Charles Leclerc, the recent winner of the Monaco GP, is one of F1’s most talented and doesn’t show an ounce of fear while navigating some of the most difficult circuits on the calendar. That doesn’t mean that the Monegasque is fearless, however.
In an appearance on the Jay Shetty podcast, Charles Leclerc revealed that he is scared of different things. For starters, Leclerc doesn’t like snakes, which made Shetty crack up.
Adding to the list, the Ferrari driver narrated an incident about bungee jumping. “I couldn’t jump,” he said. “But it’s weird because at the same time I did parachute [sky diving] and I loved it. But bungee jumping, I couldn’t jump. I was super scared.”
Charles Leclerc then went on to say that there isn’t even “one percent” fear in his body when he suits up for F1 races. The mindset of the stars competing in the highest level of motorsports is different. And for Leclerc, the secret behind not being afraid of driving at a high speed is that he feels he is in charge.
However, off the track, there are plenty of scary moments Leclerc has dealt with, as Shetty pointed out. And the Monegasque driver admits that they were some of the most difficult things he ever dealt with.
Charles Leclerc on losing his father at a young age
Leclerc lost important people in his life at a very young age. In 2015, Jules Bianchi, his godfather, lost his life following a tragic crash in Suzuka the previous year. Two years later, his father Herve Leclerc passed away from cancer when he was on course to winning the F2 championship.
The latter in particular, impacted him severely. As he revealed on the podcast, he was just 18 years old when this happened, and at that age, he had to keep himself together, and take care of his little brother and mother.
1 year since you are gone.
Forever grateful to have had the chance of having such an amazing father
Missing you a lot.❤️ #Papa pic.twitter.com/PGQKvwXQOd— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) June 20, 2018
Leclerc admits that this made him grow faster. He missed his father’s presence at a very crucial time because he hadn’t even made it to F1 at the time.
Fast forward to 2024 and Leclerc has made his father and the rest of the family proud. He is one of the sport’s biggest stars and is driving for Ferrari, arguably the most iconic team ever.
