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Charles Leclerc appears closer than ever to leaving the Ferrari Formula 1 team. But the difficulty of severing his ties should not be underestimated.
Leclerc’s ultimate dream in F1 is to win a title with Ferrari. He may only depart if he believes that goal is entirely unrealistic.
Leclerc will make his 151st appearance for Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix in March, tying Kimi Raikkonen for second on the all-time list. But the Monegasque has only won eight of those races.
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In fact, he has failed to take a victory in four of his seven full seasons at Maranello. Leclerc has made clear it’s ‘now or never’ for Ferrari to provide him with a contending car.
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Former F1 driver Derek Daly doesn’t necessarily buy Leclerc’s implicit threats. He believes the academy graduate is too ’emotionally invested’.
And even if the 2026 car is a disappointment, Daly thinks Ferrari could reassure Leclerc by signing a number of top engineers.
This year’s Ferrari has primarily been designed by former Mercedes man Loic Serra, who has succeeded Enrico Cardile as the chassis technical director at Maranello.
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The team held talks with Adrian Newey after he left Red Bull, but the legendary Briton joined Aston Martin instead.
“I’d say they’ll go down the route of trying to poach more talented designers and engineers first before Leclerc leaves,” Daly, who started 49 races between 1978 and 1982, told RacingNews365.
“He is so emotionally invested in Ferrari, and I understand that, I do. I don’t see him leaving in the near future, even if the car is bad.”
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Like teammate Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc has asked for a more ‘predictable’ car in 2026. With that in mind, Serra is redesigning the suspension to make the car’s handling more consistent.
Ferrari were on the verge of ending their title drought in 2024, when Leclerc won three races, but Cardile’s departure came at a damaging moment. The initial architect of the SF-25 couldn’t see the project through to completion.
A recent report suggests that Fred Vasseur wants Leclerc to sign a new long-term contract, even though his current deal can extend as far as 2029.
While there have also been whispers about Mercedes and even McLaren, Leclerc has increasingly been linked with Aston Martin, who are going big-game hunting in the F1 driver market.
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