Charles Leclerc insists he does not feel pressure on his grand prix in Monte Carlo despite the bad luck that has affected his performances here. The Ferrari driver believes this is the year he can see the curse of Monaco, a meeting where he has not yet reached the finish line.
Leclerc is also aware that victory would help him regain some of the momentum he lost in a fierce title fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The 24-year-old, who was born and raised in the principality, was relaxed before Sunday’s race, despite expectations of a victory in front of a local crowd.
“Honestly, I don’t feel the pressure, I’m just very happy to be here,” he said. “Going back to this amazing track is very special for me to have grown up here, on these roads that I know so well. No added pressure, I know performance is in the car for a great result this weekend. I just have to get in the car and get the job done, and I hope the results are there by the end of the weekend. “
Now, in his fifth season in F1, this is Leclerc’s best chance to win in the narrow streets of Monte Carlo. With Ferrari enjoying a competitive car, after the third meeting in Australia he had a 46-point lead over Verstappen, but since then the Dutchman has managed three victories in the trot. The last meeting in Spain was especially painful. Ferrari’s improvements had been successful and Leclerc had a comfortable race advantage when his car suffered a turbo and MGU-H failure.
Verstappen’s 19-point deficit in the championship became a six-point lead and Leclerc has pledged to regain his lead, to win and thus become the first Monegasque driver to win in Monaco. , which has proven to be so frustratingly cruel with its most successful. son in the past.
Charles Leclerc cycling to Monaco. Photo: Benoît Tessier / Reuters
In his first outing here in 2017 in F2, Leclerc was in a strong position to secure the victory until an unjustified safety car proved costly, relegating him to fourth place before retiring with a problem of suspension. His attempt to return to the next sprint race also ended in a setback after a clash that resulted in a bent arm.
His first F1 start with Alfa Romeo in 2018 looked promising to finish in a solid 12th place with eight laps to go when a brake failure caused him to deviate sharply at the back of Brendon Hartley’s Toro Rosso, ending in his career.
He might have felt that his misfortune had taken its course, but the worst was yet to come. The following year he was stuck in his first lap of qualifying and damaged his tires. Ferrari kept him out for another lap with which he came back sixth. The team believed that it was enough to get him to Q2 safely, but miscalculated. Times were falling as Leclerc sat desolate in his car when he was knocked out in Q1. Knowing he had to load, he took the risks properly, but eventually ran out of space, with a puncture to hit the wall that caused damage and forced him to retreat.
Last year, however, was perhaps the hardest blow. After a great lap in Q3 to occupy the provisional pole, in his second and final run he crashed and ended the session. The pole was his, but on Sunday morning Ferrari discovered that the car had been damaged and could not start the race.
When Leclerc hit the track again this month, he was at least able to make an ironic smile as the clumsy hit back. Driving a demonstration of Niki Lauda’s 1974 Ferrari at the Monaco Historique event, the brakes failed when he entered the Rascasse corner and returned to the barriers.
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So does the past weigh on your mind? At all, he holds the young man who knows he has the talent to make sure his day comes here. “I don’t think about it, of course it hasn’t been the luckiest track for me in general, but it’s life, it happens, it’s part of motoring,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. We hope they do this year. “