In the beginning – a new start – there was darkness. And then, there was light: a new star in the painted red sky. The appellation resounded for the first time in the Italian commentary during the distant 2019, towards the end – the apotheosis – of the Bahrain Qualifying; an unexpected achievement, an intentional exaggeration, the predestined talent of which the late Sergio Marchionne had proudly become the spokesperson.
Young Charles Leclerc, the flagship of the Ferrari Academy, represented for the former President the spring that Maranello desperately needed. Thus, after just one year of apprenticeship in Sauber (39-9 against the “home driver” Ericsson), the young boy raised in the talents’ lair of the Scuderia became the first – and still the only – junior to be promoted to the coveted red seat.
[The seat which – poetry or pure coincidence – had previously been linked to the dearly departed Jules Bianchi, whom Charles had grown up with, and without whom the Monegasque might not have had a career to (talk) about.]Dressed all in red, cap firmly on his head like on the first day of school, the young “little horse” takes his place at the table of the greats next to the Master Sebastian Vettel. A clean face, a timid yet sincere smile, Charles is only twenty years old – he doesn’t know phrases that begin with “if,” he responds to everything with a “but” – and already in his second weekend at Ferrari, he achieves a heroic feat on the Sakhir circuit, first in Qualifying and then in the race, where ten laps from the end, his overwhelming conduct is stopped by a technical failure (the first of many curious déjà vu) that hands a double podium to the overwhelming Mercedes.
The air in Maranello in those days might have felt like spring, but the repercussions of the long winter bounce noisily within the walls of the Sporting Management after the disappointing season debut; Mattia Binotto feels it, he is new in the role but certainly not new to the world, and he knows he has been called to exorcise the ghosts of the past without guarantees about his future.
Sebastian Vettel does it, who seems more “poached” than “boiled,” exposed to the bad moods of the Maranello campaigns. And then there’s Charles, who, with the typical selfishness of the newcomer who still has everything to prove, seems entirely immune to the environment. The tale of the apprentice who immediately challenges the master is celebrated at that moment – a delicate restart – with a nickname that weighs too much and is worth too little, even years later.
“The Predestined” becomes a breath of fresh air for the fans, for others a new toy to distract themselves for a while; finally, for the malicious, the epitaph on Sebastian Vettel’s career (in red, green, blue). Some talk about jealousy, and some exaggerate in merits, but in the end, the balance speaks clearly: two consecutive victories (with Monza alone worth three), seven Pole Positions (seasonal record), Charles Leclerc quickly sheds the role of the second driver, beats Sebastian Vettel in the standings in their first year together – and in the following winter, he signs the longest contract ever offered to any driver of the Scuderia: five years.
Ferrari 2020: Sebastian Vettel’s departure and Charles Leclerc’s confirmation
From there, a road that this hopeful young man perhaps expected to be downhill, or at least partially sloping, takes an unexpected turn. After the poor campaign of 2019 – which had at least delivered the team’s second place in the Constructors’ Championship – Ferrari signs a secret agreement with the FIA and shows up at Winter Testing with a power deficit of about 40HP.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Two months later, in the midst of a pandemic, Sebastian Vettel is escorted to the gates of the Sporting Management with a suitcase full of regrets and many good wishes for the future. In his place, starting from 2021, there will be Carlos Sainz, chosen by Mattia Binotto as the second standard-bearer for his long-term project – provided he is granted the continuity he fights for behind the scenes, with the support of his team, despite the far from positive impressions of the newly appointed president John Elkann, which only worsen when the SF1000 finally hits the track.
The situation, in short, is tragicomic – and dangerously on the brink for those in charge. For Charles Leclerc, it is another mountain to climb. This time, the expectations of the fans join those of the driver, who after his explosive debut finds himself fighting in the wrong half of the grid. But when there’s a fight, no matter where or how, the “Predestined” answers the call and maintains his reputation high while that of the Scuderia and – alas – the divorcee at home, Sebastian Vettel, sink into an abyss from which it is hard to glimpse a glimmer of light.
Charles does “the Leclerc” – he’s a devil with an angel’s face, he wants everything and he wants it now. He is never satisfied. The tale of the Predestined continues, driven by the need to find a foothold in the pitch-black darkness. Soon, the commentary shouts, almost mocking the Scuderia, “give this guy a car.” Give this guy a car, who keeps pushing in Qualifying against and beyond every limit, who achieves two podiums where luck has little or perhaps nothing to do with it, who improves in race management, in tire management, who dances on what remains of Sebastian Vettel’s red dream.
