Curse to break
Five races, two pole positions and zero podiums. This is the bitter score recorded by Charles Leclerc in Monaco during his visits to the Principality in Formula 1. The Ferrari representative is the only driver of the Circus to have been born among these streets, for him this stage of the World Championship has an even greater meaning special and profound, especially because it is linked to this sort of curse to be dispelled. In 2021, his retirement before the start and in 2022 Ferrari’s ‘harakiri’ strategy deprived him of the dream of winning on his home track despite two consecutive pole positions.
Pole hunt
Yet even this weekend the main attention will be focused on qualifying. The three-way challenge between Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari heated up over the weekends in Miami and Imola and despite coming off two third places behind Verstappen and Norris, Leclerc is convinced he has what it takes to make the crucial start at the stake. “In Monaco we will all start from scratch – he commented in the press conference – but I don’t think it will be too different from what we have seen in the last races. But there could be some surprises. In 2021 we were struggling everywhere, but in Monaco we did quite well. We, like Ferrari, will have to see how much stronger we are compared to the others, but I would be surprised if we weren’t at least fighting for pole.”
The podium is not enough
“A podium at home wouldn’t actually be worth that much – added Leclerc, raising the bar of objectives as he had already done after the Imola GP – because second and third place are not placings that excite me. Victory must be our goal. We have seen in the last races how close we are with Red Bull and McLaren in qualifying and we know how important qualifying is here. We have to put everything together and if we are on pole this will give us a good chance of getting what we want, which is victory. Here things never went as I would have liked, but we worked in the best possible way and prepared ourselves perfectly – he concluded – and we hope that this weekend will be the right time”.
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