Ten years on from Jules Bianchi's death: Charles Leclerc remembers his friend and F1 mentor

New York Times

17-07-2025

Ten years and nine months ago, Formula One changed forever.
Typhoon Phanfone had swept across Japan, soaking the Suzuka Circuit. Despite speculation that it would be abandoned, the Japanese Grand Prix went ahead. As the race's finale approached, Sauber's Adrian Sutil aquaplaned and spun into the tire barriers, triggering double yellow flags to warn drivers about the accident.
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The cars continued navigating the circuit as marshals and a recovery vehicle entered the track. A lap later, disaster struck.
Jules Bianchi lost his Marussia car in a similar way to Sutil at the same corner. He collided with the recovery vehicle at 78 miles per hour. Bianchi was taken to the Mie General Hospital and underwent surgery after a CT scan showed he had suffered a severe head injury. He never regained consciousness and died nine months later, on July 17, 2015 — 10 years ago today. He was 25 years old.
Bianchi was the first driver to die from injuries sustained on an F1 race weekend since Ayrton Senna at Imola in 1994. His death led to significant motorsport safety changes, including the halo cockpit safety device and the virtual safety car system.
The promising Frenchman had given Marussia its first-ever points finish at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix, and Bianchi was closely tied to Ferrari. Its former chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, told Sky Sports Italia in 2015 that Bianchi 'was a member of the Ferrari family and was the driver we had picked for the future — once the collaboration with (Kimi) Räikkönen was over.' But Bianchi was bigger than his on-track accomplishments.
To Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, Bianchi was not just a close family friend. He was also his motorsport mentor and inspiration. Today, Leclerc is living the life Bianchi might've had and perhaps could even have enjoyed together.
'Jules was a very important person for me,' Leclerc told The Athletic. 'Not really for what he achieved on track — even though it was very inspiring to see that — but for the person he was. He had a huge influence on my career. Without him, I wouldn't be where I am today.'
Sitting inside Ferrari's hospitality unit at the Miami Grand Prix in May, there was a buzz in the air. People darted in and out of the makeshift buildings arranged around the Hard Rock Stadium's field for media day, but it didn't seem to faze Leclerc as he told stories about himself and Bianchi, a faraway look in his eye and smiles flashing across his face.
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They had known each other since childhood, first crossing paths when Leclerc was four years old. There was an eight-year gap between the two, but they bonded over karting at the Brignoles track owned and managed by Bianchi's father, Philippe, who was friends with Leclerc's father, Hervé, who died in 2017.
'I've always said that the Bianchi and the Leclerc family was one — we were really always together,' Charles said. 'Every weekend, I was at his track. When he was doing his first Monaco Grand Prix, he would sleep at my apartment. We had a very special relationship.'
Leclerc started racing against Bianchi a couple of years after their first meeting, and while 'it was only fun' for his older friend — already winning trophies as a junior karter — Leclerc faced a steep learning curve given the difference in their levels.
Leclerc said, 'I always tried to analyze what he was doing and I thought that this gave me an advantage compared to kids that were racing against me, that maybe didn't have these kinds of fights with people that were older and such talented drivers like Jules.'
Throughout his karting journey, Bianchi collected notable achievements. He finished third in the Trophée des Jeunes FFSA Cadets in 2002 and won the 2005 Asia-Pacific Championship Formula A title. Two years later, Bianchi advanced to racing cars, securing five wins and finishing first in his debut French Formula Renault 2.0 season.
As the Frenchman climbed the international racing ranks, Leclerc watched on, learning what he could. 'Even in the most stupid, irrelevant little things that he did,' Leclerc said.
'I was looking up at him — from the way he was cleaning his kart to the way he drove,' he continued. 'And so you try and reproduce all the good things from what you see. You experience the things that you see to find out if they work for you. All the very little things. Just by being himself, I learned a lot.'
One of the driving characteristics that Leclerc picked up from Bianchi as a kid was his braking style. In F1, Leclerc is known for being aggressive on the brakes, hitting the pedal quite late and overlapping with throttle usage when entering corners. Not only does his braking style help car rotation in corners, but if he gets it right, it means higher entry speeds and faster lap times, too. It can be challenging, as brakes can easily lock and Leclerc hates cars that understeer — where the front wheels don't turn as fast as a driver wants.
