As revealed by Autosport earlier this year, Marchionne’s support of Sauber driver and long-term Ferrari protege Leclerc meant the Monegasque had a serious chance of gaining promotion to Ferrari after just one season of grand prix racing.
But that move seemed to have cooled in the wake of Marchionne’s death, as his Ferrari CEO replacement Louis Camilleri is a close friend of Raikkonen’s and wanted to see if the Finn’s recent upturn in form would continue. However, an alleged firm contract binding Ferrari to Charles Leclerc could leave the Scuderia with no other choice but to field its junior driver next season and part ways with Kimi Raikkonen. According to Auto Motor und Sport’s reputable Michael Schmidt, earlier this summer, former Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne committed the team to running Leclerc in 2019 following the Monegasque’s impressive performances with Sauber.
Louis Camilleri, the man now in charge of the House of Maranello, stated on Friday that no decision had yet been reached on the identity of the driver that will partner Sebastian Vettel next season.
However, suggestions over the Italian Grand Prix weekend indicated Ferrari has elected to stick to the original plan and honour Marchionne’s idea of putting in Leclerc as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement. It is understood talks about the situation advanced at Monza, where Ferrari chairman John Elkann briefly met Leclerc.
Charles Leclerc said at Monza on Sunday he had not been given a timeframe on a decision. Asked by Autosport if he had spoken to Ferrari’s new chiefs over the weekend, and about his relationship with Marchionne before them, Leclerc replied: “John came earlier here with Michael [Manley], the new FCA [boss] just to introduce the whole team to him and it was a good opportunity [to meet]. But it was just an introduction [rather] than to speak about the future or anything. I’ve never had a direct contact with Mr Marchionne, but he was speaking well about me all the time. Obviously it was always a pleasure to have positive comments, but I didn’t have direct contact with him.”
Charles Leclerc has been a star performer in his rookie season, bouncing back from a trying opening three weekends to score his first points with a sixth-place finish in Azerbaijan.
He has scored points on four more occasions, hauled Sauber into Q3 at three races and regularly bested his more experienced team-mate Marcus Ericsson.
But a tricky run over the last three races means Leclerc has not scored points since June’s Austrian Grand Prix: “They [Ferrari bosses] are the ones to take the decisions,” said Leclerc when asked if he had done enough to earn a race drive at Ferrari. They know which driver I am and then they will judge whether or not it is enough. I’m still young and I still have a lot of races to learn and in the case I’ll go there it will be a dream come true, but it’s not to me to say if I’m ready or not. They know me perfectly well.”
Leclerc has regularly referred to racing for Ferrari as a dream, and admitted it was difficult not to get sidetracked by that prospect: “It’s difficult to not have it in my mind because it’s a dream since I was a child,” he said. “But I’m trying to have it as little as possible in my mind to focus on what’s going on at the moment.”
Leave a Reply