Why was Charles Leclerc's brother forced to stop racing for 4 years? All about the Ferrari driver's brother and his family's struggles
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed that his younger brother Arthur Leclerc had to stop racing due to his family's financial struggles. Arthur Leclerc got the opportunity to share the track with his older brother during the FP1 session at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix earlier in the month.
Despite coming from Monaco and becoming only the second driver from Principality after Louis Chiron, Charles Leclerc does not hail from a wealthy background. The financial backing of former Ferrari manager Jean Todt's son Nicholas Todt helped both Charles Leclerc and his younger brother, Arthur, to flourish in their respective careers.
The 27-year-old Monagasque has been a mainstay at the Italian team since the 2019 season and is the star of the Maranello-based outfit. After making his debut with the Scuderia outfit in 2019, he has grown from strength to strength to become one of the best on the grid and a future world champion.
Ahead of the FP1 session, an emotional Leclerc shed light on the sacrifices made by his parents for his F1 career. His interview with F1.com also had a nugget of the eight-time race winner speaking about his younger brother, Arthur, having to stop racing in his early days for "three to four years" due to a financial crunch at his home. Charles Leclerc remarked:
“Obviously our parents have done a lot of sacrifices for both of us to pursue our dream. He had to stop that dream for three or four years because my father couldn’t withstand the investment that was required for him to continue.
"I was the only one to continue in the family. I have seen how hurt my father was when he had to say to Arthur that he had to stop racing because we didn’t have the finances behind it."
Charles Leclerc and Arthur Leclerc had taken two different journeys to the F1 grid compared to each other.
How did Charles Leclerc fare in junior racing career?
Charles Leclerc was a racing prodigy, as he impressed everyone with his skills behind the wheel early on. He won his first championship in karting his rookie year at the French PACA Championships and repeated the feat in 2006 and 2008.
Charles moved to the highly competitive KF3 class in 2010, where he won the Monaco Junior KART Cup. In the next couple of years, he won multiple karting championships before graduating to single-seaters.
The Monagsque finished runner-up to Nyck de Vries in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps before graduating to the Formula 3 European Championship, where he finished P4.
Charles dominated the junior F1 categories, as he became the first driver to win GP3 and F2 titles in his rookie seasons in 2016 and 2017 respectively. He officially made his debut in F1 with Sauber in 2018 alongside Marcus Ericsson.
How did Arthur Leclerc fare in his junior career?
Arthur Leclerc had a stop-start-karting career due to financial problems faced by his family as they decided to prioritize his older brother, Charles Leclerc's career over his. However, he did secure a win at the Kart Racing Academy championship in 2014.
After restarting his career at 17, the 24-year-old finished fifth in his rookie year in the French F4, where he won two races. From 2017 to 2020, he had several stints as a development and test driver in Formula E for Venturi Racing.
Arthur got in the public eye after he competed in the 2021 season in the F3 Championships with Prema Racing and claimed his first race win at Paul Ricard the same year, eventually finishing P10. He bettered his position in 2022 as he finished P6.
Arthur Leclerc graduated to F2 and raced for DAMS Racing in 2023. However, he failed to showcase his pace alongside his teammate and Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa and ultimately finished P15 with 49 points.
In 2023 and 2024, Charles Leclerc's younger brother was appointed as the development driver for Ferrari and did some private tests for the Italian team in Fiorano with SF-75.
Arthur Leclerc got his shot at an F1 debut in the FP1 session at the Yas Marina Circuit where he finished a respectable P18 around 1.8s behind his older brother, who topped the session.