Charles Leclerc has opened up on the honest relationship he has with his mother, and divulges that he never tells her that he will take care on the racetrack, as that would be a lie.
The Leclerc family has had it tough over the years. Charles’ godfather, Jules, passed away in 2015 having been in a coma for nine months following a horrific accident at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
The Frenchman had given some financial help to Herve Leclerc, Charles’ father, when it became apparent the now 24-year-old would not have enough money to fund his karting career.
Herve tragically passed away in 2017, leaving behind a legacy as a former Formula 3 and Formula 2 driver himself, as well as three sons – Chares, Arthur and Lorenzo.
While Charles currently races for Ferrari, Arthur is involved with their driver academy, and he drives for Prema in Formula 3.
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In 2019, the entire paddock, spanning F1, F2 and F3, mourned the death of Anthoine Hubert when he suffered an awful crash at Spa – he was very close to Charles, as well as AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly.
After seeing so much tragedy in racing, Pascale, Charles’ mother, now has to suffer through the nerves as two of her boys race on the F1 circuit.
However, Charles never assures her that he will drive carefully when out on track, because this is never what he intends to do.
“It’s tough on my mother, and I don’t know what to tell her other than I love what I do,” he explained in conversation with GQ, for whom he and team-mate Carlos Sainz are cover stars.
“There’s nothing in particular I can say to make her feel better.
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“I’m not going to say I’ll be careful, that wouldn’t be true.
“I’m going to give it my best, whatever, she knows it’s a dangerous sport.
“It’s got massively safer through the years, but it will remain forever a dangerous sport. She knows I’m the happiest once I’m in that car.”
Charles is current second in the Drivers’ Standings having taken three wins in 2022, but it might have been more had it not been for a series of errors from Ferrari this season.
Reliability failures have conspired with strategic errors and occasional driver mistakes to derail the Scuderia’s title challenge, and they have had to settle for four wins from the opening 13 rounds of the season.
Max Verstappen has won eight, putting him 80 points clear of the Monegasque in the Drivers’ Standings, while he and Sergio Perez have helped the Austrian side to a 97-point advantage in the teams’ battle.