Charles Leclerc mentioned his late father in nearly every interview after his extraordinary Monaco GP victory. After all, the Ferrari driver’s childhood dream, one that even his father, Herve Leclerc, had envisioned for him, came true. Emotions ran high in the closing stages of the race as the Monegasque couldn’t stop thinking about his dad, as he later revealed. But it wasn’t just their joint dream that he recollected.

Ferrari finally looks like a worthy championship contender. After years of strategic mismanagement causing agony to the 26-year-old, it all vanished to manifest his vision. Leclerc couldn’t help but emphasize how grateful he was for his father’s contribution to his career. Trying to manage his thoughts about the moments he cherished with his dad was the “most difficult” for him. But even after commanding the limelight, some grounding advice from Herve came to Leclerc’s rescue.

“To be humble, I think, I have never really worked for that,” Leclerc said on the Jay Shetty podcast. “It’s just words that my father told me and I always remind myself because sometimes you can have four really, really good races and you feel like ‘Oh okay, I found the rhythm’. It’s very easy, in those very good moments, to maybe work a little less than the very difficult moments,” he added.

In moments like the Monaco victory, when it is easy to get carried away, the Monegasque said, “This is when I remind myself, ‘Charles, you are in a very good moment in your career but you still need to work as hard as in the very difficult moments’. The people who are now struggling are going to work and catch up at one point.”

Embodying this advice, Leclerc even warned Ferrari to not get “carried away” after winning at an atypical circuit. Fortunately, he now has a Team Principal that connects with his vision on a deeper level.

Charles Leclerc recognizes Frederic Vasseur’s superior vision for Ferrari’s title hopes

Under Frederic Vasseur’s leadership, Ferrari is charting an astonishing path towards breaking their 17-year-old championship curse. With Charles Leclerc’s Monaco curse already broken, their eyes shift to overcoming Max Verstappen‘s unparalleled dominance. With the SF24 nearly capable of battling the RB20 for wins, Leclerc believes that Vasseur’s impact has been massive.

“I think since the first day he joined, he’s got everything to bring back the team to where it belongs and that means to a world championship,” the Monegasque said on Sunday. “He’s got such a clear vision of what he wants to achieve and how to achieve it. He doesn’t lose time, and that is definitely his strength and I think his vision is really good. I’ve always been completely aligned with the way he wants to change things to get to where we want to get.”

With only 24 points separating Ferrari and Red Bull, the Maranello outfit can upset the reigning world champions in 2024. Can it happen before the summer break? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.