Monaco Chucky Makes It

I’ve never really liked Charles Leclerc.

Well, that’s not entirely true. When he was up again against Seb Vettel as a young driver in his early days at Ferrari, I would root for him on occasion, the same way I’d root for Valtteri Bottas to take it to Lewis at Mercedes.  It made for semi-interesting racing at the front of a pack that was already almost as predetermined as another Max Versteppen win in 2024.

But to continue my dislike story, consider his real name is Charles Marc Herve Perceval Leclerc. Can you trust a dude with five names?  Maybe, but also when you go past four names and the obvious hyphenate situation, you’re getting in to rich people territory, where you’re trying to claim every name that will get you a favorable inheritance later down the line.

Is Charles rich tho?

Sky Sports seemed to make a lot of hay about how the new winner of Monaco was the son of a hairdresser. His father (Herve) a former racing driver died while Charles was racing in F2. But, also Charles grew up in Monaco, where your basic studio apartment runs well in to the millions of dollars, because Monaco is a tax haven for international playboys. Citizenry doesn’t come cheap.

Look a little deeper and you’ll find interviews where Charles admits his grandparents, who funded a lot of his early karting, were (did they like The Graduate?) big in plastics.

But then again, unless it’s Elon Musk, while you can be weary, you can’t hate someone just because they were born on third. It’s who they are as a person that counts. And on that front, while it was clear Charles was more skilled than your ordinary Lance Stroll, his actions always felt entitled.

Some might even say he whined more than Lewis Hamilton. I would never say that, but all the Lewis haters say that about Lewis, and so when I think of my views on Charles, I do hear them and feel their pain. 

Charles was crashing vintage Ferraris including Niki Lauda’s 1974 car and putting his modern Ferrari F1 car into the wall at inopportune times (one of my favorite all time random personal mistake modern F1 crashes not pulled off by Nicholas Latifi or Logan Sargeant is Leclerc’s wall bang at the castle turn during Baku 2019 qualifying).

But, again, Charles was talented. He was next. But he rarely took account for the actions that prevented that future reality from being achieved. Charles was “cursed”, again afflictions usually reserved for a Kennedy.

Then Ferrari signed Lewis, and Charlie 2, aka Carlos Sainz the guy who should have retained his Ferrari seat on merit started beating the pantaloons off Leclerc.  But, then something happened and the last few weeks Charles was on top of it again. Conspiracy or skill?

I’ll let you decide. But, what is undeniable is that the one guy who could take Max Verstappen head to head in qualifying even in an inferior car was Monaco Chucky aka one lap Charlie Leclerc. Which is to say no matter how annoying he might have been, he had real skill that you’d end up rooting for no matter how much you didn’t want to.

And maybe Leclerc was cursed. Two previous poles at Monaco, where first grid spot qualifying is generally also the race win, led to engine failure and clown car team strategy loss.  But, not this time.

Oscar Piastri sniffed Leclerc’s gearbox like a horny bloodhound all race long, but Charles did not make a mistake and finally claimed his place in Monaco lore as a race winner and that makes me feel warm despite my overall misgivings.

The other thing that makes me feel good is Charles is making me look like a genius.  A few weeks ago when I wrote “The Last Days of Disco” I suggested Lando Norris’s maiden win was the beginning of the end for Red Bull.  While there is a great amount of evidence that this is true, not believing Max wouldn’t still find a way to surpass Lewis as a G.O.A.T. in the end felt like assuming Hollywood would never make another Godzilla film (38 and counting).  Despite me vocalizing my hopes, they weren’t necessarily my fervent beliefs.

But, now we’ve seen Red Bull struggle enough, that maybe I was right. Leclerc is a stalking horse now and there’s a potential battle. If Checo doinks another couple weekends, Ferrari could even find itself in the constructors’ lead. 2024 just got interesting.