Charles Leclerc Biography

Charles Leclerc was born on October 16, 1997, in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to Herve and Pascale Leclerc. Charles was born as the middle child in the family and had a younger brother, Arthur and an elder brother Lorenzo.

Charles has inherited the love for racing from his father, Herve Leclerc, who was an influential racing driver in the 1980s and the 1990s. Herve was good friends with Jules Bianchi, another popular French racing driver, who also became Charles’ godfather.

Charles’ father was one of the key influences for Charles ever since he was a kid. He visited a lot of racing tracks with his father. Jules’ father owned a racing track and it became Charles’ earliest playing ground where he began karting since a very early age.

He attended his first Monaco GP at the age of four, and in the year 2005, at the age of eight, he entered his first racing competition. In the next five seasons, he earned six junior championships in the competitions that were held in France and Monaco in go-karting. He won 3 PACA Championships held in France and in 2009, he became a French cadet champion. In 2011, he further joined the All Road Management Company, run by Nicolas Todt.

In 2013, he entered the World KZ Championship and ended as the first runner up. This turned out to be his final year at go-karting as from the next year onwards, he entered the racing cars sports in 2014.

In 2014, Charles Leclerc entered the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps as his first year as a professional racer. He emerged as the Junior Champion and a runner-up overall.

He had opened quite well and that led him to become a strong competitor at the 2015 FIA Formula 3 Racing Championship. He won three races overall in the competition and finished at fourth spot in the competition by the end of it. It was a great performance, considering he was a rookie.

In 2016, he entered the GP3 Series, and secured three major victories at the end of the tournament and won his first major title in a racing car competition. And thus, within two years of his entry into the big leagues, he had begun making a strong mark.

In 2016, he came closer to realizing his dream of competing in Formula One when he was inducted into the prestigious Ferrari Driver Academy. He made his testing debut in the F1 when he took part in the 2016 British Grand Prix.

It was strongly rumoured that he would be signing a contract with the American team ‘Haas’. But, ‘Haas’ confirmed that before officially joining the team, Charles had to compete in the F2, to prove his mettle.

He joined Antonio Fuoco in the in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, in 2017, and exhibited a captivating performance, as he dominated the qualifying round and secured five victories even before the summer break. Thus, before the halftime, he had won most of the races to clear his ways to the Formula One, his ultimate goal.

By the end of the year, he further secured two more victories and ended up becoming the unabashed champion in his debut season at the competition.

With this performance, it was almost certain for him to enter the Formula One. The performance was also considered special as 2017 was the year when he lost his father, who had guided Charles throughout his early years in Motor racing.

In 2018, at the Formula One World Championship, he was signed by the team Sauber as a racing driver. It was the first instance that a Monegasque driver was making an official entry into the Formula One competition since 1994.

At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he became only the second Monegasque racer to score point at a Formula One Championship, which was further a cause of celebration back in his home country.

He further made a place in the top 10 at the Singapore and Russian Grand Prix. However, in Belgium, Hungary, Japan and the USA Grand Prix, he could not finish the race due to either accidents or collisions. By the end of the season, he secured 39 points in total and ended up at the 13th position, which was, by no means, a bad performance.

In 2019, Scuderia Ferrari signed Charles up as their racer, where he was initially announced to be their racer for only one season. However, it was later clarified that he would be with the team for at-least 4 seasons.

He began with the Australian Grand Prix, where he finished in the fifth position. In 2 of the 3 practice sessions, however, he had scored the fastest laps. Later, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, a minor accident caused a hindrance for him, but despite that, he ended up at the third spot.

At the Monaco Grand Prix, he was expected to perform much better, but he retired early and somehow disappointed his fans. At the Canadian and the French Grand Prix, he finished at the third positions. At the Italian and Belgian Grand Prix, he finished at the first positions. In the rest of competitions that year, he remained consistently in the top 10s.

He began 2020 with the Austrian Grand Prix, where he finished seventh. Right before the Styrian Grand Prix, he landed himself into a controversy when he was seen socializing with his friends and girlfriend on his social media posts, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He received a warning from his team, but he denied any wrong doing.

In the qualifying round for the Styrian Grand Prix, he only finished at the 14th spot. He also ended up colliding with one of his teammates during a race, thus getting both of them retired. He, however, took full responsibility for the blunder.

He further received a red flag at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, after he crashed his car.

Despite the blunders caused in 2020, he is all set to drive for Ferrari until 2024.

Ever since the pandemic COVID-19 delayed the Grand Prix’, Charles Leclerc has been streaming on Twitch, also taking parts in virtual races organized by Formula One.

Charles Leclerc has been dating Charlotte Sine, who happens to be the daughter of a famous businessman from Monaco. The couple has been very active on social media and regularly uploads their pictures together.

Charles was very close to his father, who died in 2017, after suffering from a long illness.

Charles is multilingual and speaks Italian and English, other than his native language French.

He had been accused of being a racist. He constantly denies the allegations.