Charles Leclerc: The Man Who Just Can’t Cut It at Home

On Saturday, Scuderia Ferrari driver, Charles Leclerc, managed to put the prancing horse on pole position for the first time since 2019; but at what cost. Qualifying 3 was going well for the Monegasque driver, setting the fastest lap of the session after the first flying laps were completed by the Top 10. Then in the last few minutes of the session, all cars went back on track to have another shot at the all-important pole position. Both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ended up aborting their first laps, leaving them with little time and a lot of pressure on their shoulders. While this was all happening, Leclerc started his flying lap, it was all looking good for the young driver until he came to Sector 3. Through the swimming pool section, Leclerc tapped the inside of Turn 15, which ended up breaking his track rod and leaving him as a passenger as he hopped over the kerb and into the barrier. When the front end hit the barrier, the rear of his car also ended up hitting the barrier, which caused to be a massive hindrance. This crash brought out a red flag and an early stop to the session, as there was too little time to set a lap time, leaving Leclerc on pole for the next day’s race.

On the day of the race, everyone in the Formula 1 world was anxiously waiting to see if Leclerc will or will not be on pole position. Around one hour before the Grand Prix, Ferrari confirmed that Charles will be starting the race in first, after no issues to his gearbox were found. And everyone thought this would be the end of the saga, but we soon found that it was not. On the way to his starting slot, Leclerc was heard over the radio saying “No, no, no, no. The gearbox guys”. The Monegasque was brought back immediately to the garage, with the Ferrari mechanics frantically trying to fix the gearbox, but it was no good. What would have been just a five-place grid penalty for switching his gearbox, ended up being a total wreck, and an empty first place slot as Leclerc did not start the Grand Prix.

Tough it is not the first time that Leclerc has been left with a bad taste in his mouth after his home Grand Prix. In 2019, the Ferrari man retired from the race that season after tangling with the wall at the inside of Rascasse, while trying to overtake the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg with a very audacious move. His tyre ended up completely ripping apart and the Ferrari was just left to retire. 2018 was no better for him as on Lap 72 out of 78, he suffered a brake failure and ploughed straight into the back of the driver ahead, Brendon Hartley. His luck was no better back in Formula 2, as in both the feature and sprint race in 2017, he failed to finish both races. The curse seems to be real for Charles Leclerc, and with no Monegasque driver ever winning the event in Formula 1, can we see Leclerc’s luck turn around?