Charles Leclerc crashes legendary Ferrari F1 car in historic Monaco race
F1 championship leader Charles Leclerc's run of bad luck around the streets of Monaco continued on Sunday after he crashed an iconic Ferrari F1 car from the 1970s in a historic event in the principality.
Leclerc was driving Ferrari’s 312B3 - a legendary car driven by three-time F1 champion Niki Lauda - in a demonstration race in Monaco ahead of next weekend's F1 grand prix.
He lost the rear of the 312B3 on his third flying lap, heading into the barriers rearwards into the La Rascasse right-hander at the end of the lap.
Leclerc damaged the rear wing of the legendary Ferrari car before requiring assistance.
The Monegasque was fortunate where the incident occurred at relatively low speed given that safety standards in these cars aren't what they are today.
Leclerc isn't the first driver to suffer this misfortune with ex-Ferrari driver Jean Alesi crashing the same car in the 2021 historic race in Monte Carlo.
He later tweeted: “When you thought you already had all the bad luck of the world in Monaco and you lose the brakes into rascasse with one of the most iconic historical Ferrari Formula 1 car."
Oh Charles...
— Crash F1 (@CRASH_NET_F1) May 16, 2022
The Monaco curse is still there as Leclerc lost the brakes and ended up in the wall with Niki Lauda's 1974 Ferrari#F1 pic.twitter.com/AJnA0kAH5A
Leclerc's track record on home soil is terrible with him failing to finish in every Monaco Grand Prix he has participated in since making his debut in 2018.
Leclerc claimed pole position in 2021 after crashing on his final lap in Q3.
However, he was unable to take the race start after an issue sustained following his qualifying shunt ruled him out of the grand prix.
“These are the streets I took to get to school as a child, so they have a lot of meaning to me personally, as well as to F1,” Leclerc said.
“I’ve always dreamt of winning here, but that hasn’t happened yet. I need to make it happen this year.”
