by VALERIO BARRETTA
Leclerc, another precious signature
Still few, but mostly “good”. These are Charles’ seven victories Leclerc in Formula 1, which in about 60% of cases have come on circuits where you can breathe in the history and charm of motorsport: Spa, Monte-Carlo and Monza, where yesterday he did the double with a courageous strategy and top-level tyre management.
This year, the Monegasque has won on both his home circuits: in 69 seasons of co-presence of Monaco and Monza on the calendar, Leclerc’s was only his tenth one-two. The #16 is also the ninth driver to achieve this feat: for the record, the two most successful in history (Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher) have not done so.
Who before Leclerc?
The first to succeed in the Monaco-Monza double was Stirling Moss (Maserati) in 1956, while in 1974 it was Ronnie’s turn Peterson (Lotus). For Ferrari the only driver to get the precious one-two was Jody Scheckter in his year of grace (1979); then McLaren began to take the stage, with Alain scoring a one-two Prost (1985) and Ayrton Seine (even in both 1990 and 1992). The last in chronological order were Fernando Alonso (2007, again on McLaren), and obviously on Red Bull Sebastian Vettel (2011) and Max Verstappen (2023). Although winning on two very different circuits like Monaco and Monza is an indicator of a good completeness of the car, “only” on five occasions out of nine has the driver in question won the World Championship: Scheckter, Prost, Senna in 1990, Vettel and Verstappen.
Moving on to the constructors, for Ferrari it is the third Monaco-Monza one-two in its history. In addition to the aforementioned 1979, the Maranello team also succeeded in 1975 (Niki Lauda won in the Principality, Clay Regazzoni imitated him in Monza). At the top of this ranking is clearly McLaren (1984, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2005, 2007) ahead of Mercedes (2014, 2015, 2016), Red Bull (2011, 2022, 2023) and Ferrari.
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