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When fans of Formula 1 discuss the sport, the most common names on the list are -- Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, and Fernando Alonso. However, in the ongoing 2022-23 season, there is only one name purring on the lips of everyone -- 24-year-old Charles Leclerc.
Driving for Scuderia Ferrari is riddled with a lot of pressure and expectations. However, Leclerc carries his team like a veteran. He is considered the future of the sport as well as the legendary motorsport constructor Ferrari. But not all was hunky-dory for the Monegasque, who made his debut in F1 in 2018, after winning the Formula 2 championship with Prema Racing, but it would not be a happy and momentous moment for the young 19-year-old.
Days before becoming the youngest ever champion in Formula 2, and the first driver since Nico Hulkenberg in 2009 to win the championship in their rookie season -- a feat which only Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have previously accomplished -- Leclerc lost his father.
The devastating news came three days before Leclerc was to race in the fourth round of the F2 championship in Baku. The distraught son responded with a win in the feature race that very weekend.
He was also close to Jules Bianchi, another F1 racer who died after suffering a crash on the race track and spending the next nine months in a coma. Bianchi's race was the first Leclerc had ever witnessed as a child -- that also with his father -- and the Monegasque reiterated the influence of both these people in his progress as a champion F1 driver.
“There have been moments that I wish never happened but they have made me grow as a driver and helped me,” he said in an interview with the Guardian back in 2019. “The loss of my father and Jules. Two incredibly hard moments in my life made me stronger as a person and a driver. Mentally I am stronger than I used to be. They definitely stay with you forever. Unfortunately, I lost my father quite early, it changes you. It changes you forever.”
Leclerc has already completed his first-ever F1 Grand Slam in the ongoing season -- he started from pole position, set the fastest lap, and led the entire race. He also won the opening race of the season in Bahrain, again from pole, and is giving Dutchman Verstappen a run for his money -- literally.
The defending Drivers Champion Verstappen is on 85 points after securing consecutive wins at the Italian and Miami GPs. He is 19 points behind Leclerc, who has 104 points with two wins -- in Bahrain and Australia -- as well as podium positions in Saudi Arabia and Miami.
If Leclerc does win his first F1 Driver's Championship this season, it will be a perfect tribute not only to his father but also to Bianchi, who was just a year older than Leclerc when he passed away. But for now, Ferrari's star child will hope to keep the talents of Verstappen at bay.
