Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has opened up about his decision to share the news of his engagement to his partner Alexandra Saint Mleux and how he deals with retaining privacy in his personal life.
Leclerc quickly rose to fame when he joined Ferrari in 2019, which coincided with the boost in popularity of the championship with the release of Netflix's Drive to Survive. Over the years, the Monegasque driver has accumulated 22.2 million followers on Instagram and 3.6 million followers on X.
During an interview with RACER, the 28-year-old driver explained how his life has changed from his Formula 1 debut with Sauber in 2018 to now. Barely anyone recognised him in public in his first year in the championship, and he enjoyed the transition of becoming more known, especially driving for Ferrari. While he has compromised on some of his privacy, he insists he "cannot complain".
"But at the end of the day, I'm so lucky to be doing what I love. In the team I've always dreamed of driving for, having so much support everywhere," he said.
"Yes, there's a little bit less privacy. Or, you can have privacy, but you need to organise yourself much better than when I just had a normal life! But it comes with so many good sides that it's not a problem, and I cannot complain about it."
Leclerc explained that he and Saint Mleux decided to share the news of their engagement on 2 November as it was "nice to be sharing some of those really positive news," but what he does struggle with is keeping his work-related emotions separate from his home life.
"It's more like sometimes you just want to spend a moment with your mom and just be normal and live a normal life, and that is a bit more difficult now," he added. "Of course, the news of the engagement wasn't so private as we obviously shared it ourselves! And it's nice to be sharing some of those really positive news for us and for the people that follow us.
"Of course [it’s tough to separate F1 results and personal life] especially because Formula 1 is such a big part of my life. I mean, I've worked… I hate to say 'work' because I've always loved driving, but I've done that all my life and it means so much to me.
"Everything that I have is family, friends and racing. And when you are so passionate about something, you live those moments to the fullest. And that means that the emotions are definitely in some ways drifting a little bit on your personal life as well.
"If I have a very bad race, then I'll come back home down. And if I have a great race, then I'll come back home happier. But then I think with experience, you try and separate the two as much as possible, because at the end of the day, you just have to reset. After every race, my main target is to reset, whether it's a good one or a bad one, just reset and go again."
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