Charles Leclerc cites his late father’s words as motivation
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Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc had to wait a full 2 seasons to drive a car that could consistently race at the top, and compete for victories again. But even in a less competitive car, Leclerc had impressed. He out-performed his four-time world champion teammate in both seasons they drove together, and in 2020, he was clearly much, much superior of a driver. Leclerc finished below Carlos Sainz in 2021, but no one could say from the races that he had performed any worse.
Finally, in 2022, in his fourth year in Ferrari, Leclerc has a car that can compete for the championship. Leclerc enjoyed a blistering start to the season – winning two races and finishing second the other time. But after that, Red Bull have caught up in the development of the car. What was once a 46-point lead, quickly started evaporating.
In the Spanish Grand Prix, Leclerc retired while in the lead, and consequently, Verstappen took the lead in the championship by six points. Verstappen was able to extend this advantage at the top in Monaco, owing to a string of strategic errors in Monaco. However, with how competitive the car has looked in the past two weekends, Leclerc still firmly has a chance to win the championship.
Charles Leclerc: “I just want to focus on the job”
At testing times like this, where the championship hangs in the balance, Charles Leclerc is reminded of the words of his late father, who always taught him humility: “My father prepared me from the beginning, telling me to stay humble. I think this was the first thing he ever told me whenever we started winning races.”
His father always kept him grounded. “It was in karting, but I was seven years old, and obviously at seven years old, when you start winning, you think you are the best and he was already starting to tell me ‘Calm down, Charles’.”
“I’ve never been an arrogant person, but obviously you have confidence at that time. He was always the first person to tell me to stay humble which has since been very useful.”
Leclerc does not want to think much about the championship fight, instead, he just wants to do his job – to stay in it. He wants to avoid outside expectations and pressure, just focusing on doing the best he can.
“I don’t think about it too much. I don’t want to think about it. I just want to focus on the job.”
Putting pressure on yourself from other people’s expectations can sometimes be disastrous. Leclerc’s approach is to just work hard.
“People will finally see the potential that we have to win the championship, so there are a lot of expectations, a lot of outside pressure but I am confident if we keep working well, keep working hard, then the results will come.”
Charles Leclerc will hope this approach works well for the rest of the season. In Baku, he and Ferrari would hope for a turn-around weekend. Cutting down the championship lead is crucial at this juncture of the season, lest Max Verstappen runs away with it.
Also Read: “I don’t need to remind them” : Mattia Binotto sets forward a clear objective for Ferrari in 2022
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)