Happy birthday to the Monegasque Magician, none other than Charles Leclerc! The young Monegasque turns 25 today.
Leclerc joined F1 in 2018, after recording back-to-back GP3 and F2 titles in 2016 and 2017 respectively. He joined the unofficial Ferrari junior team of Alfa Romeo Sauber, at the time partnering Marcus Ericsson. He scored his first points in that years chaotic Azerbaijan Grand Prix, finishing a solid P6. He ended the 2018 season in 13th position, on 39 points, and a promotion to the Ferrari works team for the 2019 season. This season saw Leclerc try and take the fight to Mercedes. After some podiums in the first half of the season, his luck began to change.
The 2019 Belgian Grand Prix will forever be remembered in the memories of motorsport fans as one fo the darkest days in recent times.
Close friend of Leclerc, Antoine Hubert tragically lost his life during the F2 feature race in a horrific accident at Radillon. Leclerc was visibly distraught for the weekend, having suffered the second big loss in his life after close family friend and godfather Jules Bianchi lost his life in a Suzuka accident in 2014. It was very fitting that Leclerc put his SF90 on pole or the Belgian Grand Prix and secured his first win of his career.
The next race out saw Charles bring home his Ferrari P1 in front of the adoring Tisfosi at Monza, as well as a P2 in Singapore, plus 2 more podiums in Sochi and Abu Dhabi. he finished the season in 4th on 264 points.
2020 was a season to forget, aside from a P2 in Austria and a P3 in Silverstone after some questionable engine work during the 2019 season left them with severely dented development for 2020. He finished that season in 8th place with 98 points. 2021 was a more promising season, and showed signs of the team rebuilding ahead of the regulation changes.
2022 showed real promise for Leclerc. At the season opener he beat title rival Max Verstappen to P1 in Bahrain, had a good battle with the young Dutchman in Jeddah to finish P2 and recorded another win in Melbourne.
As the season has unfolded, the championship battle between Ferrari and Red Bull has become a rather one-sided affair, especially as Ferrari have made some questionable strategy choices and a streak of unreliability issues left all Ferrari powered teams with some lacklustre performance.