17/07/2025 15:35
Charles Leclerc has shared details of the personal relationship he
had with his godfather, Jules Bianchi. July 17, 2025 marks 10 years
since Bianchi passed away from injuries sustained during the 2014
Japanese Grand Prix. Bianchi was competing in his second F1
campaign with Marussia before his life was cut shot in tragic
circumstances. Growing up, Bianchi was best friends with Leclerc's
older brother and was godfather to the now-Ferrari driver. While
Bianchi's F1 talent and potential to go far in the sport are
well-realised, less is known of his personal life. Shedding light
on his relationship with Bianchi, Leclerc told F1.com : "I've got
some stories from that time, like the first horror movie I watched
was actually with Jules. "He didn't know I was pretending to be
asleep. He was trying to make sure that I was asleep because he
wanted to watch that movie with my older brother! "Jules was such a
genuinely nice person. He was very funny and he had his crazy
moments when you got to know him very well. "He was just always
happy to help and very happy to have fun as well." Bianchi was
around when Leclerc first began to dabble in kart racing and
commence the path that led him to F1. "The memories that are the
clearest are probably when I was six or seven years old and it was
the first time that I would be allowed to race a rental kart with
him and my brother," Leclerc added. "Normally rental karts are for
adults but his father was managing the track and obviously was
letting us do things that maybe we were not too allowed. I" looked
up to him so to be racing with him, with my older brother, with his
younger brother, and many, many other professional karting drivers
at the time was incredible. "We had so much fun. We would hang out
and wait for the karting track to close to the public so we could
get on. Then we'd go crazy on track for hours and hours. "These are
probably the most special memories I have."
