Charles Leclerc

His father also raced cars, driving in Formula 3 in the 1980s and 1990s.

Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc (born 16 October 1997) is a Monégasque racing driver, currently racing in Formula One for Scuderia Ferrari.

Leclerc began his karting career in 2005, winning the French PACA Championship in 2005, 2006, and 2008.

In 2009 he became French Cadet champion before moving up to the KF3 class in 2010, where he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup.

He continued in the KF3 class for 2011, winning the CIK-FIA KF3 World Cup, the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy and the ERDF Junior Kart Masters.

During the year, Leclerc also became a member of Nicolas Todt's All Road Management company.

Leclerc graduated to the KF2 category in 2012 with the factory-backed ART Grand Prix team, winning the WSK Euro Series title, as well as finishing runner-up in the CIK-FIA European KF2 Championship and the CIK-FIA Under 18 World Karting Championship.

In his final year of karting in 2013, Leclerc won the South Garda Winter Cup and claimed sixth position in the CIK-FIA European KZ Championship and finished second in the CIK-FIA World KZ Championship, behind current Red Bull Formula One driver Max Verstappen.

In 2014, Leclerc graduated to single-seaters, racing in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship for British team Fortec Motorsports.

During the season, he took seven podium positions, including a double victory at Monza, to finish runner-up in the championship behind Koiranen GP's Nyck de Vries.

Leclerc also won the Junior Championship title at the final race of the season in Jerez, finishing ahead of teenager Matevos Isaakyan.

Leclerc also took part in a partial Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 season with Fortec as a guest driver.

In the six races he contested he finished on the podium three times, taking a second place at the Nürburgring followed by a pair of second-place finishes at the Hungaroring.

Leclerc graduated to Formula Three in 2015, racing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Dutch team Van Amersfoort Racing.

At the opening round of the season in Silverstone, Leclerc inherited pole position for the second and third races of the weekend after original pole-sitter Felix Rosenqvist was excluded for a technical infringement.

He went on to take his first race victory in the third race of the weekend, ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi and Jake Dennis.

He took his second victory at the following round in Hockenheim, winning the third race as well as taking two additional podiums and three rookie victories over the course of the event.

Leclerc scored his third win in the first race at Spa-Francorchamps which saw him take the lead in the championship.

However, Leclerc finished fourth in the standings, mostly due to damage sustained to his car's chassis following a collision with Lance Stroll at Zandvoort.

In November 2015, Leclerc finished second at the Macau Grand Prix.

In December 2015, Leclerc partook in post-season testing with ART Grand Prix and Arden International.

He won the GP3 Series championship in 2016 and the FIA Formula 2 Championship in.

Leclerc made his Formula One debut in for Sauber, a team affiliated with Ferrari, for which he was part of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

With Sauber having finished last the year before, Leclerc led the charge to improve its finishing position in the Constructors' Championship to eighth, and was the higher ranked of the two Sauber drivers.

In February 2016, de Vries confirmed that Leclerc would race in the 2016 GP3 season.

Hervé died after a long illness, aged 54, just four days before Leclerc would go on to win the feature race at the 2017 Baku Formula 2 round.

Leclerc's older brother Lorenzo was best friends with Jules Bianchi, who became Leclerc's godfather.

Leclerc's younger brother Arthur currently races in Formula 2.

Leclerc is trilingual, being fluent in French, Italian, and English.

Although the French pronunciation of his name uses silent final consonants, he has stated that when speaking English he often uses the Anglicized pronunciation.

He has said "he likes both", and that others using either pronunciation is acceptable to him.

Leclerc has described his religious stance as "[believing] in God, but [not someone] who would pray or go to church."

He joined Ferrari the next season and became the second-youngest driver to qualify on pole position in Formula One at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The 2019 season also saw Leclerc take his first career win in Belgium.

He won the FIA Pole Trophy for most pole positions in the 2019 season, becoming the youngest driver to win it, before winning it again in 2022.

Leclerc finished runner-up to Max Verstappen in the 2022 World Drivers' Championship.

Leclerc has won races and attained pole positions in Formula One.

He scored the first grand slam of his career at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc is set to remain at Ferrari until at least the end of the 2026 season.

Born to father Hervé Leclerc and mother Pascale Leclerc, Leclerc grew up as the middle child between older brother Lorenzo and younger brother Arthur.