Is the man from Monaco becoming Charles Le Cursed? – By Joe Man
As we wait impatiently for the F1 roadshow to move on to Baku, one man will be more keen than anyone to get racing. Charles Leclerc.
Once again the home race curse struck again. Charles must be starting to hate this track even though it is his home. He cannot catch a break in the principality. 2017 brought a DNF in F2 marring an otherwise dominant season. Once again he put it on pole but mechanical failure would rob him of victory and also put him at the back for the sprint race! Not much you can do from the back in Monaco!!
2018 and Charles is finally in F1 and flying around the streets in his Sauber. Running in the points it was all going well before his brakes give way causing him to shunt into the Torro Rosso of Brendan Hartley
2019 and Leclerc is now in a Ferrari with his first chance to win his beloved home race! A mix up on strategy from the team and Charles is eliminated in Q1 and he has to try to fight his way through. He got away with a few lunges past unsuspecting drivers but his luck ran out as he hit Nico Hulkenburg ending his race.
2020 we lost the race to Covid so dreams of the win are on hold again.
2021 it’s back and this time Leclerc is absolutely flying! He wrings the neck of his car in Q3 and gets his car to the top of the time sheets. However as he pushes to go faster his brakes give up causing his to smash into the barriers. The incident caused controversy as it ended qualifying leaving others unable to put in their best time and Leclerc was awarded pole! At the end of the day it was a mechanical failure so unfair to put blame on the Monegasque!
Although the incident didn’t look too bad there were concerns for the gearbox. The mechanics worked through the night to check the gearbox. Desperate to avoid a penalty they cleared it for the race. Sadly it didn’t even make the start and it was all over for another year!
And that of course brings us to 2022. It was the talk of the paddock. Would Leclerc break Lecurse? This year had to be different. He had arguably the best and fastest car on the grid and only his team mate to be concerned with on true pace. Just as we thought Charles was in a different league to the others in Qualifying. His first lap in Q3 was epic and he was going even faster before his teammate Sainz collided with Sergio Perez ended the session. So there it was Leclerc had pole again and his car was still in one piece. If there was one thing he didn’t want it was rain but rain it did!
It rained so hard that the race start was delayed and the anxiety must have been intense for the drivers. Suddenly Charles had to cope with the unknown because rain in Monaco is always going to bring chaos. Everything went well for the first stint as he enjoyed being the only driver not dealing with the spray. However as the track cleared it became a conversation as to whether to go onto inters or straight to slicks. His teammate made the call himself saying he wanted to stay out and go straight to slicks. Charles did not and followed team orders and went on to inters. And with that one move lost his chance for another year. A few laps later the track is totally dry and he has to pit again ending up double stacked behind his team mate.
It was a catastrophic blunder by the team and Leclerc was understandably furious. How could they have missed this? The answer is a little more complicated than you would think as Sergio Perez did the exact same stategy and won. The issue lay with Sainz decision to stay out and go straight onto slicks. It was the right call and would have won him the race if it wasn’t for back markers. This is where the team totally messed up. With Carlos finally making his stop they realise that Leclerc is now loosing so much time on the inters that they have to bring him in on the same lap. Having told Leclerc to box they desperately tried to tell him to stay out but its too late. Poor Charles had to sit behind his team mate double stacked and his hopes dashed!
How can one man have so much bad luck?
It is a crazy story for Leclerc in his home race and it will become bigger each year until he wins! The last two years however he cannot put down to just luck. 2021 he hit the wall causing the eventual retirement and this year he should have overruled the team. The bizarre part of Monaco’s team radio is that it seems they never discussed the option of going to slicks at all. Carlos had relayed the message and you would have assumed that Leclerc’s strategist would have been all over it.
2023 Monaco Grand Prix, Charles will not be sleeping well for the whole weekend. Surely a driver with his talent must win next year although its equally likely he will be struck by one of the bottles of champagne chucked from one of the yachts!
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