Charles Leclerc ended his home race hoodoo in Formula 1 on the sixth attempt to claim a historic win at the Monaco Grand Prix, one which could prove to be decisive.
It was a triumph that had been a long time in the making and was richly deserved, more than making up for the processional 78-lap encounter that preceded Leclerc’s moment in the spotlight stood atop the podium rostrum.
Despite the continuous debates over whether Monaco deserves to retain a place on the F1 calendar rearing its head again post-race, the round which has run since the 1950s remains the jewel in the calendar and the most coveted Grand Prix win of them all.
That was no more true for Leclerc, who grew up overlooking the same streets that are now surrounded with the grandstands that the locals now flock to cheer on their very own.
But despite having had several chances to end the drought earlier, until this term that prestigious win had continued to elude him.
Leclerc had delivered a spellbinding lap in an unfancied Ferrari SF-21 in 2021 to bag pole over the title-contending Red Bull and Mercedes cars. However, a crash on his final Q3 run at the Swimming Pool chicane and a subsequent driveshaft failure on his reconnaissance lap saw him fail to compete.
That disappointment as he stood on the grid for the national anthem knowing he would return to the role of spectator was amplified tenfold as he sat in the cockpit 12 months on, powerless to prevent an alarming Ferrari strategic mishap costing him again in 2022.
Even on the occasions where he wasn’t in contention to win the race he was struck down with misfortune. A brake failure curtailed his debut F1 outing in 2018, while he picked up a puncture with Ferrari the following season amid his ragged attempts to recover from an earlier operational error.
Meanwhile, a probable podium was ripped from his grasp last term when a three-place grid drop for impeding Lando Norris demoted him from third down to sixth place.
With each squandered attempt came the inevitable narrative that a curse had been placed upon Leclerc. But the Ferrari star did not subscribe to such theories and dwelling on disappointment is not in his repertoire.
Leclerc had a score to settle. Settle it he did. He was in the groove from the opening laps in practice, hustling his Ferrari SF-24 over the various bumps and kerbs and daring to come closer to the barriers than his rivals.
As Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz would later assess: while the rest were tentative in getting themselves up to speed, Leclerc was operating in Q3 mode right from the outset.
“He’s a guy that he’s always been super quick around Monaco. He has performed exceptionally well,” Sainz said. “The only thing I saw different is that he seemed to be in Q3 run two already in FP1, Q3 run two mode.”
That translated to Leclerc topping the second and third practice sessions, prompting both Red Bull drivers to wave the white flag and all but surrender their hopes.
A determined Leclerc had set out his stool and he duly delivered on expectations to register a third pole position in Monaco.
An unplanned engine change post-FP3 had created tension within the Ferrari garage, but still, Leclerc remained unperturbed, in the zone and fixated on his one single ambition.
But as Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur would later discuss post-race, Leclerc had absolved the tension that was evident 12 months ago and strode into his latest home weekend with a calmer and composed demeanour.
“He came last year, I think he was a bit nervous and from the beginning of the weekend he was a bit under tension,” Vasseur revealed. “This year he was much more relaxed from the beginning.
“I think from lap one, FP1, he did a fantastic weekend. He was always flying. And even when we had the issue in Q1 with the plastic bag into the front wing that we had to pit, we lost two or three laps in a row with this, he was able to stay very calm because we could have been out in two runs. And he was very in control from the beginning.”
But although it appeared a foregone conclusion as the drivers prepared for the most important qualifying session of the season, Leclerc was absent from the top of the timesheets in the first two segments.
Leclerc has been renowned as a one-lap specialist ever since his impressive debut Ferrari season in 2019. However, that searing speed had eluded him in the nascent stages of this term – including in Australia when he slipped up and handed the initiative to Sainz.
When Leclerc vows to work on a weakness, though, he comes back even stronger, and slight set-up tweaks to his car in time for Q3 saw him rediscover confidence in his Ferrari car when it mattered most to clinch provisional pole before he improved further on his second run to edge out Oscar Piastri.
“We struggled a little bit more with the balance of the car,” he conceded. “I couldn’t find the right feeling. But then in Q3, we did some modifications, especially with the front wing and the tools and my driving, and then I found the pace again, so I was a little bit happier in Q3.”
The gap on the times stood at 0.154 seconds, a minor advantage all things considered. However, Monaco is no conventional track and the similar margin from the McLaren in second to seventh showed Leclerc was a cut above the rest.
Leclerc revelled in the occasion, but he had been in the same position two times previously and Monaco had bitten him too hard in the past to take the feat for granted.
However, even by Monaco standards, the race would transpire to be a much more straightforward affair, the sort that Leclerc had longed for but never received in the past.
A huge first-lap crash between Sergio Perez’s Red Bull and the Haas cars up Beau Rivage prompted a prolonged 45-minute red flag.
