{"id":172918,"date":"2025-09-27T11:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172918\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:53:09","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-gifted-charles-leclercs-ferrari-f1-steering-wheel-in-vatican-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/172918\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV gifted Charles Leclerc\u2019s Ferrari F1 steering wheel in Vatican event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Leo XIV has received a Formula 1 steering wheel used by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/ferrari\/3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Ferrari<\/a> driver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/charles-leclerc\/109611\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Charles Leclerc<\/a>\u00a0during a private event at the Vatican. He also received a scale model of an SF90 XX Stradale, presented by Ferrari chairman John Elkann.<\/p>\n<p>A video published by Rome Reports shows Elkann, joined by his wife Donna Lavinia Borromeo, passing the steering wheel to the Pope, explaining that it is the real deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA steering wheel\u2026 so this is really used,\u201d Elkann said as the pontiff took a closer look at the part. &#8220;You\u2019d need to connect it to a car,&#8221; he continued, pointing at the quick-release system on its underside.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So this is a real steering wheel from a real car?&#8221; the Pope asked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is real. It was really used,&#8221; Elkann confirmed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He then presented a scale model of the Ferrari\u00a0SF90 XX Stradale, a model owned by Leclerc,\u00a0\u201cto remind you of your passion for driving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It is unknown whether both presents will be displayed publicly at the Vatican following this meeting, but the Pope was visibly pleased with the offering.\u00a0Interestingly, this isn&#8217;t the only Ferrari steering wheel at the Vatican.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Schumacher&#8217;s 2003 Ferrari wheel is on display in the\u00a0Carriage Pavilion (Padiglione delle Carrozze), with the inscription: &#8220;Il volante della F1 Campione del Mondo a Sua Santit\u00e0 Benedetto XVI, pilota della cristianit\u00e0&#8221; (The steering wheel of the F1 World Champion to His Holiness Benedict XVI, pilot of Christianity). It was presented to\u00a0Pope Benedict XVI on 6 December 2005 by then-president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ferrari-f1-75-steering-wheel-d-1.jpg\" alt=\"Ferrari F1-75 steering wheel detail\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Ferrari F1-75 steering wheel detail<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Erik Junius<\/p>\n<p>Alongside this, the then-Pope was also given a Ferrari Enzo, one of just 400, which he later auctioned with the proceeds being donated to\u00a0the victims of the tsunami in South East Asia.<\/p>\n<p>After the gift-giving, the pair later left the building so\u00a0Pope Leo could show the Ferrari chief his Jeep, a brand that sits under the Stellantis umbrella &#8211; a company that Elkann also chairs.<\/p>\n<p>The video has quickly gained momentum on social media, with it receiving 2000 upvotes on Reddit&#8217;s Formula 1 page.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV has received a Formula 1 steering wheel used by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc\u00a0during a private&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3025,569,578,930,576,577,88574,82,4962],"class_list":{"0":"post-172918","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-charles-leclerc","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-pope-leo-xiv-gifted-charles-leclercu2019s-ferrari-f1-steering-wheel-in-vatican-event","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-trendingteam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}