Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc: ‘I just want to win the world championship’

Charles Leclerc is in a good mood. He arrives at the Ferrari F1 Team Paddock with an easy, breezy air about him, in stark contrast to the thick humidity all around. His smile may reach his striking green eyes, but it’s clear the unruliness of Leclerc’s tousled brown curls doth protest the belligerent heat.

It’s days before the Singapore Grand Prix weekend and midway through our mid-afternoon interview, teammate Carlos Sainz rocks up and announces good morning to all. It is morning for them back in Europe, after all.

Still, I stifle a chuckle and train my focus back to Leclerc. Turns out, it’s almost impossible to distract from this impossibly handsome dude with a fanbase of tens of millions around the world.

“I'm feeling really good, I'm feeling pumped,” Leclerc offered ahead of Sunday’s race.

Singapore is the 19th stop on the 24-race calendar, and the 2024 season is turning out to be a very special one for Leclerc, having clinched the two race wins most significant to the 26-year old: Taking the victory at the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time ever in May, and then bagging a second Monza win of his career on Ferrari’s home soil at the Italian Grand Prix in September.

“Never would I have imagined that I would one day win those two races in the same year. These two wins were very special for two different reasons. Monaco, being my home race, we’ve gotten close to winning it for so many years but for one reason or another it didn’t work out. So that adds a lot to the emotion of finally winning it this year,” said Leclerc, who became the first Monegasque to win the Monaco Grand Prix in 93 years.

In a similar vein, Monza is always an especially emotional race for the Italian team. “We normally arrive in Milan on the Tuesday before the race and there are so many fans; you can really feel that the whole of Italy is behind the team, which makes it very, very special.”

He continued: “All the grandstands are red, and all the mechanics and engineers have family or friends in the grandstand, so there's a kind of added pressure for that weekend.”

Red is a shade Leclerc has been wearing since 2019 when he joined Ferrari, and the 2025 season will be all the more exciting when seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton dons the colour for the first time in his 17-year career.

In the meantime, the focus is on the remaining seven races ahead, with the Marina Bay Street Circuit being one of Leclerc’s favourite tracks on the F1 calendar.

“It's a very special track,” he said. “Physically, it's very, very demanding because it's very warm and humid, which makes us sweat a lot. The last few laps are therefore quite difficult because you’ve lost so much water, which affects your focus.”

He added: “It's also one of the longest races; you can go up to two hours here so that makes it even more difficult. Then, there are the challenging characteristics of this track. It’s a city track, and I love city tracks in general, but this is a city track by night so you have no room for mistakes, and that makes for a very interesting weekend.”

WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP

We’re three-quarters through the 2024 season and Leclerc’s two race wins this year make a total of seven Grand Prix victories since he started his F1 career in 2018. Currently in third place behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in the Driver’s standings, bypassing them and winning the world championship title is the only thing on Leclerc’s mind right now.

“Winning the two races in Monaco and Monza were particularly important for me, but now I just want to win the world championship,” he declared. “My target is to win as many races as possible along the way starting from this weekend here in Singapore, but the world title is my goal.”

What, then, makes a champion in Leclerc’s opinion? “Resilience and hard work,” came his swift response.

“These are two of the most common traits you will find in the paddock. We have all gone through difficult times, but we continue to believe in it and to work for what we all wanted, which was to become Formula One drivers, and then obviously win races for some of us, and to win world championships for others.”

Leclerc believes that clinching that elusive world championship, however, now comes down to the car: “To be completely honest, we need a car that is good enough to win the world championship. At the moment, we don't quite have that. We have good momentum and we have done a good job [in terms of narrowing the gap] to McLaren and Red Bull, but it’s still not enough to be able to challenge for wins every weekend.”

“I still think McLaren and Red Bull have the fastest car but we are on that journey and as soon as we have the car, we'll be ready to fight for sure,” he said.

Indeed, the thrill of Formula One is the mercurial nature of the sport; anything can happen on the grid, from racing incidents to capricious weather. All that may dramatically alter the course of a race in an instant.

How does the future world champion bounce back from unexpected setbacks?

“In today's world with social media and everything surrounding Formula One, you can be hyped up very, very quickly, and you can be put down very, very quickly – a lot more than what the actual situation is. If I have a bad race this weekend, everybody will say, ‘Oh my god, it's the most difficult time of Charles' career’. And then if I have a great race, they will say, ‘Oh my god, Charles is having an incredible time, probably the best time of his career’,” he remarked candidly.

“As a driver and as an athlete, the most important thing is to be as emotionally flat as possible. It's difficult to manage the highs and the lows because it varies a lot and very quickly, so I would say to take a step back from what the perception is and analyse our situation in the most objective way, without getting influenced by emotions or what people around you say,” he explained.

LIVING EVERY MOMENT

For Leclerc, and any F1 driver for that matter, it’s important to find time to unwind and take the edge off the intense pressure. And being appointed the first-ever global brand ambassador for Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0% allows him to do even more of that.

“My lifestyle fits pretty well with Peroni, and the campaign has been super successful, showing more of the Italian way of living,” said Leclerc, referring to the synergy between the two Italian brands and the first in a five-year partnership.

“Very often in my life, the most simple moments have been the ones that I enjoy the most. Formula One takes up a lot of our life and we have very little time left for ourselves, so I like to spend it with the people I love – with my family, friends, girlfriend and dog… these are memories that you keep forever,” he shared.

When he’s not on track or travelling, you’ll likely find Leclerc, who is also fluent in French and Italian, on his boat in Monaco – probably with a Peroni in one hand and a slice of margherita pizza with prosciutto in the other – as that’s where he gets to enjoy the most privacy, away from prying eyes. Or behind the piano.

“I love making music,” he said of his passion. “It helps me to relax and think about something else other than racing – I really like the feeling of not thinking about racing, and that’s how it started.”

Earlier this year, Leclerc added ‘musician’ to his CV, releasing Dreamers, a four-song EP in collaboration with French pianist Sofiane Pamart. It hit No. 1 on the Billboard US Top Classical Crossover Albums chart.

But he’s not making a full-time crossover anytime soon. “I just do it for pure passion and if it works, I'm happy. If it doesn't, it doesn't change my life. What matters is that I’m happy making music and if people enjoy it, that’s a plus.”

As for his dream music collaboration? Leclerc names German Oscar- and Grammy-award winning film score composer Hans Zimmer who, incidentally, won the internet with his electrifying performance of the national anthem at the Austrian Grand Prix in July this year.