Carrying the burden of the expectations of the Tifosi, Ferrari walked into the 2022 season. When everyone expected the giants Mercedes and Red Bull to carry their fight over from 2021, the Prancing Horse caught everyone by surprise. Registering 2 wins in as many races was entirely out of the blue. However, the joy ended right there as Red Bull rectified their issues and Mercedes only turned up to the competition with just 4 races to spare. To fail throughout the season is one thing and to have a great start only to throw it away is a different kind of embarrassment altogether. That embarrassment was too much for Ferrari management to handle and team boss Mattia Binotto took the brunt of their anger by losing his position. The man replacing him, Frederic Vasseur, will now carry that baggage with him and if Charles Leclerc is to be believed, the Frenchman is already up to the task.
Leclerc and Vasseur aren’t strangers to each other in any aspect. They worked together when the Monegasque was still competing in GP3 in 2016. Later, Charles debuted in F1 under Fred’s guidance at Sauber. The duo is known to share a cordial relationship, which the 25-year-old can probably not claim to have had with Binotto.
Anyways, Ferrari and Charles both have moved on from that phase. In fact, his recent comments suggest Vasseur’s own attitude may have helped out with that. Speaking during the team’s 2023 car launch, the Monegasque said, “I was very impressed by how well he introduced himself in the team”
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“Ferrari is very different to whatever we are used to before. Ferrari is huge. And once he got here, he understood extremely well the way Ferrari works from the first few days,” he added. “He’s very clear in what he wants and he’s extremely good at putting the people in the right mindset and in the right ambiance to give their best. And this is very important.”
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Before Fred’s arrival, doubts loomed over Charles’ future with the Maranello-based team. However, there is a change in leadership now, and he isn’t too bothered about the future.
Charles Leclerc clears the air on contract renewal with Ferrari
Leclerc signed a long-term contract with Ferrari in 2019. That contract, currently in force, will run until the end of 2024. Therefore, it is only natural that questions come up about whether he will like to continue with his current team.
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In a recent interview with Sky Sports, he told, “No, there are no talks ongoing for now at least.”
“I love the red colour. I love Ferrari. I’m very happy here. But we’ll see what the future holds. Obviously it’s very early to speak about this, my contract ends in ’24. But I’ll know once there are some talks starting.”
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Ferrari will have to deliver results to show any value in their project to their star man. As we have seen in the past, drivers that are capable of becoming champions, don’t like to stick around with failure for too long.