Leclerc talks about the Monaco curse: 'There were frustrating ones'
F1 News
Ahead of the weekend in Monaco, everyone thought about it at least once: Charles Leclerc is yet to stand on the podium in his home Grand Prix. Of course then, Leclerc has crossed the finish line in P1 last Sunday. The Monegasque driver talked about the 'curse' following the race.
Charles Leclerc had two pole positions already in Monaco before last weekend. In 2021, he could not start the race as he was forced the retire his car before the five lights went out. Then, in 2022, due to a bad strategy call, he only finished in fourth place.
However, the Ferrari driver did not believe that his bad luck happened because he was cursed. "I never believed in the curse," Leclerc began. "However, it always felt very difficult in the two occasions I had to win here. One, I couldn't even start the race. The second one, we didn't make the right choice, I think. So it was very, very frustrating to lose those wins."
He continued: "The thing is that as a driver you never really know when will be the next opportunity to win and especially when it's your home race and even more so when your home race is Monaco, that is such a special track, such a difficult track and such a difficult weekend to master and to do everything perfectly which we did. So I knew that today was another opportunity."
The Monegasque also explained who he felt before the Grand Prix. "I knew how it felt the last two times I was in this position, but I obviously really wanted to get that victory today, so there's a bit of tension. But as I've said, as soon as I put the helmet on and as soon as I get into the car I don't feel anything anymore. And then it's all about trying to maximise the car that you have thinking about the tyres and thinking about all the stuff that I had to think of to manage this race the best way possible."