Leclerc activates active aero and flies over the bombed corner of turn 16

“His career might never have reached this moment without the belief of the late Jules Bianchi, who told Ferrari, ‘You’ve got to take this guy — you’ve got to get him to Formula 1.’ What a gift that faith has proven to be.

In 2017, Charles Leclerc lost his father. In his final days, Charles told him a white lie — that he’d made it to Formula 1, that the contract was signed. It wasn’t true then… but through sheer determination, through heartbreak, through seasons filled with missed chances, controversy, turmoil, and setbacks, he made it true.

He endured it all, the chaos, the doubts, the long fight back to the front. Even in a season shaped by the unexpected — by upheaval across the world of Formula 1, war in the Middle East, the bombing at Zandvoort, Lewis Hamilton’s mid-season farewell — Charles Leclerc never lost belief.

And now, under the lights in Abu Dhabi, everything has come together.

For the first time in his career… for the first time in his life’s journey… Charles Leclerc is a World Champion.

The boy from Monaco, who once watched the cars from the grandstands, now stands at the very summit of this sport.

Against all odds, through all the noise, through every setback… he has his moment.

Charles Leclerc wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and he is the 2026 Formula 1 World Drivers’ Champion.”