Formula 1: Charles Leclerc’s maiden win about a lot more than racing

Charles Leclerc’s maiden Formula 1 victory and how he responded to it was a perfect illustration that racing is about a whole lot more than racing.

What could have been the first victory of Charles Leclerc’s Formula 1 career had escaped him on multiple occasions heading into the Belgian Grand Prix, his 13th start driving for Scuderia Ferrari.

He had the win seemingly all but locked up in just his second start driving for Ferrari in the Bahrain Grand Prix after dominating from the pole position before an engine failure turned a 10-second lead into a third place finish, and he lost the lead of the Austrian Grand Prix with under three laps remaining after dominating that race from the pole position as well.

But after securing the pole position for Sunday’s 44-lap race around the 19-turn, 4.352-mile (7.004-kilometer) Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps road course in Stavelot, Belgium in dominant fashion, Leclerc held off Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton to become the 108th different driver to win a Formula 1 race.

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This victory was also Ferrari’s first victory since they won the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, October 21, 2018 with Kimi Raikkonen, who now drives for Alfa Romeo Racing after Leclerc replaced him.

But what should have been perhaps the biggest celebration of the season considering the fact that Formula 1 had not produced a first-time winner since Max Verstappen won in his Red Bull Racing debut on Sunday, May 15, 2016 was subdued to a great extent.

And it was Leclerc who made sure that this was the case, and it wasn’t for show, either.

Not even two hours after Leclerc took the pole position for this race in the most dominant fashion of any polesitter so far this season, a Formula 2 crash at the track resulted in the death of Anthoine Hubert. Hubert was only 22 years old, and he and Leclerc had raced against one another growing up.

This heartbreak marked yet another tragedy for Leclerc to deal with in his pursuit of Formula 1 greatness. Prior to Hubert’s passing, the death of Jules Bianchi in July of 2015 was the most recent death that took place as a result of a wreck in an FIA-sanctioned event, and Bianchi was Leclerc’s godfather. Leclerc’s father, Hervé, passed away himself in June of 2017.

When Leclerc won the Belgian Grand Prix, you could hear his voice on the radio. You could see it in his body language after he got out of his car. You could hear it in his voice in his post-race interview.

This was Leclerc’s first victory.

This was him realizing his lifelong dream.

But this was not about him, and he was not about to let it be.

He did not want his celebration to overshadow what he felt was the necessary tribute to his fallen friend, and he made sure, in the most selfless way possible, that that did not happen.

Amid the excitement and the overflow of emotions that came along with him earning his first career victory, his mood remained fairly somber as he honored Hubert.

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But this wasn’t a case of “why did my first win have to come now?” or anything along those lines, either.

This was an illustration of something else.

At the end of the day, we’re all fans of racing, and we all love the competition that it entails. But while our passion for the sport drives who we cheer for and who we root against, what unites us all, even on following historic results like the one we saw yesterday, outside of that realm of competition is that no matter how much we like or dislike one driver or another, there isn’t a race fan out there who doesn’t have some level of respect for every driver out there who straps into a car knowing that they may not get out.

Having just lost another dear friend in a racing accident, Leclerc was not about to have that sentiment get lost, not even in the celebration of him fending off Hamilton to secure his first career win.

Because even amid the highest of highs, there is a whole lot more to racing than competition.

Charles Leclerc’s first victory at Ferrari and the first victory of his Formula 1 career was a reason for celebration, especially given the tragedy that had just taken place. But Leclerc made sure that what could have been all about him was all about Anthoine Hubert and that nobody, not even himself, got carried away, even though he had just fulfilled his childhood dream.