Charles Leclerc details ‘one of the most difficult things’ of being an F1 driver

Charles Leclerc said “one of the most difficult things” in F1 was dealing with the chaos on the grid in the minutes leading up to a race.

While other athletes are often kept away from fans in the moments preceding their match, F1 drivers are on display pretty much from the moment they arrive in the paddock and the grid is the time when they are most under the microscope.

Charles Leclerc talks pre-race grid difficulty

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Drivers can be confronted with TV cameras and celebrities just minutes before they are strapped in and heading to the first corner and Leclerc has suggested that can be “one of the most difficult things” to deal with.

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“To enter the grid, I think that’s one of the most difficult things in our sport,” he told the BSMT podcast.

“We do two or three laps to go to the grid, then we stop on the grid, we get out of the car. We have, I think, about 20 minutes more or less to get out of the car, talk to the engineers, do the last brief, and then get back in the car.

“In those minutes on the grid, there are thousands of people, obviously there are sponsors, sometimes there are some fans that ask you for photos and to talk. But in that moment, for me, it’s full of all the information I need to have for the whole race. So it’s fundamental for me to stay in my own bubble, and that’s the hardest thing.”

That kind of interest is something only the drivers at the top of their series experience and Leclerc, who is in his ninth F1 season, admitted he had to change his approach once he graduated from F2.

“I had to change my approach from Formula 2 to Formula 1,” the eight-time race winner said. “In Formula 2 nobody knows you. You did your whole career quietly, you got into the car and that was it.

“Then you arrive in Formula 1 and there are hundreds of thousands of people around. That was very difficult to manage in the first races, then you adapt to everything, but this is something particularly difficult.

“I’d say about 30 minutes before getting into the car to do the two or three laps that take you to the grid. I have a routine that I practically always do, more or less the same, with a cold shower, physical warm-up, etc.

“By always doing the same things, it helps me to reset and get back to the same mental state I need to get in.”

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