Formula 1 Lore Tuesday: How Charles Leclerc finally broke the Monaco curse

Charles Leclerc’s history with the Monaco Grand Prix has been complex ever since his debut season. As a Monegasque native, Monaco is Charles’ home race, and with that comes a big expectation to perform. He finally managed to win it during the 2024 season, but his experiences in Monaco before this were so incredibly unlucky that they can only be described as cursed. Let’s take a look at each of his races in Monaco before ultimately securing his win.

Welcome to Lore Tuesdays, a weekly series through the off-season, telling you stories about the greatest moments in Formula 1. Each week, we will retell an iconic Formula 1 story and why it is so ingrained in Formula 1 history. Strap in, here we go!

2017: Pre-Formula 1 woes

Although Charles Leclerc did not debut in Formula 1 until 2018, his Monaco woes started the year prior. In 2017, Leclerc was a Formula 2 driver for Prema Racing. After qualifying in pole position, Leclerc had set himself up for a great race. Monaco is a tight street circuit, making pole position even more crucial to securing a victory.

On race day, Leclerc held on to pole position into the first corner, but as the race continued, victory slipped away. He was ultimately forced to retire from the Grand Prix due to suspension failure, and also from the weekend’s sprint race due to electrical issues.

2018: Break failures

The following year was Charles Leclerc’s first season in Formula 1. After a subpar qualifying round, Leclerc found himself in P14 and out of podium contention. This time around, it looked as though he would at least be able to finish the race, but it was not to be the case.

In lap 73/78, Leclerc’s left front brake failed just before the Nouvelle Chicane, and he crashed into Toro Rosso’s Brandon Hartley. Once again, Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from his home race. Monaco 2018 marked Leclerc’s first-ever DNF in Formula 1.

2019: Three DNFs in three years

They say good things come in threes, and apparently so do bad things. The 2019 season would mark Charles Leclerc’s third DNF in Monaco in a row.

During the first session qualifying, Leclerc set an early time and was in P6. However, despite the session only being halfway done, Ferrari did not send him out for another lap in an attempt to save tyres. As a result, Leclerc slipped down the order and out of the session, qualifying in P16.

Following the session, the team admitted they had misjudged this decision. Former team principal Mattia Binotto stated:

“It is not a good day for us certainly… “I think we made a mistake. It has been a misjudgement, a wrong evaluation of what we call the cut-off time. The cut-off time is the threshold by when we believed we are comfortable to get into the next session.

After a very disappointing qualifying, Leclerc had no choice but to fight his way from the back of the grid. In the first 8 laps, Leclerc moved up to P12. Unfortunately, he brushed the inside wall on an attempt to overtake Nico Hulkenberg and found himself in last place with significant floor damage. He tried to continue the race, but ultimately the damage was too great, and Leclerc was forced to retire yet again.

2021: High highs and low lows

The 2020 Grand Prix was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so Leclerc would wait two years for another shot at Monaco.

In qualifying in 2021, Leclerc had provisional pole and was attempting another lap when he crashed in the final minutes of the session. This resulted in a red flag, with not enough time left to resume the session. Leclerc successfully secured pole position and held off Max Verstappen, who had set a purple sector one just moments before.

In an ironic twist of fate, the very thing that secured pole position resulted in Leclerc’s fourth retirement from the Monaco circuit.

With limited time to make repairs after his crash in qualifying, the team inspected the car and got to work. The car’s gearbox was the primary concern, but this was ultimately cleared. It looked like the stars were finally aligning for Leclerc, but minutes before the race started, a driveshaft failure was detected on the formation lap. There was obviously no time for further repairs, and Leclerc was out before he even started.

2022: “A freaking disaster.”

By the time the 2022 season rolled around, Charles Leclerc’s misery at Monaco was a major talking point. Leclerc had raced four times at Monaco and had failed to complete a single one.

After a tumultuous qualifying with heavy rain and two red flags, Leclerc secured pole position for the second time in as many years. However, as usual, fate would prevent him from capitalizing on this.

On race day, the start time was delayed for an hour due to heavy rain and a power failure to the signalling and light panel systems. The race finally kicked off with a rolling start, and Leclerc built a decent lead over his teammate Carlos Sainz in P2.

On lap 18, Leclerc came into the pits for intermediate tyres. 3 laps later, he was called in again for hard tyres alongside Sainz. At the last minute, his engineer changed his mind and told him to stay out, but it was too late. Ferrari was unprepared to double-stack their drivers, and Leclerc suffered the consequences of a slow pit stop, finishing in P4.

Leclerc made no efforts to hide his displeasure after the race:

“It was a freaking disaster today…“The win was clearly in our hands, we had the performance, we had everything. I just don’t really understand the call that I had and I need explanations for now.

“I couldn’t do much, I was called just before the last corner, so I couldn’t react or ask for any information, but that was clearly the wrong choice… We need to get better.”

2023: Penalties and P6

2023 was another year of disappointment, although not nearly as dramatic as the previous years. In qualifying, Leclerc was involved in an incident with Lando Norris and finished qualifying in P3. However, the stewards handed him a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Norris, dropping him down to P6.

Leclerc had no success changing his fate and finished the race in P6, exactly where he started.

2024: Destiny finally fulfilled

Six years after his first race in Monaco, it seemed that Charles Leclerc would never be able to secure a home victory. But against all odds, 2024 finally awarded him a win, and my all-time favourite piece of Formula 1 commentary. 

Leclerc secured his third pole position in Monaco, doing everything he could to set himself up for a successful race. On race day, Leclerc had a clean start and held on to P1, but the race was immediately red-flagged after a crash between 3 drivers at the back of the grid.

Such an early red flag changed the course of the race. Many drivers took advantage of the opportunity to change their tyres without having to make a second stop. Following the restart, Leclerc held on to P1 yet again and set the stage for a race that was all about tyre management.

After 78 excruciating and largely uneventful laps, Charles Leclerc finally won the Monaco Grand Prix, fulfilling his childhood dream and breaking a seven-year-long curse.

A historic victory

With this win, Charles Leclerc became the first Monegasque driver to win his home Grand Prix since Louis Chiron in 1931.

After a lot of adversity, heartbreak, bad luck, and “Ferrari being Ferrari”, Leclerc finally broke the curse. It’s hard to talk about Charles Leclerc without speaking of the Monaco curse, but thankfully, this story has a happy ending. Although Leclerc is still searching for a championship win, no matter what happens in his career, he will have this victory forever.