Charles Leclerc’s home race win has been an emotional one, and it’s been a long time coming. The Monegasque driver has been unlucky every year since he started his F1 career in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, Leclerc did not finish the race around the streets he grew up on, and in 2021 he was due to start on Pole, but damage to his car saw him retire before he could even start. A P4 finish in 2022 and P6 finish last year meant he had never even made it onto the podium on the streets he knows so well.
Following his win today, Leclerc told of how emotional the last few laps were;
“No words can explain that. Yeah, it’s such a difficult race. I think the fact that twice I’ve been starting on pole position and we couldn’t quite make it, makes it even better in a way. It means a lot obviously, it’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day. So yeah, it was a difficult race emotionally because already 15 laps to the end you’re just hoping that nothing happens. Already the emotions were coming.”
However, to add to the emotion of his maiden home race win around the streets he grew up on, Leclerc revealed he has also been thinking about his late father. Hervé Leclerc passed away in 2017 while Charles was competing in Formula 2, before he made it into F1. With tears in his eyes, Leclerc spoke of how his late father was in his thoughts throughout the race;
“I have to say that I was thinking to my dad a lot more than what I thought while driving. Obviously he’s given everything for me to be here. It was a dream of ours for me to race here and to win, so it’s unbelievable.”
The Ferrari driver also spoke of how physically difficult the race was, managing one set of tyres during the race. The Lap 1 red flag meant that the grid could complete their compulsory tyre compound change early doors, running one tyre for the remainder for the race. For drivers such as the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, the gamble didn’t work in their favour. Starting on the hard tyre, they were forced onto the less durable Medium compound on a track where overtaking is few and far between. For drivers like Leclerc who started on the Medium, however, the red flag meant they could run a more durable hard tyre. While he was on the more durable compound, Leclerc still had to carefully manage his tyres around the tight street circuit of Monaco;
“Everyone always talks about Monaco as being the jewel in the crown, but they also say Saturday it’s the most important day. It’s not, is it? I mean today there’s still a lot of work to do out there on the track. 78 laps, the pressure from behind, you have to be a mathematician when it comes to deciding how hard to push, how easy to go. It’s tough out there. It’s really difficult.
“At first I thought we were, I mean we had quite a lot of margin but we knew there were 78 laps to do on the same tyres which was very, very difficult. But yeah, we did a great management of the tyres. There was a big part of the race where we had to manage the gap with George and then in the last 10 laps I could push a bit more and the car felt amazing.”
As he stepped out of the car after the race, Leclerc was quick to thank his team for their hard work this season. The Italian team have been on the up after a poor few years, with Team Principal Fred Vasseur leading the charge. Charles Leclerc’s home race win, he says himself, is down to the team giving him the resources;
“I just want to thank the team for having done such an incredible work over the last few months and giving me the opportunity to finally win this race is again a very special feeling. Just a huge thank you.”
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Featured Image by Scuderia Ferrari