Arthur Leclerc (; born 14 October 2000) is a Monégasque racing driver who last competed in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup for AF Corse. He is the younger brother of Scuderia Ferrari Formula One driver Charles Leclerc, and a former member of Ferrari Driver Academy.
Leclerc finished sixth in the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship with Prema Racing, before stepping up to the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2023 with DAMS. He was the runner-up during the 2020 Formula Regional European Championship and the 2022 Formula Regional Asian champion. He is also the champion of the 2024 Italian GT Endurance Championship together with Giancarlo Fisichella and Tommaso Mosca.
Leclerc currently serves as the development driver for Scuderia Ferrari.
Early racing career Karting Not much is known about Leclerc's karting career, although he won the Kart Racing Academy championship in 2014. At some point, Leclerc's karting career experienced a hiatus as the family decided to prioritise his brother, Charles, and Leclerc had to stop karting for some years. This was because there was not enough budget for both children.
French F4
In 2018, Leclerc raced in the French F4 Championship. He finished fifth in the championship with two race wins. He started his racing career at the relative late age of seventeen, as his family focused on getting his brother Charles to Formula One. Leclerc was immediately on form, as he claimed his first single-seater win in just his second race. However, the championship was dominated by eventual champion Caio Collet and he only took one more win at Magny-Cours. Nevertheless, Leclerc claimed an additional six podiums, ending fifth in the championship.
ADAC Formula 4 Leclerc competed in the ADAC Formula 4 Championship in 2019 for US Racing-CHRS outfit. During the second race, a mistake on the final lap saw Leclerc lose a chance at his maiden win, instead finishing third. His first win would come at the Hockenheimring, where he took a lights-to-flag victory from pole. Throughout the season, he was an outsider for the championship, and he eventually ended the standings third overall with one race win and eight podiums.
Formula Regional European Championship
In 2020, Leclerc joined the Formula Regional European Championship for Prema Powerteam alongside Oliver Rasmussen, Gianluca Petecof and 2019 W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, in his first year as a Ferrari junior. He started the season with a pole position hat-trick at the Misano round, taking victory in the second race. Leclerc won again in the first and third races at Paul Ricard, and he took the lead of the championship in Mugello by winning all three races of the round. However, he would lose the lead to teammate Petecof by finishing third, ninth and sixth at the Monza Circuit. Subsequently, both Leclerc and Petecof failed to win any races throughout the remainder of the season. In the final round at Vallelunga, the Monegasque driver scored eight points in the first race with a sixth place, but he lost the championship to Petecof after he spun in the final race under wet conditions. On his mental mistake that costed him the title, Leclerc felt "disappointed" and had "no words". Leclerc ended the season in second with 343 points and six victories.
FIA Formula 3 Championship 2021
Leclerc tested for Prema during the 2020 post-season testing. In 2021, Leclerc was partnered with Olli Caldwell and Red Bull academy member Dennis Hauger at Prema Racing in the FIA Formula 3 Championship. He also competed in the 2021 Virtual Grand Prix Championship for Ferrari, his brother's real-world team. Leclerc had a challenging debut in Barcelona, where he failed to score any points, due to his poor qualifying and a puncture in the first race. Leclerc's Paul Ricard weekend got off to a bad start, unable to start a lap in qualifying due to a suspension failure. He charged all the way to 12th in Race 1 for reverse pole in Race 2. Leclerc would then take his first victory in Race 2, as well as his first points, before once again coming close to the top ten on Sunday. He would qualify ninth for the Red Bull Ring round, but retired in the first race due to a puncture on lap 10. During the second race, Leclerc amazingly climbed 21 places to end in sixth place, in which he was "really happy". Disappointment would follow in Race 3, as Leclerc lost control while overtaking Victor Martins and slammed into Clément Novalak, bringing an early end to his and Leclerc's race. He was taken to hospital but was discharged later that Sunday, also receiving a three-place grid penalty for the next race due to that incident.
Leclerc scored his maiden pole position at the Hungaroring. The first two races would come without points and during Race 3, Leclerc maintained his lead until lap 9, where he battled with teammate Hauger and lost out but still finished in second place. Leclerc had an unremarkable round at Spa-Francorchamps, taking two tenth places from Race 2 and Race 3 due to qualifying in 13th. In Zandvoort, Leclerc qualified tenth. He then scored his second win of the season during Race 1, having stormed from third to first at the start and also defending hard from Logan Sargeant. He followed it up with seventh and tenth places in Race 2 and Race 3 respectively. In the Sochi, Leclerc qualified a disappointing 14th, but managed to end with a pair of seventh places. Leclerc ended up tenth in the standings, with one pole, two wins and 79 points, behind Caldwell and title-winning teammate Hauger, but could not prevent Prema from defending the teams' title. He remained with Prema for post-season testing.
