Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Monaco, 2024

Leclerc channels tragedy into triumph with emotional Monaco victory

2024 Monaco GP report

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For his entire life in motorsport, Charles Leclerc has known success and sorrow in equal measure.

Through his father, Herve, who watched him driving a kart for the first time, refusing to stop until out of fuel, Leclerc would receive support and dedication as he rose up the ranks – only for death to separate them before he could reach the ultimate destination of Formula 1.

Through childhood family friend Jules Bianchi, Leclerc formed a relationship with Ferrari that would see him become one of the Scuderia’s most successful drivers – but Bianchi would not be there to witness it.

Even the occasion of Leclerc’s first grand prix victory, Spa-Francorchamps in 2019, death’s dark shadow descended over his moment of triumph – cast by the loss of Anthoine Hubert just a day before.

On the track, Leclerc has often faced frustration and disappointment. Joining the Scuderia just before they would endure two fruitless seasons in 2020 and 2021. A false dawn in 2022 that was followed by another winless year.

Start, Monaco, 2024
Leclerc held his lead while Sainz roughed up Piastri
And then there was Monaco, his home grand prix. Back-to-back poles, back-to-back failures to convert them into victory. The one event he coveted above all others, the one that had compelled him to pursue this life to begin with, seemed destined to elude him.

But why pay mind to what fate may have in store when, instead, you can become its master?

The first two days of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix weekend had shown that not only were Red Bull beatable, they were practically beaten themselves. Ferrari, through Leclerc, had been the pace-setters over two days of practice that showed how tight the field was at the front. Around a circuit that rewards drivers more than most, whoever would earn the most critical pole position of the season would do so through skill. And, once again, Leclerc did not falter when the time came.

Unlike his previous two Monte Carlo poles, there were no questions over his car, no rain clouds in the sky to complicate matters. There was nothing but clear road ahead and blue sky above. All he would need is to resist Oscar Piastri in the much-improved McLaren alongside him on the run to Sainte Devote and the rest would surely come easy.

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Like the three cars behind him on the grid, made up of Piastri, Leclerc’s team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lando Norris in the second McLaren, Leclerc took the start on the medium tyre compound. The three behind them picked hard tyres, but while theirs was a strategy based on hope, Ferrari and Leclerc’s was one made with a clear head.

Magnussen and Perez left a trail of destruction
When the lights went out, just a single glance in the mirror would have been enough for Leclerc to know he would hold his lead through Sainte Devote. Instead, Sainz had the momentum and drew alongside Piastri’s McLaren through the famous first corner. Sainz squeezed Piastri at the apex and the two cars touched, damaging the McLaren’s floor and cutting one of the Ferrari’s tyres.

As Sainz continued up the hill, quickly realising that he was in trouble, there were much greater problems behind. Towards the rear, Sergio Perez was under attack from Kevin Magnussen, the Haas to the right of the Red Bull through Beau Rivage. Neither seemed willing to offer any quarter over 17th place and the inevitable collision sent both into the barrier and the army of photographers behind it running for cover. One unfortunate soul was hit by debris from the wreck, but was soon released from the medical centre following a check-up.

By the time the two crashed cars came to a stop approaching Massenet, they had collected a third in Nico Hulkenberg. Zhou Guanyu behind them had successfully avoided becoming a fourth victim, only to be held up by the medical car stopping on scene and its occupants evacuating in front of him as tried to gingerly make his way through the carnage. Before the Sauber had made his way through and reached the end of the first sector, the race was stopped.

As Zhou had not reached the second sector by the time of the red flag, the positions for the restart would instead be taken from Safety Car Line Two at the pit exit. Leclerc would have retained his lead regardless, but this allowed the fortunate Sainz – who had fallen down to 16th with his puncture – to regain his third place. At a stroke, McLaren’s hopes of using strength in numbers against Leclerc and Ferrari were quashed.

The red flag offered teams the opportunity to switch their cars’ tyres – meaning they could fulfil their two-compound obligation ‘for free’. Having started on mediums, Ferrari could fit hards on the race leader’s car and attempt to go almost the entire race distance, if they wanted. Before heading back out on the track, Leclerc’s engineer, Brian Bozzi, gave away the team’s plans over the radio – not that almost every team hadn’t chosen to do the same.

