Charles Leclerc’s ‘Too Shy to Say No’ Attitude Once Compelled Him to Deal with Snakes Despite the Phobia

Driving the fastest cars in the world—sometimes in treacherous conditions—in tricky circuits has never scared Charles Leclerc. However, there are things he has always been afraid of away from the track. For instance, the Monegasque driver gets the heebie-jeebies even at the mention of snakes.

Back in 2018, a rookie Leclerc faced one of his worst fears when a python was put on his shoulders. Years later, the 26-year-old finally revealed that he could not say no, which put him in a terrifying situation.

Leclerc and Carlos Sainz sat for a Q&A session earlier this year in Melbourne, where the latter had to answer what animal his teammate was most afraid of. Since Sainz had already seen Leclerc with a snake, he guessed spiders. But he was wrong.

Leclerc corrected him and admitted that he was in fact, scared of snakes. A clip from Australia 2018 then rolled on, which showed Leclerc with the python around his neck-shoulder area.

Sainz, perhaps in an attempt to pull his teammate’s leg, jumped in to say Leclerc looked uncomfortable, but not scared. But he was. “I was scared. But it was my first race so I was too shy to say ‘No’,” he said.

Sainz was wrong in guessing the animal Leclerc was most scared of. But he isn’t the only driver on the grid with Ophidiophobia — a fear of snakes. Three-time World champion Max Verstappen too, is sacred of them.

Thankfully for both Leclerc and Verstappen, they live in Monaco, where snakes aren’t present in abundance. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t deal with an occasional scare, even though it is manufactured.

Red Bull once pranked Verstappen by placing a fake snake in his cockpit. Needless to say, Verstappen didn’t enjoy it—something Leclerc could likely relate to.