MARANELLO, Italy — It’s safe to say Charles Leclerc is an ace on the track, a Formula 1 star in his seventh season for Scuderia Ferrari, but during a WWD photo shoot and interview, the 27-year-old Monégasque proved he is equally cool and collected off duty. After training for hours with the simulator, Leclerc gamely posed at the Ferrari plant in Maranello, open to trying any fashion look and admitting he likes “to be surprised” by the questions he’s asked.
As part of the Ferrari Driver Academy, Leclerc won the Formula 2 and GP3 series, and was the program’s first driver to race for Scuderia Ferrari fulltime. With his talent and his personality, affable and approachable, he has won the hearts of Ferrari fans — known as the “tifosi” — around the world, and even more so with two victories at the Italian Monza Grand Prix in 2018 and 2024. Last year he won the Monaco Grand Prix, becoming the first Monégasque driver to win the race in 93 years.
Here, Leclerc opens up about his passion of a lifetime, how pressure is not a word in his vocabulary and how he unwinds when the engines are off.
Brunello Cucinelli leather jacket and suit; Umit Benan shirt; Zegna loafers.
Daniele Mango/WWD
WWD: In 2020, for the first time you fronted the Giorgio Armani Made to Measure ad campaign and you have been named an ambassador for several brands, most recently for Chivas Regal. Also, you are photographed on so many different occasions, official and not. Has being in front of the camera become second nature?
Charles Leclerc: It’s something I got used to. At the beginning, I was not naturally at ease. The first few times it feels a little bit strange, but then you get used to it. It’s now quite a few years that I am in Formula 1 with Ferrari, the media attention is obviously higher and higher, and Formula 1 is a lot more popular than it was back then when I started. So I’m a lot more at ease with it now, and it’s also part of my life.
WWD: In fact, there has been an increasing interest in Formula 1 and all that surrounds the races — also fueled by or leading to the Netflix series, and movies about Ferrari, Lamborghini and legendary rivalries. How do you explain all this attention now and how has your perception of this industry changed over the years? How has it changed you?
C.L.: It’s always been such an interesting sport, but it’s also a very closed sport scene from outside. I think [people] never really knew what was happening inside the paddock, unless you were inside that paddock, and Netflix gave a very, very different view to what was happening inside the paddock, showing what kind of situations we find ourselves in, and humanized the whole world of Formula 1, putting faces on names, which I think was lacking a little bit back then, and since then, it really exploded. I think a lot more young people are following Formula 1, which is a great thing to see. And yes, I think opening Formula 1 and telling a different story than the one on the track has helped Formula 1 to be a more popular form.
WWD: There are many celebrities taking in the races. Is that surprising to you?
C.L.: Not really. It’s not something that I think about when I’m inside the paddock. I’m really into a bubble where you’ve got to make abstraction of everything that is around you, because, as I was saying earlier, there’s a lot of media attention, especially when you are a Ferrari Formula 1 driver. It’s always more than any other drivers on the grid, and you’ve got to do abstraction from the noise that there is around you, whether this is media or celebrities or whoever. You’ve got to be in your own bubble and make sure that once you get into the car, you are performing at your 100 percent. That’s the most important thing.
Umit Benan suit; Bally shirt; Zegna loafers.
Daniele Mango/WWD
WWD: Now in your seventh season with Ferrari, your loyalty to the team is for all to see. How have you evolved within the team both as a driver and on a personal level and what have you learned about yourself? Can you tell us about growing up in Monaco, aspiring to one day become part of the Ferrari world and reaching that goal?
C.L.: I think what was very specific to my personal life was the fact that I’m from Monaco. Monaco feels like a big city when there’s the Formula 1 Grand Prix. But other than some big events, like there are maybe two, three big events per year, it’s more like a village where everybody knows each other, and it was a very good environment to grow up in. Obviously, I was very lucky to have that, but the fact that I could see Formula 1 races firsthand every year from the balcony of my friends’ apartment that had a view on the Grand Prix made that dream a lot more tangible. I could obviously see and witness what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And that gave me a huge motivation as soon as I started.
