Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc is a Monegasque racing driver who competed in Formula 1.5.

## Personal Life

Born to father Hervé Leclerc and mother Pascale, Leclerc grew up as the second oldest alongside two other siblings; a younger brother, Arthur Leclerc and an older brother, Lorenzo. Throughout his childhood and early career, Leclerc maintained a close relationship with the late Jules Bianchi, to whom he was a godson. His father, Hervé, also raced cars, driving in Formula 3 in the 1980s and 1990s. He died after a long illness, aged 54, just four days before Leclerc would go on to win the feature race at the 2017 Formula 2 Baku round. Leclerc is in a relationship with Charlotte Sine, the daughter of a Monaco entrepreneur. Besides his native French, Leclerc also speaks Italian and English.

## Career

### Pre-2018

Leclerc was a test driver for Haas and participated in a few practice sessions in 2016 and 2017, starting with the 2016 British Grand Prix.

### **Sauber (2018)**

#### **2018 Season**

Leclerc signed with Alfa Romeo Sauber for the 2018 season. He had a succesful season, picking up his first podium in Azerbaijan and two wins in Russia and Brazil. He moved to Ferrari, at the time a non-F1.5 team following the season.

### **Ferrari (2020-2021)**

#### **2020 Season**

Leclerc returned to F1.5 after a one-year break along with his team Ferrari. He won three of the first 5 races and briefly lead the championship, but the inconsistent car often forced him into fighting for scraps. He took pole positions at the Tuscan and German Grands Prix, but only finished 5th on both occasions. He stood on the podium for the first time since the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the Russian Grand Prix, taking 3rd place. He won his fourth race of the season from pole at the Portuguese Grand Prix. He finished 3rd in the next race at Imola and Turkey, after losing two places in the final corner of the Turkish Grand Prix. Ferrari then struggled at Bahrain which saw Charles finish 6th. At the Sakhir Grand Prix, Charles started on pole however collided with Sergio Perez on the first lap which took him out of the race, this lead to grid drop at the next race in Abu Dhabi. Charles finished 9th at the final race. Over the season, Charles accumilated 182 points to finish 4th in the championship.

#### **2021 Season**

Leclerc was partnered with Carlos Sainz for the 2021 season.

The season looked to be better than the previous with Ferrari from the outset. Leclerc stormed to pole in Bahrain, at the opening round, but this failed to transpire in the race, finishing second behind Lando Norris by quite some distance. At the next round Imola, Leclerc once again took pole and was dominating the race until a late red flag bunched the pack back up. Leclerc was overtaken by Norris on the restart of the race. At Portugal, it was teammate Sainz who took pole, with Leclerc down the order. In the race, the Monaco driver finished second, once again behind the Brit of Lando Norris. At this point Leclerc was 22 points behind.

Going into Spain, Leclerc needed a strong result. He took pole for third time in four races, and then went on to lead every single lap of the race, and get the fastest lap, to take a grande slam. Leclerc took home 26 points, whilst Norris finished 7th. This meant the gap had been slashed from 22 points to 8 points. At the next round, it was Leclercs home Grand Prix at Monaco, and the Ferrari was strong. Leclerc put in a fantastic pole postion lap, but crashed on his final run to bring out the red flags. There was speculation weather the crash would mean in a gearbox change for the home hero and a grid drop. On the morning of the race, Ferrari said the gearbox would be fine and Leclerc would take his spot on pole. On the way to the grid, Leclerc reported on the radio an issue with the gearbox. Ferrari found the problem, which was actually with the driveshaft, and said it would not be fixable before the race. This meant Leclerc would DNS his home race. Norris would finish the race second, making the gap between Leclerc and Norris 26 points. In Baku, Leclerc took pole again, this time without crashing. The Ferrari struggled in the race for straight line speed, where he slipped down to third place. Norris' fourth place meant the gap was only closed by 3 points.

At France, Leclerc qualified third but fell down to finish 12th and out of the points, due to a lack of pace. This was the first time he had finished out of the points since his debut season in 2018. In Styria, Leclerc was involved in a lap one incident was running last at the end of lap one but made it up to third by the end of the race, at the following race he would finish fourth but slipped down to third in the drivers standings behind teammate Sainz by 1 point.

At the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Leclerc qualified on Pole, and would go on to lead every lap. At the final race before the summer break, in Hungary, Leclerc was taken out at turn 1 by Lance Stroll. Returning from the summer break, The Belgian Grand Prix had been a washout and that meant Leclerc would finish 6th, the position in which he qualified.

Things were on the up from the Dutch GP as he finished 2nd followed by a third at the following race at Monza, the home circuit for his team. Heavy rain in Russia hampered Leclerc during the closing stages of the race, falling out of the points by the flag. It was then on to Turkey where Leclerc took pole and the win, followed by another pole and win at the next race in America. Mexico followed America, and it was another podium, finishing second, and then winning the next race in Brazil. This would mean Leclerc had 6 podiums in the last 7 races.

Heading into the final three races, the title was still in reach for Leclerc, with Norris having lead the championship since the first race of the season. Leclerc would outscore Norris by a singular pioint in Qatar, after Norris was leading but had a puncture. Saudi Arabia saw Ferrari become constructors champions for the first time since 2014. Leclerc started on Pole but fell back to 4th with a messy and crash filled race. As the drivers entered the final race, Norris could still be beaten by Leclerc and Sainz in the championship. Leclerc put on an audaticous 2 stop by his team saw him finish 7th, whilst Norris and Sainz finished further up the field.

Leclerc finished the season in third behind his teammate in second. Leclerc was outscored by just 4 points over the season.