If at first you don’t succeed, attempt, attempt, attempt once more.
It’s a saying that maybe aptly describes ’s pursuit of the holy grail: a maiden world drivers’ championship title.
Season by season the Ferrari driver has steadily chipped away, inching nearer and nearer to fulfilling his childhood dream however by no means fairly getting over the road.
Second in 2022 and third final season, the laser-focused Monégasque now has his sights firmly set on changing into the game’s high canine by profitable the Italian outfit’s first world championship since 2007.
“My goal is to turn into a world champion,” he tells .
“Clearly, final 12 months, we completed second within the Constructors (Championship) and I wish to win (it). However I wish to win the world championship. That is my solely dream and the one factor I’m working for.”
F1’s high canine
The competitors, although, to succeed in the summit in 2025 shall be as powerful however doubtlessly extra open as the game prepares to embark on one other whirlwind 24-race season, starting in Melbourne on March 16.
Pink Bull’s shall be seeking to proceed his domination with a fifth successive championship title, however his crown feels extra underneath menace than it has in latest seasons.
Whereas McLaren’s is broadly tipped to pose the most important menace to the Dutchman, ably supported by his Australian counterpart Oscar Piastri, Leclerc may show to be a harmful challenger.
And the 27-year-old is all too conscious that to beat the perfect, you should be the perfect.
“I’m simply specializing in myself, to be the higher model of myself every time I get on the monitor,” says the Prancing Horse driver. “I’ve centered on my bodily preparation, on my psychological preparation, and, after all, on the simulator work.
“(I’m) attempting to be as prepared as potential (for when) we’ll be on monitor once more subsequent week in Bahrain (for preseason testing).”
‘My greatest season in Formulation One’
Though he completed a distant third within the 2024 driver standings, it was a 12 months consisting of three race wins for Leclerc – the joint most in a single season in his Formulation One profession.
Essentially the most memorable of these victories got here at his residence Grand Prix within the principality of Monaco.
After beginning the race in pole place in two earlier editions, it proved to be third time fortunate for the Monégasque, and the consequence was given added, emotional weight with the native hero dedicating the win to his father, Hervé, who handed away in 2017 whereas Leclerc was on his approach to the Formulation Two title.
A rising maturity and confidence alongside strategic classes from seasons passed by have prompted indicators of optimism to gasoline a title problem.
“I used to be disenchanted in the truth that had been some races the place we weren’t on the degree I needed us to be (in 2023),” he explains. “I used to be attempting to do the miracle, and by doing that, you push the bounds an excessive amount of and also you do large errors that price a whole lot of factors on the finish of the season.
“In 2024, I put myself the goal of, sure, every time it’s potential to win, you’ve obtained to do it, however, every time it’s not, you’ve obtained to simply accept the scenario and simply convey factors residence.
“I’m very pleased with my 2024 season and I feel it’s my greatest season in Formulation One,” he says.
Formidable partnership
And if the already “extraordinarily motivated” Leclerc wanted any additional impetus to grab his second then he could have the prowess to lean on a seven-time world champion driving alongside him this season within the form of Lewis Hamilton.
On paper, it represents a formidable partnership with two drivers every individually boasting baggage of racing pedigree and collectively in search of success for a crew starved of a constructors’ championship title since 2008.
Whereas Hamilton harbors his personal ambitions of securing a record-breaking eighth drivers’ championship title, Leclerc admits that having the 40-year-old be part of the Maranello-based crew is each a “historic second” and alternative to faucet into a long time of expertise to additional improve his private dream.
“Lewis goes to convey a lot to the crew,” says an enthused Leclerc to CNN. “His expertise, his manner of his work, ethics, his abilities, clearly – I’ve obtained rather a lot to be taught from Lewis.
“This could solely be helpful for me and it’s going to be so optimistic for the crew. It’s additionally an enormous motivation for me to indicate what I’m able to and I’m actually trying ahead to it.”
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