I remember one Thursday I was at school, and it was very difficult to hear the teacher, because there would be the engine noise during a race. And I think these are memories that really motivated me throughout my whole career. And for some reason, the red car has always been something very, very special for me, even before I knew the history of Ferrari. Actually the name Ferrari, it was all about the red car. And growing up, then you get to learn the history of it, the people that were part of this incredible team. And I became a fan myself, dreaming of being a Formula 1 driver with Ferrari one day.
WWD: You started your career with karts — can you tell us about your trajectory?
C.L.: I started by complete coincidence. To be completely honest, I didn’t want to go to school that day and I told my father I was ill. He believed me, but I wasn’t. And by coincidence, his best friend, Philippe Bianchi, was managing a karting track, and I went with him, because my mom was at work, and I tried karting for the first time that day, not being ill at all.
WWD: How old were you?
C.L.: I was probably three-and-a-half or four. I was very, very young and my father told me later on that I had told him on the way back that this is the job I wanted to do when I was older — although I don’t consider what I’m doing a job. It’s really living for my passion, and I love what I do. But from that day onward, racing has always been part of my life.
WWD: How has it formed you personally? How have you evolved over the years? How do you deal with stress? Have you learned to do that? And if so, how?
C.L.: I think this is very specific to each individual. I am very lucky that I don’t really feel pressure. I’ve always had the mentality of obviously doing my best. Putting any more pressure on myself won’t help me to extract more potential out of myself. I’m just hugely motivated and hugely dedicated in doing the absolute best in order to have the best results on the track, and I’ll do whatever it takes to have the best results on the track. But that’s my mentality, and yes, I’ve always told myself that added pressure or extra pressure won’t help me to extract any more out of it.
Brunello Cucinelli leather jacket and suit; Umit Benan shirt; Zegna loafers.
Daniele Mango/WWD
WWD: Well, that’s also very wise. What are your main off-duty pastimes? I know you are also a piano player and already have nine songs under your belt. How did this come about? Does music help you unwind?
C.L.: Definitely. Music is and has always been a huge part of my life. Throughout my entire life, racing, music had a very important part. I haven’t always been playing the piano, but I’ve always been listening to music, and it’s always been a way for me to disconnect from racing. Obviously the Formula 1 life is quite fast paced. I’m going from one place to another every weekend, and it’s good to slow down. And for me, music has always been the best way for me to slow down and to not think about anything that is racing-related. During the pandemic, I had a lot of free time, and I bought a piano, and since that moment onward, I started to learn to play, and I’ve absolutely loved it.
WWD: Did you learn with a teacher?
C.L.: No, I am self-taught. I took probably four or five lessons at one point because I wanted to try and learn how to read music, but I’m a very impatient person, so after those lessons, I decided I was just going to do it myself, and try and come up with my own songs. I know how to read music a little bit, but I don’t really play existing songs. Every time I play the piano, basically I make a song.
WWD: Fast paced on the piano, too. You have also diversified your business interests, investing in activities ranging from Lec ice creams and watch platform Chrono24 to management agency All Time. How have you approached these ventures? How do you understand what venture would be interesting and suit you?
C.L.: Chrono 24 is a little bit different. It was really more of an investment, more than anything. But Lec and All Time are very important to me, because these are obviously two ventures that I actually started myself with partners. The world of business is always something that fascinated me and that I wanted to put a foot in, but I was just waiting for the right opportunities. And like everything I do in life, it needs to have sense. And I needed these myself first, and then we thought about [opening up] to others. I’ve always loved ice cream since younger but being an athlete, you’ve got to take care a little bit about your figure and what you eat. And so I had to sacrifice the ice cream sometimes. And I was like, “Why? Why is there not this product on the market?” And so we came up with this idea of low-calorie ice cream, which is going super well and I’m super proud of it. All Time is basically the same. There’s so much going on outside an athlete’s career. Talking with people around me that have shared the same experiences as I did, I realized you can feel a little bit alone because everything is coming all at once, and athletes need to be supported properly for all of these things that happen outside racing and sports.
