Charles Leclerc shares 'special memories' of godfather Jules Bianchi

Charles Leclerc has shared details of the personal relationship he had with his godfather, Jules Bianchi.

July 17, 2025 marks 10 years since Bianchi passed away from injuries sustained during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Bianchi was competing in his second F1 campaign with Marussia before his life was cut shot in tragic circumstances.

Growing up, Bianchi was best friends with Leclerc's older brother and was godfather to the now-Ferrari driver.

While Bianchi's F1 talent and potential to go far in the sport are well-realised, less is known of his personal life.

Shedding light on his relationship with Bianchi, Leclerc told F1.com: “I've got some stories from that time, like the first horror movie I watched was actually with Jules.

“He didn't know I was pretending to be asleep. He was trying to make sure that I was asleep because he wanted to watch that movie with my older brother!

“Jules was such a genuinely nice person. He was very funny and he had his crazy moments when you got to know him very well.

“He was just always happy to help and very happy to have fun as well.”

Bianchi was around when Leclerc first began to dabble in kart racing and commence the path that led him to F1.

“The memories that are the clearest are probably when I was six or seven years old and it was the first time that I would be allowed to race a rental kart with him and my brother,” Leclerc added.

“Normally rental karts are for adults but his father was managing the track and obviously was letting us do things that maybe we were not too allowed.

I“ looked up to him so to be racing with him, with my older brother, with his younger brother, and many, many other professional karting drivers at the time was incredible.

“We had so much fun. We would hang out and wait for the karting track to close to the public so we could get on. Then we’d go crazy on track for hours and hours.

“These are probably the most special memories I have.”