Leclerc grew through his losses: "Gave me a lot of responsibility"
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Charles Leclerc, despite his young age, has already lost many important people in his life. He has also lost friends in motorsport, but he has not become afraid to get into the car.
Difficult to accept
Over the past few years, Leclerc has suffered many blows. For example, he lost his godfather Jules Bianchi in 2015. The French racing driver suffered a severe crash during the Japanese Grand Prix in 2014 and fell into a coma. He finally died on 17 July 2015 in the hospital in Nice. "With Jules I had the first shock, something difficult to understand and accept," Leclerc said on Ilgiornale.it.
In 2017 he lost his father Herve Leclerc after a long illness. He was only 54. "The loss of my father, who had helped me so much in my career, made me grow a lot because not having him around from one day to the next gave me a lot of responsibility, making me grow as a person.”
Fear of racing
Last year it hit again. Anthoine Hubert, one of Leclerc's best friends, is involved in a major accident during the Formula 2 race at Spa-Francorchamps. The French driver died of his injuries. "It was just as shocking with Anthoine as it was with Jules... it reminded me how dangerous racing is.”
When Romain Grosjean had his serious crash in Bahrain earlier this year, Leclerc was shocked. But he was not afraid to get back in the car. "Fear of getting back in the car, no. I haven't been and I don't want to be. But feared for him [Grosjean], yes.”