Charles Leclerc celebrates his 28th birthday, a look back at an already rich career

At 28 years, Charles Leclerc is not having the most successful season of his career in F1 in this 2025 season. With the Team Ferrari, the Monegasque's career has been full of ups and downs. His adventure in car already wants to be rich in successes, victories and moments of glory.

After evolving into karting and having fought for several years with his former rival in particular Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc made his debut in the promotional formulas, where he only stayed for four years thanks to very solid results. After a promising debut and an honorary title of vice-champion in the old Formula Renault 2.0 Alps, the protégé of Nicolas Todt finished 4th in Formula 3 Europe and best rookie of the season ahead of George Russell.

Podium of a world karting championship race in France. Max Verstappen winner and Charles Leclerc on the left, 2nd © Jacky Foulatier / DPPI

The following year, Charles Leclerc won the title of champion in the GP3 Series with ART Grand Prix, notably taking pole position four times out of the nine meetings on the program. Finally, in 2017, he became the first winner of the Formula 2, at the end of a breathtaking season concluded with eight poles out of ten possible, with four best laps in the race and above all 72 points ahead of Artem Markelov, on the evening of the last meeting in Abu Dhabi. A demonstration of strength which makes him the first rookie winner in GP2/F2 since the victory of Nico Hulkenberg In 2009, the future looked bright for Charles Leclerc. A Ferrari driver with the Junior Team, the Scuderia decided to propel him into Formula 1 the following season in 2018.

Charles Leclerc, Formula 2 champion in 2017 © Sebastiaan Rozendaal / DPPI

Catapulted into the venerable Sauber team in 2018, the former sporting godson of Frenchman Jules Bianchi quickly made a name for himself and achieved respectable racing results. For his fourth Grand Prix, he took advantage of numerous racing incidents to secure a memorable 6th place at the Baku Grand Prix. He subsequently managed to finish in the points three times in a row, in Canada, France, and Austria.

Charles Leclerc, Sauber driver © Francois Flamand / DPPI

As early as September, Charles Leclerc was announced in his new Ferrari driver's suit for the following year, replacing Kimi Räikkönen, in order to support Sebastian Vettel. A German teammate to whom he was quick to give a hard time. Author of pole position in Bahrain, two weeks after the start of the season in Australia, Charles Leclerc is very close to winning his first victory as a Ferrari driver but an unexpected loss of power at the end of the race , while leading the Grand Prix, prevented him from signing his first success in F1.

Charles Leclerc impresses. Particularly in the second half of the season, when Ferrari seems to have found some pep again. Returning from the summer break, Charles Leclerc took pole position after pole position, to the point of having won seven in a row! He achieves two. First in Belgium, paying at the same time, on the podium, a poignant tribute to his friend Anthoine Hubert, who died the day before in an accident during the main Formula 2 race, then at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, a week later, in front of a crowd of fans who definitely praised him.

Victory for Charles Leclerc at Monza in 2019 in front of the tifosis © DPPI

Winning at Monza as a Ferrari driver is always a special moment. He came close to victory in Austria, but ultimately lost to Max Verstappen, who came back from nowhere with a Red Bull perked up on fresh gums. Same thing in Singapore, where he thought he could win from pole. But Sebastian Vettel managed to complete the decisive undercut to win in his turn.

After a good 4th place in the championship, Charles Leclerc fell victim in 2020 to Ferrari's difficulties in fighting at the front. But he becomes the full leader of the Scuderia. He finished 8th in the championship but outperformed Sebastian Vettel by scoring three times as many points as the German. On the other hand, no pole position or victory was achieved that year by Charles Leclerc, with a 2nd place as the best result of the year in Austria, during the first round.

Associated to Carlos Sainz in 2021, the Monegasque will allow Ferrari to take a nice third place after a tough fight with McLaren. He especially marked the season with a successful pole position in the streets of Monaco, but this was tarnished by an accident on his second Q3 run. The next day, at the start of the Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc could not honor his pole position, the fault of a transmission shaft which failed in the accident the day before.

Charles Leclerc in Monaco 2021 © Florent Gooden / DPPI

Charles Leclerc bounces back perfectly in the streets of Baku by claiming a new pole position. But the lack of pep from his Ferrari engine on the long start-finish straight did not allow him to do better than 4th. He still managed to get on a podium at Silverstone. The Monegasque is even very close to winning but Lewis Hamilton, in the last fifteen laps, came back like a bullet to deprive him of a first victory since 2019.

He finished 7th in the Formula 1 World Championship, behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, whom he beat in qualifying and the race, by just 5,5 points. The key is elsewhere: with his Spanish teammate, Charles Leclerc put Scuderia Ferrari back on the right track before the all-important transition to the new technical era of 2022.

A 2022 that started in the best possible way with two victories in the three opening rounds, in Bahrain and Australia. The Monegasque was finally in a position to fight for the world championship... but hope would quickly turn to despair. Indeed, faced with an untouchable Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc would not be able to carry the day. At fault during the French Grand Prix, where he took out all alone while leading the race, the Ferrari driver was unable to regain the upper hand over his opponent despite another victory in Austria. He still managed to save his second place in the championship ahead of Sergio Pérez, his best result in F1.

In 2023, Charles Leclerc quickly found himself frustrated by a Ferrari that was falling behind Red Bull. Despite five pole positions, the Monegasque driver failed to secure a single victory during the season. With two symbolic victories at Monaco and Monza in 2024, Charles Leclerc finally seemed to have regained some confidence in the Scuderia. Having hit the ground running at the end of the year, the iconic Italian team brought in seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton to help The Predestination seems to have made the overly ambitious bet of revising its single-seater almost entirely in 2025. Having had no success this year, the duo, despite being particularly promising at the start of the season, is clinging to the hope of 2026 as a renewal, while Charles Leclerc has constantly repeated that his primary objective remains to win again dressed all in red.

ALSO READ > Lewis Hamilton behind new reports to significantly modify the Ferrari