Prior to his win in 2024, Charles Leclerc had the worst luck at his home race.
The Monaco native had a long string of bad luck at his home race, dating back to his Formula 2 days. Back in 2017, Charles Leclerc had a great qualifying, like he usually did, and started on pole for the race. He would go on to retire on lap one for the Feature race due to a suspension issue and would retire on lap 20 of the Sprint race because of electrical issues.
2018 was Leclerc’s first season in Formula One, after winning the F2 championship title on his first go the year prior. Unfortunately, his bad luck continued starting in qualifying, where he qualified only P14 in his Sauber.
He also continued the streak of not completing the race after his left-front brake disk failed and he crashed into Brendon Hartley, ending both of their races just eight laps from the end.
Leclerc’s first season with Ferrari was 2019, but that didn’t stop his hometown curse from taking effect. During qualifying Q1, Leclerc was sitting in P6 when Ferrari decided not to send him out for another lap, causing him to be pushed down the order and out in P15. For the third year straight, Leclerc didn’t finish the race as he spun after touching the wall trying to overtake Nico Hulkenberg. He had a puncture in the right rear tyre which caused damage to the floor, which led to Ferrari calling him back to the pits to retire after they tried to change his tyres.
Because of Covid, there was no 2020 Monaco Grand Prix, so Leclerc got a year reprieve from the curse. In 2021, though, Leclerc’s curse came back in full force. Qualifying was off to a great start, with Leclerc on provisional pole, before he crashed in the last minutes of Q3. He managed to keep pole position, making it his best start at his home race since F2. That joy didn’t last long though as a problem was detected on a practice lap that ultimately led to him being unable to start the race due to a cracked left rear driveshaft hub.
Finally finished
In 2022, Leclerc got pole position once again and finally finished a race in Monaco, but it didn’t go as well as he may have hoped. Carlos Sainz, Leclerc’s teammate at the time, was leading the race when he was called into the pits for a tyre change. At the same time Leclerc, who was running in third, was also told to box, and started making his way to pit lane when he was told to stay out by his race engineer, but it was already too late.
Because it was an accidental double stack, Leclerc’s pit stop was delayed, causing him to come out in fourth at a track that is impossible to overtake. Leclerc finally finished the race, but not as high as he could’ve if not for Ferrari’s strategy mistake.
Leclerc finished the race once again in 2023, but still had issues on the way. He finished qualifying in P4, but received a penalty for impeding Lando Norris. The penalty caused him to drop down to P6, and he would finish the race in the same position he started it.
Breaking the curse
2024 was the year of many winners, but Charles Leclerc had some of the most meaningful. He started the weekend well, topping the charts in both Free Practice 2 and Free Practice 3. During qualifying, he topped the charts once again, getting pole position in Monaco for the third time in his F1 career.
The race began with multiple incidents, but Leclerc got away untouched by all of it. A red flag came out because of these incidents, allowing the Monegasque to get in the one tyre change he needed for the whole race. The rest of the race was uneventful, and because of tyre management the top 10 remained the same for the first time in the sports history. Charles Leclerc won the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix, marking a special moment in his life.