As per the sporting regulations, competitors were permitted to change their tyres under a stoppage and that all but nullified strategy being pivotal as the drivers inside the points places took the chance to switch compounds and fulfil a mandatory change.
With 77 laps still to run, that meant pace management dictated the race even more than usual as the cars lapped nearer to Formula 2 standards across some stages.
But as Leclerc alluded to, circulating at a slower speed when the confines are tight comes with drawbacks; concentration can wane, reference points can be lost and drivers can be more susceptible to mistakes.
Ferrari also had to manage that around avoiding the potential dangers that could have come with fourth-placed Norris capitalising on George Russell’s Mercedes being on Mediums to acquire a free pit stop.
It’s a testament to the newfound calmness that has swept through the Ferrari garage on race weekends that the strategists communicated with the race engineers and the drivers without the slightest blemish to cover Norris being a threat on fresh rubber.
Compared to previous campaigns, Ferrari controlled proceedings with the same authority and conviction as a seasoned multiple championship-winning F1 outfit.
Ferrari were fortuitous in some regards. Aside from the red flag neutralising the strategic element that tends to be instrumental in a Monaco race, Sainz incurred a puncture on the opening lap from contact at Turn 1 with Piastri which sent him tumbling down the pecking order to the back.
The interruption would spare Sainz’s blushes and prevent McLaren from being tucked up right behind Leclerc with two cars. Furthermore, Piastri’s touch with Sainz had given his McLaren damage that the team would be unable to repair entirely, estimated to have cost him up to 0.250s on each lap.
However, Leclerc earned those crumbs of luck. He produced the laps when it mattered, survived two standing starts, and the seven-second advantage he opened up at the end showed he had much more pace in reserve.
Leclerc’s late charge all but ensured that he coasted to the line untroubled and could savour those closing laps driving around the prized Monaco streets in a Ferrari F1 car.
But it would be then that Leclerc met his greatest threat and it wasn’t another driver. The closest thing that came to stopping him wasn’t a rival competitor or even his own team as had been the case beforehand, but the tears that filtered through as he thought back to memories of his late father, Hervé.
Tragedy was intertwined with Leclerc’s career even prior to him reaching F1. Jules Bianchi, his godfather who had insisted to Ferrari to not let his talent go to waste, would succumb to injuries that he picked up chasing his own dreams in 2015, while Hervé lost his battle with illness in 2017 and missed his son shining on the main stage.
Since then, Leclerc has pledged to ensure that their guidance would not be wasted, whilst having built up a mental fortitude that has allowed him to channel such heartbreak into doing what he does best on the track.
However, it was clear that the pent-up emotions which had been building across the weekend had taken their toll as he stood atop his winning Ferrari car and roared with both passion and relief in equal measure.
Beaming on the podium draped in the Monegasque flag, Leclerc looked up to see his friends on the balconies who had been there to pick him up in the moments when things had unravelled on past occasions.
Leclerc had longed Monaco to love him. Now it has. And it could be a poignant weekend that inspires him to loftier peaks from here.
Leclerc cracked the headline result he had been seeking since his last win in July 2022. Coupled with his consistent results this term and Red Bull’s Monaco woes, Leclerc sits
31 points behind the championship leader.
The Maranello-based squad’s latest upgrades at Imola have improved Leclerc’s comfort behind the wheel and he is now able to manipulate the SF-24, a departure from its recalcitrant predecessor which boasted capricious tendencies, how he so desires.
“Charles was very confident braking,” Marc Gene evaluated. “Rascasse, Sainte Devote, he was super fast. We worked on the settings recently and he says that now the car does exactly what he wants it to do. But we can already tell from Imola that he has been really enjoying the car lately, and we can say that he is very happy with the way the car behaves based on his driving.”
Unlike in 2022, Leclerc now has the Ferrari environment behind him that he’s craved and a group that wants to exploit his talents rather than place a ceiling on his abilities.
The inspiration behind that has been none other than Vasseur, the astute leader that Ferrari had longed for and the individual who reinstated Leclerc’s credence in the marque.
The competition has never been higher, but Ferrari is rising to the occasion with renewed vigour and Leclerc positioned at the heart.
Leclerc denied he believed in the theories that he was cursed. But there was a burden on his shoulders, one that has been lifted. And Vasseur is convinced that Leclerc’s biggest success to date will elevate Ferrari’s prodigal son to even greater heights now.
“I think it was an important one that he had a kind of weight on the shoulders for years now about the win in Monaco,” Vasseur admitted. “He was a bit under pressure with this but it’s not just about Monaco I think probably for his own self-confidence and for the approach that he has of all the other events, Charles will do a step forward.”
Irrespective of what lies ahead across the remainder of this campaign, as Vasseur assessed, the Leclerc that existed pre-Monaco is now stored in the past. The latest version, the one that will be tasked with returning the Prancing Horse to its prized position at the pinnacle of F1, will return in Montreal with a revitalised lease of life and no longer bound to old lasting constraints.
