Charles Leclerc is one of the most popular F1 drivers, adored by millions of fans around the world. Despite him being where he is today, he has suffered his share of heartbreak in the past. Recently, he opened up about another emotional story involving his grandmother’s death, that made him stop a life-long race ritual.
Leclerc lost one of his closest friends and godfather Jules Bianchi back in 2015 after he suffered a tragic accident at the 2014 Japanese GP. A few years later, during Leclerc’s F2 championship-winning season, his father Herve passed away. Despite dealing with so many losses at such a young age, Leclerc has been a fighter and never let it affect his dreams of making it to F1.
My father has done absolutely everything for me to get to where I am today. He was always doing everything to give everyone around a smile and to make our family happy.
5 years you are gone and I miss you everyday. You were the best father I could have wished for, I love you♾❤️ pic.twitter.com/iPKFDgQLzc— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) June 20, 2022
Another person, who always supported and cherished the Monegasque driver was his grandmother. In fact, she introduced him to a pre-race ritual that he followed until he was in F2. Sadly, he stopped going ahead with it as soon as she passed away.
Charles Leclerc reveals the emotional reason behind his stopping an important pre-race ritual
In an interview with La Stampa, Leclerc spoke about this particular pre-race ritual involving his late grandmother. Before every race, she used to take his suit and replace one of the sponsor logos with a cross sign.
“At every start of the season, until F2, my grandmother used to take my race suits, remove one of the sponsor logos and sew a little cross instead of it,” he said as quoted by Scuderia Fans.
Landing in Monaco to an extremely sad news…
We will all miss you extremely a lot here. I’m sure Dad will be happy to have his mom back with him again. Best grandmother I could have wished for. 💔 pic.twitter.com/0SJnGf6Tuw— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) July 1, 2018
Then, he went on to reveal the heartbreaking reason why doesn’t continue with it. “Now grandma is gone, I can’t sew and the ritual is over. I was thinking about keeping a lucky charm in my pocket but then I thought to myself: if you need an object (to feel better), then you are missing something on the mental aspect, so I let it go.”
Leclerc’s grandmother passed away in July of 2018, shortly after he started his F1 journey with Sauber.
Leclerc making his loved ones proud
Leclerc lost three very important people in his life before they could see him don the Ferrari colors and achieve his dream. However, his ambitions don’t stop with just him joining the Maranello-based outfit.
Leclerc, who has been a Ferrari fan for his entire life, wants to win a world championship with them. In Italy, he is hailed as the ‘predestined’ man to bring championship glory back to Maranello.
As of now, Leclerc is P7 in the 2023 standings. However, with Ferrari’s upgrades showing major progress lately, the Monegasque driver is looking to close the gap to the front-runners.
