The victory was a lifelong aspiration achieved for the 26-year-old and was largely due to the commitment and affection of his father Herve, who passed away in 2017 while Leclerc was on his way to winning the Formula Two championship.
The first native winner of the Formula 1 main race since Louis Chiron in 1931 later recounted how he watched it as a child with his father, imagining future adventures.
“I remember being very young and watching the race with my buddies, obviously alongside my father, who did absolutely everything to help me reach the position I am in today,” he expressed. “I feel that today I not only fulfilled my own dream, but also one of his.”
Leclerc recalled the Formula Two races in Baku in 2017 that took place just three days after his father’s death, where he managed to overcome the emotional turmoil in his mind and emerge victorious from pole position.
“It’s probably the first time in my career that it happened again while I was driving, where you experience these sudden memories of all the moments we shared, all the sacrifices he made for me to get to this point,” he stated.
“This was, once again, as I mentioned earlier, probably the most challenging moment to deal with today.”
Leclerc mentioned that winning with all his friends and family watching, along with Prince Albert of Monaco rooting for him, was an incredibly special moment.
The millions of viewers watching on television would be unaware of the internal turmoil experienced inside the helmet during the last 10 laps.
In fact, I realized two laps before the end that I was struggling to see clearly due to the tears in my eyes,” Leclerc revealed.
“I thought to myself… ‘Charles, you can’t let this happen now. There are still two laps to go.’ And especially on a track like Monaco, you need to stay focused until the end.
“It was extremely challenging to control those emotions and thoughts once again, thinking about the people who helped me get to this point,” he said.
Leclerc started the race in the front position, as he had done twice before in Monaco without success, even though overtaking is almost impossible on the narrow and twisty circuit.
There were talks about curses and bad luck, doubts about whether he could finally break the streak that had prevented him from even stepping on the podium in his home race after five attempts.
“I never believed in the curse,” he commented. “However, it has always been very tough on the two occasions I had the chance to win here.
“The thing is, as a driver, you never really know when the next opportunity to win will come, especially when it’s your home race and even more so when your home race is in Monaco, which is such a special track,” Leclerc concluded. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin)
