Two years ago today, Charles Leclerc did what no Monegasque driver had managed in the Formula 1 era. He won the Monaco Grand Prix.
The date was 26 May 2024, and the weight of history, heartbreak and home expectation finally lifted from Leclerc’s shoulders as he took the chequered flag at the Circuit de Monaco, 7.152 seconds clear of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. Carlos Sainz, then his Ferrari team-mate, completed the podium in third.
It had been 93 years since a driver from the principality had won their home race. Louis Chiron, in a Bugatti Type 51, had been the last to do it, back in 1931. Leclerc’s victory was not just a personal triumph; it was a moment of sporting significance for Monaco itself.
The hard work, as is so often the case around Monte Carlo’s unforgiving streets, was done on Saturday. Leclerc delivered a scintillating pole lap of 1:10.270, 0.154 seconds clear of Piastri, to secure his third career Monaco pole and Ferrari’s 250th in F1.
For Leclerc, pole position at Monaco had previously been a poisoned chalice. In 2021, he crashed at La Piscine at the end of qualifying, took pole, but never even started the race after a driveshaft issue related to the impact was discovered on the way to the grid.
In 2022, he led from pole again, only for a calamitous Ferrari strategy call in mixed conditions to drop him to fourth.
Keeping composure when it mattered
Race day brought drama early. A lap-one collision between Sergio Pérez, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg on the climb from Sainte Dévote triggered a red flag before racing had properly begun.
The restart, from a standing start, froze the order behind Leclerc, and the top ten ultimately crossed the line in the exact positions they had started, a first in Formula 1 World Championship history.
None of that made the final laps any easier. Leclerc later spoke of the emotional toll of nursing his lead around a circuit that punishes the slightest lapse of concentration.
“It’s the race that made me dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver one day,” he said afterwards. “It was a difficult race emotionally, because with 15 laps to go you’re just hoping that nothing happens.”
He also reflected on the significance of the moment for his family. “I was thinking of my dad a lot. He gave everything for me to be here, and it was our dream for me to race here and to win, so it’s unbelievable.”
As for the so-called curse? Leclerc was characteristically measured. “I never believed in the curse; however, it always felt very difficult in the two occasions I had to win here.”
Two years on, now racing alongside Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc is still chasing a first F1 drivers’ championship. But whatever happens from here, 26 May 2024 belongs to him, and to Monaco.
