Ferrari fans who opened the team’s social media account on Thursday did not get the usual Maranello polish. For about two hours, Scuderia Ferrari HP’s channels looked as if someone had slipped past the social team. The “hackers” were not outsiders. They were and n, who turned a media day in Singapore into a playful takeover.
The pair changed the profile picture and pushed posts that had skipped the normal sign-off. What first looked like a breach was a garage joke, timed for the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
walked followers through the garage and the hospitality area. Charles Leclerc dropped a selfie and asked fans whether they liked his hair. The two interrupted team meetings, stuck funny filters on each other, and swapped the prancing horse image for a close-up of the drivers. On X, Leclerc wrote “Hi this is Charles” and urged people to “FOLLOW Charles_Leclerc”. He also replied to one supporter: “Hi Matty this is Charles. How are you?”
A live stream briefly went dark, leaving only Leclerc’s voice. He joked, “Shall we call my wife?”, before the feed closed. Team principal Fred Vasseur even appeared in one clip, caught mid-meeting. Fans treated it as light relief rather than a real security scare.
The team answered in the same spirit, posting an unofficial note that read like a security bulletin.
“Scuderia HP confirms that, over the past two hours, two individuals within the organisation gained unauthorised control of our social media channels,” the team wrote.
“During this period, a series of highly questionable editorial decisions were made, including changes to our profile picture and the publication of content that did not undergo our standard approval procedures. We can confirm that the two suspects have been identified and the situation has now been contained. Full control of our accounts has been restored. We thank our fans for their understanding during this unprecedented incident.”
Control was back with the social team soon after. The suspects were Leclerc and Hamilton.
The race is set for Sunday, 11 October, with a sprint also on the card. After two hours of filters and selfies, Ferrari’s message was simple: the accounts are safe, the drivers have been identified, and the serious work at Marina Bay starts now.