WWD: In what way?
C.L.: In many different ways. We are basically helping athletes to manage their private life in a better way outside their career. It’s more like a family office, basically. And obviously, Monaco has a big community of athletes and it’s also a place where we can show our experiences and help one another, athletes of different sports, not only racing.
WWD: Is that something that earlier on when you started you felt was missing?
C.L.: Yes, I think we all have support on the career side. But then once you get to Formula 1 obviously, not only your career changes, and also when you are a professional athlete, many other things change. My life has changed massively since I got to Formula 1. You’ve got to organize yourself differently, because obviously, it’s not necessarily possible to do what I used to do back then. So we’ve got an organization that knows what it’s like to be an athlete, who can just think about [their performance], and we think about the rest. It’s all still pretty new, and we are very proud of this.
WWD: How do you choose the brands you associate with?
C.L.: It is extremely important that we share the same values — precision, hard work, craft, matching the Formula 1 craftsmanship. There are so many people behind the scenes in order to give me the best possible car. Richard Mille has been following me since I was 13 or 14 years old. The very first person that believed in me and actually financed my career in order to get to where I am today. APM is a Monaco brand, and obviously we are sharing the same values, having grown up in the same city, and it’s amazing to have such a big brand coming from my home country.
WWD: How would you describe your relationship with fashion? Is it correct to say that you like to wear understated styles?
C.L.: Yes, that is correct. I think I’ve searched myself over the years, like everyone does at one point in their life, understanding what clothes make you feel most at ease. But I love fashion. It’s still a world that fascinates me, that I am learning about and that I really enjoy. Actually, starting with Ferrari Style, we are going to do some things together, so I’m getting to know a lot more about fashion now. And it’s a way to express yourself without speaking, and this is really the way I like to look at it.
WWD: You once said that if you weren’t a driver you would have have been either an architect or had your own fashion brand. Should we expect one any time soon? You designed a clutch for Ferrari and there’s a capsule coming up that you will show in Monaco.
C.L.: Definitely, at least with Ferrari Style. It’s the first step that I take into this world, and I enjoyed so much the process of designing my own capsule because it’s a process that is also very intimate. You share who you are as the real you in order for the capsule to really represent you as a person. And that was super, super interesting, and to go into the finest details of every sample that we’ve done was a very interesting process.
Zegna jacket and cardigan.
Daniele Mango/WWD
WWD: Do you have a relationship with Ferrari’s creative director Rocco Iannone? Do you talk about fashion with him?
C.L.: Yes, yes, of course. Actually, Rocco was the main person with whom I’ve worked for this capsule, alongside his whole team, and we shared a lot of ideas with Rocco.
WWD: How do you train? You said you have to be careful about your weight so what do you do to keep fit?
C.L.: I do a lot of training, physical training. Obviously, there’s a mix of cardio and weight training. We can’t do too much weight training because we can’t be too heavy inside the car. So probably cardio training is what I do most. But it’s a combination of both. The weird thing about our sport, which is very specific to our sport, and we might be one of the only sports in the world where it’s like that, is that we cannot train in real life. We are not allowed to drive in Formula 1 cars throughout the season, apart from the races and on four or five days of official testing throughout the year. The rest is done virtually, and that is what I was doing this morning.
WWD. How many hours and how often?
C.L.: Normally it’s from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon with a one-hour break. I come here at least once a week to try and train on the simulator to prepare races. Also, as soon as I finish a race, I come here and I try to compare, how does it feel like in the virtual world, and how did it feel during the real race? And that’s how we try and make it the closest possible between the virtual world and the real world in order to be able to develop new parts of the car in the virtual world and then bring them into the real world.
WWD: And what do you eat when you train with the simulator?
C.L.: I kind of do the same diet as when I’m on the real car. So carbs, which gives you a little bit of the energy needed for this kind of days, mostly. But it’s all about balance, and it’s a very balanced diet.
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