“I will think twice about doing it again,” Charles Leclerc reflects on crash with Niki Lauda’s challenger in Monaco

Charles Leclerc

We are just nine days away from the Monaco Grand Prix, which hosts the seventh round of the Formula 1 2022 championship. Prior to this event, the streets of Monaco hosted the 13th Grand Prix de Monaco Historique. The race witnessed participation from each team with a great legacy in Formula 1, like Lotus, Tyrrell, Brabham, Surtees, Cooper and BRM.

The Formula 1 championship leader, Charles Leclerc was presented with the honour to drive the iconic 1974 Ferrari 312 B3. The Ferrari driver was presented with a huge opportunity to drive in his hometown in this symbolic car. However, it turned out to be a horrifying day out on track for Leclerc. The Monegasque suffered a brake issue, that saw him spin and crash into the barriers. At the end of the day, as a result of his misfortune, the homeboy hero was left devastated in the streets he grew up in.

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Charles Leclerc grateful for driving Niki Lauda’s Ferrari

When you thought you already had all the bad luck of the world in Monaco and you lose the brakes into rascasse with one of the most iconic historical Ferrari Formula 1 car. ??
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) May 15, 2022

The Ferrari 312 B3 was anchored by the legend of Formula 1, Niki Lauda while fighting for the 1974 world championship. Leclerc expressed his gratitude by saying “It’s always also an honour for me and I’m always very happy and very glad to be driving those cars and always a pleasure too. I got to meet Niki a few times in the paddock in the past and yeah, they are just legends of our sports, of course it’s always amazing to be driving their cars.”

Despite the adversity, Leclerc felt obliged of getting a drive in a legendary car. He commented on the brake issues by saying “To be honest, before that I think all the checks that had to be done was done. Obviously there was a shakedown of this car the Thursday before and yeah, the failure that happened was on a screw of the brake pads and it’s impossible to know. So fighting for a championship like this, I will think twice about doing it again in the future, but yeah, it’s also part of our job and sometimes we need to go into those cars.”

The Monegasque concluded by adding “it’s also part of our job and sometimes we need to go into those cars. Great to experience what it was like and what it’s like now. I had a lot of fun and this was unfortunate but again, it was just unlucky.” We are just a few moments away from the fifth round of the 2022 season unfolding at Barcelona. The Ferrari driver is highly hopeful of re-writing the headlines with a strong result at the Spanish GP.

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