2022
During pre-season, prior to his main campaign, he took part in the Formula Regional Asian Championship with Mumbai Falcons. He won his first race of the championship during the second round, taking the lead of the standings. Leclerc ended the third round with a hat-trick of podiums, including winning the final race. Two more wins followed, where in his later one, he claimed his first single-seater title with two races to spare.
Leclerc was retained by Prema Racing for the 2022 season, partnering fellow Ferrari Driver Academy member Oliver Bearman and Red Bull academy's Jak Crawford. After re-signing with Prema, Leclerc stated that he wanted to be "more consistent" in his sophomore season of Formula 3. His qualifying didn't go to plan in Bahrain, where he only qualified 14th. Leclerc had a successful sprint race, climbing to fifth and nearly pipping fourth place off Zane Maloney. He made another charge in the feature race, finishing second place for his first podium finish of the year. In Imola, things did not start well as he was spun out in qualifying by Enzo Trulli, eventually the Monégasque wounded up 21st. He had a difficult sprint race, but another recovery drive saw Leclerc claim fourth place at the end. Leclerc would start fifth for the Barcelona round, and would finish one place higher in the sprint race. Leclerc's feature race was messy, as a collision with David Vidales and erratic driving on Juan Manuel Correa saw him receive two five-second time penalties, and was ended 16th.
In Silverstone, Leclerc qualified second. Eighth place came in the sprint race having to overtake both of his Prema teammates, before his first and only win of the year came on Sunday. Leclerc would overtake polesitter Zak O'Sullivan in the early stages of the race for victory. Leclerc took victory in the main race at Silverstone, having overtaken Zak O'Sullivan in the early stages of the race. At the Red Bull Ring, he topped practice for the first time and qualified fourth. He would score decent points in the races, finishing taking a pair of fourth-place finishes in the sprint and feature races respectively. Leclerc again qualified fourth in Budapest, however a disappointing sprint race would come. Battling for fourth place on the very last lap with teammate Crawford, he crashed into the back of the American, both losing places and points to their rivals. He would carry a five-place grid penalty for the feature race, and after making early progress to sixth place, he fell to eighth as O'Sullivan and Correa passed him on slick tyres at a dry track.
Following the summer break, an energy confusion saw Leclerc down in 20th for Spa-Francorchamps qualifying, but made an electric charge, picking up fifteen places for fifth at the flag. He would finish just outside the points in 11th during the feature race. A weekend to forget in Zandvoort saw Leclerc be rewarded without points, and left him an outsider for the title. He qualified fifth during the Monza finale, ahead of both teammates and championship contenders. In the sprint race, he dropped a few places after making contact with Victor Martins, but drove well to finish eighth. In the feature race, he finished in fifth place despite contact with a rival. Leclerc ended the championship in a disappointing sixth place, with one win and one more podium, also claiming 114 points in a season that could have been much better.
FIA Formula 2 Championship
After the F2 Yas Marina season finale, Leclerc was announced to be stepping up to Formula 2 with DAMS for the 2023 season, where he would partner with Ayumu Iwasa. Leclerc qualified eighth for the Bahrain season opener but his strong sprint race was cut short by a ten-second stop/go penalty for a starting grid infringement. He had an eventful feature race, being one of the first to pit and concede track position in the top-five. He would go on to make a few mistakes and eventually wounded up sixth. In Jeddah, he qualified 13th and failed to score points in the sprint race, but made the alternate strategy work in the feature race. He ended in eighth place, and a better result was inevitable had a slow pit stop not happen. Leclerc qualified seventh in Melbourne, and pressured Kush Maini in the sprint race but was unable to take the podium position, finishing fourth. He would go one better in the feature race, achieving his maiden podium after Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger collided during the late stages of the race.
Baku was relatively disappointing for Leclerc, qualifying down in 13th and he was involved in a late safety car restart, misjudging his braking point on cold tyres and nearly slamming into the wall. Leclerc ended the feature race in 11th, but was promoted to tenth after Victor Martins was disqualified, continuing his feature race point-scoring streak.] In Monaco, Leclerc crashed on his lap during qualifying, which left him down in 20th. Similar to his brother Charles' woes in his races at Monaco, he would have a weekend to forget, finishing 14th in the sprint and retiring from the feature race with a brake issue. In Barcelona, Leclerc qualified in 13th. Having ended the sprint race in ninth, he went on the alternate strategy in the feature race and it paid off in the same position, this time scoring points.
Leclerc's form faded starting from Austria, and despite qualifying eighth, as during the sprint race he started on the wrong tyres on a drying track, and a loose wheel curtailed his feature race. In Silverstone, Leclerc qualified 11th. Having scored a point in the sprint race, he went on the alternate strategy in the feature race, which partially worked out as he made his way to third with eight laps remaining. However, he was forced to pit early due to a safety car mid-race, which led to him dropping to ninth place. More tough weekends followed, failing to score points in both Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps due to unfortunate incidents.