“So Charles, we’ll now go behind the Safety Car – standing start,” Bozzi informed his driver. “Then we will go to the end.”

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Sure enough, Leclerc emerged from the pitlane on fresh hard tyres – as did the three behind him. In fact, the entire field had all changed either from mediums to hard or from hards to mediums – except for Logan Sargeant in the 14th-placed Williams. A standing start restart was declared, meaning Leclerc only needed to hold onto the lead into Sainte Devote and then he would surely have the track position to cruise through the race and stretch his hard tyres to the finish.

Leclerc forced a slow pace on the field at first
Even with tyres that afforded less grip of the line than before, Leclerc still managed to get a good enough getaway to deny Piastri any chance of beating him to the first corner. There were no changes of position in the top ten as Leclerc led the field up the hill for a second team with Piastri second, Sainz third and Norris fourth.

Leclerc was instructed to “slowly introduce” his tyres from the second green flag lap. His first complete lap time of a 1’22.625 – ten seconds slower than his pole time – showed just how little he was planning to lean on his tyres early on. Piastri, unsurprisingly, stuck with him through the early laps, closing well within a second over several laps and even attempting a speculative look to the inside of Portier on lap 19.

“I kind of knew that once I showed my hand in where I was going to try and overtake, that he would probably be wise to it from there,” Piastri said after the race. “So I managed to get very close in turn seven one lap. I tried to show the nose in Portier, but he reacted just quick enough, so after that point I knew I was going to be very limited on options.”

Although Leclerc was pacing well within himself, Russell in fifth, on the mediums, was running even slower as he had to try and take his softer rubber the same distance as those ahead. The gap growing to Russell was actually a concern to Ferrari, as it could open the door for Norris in fourth to make a free pit stop for fresher, softer tyres and potentially put heavy pressure Sainz and even Leclerc, should he find a way by. Leclerc was instructed to either match or run slower than the Mercedes to ensure that window would not open for McLaren.

With overtaking opportunities virtually non-existent, there was little Piastri could do to get by the leader. The laps ticked by, with the monotony for the leaders broken up only by the occasional lapped car to pass, but the traffic failed to open up any extra chances to put pressure on the Ferrari.

Leclerc managed to keep Russell around 20 seconds from him, meaning that none of the top four considered risking a pit stop and sacrifice track position for minimal gain. But seventh-placed Hamilton held a 40 second advantage over Yuki Tsunoda and Mercedes took advantage of it to pit Hamilton for new hard tyres. Red Bull protected Max Verstappen in sixth by pitting him soon after to cover from the Mercedes behind. Verstappen held his position, but now had a distinctive pace advantage over Russell ahead, meaning the Mercedes driver faced a stressful final third of the race.

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Despite the leaders having already run their hard tyres longer than their teams would have ever originally planned to, Leclerc was happy with the state of his tyres. As the fuel in his car gradually burned away, he slowly began to ramp up his pace out of the 1’18s and into the 1’17s. The only concern for Ferrari seemed to be his braking. Bozzi warned his driver to be careful of “micro-locks” on the approach to the heavier braking zones into Sainte Devote and the Harbour chicane, but nothing he was doing seemed to be taking much performance out of his Pirellis.

Piastri eventually dropped back from Leclerc
“I felt like we had everything under control,” he later explained. “The pace of the car was amazing. The tyres felt really, really good. Even in the last laps, I felt like I could do another race.”

Leclerc’s 1’17s became 1’16s. Piastri was able to match him despite his car having lost some downforce efficiency from the lap one clash with Sainz, but matching the Ferrari was the best he could do. Entering under 20 laps remaining, it seemed all that could prevent Leclerc from taking the chequered flag was either a sudden car problem, a puncture, or an accident back in the field transforming the dynamic of the race.

In control out front, coming to terms with what he was on the cusp of achieving, intrusive thoughts began to flash through Leclerc’s mind inside his helmet. Thoughts about his journey to this point, those who had helped him to get there and those who were no longer around to celebrate with him.

