As driver announcements go, the news earlier this week that Charles Leclerc had signed a contract extension with Ferrari for “several more seasons” was hardly a blockbuster one.
Leclerc’s Formula 1 career has been intertwined with Ferrari before he stepped into the cockpit of an F1 car for the first time. As a Ferrari Driver Academy member, Leclerc was very much a project for the Maranello team, which nurtured him through Formula 2 and helped secure him a debut season with Sauber in 2018.
Having demonstrated his potential was real in his rookie season, Ferrari called him up to race for the Scuderia alongside Sebastian Vettel for 2019. For the next five seasons, Leclerc has been Ferrari’s most successful driver, taking five grand prix victories, 23 pole positions, 30 podium finishes and securing second place in the drivers’ championship in 2022 – after leading the standings in the early rounds.
But despite his success, Leclerc’s time with Ferrari has been defined by frustration and disappointment. After a strong first year in scarlet for Leclerc in 2019, Ferrari suffered two win-less seasons in 2020 and 2021 in the aftermath of a power unit controversy that cost the team a significant level of performance relative to what they had enjoyed previously.
When Ferrari became a winning team again with the major technical regulations changes for 2022, their title challenge buckled over the year with poor strategy calls, mistakes from Leclerc himself and the simply unstoppable performance of Red Bull.
Unlike team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, Leclerc also went without a win last season. But in a year where Sainz was the only driver to win a grand prix while not in a Red Bull, Leclerc’s failure to win speaks more to the dominance of Red Bull than anything else.
Leclerc has staked his future on Ferrari and team principal Frederic Vasseur’s vision for the Prancing Horse by signing a contract extension – though for exactly how long is not clear. But will they achieve their dream of a world championship title together?
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Leclerc has already proven that he has the potential to fight for world championship titles. His incredible pole position record demonstrates his outright speed, while his relative lack of wins only shows that Ferrari’s weakness has been in their race pace in recent years.
He has experience leading the championship and has shown he is capable of not just fighting toe-to-toe with Max Verstappen, but actually beating him too. Although he has…
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