FORMULA 1 ACE CHARLES LECLERC ON SPEED, STILLNESS AND HIS LOVE OF MUSIC

At only 27, Charles Leclerc is already a five-time Formula 1 race winner, spending most of his life moving at 330 km/h. Away from the track though, he finds solace in his Steinway, a way to slow down, acting as a tonic to all the thrill.

Growing up, “music was always around,” he tells me as we sit high amongst the Singaporean skyscrapers before the country’s very own Grand Prix.  “There was one song that really stuck with me, ‘Where Is the Love’ by the Black Eyed Peas is actually one of my favourite songs of all time. And I’ll say probably mostly because it brings me back to those times when you’re a kid and you hear this song over and over, and it’s a song I absolutely love. We also had a piano at home, which my younger brother was quite often played on, he was doing the playing, and I was mostly listening.”

The piano eventually turned into something more than a family backdrop and he took up tickling the ivories, “Actually, it was during the lockdown when I started playing. There was too much free time, and I had to find other passions and music had always been one of my passions, but I’d never had the time to dedicate to it and obviously during lockdown, there were fewer things to do, so I decided to start and loved it straight away.”

For LeClerc, now appearing as an ambassador for Chivas Regal and its new spirit, Crystalgold, the piano has a calming effect. He never took it up as another discipline to perfect, though with more than 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, some might say he has; “Oh, it’s definitely more of a release rather than a new discipline” he shares. “I never started piano thinking, ‘oh I could train in another kind of way’ or think it would make me a better driver. But there are some things that I can take from piano, like the coordination of both hands is something that is super important in my sport as well. I don’t think that it has made me a better driver, but it has definitely helped me to disconnect. I mean, my life is very fast-paced and I’m moving from right to left and all over the world every week, so music is the best way for me to slow down and especially playing piano.”

And he’s not just playing for himself, his music is already out in the world, “My music is on Spotify,” he laughs, “it’s on other streaming platforms as well. Oh! It looks like I did a free commercial for Spotify. I mean, I didn’t release that many songs, but I did release three or four songs, plus four songs together with another artist.”

That artist is Sofiane Pamart, the French pianist who has made a career out of smashing the borders between classical, rap and film soundtracks. “I collaborated with Sofiane, who is an incredible pianist I’ve always admired, which is amazing. I love the process of actually composing with him in a proper studio, because all the other songs that I’ve released were basically produced at home, so the sound quality is not as good as obviously what I’ve done with Sofiane. I loved it.”

It’s fair to say Sofiane has made a lasting impression on Leclerc, and if he could choose to sit down and learn more, it would be from the fellow Frenchman, “I think I’d have to say Sofiane, the artist I’ve already worked with, and released songs with. There are so many things and so many questions I had that even in the four days we spent together I didn’t have time to go through all of them. He’s such an interesting person, and we approach music in a very similar way, although he’s a lot more talented and a lot more experienced. Obviously, he’s doing that every day of his life, but just the way he approaches music, the way he composes music is something that has been super inspirational to me.”

Leclerc himself is instinctive about his musical process, “You know, it’s not very calculated, it’s very genuine, and it depends on how I feel on that day” he shares. He adopts a laissez-faire approach to music, guided by how he feels in the moment, “Whatever comes up when I sit at the piano becomes the next song. It’s really what speaks to me the most and what I feel like composing that particular day. I work on it, but I usually come up with a song very very quickly, it’s not something I overthink. Sofiane is unbelievable at this. He can come up with a full song in two minutes, every two minutes of the day. It’s insane, the infinite creativity, and something I wish I had, but at least I approach it the same way in terms of composing.”

When asked who he’d trade places with, Leclerc doesn’t shoot for a rock star but for Hans Zimmer, “I absolutely love what he does. To work with so many different musicians and bring all that music together is super interesting to me.”

This driver’s creativity isn’t limited to music either; he founded Sidequest with Antoine Truchet and Nicolas Jayr, a studio he calls a form of storytelling that bridges sport, culture and design. Still, he resists being painted as too serious, he’s still only in his twenties after all. “I wouldn’t say I’m an old soul. I’m still young, a little crazy, and a pretty normal 27-year-old. But I definitely like chess, music, and piano. I’ve got a very calm side to me, but there is a crazier side too…”