Charles Leclerc signed new Ferrari deal before he could demand crucial Lewis Hamilton clause

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Charles Leclerc’s new Ferrari contract might have looked a little different had he signed it a couple of weeks later.

Ferrari announced Leclerc’s new deal ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix earlier this month. It’s unclear when he actually put pen to paper, but the announcement was clearly planned for his home race.

Since then, Leclerc hasn’t scored a point. He crashed out of the Monaco GP, though he refused to take blame over a perceived brake issue, and then retired late on in Barcelona as a hydraulic failure denied him a solid recovery from a Q3 shunt.

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Charles Leclerc should have asked for Ferrari equal treatment clause

Rather than celebrating his new deal, Leclerc is in the midst of one of his most difficult periods as a Ferrari driver. At the same time, Lewis Hamilton is ascending to new heights in red, with three straight podiums and a first Grand Prix win last time out.

A 50-point swing in the last two weekends has seen Hamilton go 40 clear of Leclerc in the standings. He is now the nearest challenger to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who has a cushion of 41 at the top.

Only seven rounds into a 22-race season, there are calls for Ferrari to introduce a driver hierarchy. The best way to beat the mighty Mercedes, the argument goes, is to prioritise Hamilton at Leclerc’s expense.

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There’s no indication at this stage that Fred Vasseur will take such action, but he will be under considerable pressure to do so if Hamilton extends or even maintains the gap in the coming races and Antonelli remains catchable.

Contractually, every F1 driver is obliged to obey team orders if they’re issued. Leclerc’s track record suggests he would be compliant, perhaps with some understandable resistance.

But if Leclerc could negotiate his deal again in light of Hamilton’s surge, he would surely have demanded guarantees about his treatment, effectively a clause barring him from becoming the number two driver for a sustained period.

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While it’s theoretically possible that such a clause exists, it would most probably have come to light by now given the noise around potential team orders since Barcelona. It can be assumed that there’s no such agreement.

Leclerc knows that, if he translates the pace he showed in the last two races before making mistakes, he will close up on Hamilton and end the conversation. That will be his main concern for now, even if he might be wishing he’d signed his contract on slightly different terms.