Not Exactly as Planned: Charles Leclerc Crashes Niki Lauda's Early 70s Ferrari F1 Car at Monaco

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc is actually from Monaco. He was born there, he's licensed there, and he's raced under that flag his entire career. If you have a legendary Ferrari F1 car at a historic race in Monaco and need a driver, that makes him the best possible choice.

Unfortunately, there is the matter of his luck at his home track.

It's worse than simply never winning Monaco in any series. Leclerc has never even finished a race at Monaco. He missed the start in dramatic fashion last year, taking pole on one lap and crashing out of the weekend on the next. His luck here is, to put it mildly, an outlier in a career otherwise highlighted by wins, poles, and junior formula championships. And, if you thought it would turn around just because he's the current F1 points leader, he disproved that today.

As part of the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco, Leclerc was given a chance to get behind the wheel of a later-spec Ferrari 312B3 owned by Methuselah Racing and formerly driven by Niki Lauda. All was going well until the end of his third lap, when he reported a brake failure at Rascasse. Leclerc spun in the middle of the corner before backing into the barrier, damaging at least the rear wing and some bodywork of the iconic car.

Leclerc tweeted about the incident shortly afterward, again indicating that sudden brake failure was the reason for the crash. He'll be back at Monaco in two weeks for the Grand Prix with his F1 championship lead on the line, so he'll have to hope his time at the legendary track in Ferrari's 2022 challenger goes better than his times here in their 1974, 2019, and 2021 cars.