What do a 20-time tennis Grand Slam winner and a 6-time F1 race winner have in common? The achievements aren’t comparable yet, but the sheer focus and mentality are shared. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is yet to earn championships, while Roger Federer is done and dusted with everything that he could achieve in his 23-year professional career. The Swiss player’s greatness was on full display during his Dartmouth commencement address earlier this year.

The highlight of his speech, a clip that went viral globally, went as follows: “In the 1526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80 percent of those matches,” he began. But when it came to analyzing how many points he won in those matches, it was only 54%. Flabbergasting, isn’t it? Extending this analogy to explain the ebbs and flows of life, Federer explained how sometimes failure is inevitable.

This struck a chord with everyone who heard these words. On F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast, host Tom Clarkson used this iconic example to ask Charles Leclerc about his stance on an athlete’s mentality. “This, for sure,” he replied, agreeing with Federer’s words. “I think, as an athlete, but also as a team overall, there is something in sport that you are as good as your last performance. So you cannot rely on how good of a momentum or how bad of a momentum is around you.”

Opening up his brain for his fans to get inspired by, he added, “What you can do as an athlete is to focus on yourself and be as emotionally flat as possible, and to just be very analytic when you do something good or bad and move on. That’s what I try to do as an athlete.”

Though Leclerc is on the same wavelength as Federer, there are several differences in their sports. Tennis only comes down to the athlete’s preparation and ability on a given day, but in F1, the drivers rely heavily on the cars made by their teams. Synergy is key. Unfortunately, Leclerc has rarely found this at Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc eagerly awaits a “winning car” in his sixth year with Ferrari

Charles Leclerc is widely considered championship material in the F1 world. However, Ferrari has been plagued by mismanagement and strategic mishaps even when they had a championship-contending car. As a result, the Monegasque has often faced heartbreak after losing winning positions. Even in 2024, they started as the second-fastest team but are now fourth-fastest halfway into the season.

“For now, we are not yet where we want to be in terms of performance, but we are working really hard,” Leclerc told The Gentleman’s Journal. “I am confident that the future looks bright with the team and with the way we are working. But for sure, with the situation we’re in at the moment, I wish we had a winning car,” he added.

Being part of such a shaky team, he has to be mentally strong. Leclerc echoing Federer’s views also highlights how athletes are very similar, irrespective of the sport they play. Incidentally, the tennis legend Leclerc looks up to, in turn, has named 7-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher and the late 3-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna in his Top 7 sportsmen of all time. If such sporting crossovers aren’t beautiful, what is?