On lap 71, Leclerc posted a personal best time of 1’15.162, suddenly opening up his lead to Piastri by several seconds over a handful of laps. He explained later he was trying to cover any possible scenario just in case, but perhaps it was his way of trying to keep his emotions in check.

“I think where I struggled most to actually contain my emotions was during the last 10 laps of the race,” he later admitted. “I realised actually two laps to the end that I was struggling to see out of the tunnel just because I had tears in my eyes. And I was like, ‘fuck, Charles, you cannot do that now. You still have two laps to finish’.”

After reassuring his team he would bring the car home, he dropped back into the 1’16s and enjoyed his final laps of his home grand prix. Passing by bus stops he used to wait at to get to school, balconies filled with old friends roaring him on and the royal box where Prince Albert II was eagerly awaiting him, Leclerc steering his Ferrari through his home city for the 78th and final time, before taking the chequered flag and realising his childhood dream – and that of his late father.

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“I remember being so young and watching the race with my friends, obviously with my father – who did absolutely everything for me to get to where I am today – and I feel like I didn’t only accomplish a dream of mine today, but also one of his,” he said.

Local hero Leclerc finally won in Monaco
“I think the fact as well that we started twice on pole position in the past and that we couldn’t manage to get the win for one reason or another, that we couldn’t really control, not in our control, makes this one even more so special.”

Piastri finished seven seconds behind in second, more than content with being the runner up knowing there was little more he could have done. Sainz took his good fortune from the red flag and converted it into third, with Norris having to put up with being the only Ferrari and McLaren driver not to take home a trophy.

Russell resisted Verstappen’s attempts at pressure to claim fifth on 77 lap old mediums, with Hamilton behind the pair of them. Tsunoda claimed eighth, while Alexander Albon claimed Williams’ first points and Pierre Gasly survived a lap one assault from his team mate to score the last point in tenth. For the first time in Formula 1, the top ten on the grid all finished in the same place where they had started.

It had not been a spectacle. It had not been an especially tense or challenging victory. It had not been much of a race.

But as Leclerc stood on the top step of the podium, draped in the flag of his home, looking down on the beaming faces of his Ferrari team, none of that mattered. As for now and for the rest of time, he was a Monaco Grand Prix winner. And that was everything.

“To finally make it in front of my whole family, my friends that were watching all over the track is a very, very, very special feeling.”

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Author information

Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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10 comments on “Leclerc channels tragedy into triumph with emotional Monaco victory”

  1. Sergio Basto Perez
    27th May 2024, 7:40

    Great piece. Sometimes, in the middle of all the posts about spectacle, about bigger, better, this Monaco Grand Prix reminds us of how beautifully Human this sport is, and stories like this can be written.

    1. Magical feel good moment in sport!

  2. The Leclerc storyline is all this race had going for it really. Happy for him but lucky for everyone that Red Bull were nowhere, would have been a sad write-up if Verstappen was cruising out front with the race as it was.

    One unfortunate soul was hit by debris from the wreck, but was soon released from the medical centre following a check-up

    Hadn’t heard that, scary stuff! Glad to hear they are okay.

  3. Good for Charles. Sad it wasn’t the 2022 race that gave him redemption, because that one was worthy of a winner of his calibre with his background story. Not that Perez didn’t deserve it himself, but Charles winning that would’ve been memorable whereas this one will be forgotten easily.

  4. Happy for Leclerc but let’s not make too much put of nothing. This race was about as exciting as seeing a group of elderly people on a tour with their Mobility scooters.

    1. It was rather underwhelming. I guess it is more a festival or circus for the F1 owners, teams and their business relations. Sportive and racing wise this venue delivers close to nothing. A pity that Charles victory is overshadowed by that. They might as well have gifted him the trophy Saturday night.

  5. Charles won it thanks to his amazing speed around this track. He put great laps after laps during all practices and during qualifications, so no one actually got close to taking it from him this week.

    1. Leclerc was in a “league of his own” this weekend.

  6. They need to extend that run out of the tunnel. Knock a few trees down and either move the chicane closer to Tabac or modify the approach to Tabac.

    1. Before Portier there is a roundabout (googlemaps). If they would turn left there would be maybe 100-150 more mts in the straight and a faster corner exit. Maybe it would be enough to make nouvelle chicane an overtaking corner.

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