Charles Leclerc

Interesting facts

Charles Leclerc's career has been shaped by the memory of Jules Bianchi, who was both a close family friend, his godfather, and once worked as his karting mechanic - after Bianchi died from injuries in his 2014 Suzuka crash, Leclerc dedicated his 2016 GP3 title to him. His father Hervé, himself a former Formula Three driver, died in 2017 just before Charles's Formula 2 win in Baku; Charles had earlier told his dying father he had already signed a Formula One contract, when in reality he only signed with Sauber months later. As karters, Leclerc and Max Verstappen fought a fierce rivalry - a collision during the 2012 KF2 season got them both disqualified, and they battled closely for both the European and World titles, with Leclerc narrowly losing each one. He won the 2017 Formula 2 title as a rookie, though he was controversially disqualified from a race at Spa that he had won by 25 seconds, over excessive skid-block wear. His maiden Formula One victory came at Spa in 2019, which he immediately dedicated to Anthoine Hubert, who had died in a Formula 2 crash there the day before. Two weeks later he won again at Monza, earning the nickname 'il Predestinato' (the predestined one) from the Italian press and becoming the first Ferrari driver to win there since Fernando Alonso in 2010. Charles Leclerc has been racing in Formula 1 since 2018 as a Monegasque driver. He scored a total of 1839 championship points over his career. His best season was 2022, when he finished 2nd in the championship with 308 points.