Charles Leclerc: Ferrari driver 'confident' Italian team will have 'strong' pace at Monaco Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc is "confident" Ferrari will have strong pace at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix as he looks for his first win of the 2024 F1 season.

Leclerc, who is second in the drivers' championship behind Max Verstappen, has never finished on the podium at his home event.

The 26-year-old had a slightly disappointing early part of the season, as he was outperformed by Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, but third-place finishes at the last two races in Miami and Imola have given him momentum going into Monaco.

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"Monaco is so specific that we need to start a little bit from a blank page. Free Practice is super, super important to build the pace little by little. But I'm confident we will be strong," said Leclerc.

"It's the same roads that I took by bus to go to school when I was younger. Now it's in a Formula 1 car. So that makes it extra special for me. So I'm really looking forward to it. To be in Monaco, a very special track I think for every driver because it's a very challenging track and extra special for me, as it's my home race."

Leclerc's Monaco Curse

Most F1 drivers thrive at their home track but Leclerc has suffered plenty of misfortune in Monaco.

In 2018, in his first Monaco Grand Prix, he was taken out of the race going into the Nouvelle Chicane as Brendon Hartley hit the back of him. A year later, Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 and retired in the race due to contact with the wall at Rascasse.

In 2021, he took pole position for Ferrari despite bringing out the red flag in Q3 when crashing at the Swimming Pool chicane. Ferrari thought they repaired his car but on race day, the team discovered a problem on the way to the grid and Leclerc failed to start due to a driveshaft failure.

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Twelve months on, Leclerc was winning the race but lost out to his rivals through strategy and finished fourth. Last year, he started and finished in sixth as wet weather caused mayhem mid-race.

"Monaco is very special for me. True that it hasn't been the most successful race for me until now. However, the pace was always there and that gives me the confidence that it will be the case this year too," continued Leclerc.

Will Ferrari car suit Monaco?

Sky Sports F1's Karun Chandhok believes the slow-speed Monaco turns will suit the SF-24 and sees no reason why they won't challenge for the win with Red Bull and McLaren.

Ferrari's third and fifth in Imola perhaps wasn't what fans wanted from their upgrade which debuted at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. However, both Leclerc and Sainz were positive about the updates which worked as planned.

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"The good thing is that everything we expected from those upgrades, we had it. In terms of data, it did exactly what it was supposed to do, which is always a good thing," said Leclerc.

"For some reason, we had a slightly different power strategy compared to McLaren and Red Bull in Imola Qualifying, and we lost everything on the run down to Turn Two. Max, on top of that, had the slipstream. But this is something we'll have to look into, because especially on a track like this, track position is absolutely everything.

"When you only have a tenth in between Red Bull, McLaren, and ourselves, we need to do everything perfect."

Leclerc with a new voice in his ear

Ahead of Imola, Leclerc changed race engineer after Xavier 'Xavi' Marcos Padros changed roles. Marcos Padros, who worked with Leclerc since 2019, became a hit with F1 fans for his "we are checking" responses on the team radio.

Brian Bozzi is the Monegasque driver's new engineer and Johannes Hatz is his performance engineer.

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"It's always very tricky whenever you change, especially in the middle of the season," said Leclerc.

"There was lots of new things that he had to get up to speed to. I also had Johannes, who was my performance engineer, who was new on track.

"I had two people in my team that were new in their role and that was quite difficult at the beginning, but actually they've done an incredible job and it went really well. Now we'll work on that and try to get better, but it's a really good start."

Sky Sports F1's live Monaco GP Schedule

Thursday May 23
12.05pm: F3 Practice
1.30pm: F1 Drivers' Press Conference
2pm: F2 Practice

Friday May 24
10am: F3 Qualifying
12pm: Monaco GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)*
2pm: F2 Qualifying*
3.45pm: Monaco GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)*
5.30pm: The F1 Show
6.30pm: Indy 500 Final Practice
8.30pm: Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge

Saturday May 25
9.40am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Monaco GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)*
1.10pm: F2 Sprint*
2.15pm: Monaco GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: Monaco GP Qualifying*
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook

Sunday May 26
6.55am: F3 Feature Race
8.35am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Monaco GP build-up*
2pm: The MONACO GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Monaco GP reaction
5pm: Ted's Notebook
5.30pm: The Indy 500

Next up it's time for the most-famous F1 race of them all - the Monaco Grand Prix. Watch every session from the famous street circuit from Friday live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday's race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership - No contract, cancel anytime