Approaching two years since his last grand prix victory, exactly two months since Ferrari’s last win and one week from being beaten to victory by two of his fiercest rivals at the track named after his team’s founder, Charles Leclerc headed into the start of his home grand prix weekend as motivated as it was possible for him to be.
And after finishing the first day of running as the quickest driver in the field, slightly ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamiltonbut far further ahead of several other rivals – including Max Verstappen – surely he could be satisfied, enthused and even optimistic about his prospects of finally getting to stand on the top step of the podium in the city he’s called home all his life on Sunday?
The answer, it seems, is no.
“The long run is a disaster,” he told new race engineer Brian Bozzi as he rounded Casino Square after taking the chequered flag. “We were so slow.”
As much as Ferrari and its many fans could take some heart from the results of the opening day of practice, it’s never that simple when it comes to Leclerc at Monaco. Fate always seems primed with some inventive disappointment for his home race.
Whether through a strategic blunder on behalf of his team (2019, 2022), a mechanical failure (2018) or by his own hand (2021) Leclerc sometimes seems like the protagonist in a dark comedy chronicling the life of someone doomed to see the achievement of their ultimate dreams snatched away over and over.
But after the end of Friday, many of Leclerc’s rivals including Verstappen himself – winner of two of the last three Monte Carlo races – picked the local hero as the one to beat over the rest of the weekend. However, although Leclerc was quickest over a single lap, his high fuel runs on mediums did leave a little to be desired.
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After pushing early on his mediums at the beginning of the run, pacing in the low 1’15s, he fell into the 1’16s and even 1’17s, putting him on a level pace or slightly slower than the two Mercedes of Hamilton and George Russell, the Red Bull of Sergio Perez or the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Verstappen opted for a run on hard tyres, making his not a direct comparison to Leclerc, but the world champion’s lap times were more consistent than his Ferrari counterparts.
Leclerc seemed to recognise why this was the case before he had climbed out of the cockpit…
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