'I'm never totally off brake,' Leclerc said. 'I remember this being one of Jules' first lessons. I remember being a kid and focusing on that. Now, it's completely natural. Jules had a big influence.'
Some of the fondest memories Leclerc holds onto about Bianchi come from the karting track. 'We were doing a lot of stupid things,' he recalled, such as going around the circuit the opposite way to its layout.
Their parents filmed the second time Leclerc went karting at Brignoles. He remembered how Bianchi selected a kart 'that was too small for him, just to race against me.' In the background of the unreleased footage, their parents discussed 'how incredible it would be to see both of us in Formula One.'
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'When you see this footage, you can understand how far away you are from Formula One and this crazy world,' Leclerc continued. 'So everything seemed very unlikely, even for one of us to get there, let alone the fact that we both made it.'
Bianchi joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2009 and became the team's test driver two years later. The following season, in 2012, he served as Force India's reserve driver and then made his F1 debut at the 2013 Australian Grand Prix as a full-time driver with Marussia. Racing for a backmarker team, Bianchi didn't score any points in that campaign, but retained his seat. At the 2014 Monaco GP, he scored his and Marussia's first and only F1 points, finishing ninth.
His accident at Suzuka occurred nine races later.
'It's a very special sport, because you can be the most talented driver ever, but if you don't find yourself at the right time, at the right place, you can also end up not having any wins,' Leclerc said. 'Not for your own fault, but just because it was just not meant to be. And this is what's sad about the sport in general. In some cases, and especially in Jules' case, he definitely had the talent to become a Formula One world champion.'
They may never have raced in F1 together, but Leclerc is competing at the pinnacle of motorsport, in part, thanks to Bianchi. At the end of 2010, Leclerc's family were struggling to afford his karting, jeopardizing his racing future.
Bianchi spoke to his manager Nicolas Todt — son of former Ferrari team principal and FIA president Jean Todt — about Leclerc's situation and Todt agreed to financially support him. He manages Leclerc to this day, and like Bianchi, Leclerc has long been tied to Ferrari's driver development program.
That investment helped Leclerc chase his dream, and he has been racing in F1 for eight years, seven with Ferrari. Bianchi's memory lives on through Leclerc and karting. During the fall, there's a 42-hour karting marathon held at Circuit Paul Ricard in France, which is close to Brignoles. It's now known as the Jules Bianchi Marathon Karting.
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Leclerc and Bianchi competed in the event together, seven times total, and one memory of when Bianchi was 18 particularly sticks with Leclerc. At 1 a.m. one year, Bianchi and the team left Leclerc in the kart, driving for several hours straight, while 'they all went to the club,' Leclerc said. They returned by five or six in the morning, Leclerc said, '​​and I was so tired, but I didn't want to stop in the pits, because I didn't want to lose the race.'
When Bianchi died in July 2015, the karting marathon was paused until a few years ago. Leclerc kept speaking with Philippe about restarting the event to raise money for the Jules Bianchi Association, which supports Hôpital L'Archet (where Bianchi was treated after he'd been transferred home to Nice from Japan). The 42-hour, 19-minute and 50-second marathon returned in 2023, and Leclerc's team won last year, fighting with another team until the last hour for the victory. This year's event will mark the 10th edition and will be held from September 12-14.
'It brings back very good memories from the past, and I also get to see people that I haven't for a long time, but it's great fun,' Leclerc told The Athletic in 2024. 'I did it with my best friends, who are not at all racing drivers. But we still managed to win.'
What a team 😘🏆42 hours of flat out racing, that was fun!!Good to be raising money for the Jules Bianchi association ❤️ pic.twitter.com/cVXMM8gBz8
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) September 9, 2024
Bianchi's memory also lives on each time F1 hits the track. Since 2018, every car has been fitted with the halo device — credited with saving many lives in crashes since, but it had been under consideration since the late 2000s. Every race, officials can activate the virtual safety car system, which, since 2015, has electronically ordered drivers to slow their speed in dangerous moments. It was developed specifically due to Bianchi's crash, with yellow flag warnings alone deemed insufficient in the aftermath.
Every time Leclerc drives onto the track, Bianchi is with him. Etched on the back of his race helmet are two names and dates: PaPa and Jules.
'Unfortunately, we never got to race together in F1 for the reasons we know. But we both realized our dream of becoming F1 drivers. And, for me, I'm sure that he's proud.'