Charles Leclerc’s response to recent woes

Leclerc has had to wait patiently for the opportunity as he has not had the car beneath him over his first three campaigns with the Scuderia, leaving him a peripheral figure in what has unfolded. Now, though, the Monegasque driver finds himself one as of the leading protagonists in a season that has already delivered numerous highs and lows across the opening seven races.

Over the first three in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia, Leclerc made a near-perfect start with two wins, a second place and the fastest-lap point from each to open up a 46-point lead over reigning champion Max Verstappen. The following three saw a dramatic about-turn, with the nadir being the retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix when comfortably leading, resulting in Leclerc heading into his home race in Monaco staring at a six-point deficit.

To rub salt into the wounds inflicted in Spain, Ferrari somehow contrived to turn Leclerc's pole position in Monte Carlo into a fourth place around a circuit where track position is king, and they forgot the first rule of racing around the principality – to never cede such a luxury. There was obvious anger at the time from Leclerc as the prospect of regaining the championship lead was wrenched from his grasp by flawed thinking on the Ferrari pit wall. And now the gap is nine points heading into this weekend's race in Azerbaijan.

In response, it appears as though Leclerc has chosen to adopt a calm approach to his championship challenge: "It feels amazing but on the other hand, I don't think about it too much," he said, in an interview with this writer. "I don't want to think about it. I just want to focus on the job. That's the approach I've always taken in my career – to not think too much about the outside pressure, the expectations, and there are a lot at this time because it has been very difficult for the team to be back on top.

"People will finally see the potential that we have to win the championship, so there are a lot of expectations, a lot of outside pressure but I am confident if we keep working well, keep working hard, then the results will come. So the approach I want to maintain for the rest of the year is to not focus too much [on the title picture] and to avoid telling myself we are really fighting for the championship because this adds a lot of pressure and I don't want that."

On a personal level, Leclerc and Verstappen are two very different characters, amplified by their reactions inside the cockpit over the past two races when situations were going against them. In Spain, we had Verstappen's fury at the failure of his DRS and his inability to pass, at one stage turning on his team with expletive-laden outbursts and the pushing of his device's button on his steering wheel 50 times in the hope it would miraculously work. In contrast, yes, there was anger from Leclerc in Monaco as he saw a potential win on home soil fade behind poor tactical acumen, but there was nothing more than a roar of frustration and an obvious questioning of strategy.

Leclerc maintains to relying on the words of his late father Hervé, a former Formula 3 driver who died in 2017, shortly before his son signed his first F1 contract.

"My father had prepared me from the beginning, telling me to stay humble," recalled Leclerc. "I think this was the first thing he ever told me whenever we started winning races. It was in karting, but I was seven years old, and obviously at seven years old, when you start winning, you think you are the best and he was already starting to tell me 'Calm down, Charles'.

"I've never been an arrogant person, but obviously you have confidence at that time. He was always the first person to tell me to stay humble which has since been very useful. Then growing up, you start to understand who are the people that you trust and these people have always stayed the same, which is obviously my family and my manager, Nicholas [Todt] who has supported me since 2011 and who has been extremely important in my career and my team. Basically, these are the people that I trust mostly because with people, everyone has a different opinion and if you start to listen to loads of people, then it can sometimes get confusing."

For now, Leclerc has to rely on Ferrari to deliver on his behalf, initially with a reliable car, and when it is reliable, to provide him with the perfect strategy to deliver, as was the case in the first three races as driver, car and the team worked in harmony.

Leclerc knows what Ferrari is capable of. The last three and a half years have shown him that. "Since the day I joined Ferrari, what has really impressed me the most is how much we go into detail, which has been amazing to see," said Leclerc. "That made me understand how the team has achieved all its success over the years, appreciating the way they work, that nothing is left behind, everything is looked into, which is super impressive."

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.