher, which they developed during the latter's successful time at the team.

On Monday [Aug 4], Rosato shared a selfie with Ferrari's current main man, Charles Leclerc, via his Instagram story, as he thanked him for lunch. Charles, along with his brother Lorenzo, caught up for a meal with Rosato as F1 enters the summer break post the Hungarian GP.

"Thanks for lunch. It was nice to catch up," wrote Rosato, as he tagged Charles and Lorenzo Leclerc.

Screen grab from Gino Rosato's Instagram story [via Instagram/@ginorosato]

Rosato has remained close to some figures within the F1 paddock even after he exited Ferrari in 2023. He has shared glimpses of himself catching up with the likes of Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen, and Kimi Raikkonen previously, via his Instagram.

Leclerc's meeting with Rosato came just a day after his disappointing outing at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Monegasque was unable to convert his incredible pole position into a race win, and even fell out of the podium positions by the end of the race. He showcased his frustrations on the team radio and was visibly disappointed as he was spotted getting out of the car after the race.

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Charles Leclerc left "very disappointed" after the F1 Hungarian GP

Charles Leclerc talks to the media after the Hungarian Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Charles Leclerc conceded that he was "very disappointed" to not even come away with a podium after his early race performance at the Hungarian GP. The 27-year-old also claimed that he will not be able to take away any positives from the race weekend at the Hungaroring.

Speaking after the Hungarian GP, Leclerc added that he and the team needed to grab the only opportunity of a race win in 2025.

"Very disappointed. I don’t take any positives from this weekend when we ended the weekend like that," said Leclerc. [via Formula1.com] "When we have one opportunity in a year to win a race, we need to take it and today we didn’t. Now we will analyze what are the reasons why we had this problem. I don’t think it’s anything that we had in our control, but we’ll check," he added.

Leclerc explained that a chassis issue caused him to lose pace to the McLarens during the second phase of the race in Budapest. Mercedes driver George Russell presumed that the drop in performance could also be related to Ferrari having to increase their tire pressures in the final stint to counteract how low their car was set up.

Edited by Mitali