Learning from mistakes: How Leclerc found strength in self-honesty

Charles Leclerc believes that over time, his harsh self-criticism has become a strength that allows him to learn from mistakes and convert the latter into positive outcomes.

Since his graduation to Formula 1 in 2018 with Sauber, Leclerc has always held himself to the highest standards and never indulged in sugarcoating his mistakes.

While this self-honesty is now an asset, it wasn't always beneficial. The Ferrari driver admits that his younger self reacted poorly to errors, letting them erode his confidence, a crucial element for success in F1.

However, with experience he learned that maintaining self-belief, even in challenging moments, is also paramount.

"I was extremely harsh on myself, which I think now is a strength because I'm super honest with myself," Leclerc explained, speaking on a just-released episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose Podcast.

"I don't like to be nice to myself whenever I do a mistake. I'm very harsh, and I'm very honest with myself.

"But at the same time, I think the reaction from that is extremely important. The way you react to mistakes you've done inside the car, this is where you manage to transform a mistake to something positive from learning from it.

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"And when I was younger, I didn't have the right reaction, I would put myself so much down, it also hurt my self-confidence. Now it's very different, I know that I got to a certain level because I worked hard, of course, because there is also a part of talent when you are young.

"It's super important to keep the self-confidence super high in those difficult moments, otherwise you can lose a little bit the way, the direction, in which you need to work, and it can make things a bit more complicated. That's where I was struggling when I was younger."

Leclerc explained that coming to terms with a costly error isn’t a process that unfolds in the heat of the moment as a driver cannot afford to dwell on a mistake during a race.

Any self-analysis takes place post-race over the following days or weeks, but closure - the ability for a driver to "move on" - only arrives at the next race.

“Generally, it helps us in our sport to not think too much because you haven’t got the time to think,” said the six-time Grand Prix winner.

“From one corner to the other, if you’re thinking about your last corner, you’re going to do a mistake at the next corner. So you’ve got to mentally reset at every corner.

“It’s super quick, but I think adrenaline helps you.

“I think where I struggle more is when you finish a race, on multiple laps, and you are looking back at it and you’re like ‘I shouldn’t have done that mistake, I should have known that, I should have prepared for that…’.”

“And then I was putting myself down. And that had a much longer effect as well, because you need to wait for the next race in order to move on.

“That’s in one or two weeks’ time, and for one and two weeks you’re like I can’t wait to be back in the car to show what I can do.

“But in those last two weeks, you need to accept obviously the view of others, which was also something that was hurting me back in the past. It’s just not good for learning from your mistakes.”

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