He makes mistakes, many and even serious ones: but he is given a pass, because his peaks fly so high (the two Silverstone races simply masterful) that you can’t help but think that a driver of that caliber shouldn’t find himself in certain situations, that he shouldn’t be forced to fight with his car before fighting against the others.
The only winner – unfortunately, only moral – of the 2020 campaign in Ferrari is him: Charles Leclerc. His presence in the Scuderia is now seen by the public and by the management itself as a necessity. Yet Charles doesn’t feel like a winner, he doesn’t rejoice over a mediocre result, the only podium he’s interested in climbing is the highest one. He knows that his role in the team is not that of a moralizer, he knows that you win and lose together.
Despite his young age, the young boy from Monte Carlo continues to amaze – perhaps even confuse – with his mature attitude. Others would have let it get to their heads, not him. Others would have believed the compliments, succumbed to the pressures, dived like Scrooge McDuck into that golden pool after rubbing their hands with satisfaction – not him.
And of course, why should he? Because despite the astonishing results, Charles Leclerc is still a driver in the process of growing, and he knows it well, just as those who guide him, who stand by him, who are part of his team, know it. In Formula 1, there are no champions without a winning team – therefore, Leclerc’s sole focus for the future is to improve together with the Maranello team. Not the chatter, not the uncomfortable comparisons with his peer Max Verstappen (who has been racing against Charles for a lifetime, and has had a very different path from his, with an early, perhaps premature debut) and not even those with his teammate.
Ferrari 2021: Charles Leclerc and the imaginary battle with Carlos Sainz
If we define 2020 as a tragic comedy for Ferrari, the following year becomes a pantomime. The car improves, but the margins compared to the competition are still too wide to be filled by talent alone. The direct fight is with McLaren – but the enthusiasm for this historic duel fades in the face of the prospect of a meager third place in the Constructors’ Championship.
Ahead, Mercedes and Red Bull compete in the first real title fight in almost ten years, Lewis against Max, Max against Lewis. We must think, without even speculating too much, that Charles Leclerc observed the two battling with the eagerness of someone who would like to join a party to which he was not invited.
We must think that this was his only thought throughout the season, what drove him to brush against the walls for a Pole Position, or rather two, a podium that could have been a victory at Silverstone, a heroic but unsuccessful endeavor in Turkey, and in Sochi. Entire races spent in a limbo, competing between the top three and the rest of the grid, alone, undisturbed, and therefore forgotten.
Yet, thanks to the propaganda tactics of the Iberian press, all attention was entirely focused on the comparison with Carlos Sainz, the newcomer to the team, intent on clarifying to everyone that he is not there “to play the Barrichello role.” A curious reversal of trend, given the results on the track, the gap between the two that has always been closer in Qualifying than in the race, the results of the direct comparison – all in (overwhelming) favor of Charles Leclerc. Yet, a 5.5-point difference in the standings (which, net of the podiums earned on the occasion of the unfortunate teammate’s DNFs, should have been at least 49 points) was celebrated by the Spanish media as the early end of the Charles Leclerc era at Ferrari.
Ferrari 2022: Charles Leclerc’s wasted talent
Ah, how often the wind changes – and so do the chronicles of the “Predestined,” speaking of difficulties, whims, and moods. But not Leclerc – he doesn’t care about this story at all (his words). He clarifies things on the track, dominating his teammate and not just the following year – the year of the return to victory, of illusions, a title fight barely missed, evaporating in an instant.
The Monegasque confirms that he is unstoppable – unreachable – in a car that allows him to fully express his potential. He wins in Bahrain, narrowly misses victory in Jeddah, and achieves a Grand Slam in Australia (the last Ferrari driver to achieve one was Fernando Alonso, way back in 2010, in Singapore). Then the mistake in Imola, in a weekend with difficult performances – and let’s not forget it.
Ferrari, on the other hand, collapses like a house of cards. Error after error, with a pit wall reacting to every threat from the driver ahead (“to play it safe” – we are talking about exaggerated reactions, like in Monaco, where Charles Leclerc, leading the race with a comfortable gap, was asked to cover Sergio Perez’s double pit stop strategy, who was in third, and ended up fourth after another terrible distraction error in the pit lane, when they didn’t realize they didn’t have the margin to pit both drivers, on opposite strategies, on the same lap) and the reliability of an engine that cost another Grand Slam in Spain and perhaps a victory, or at least second place on the podium, in Baku.
Charles Leclerc’s leadership in the championship vanishes within the span of five races – five weekends to forget: Spain (DNF, engine), Monaco (strategy error), Baku (DNF, engine), Canada (starting from the back of the grid, engine), Silverstone… we might talk about this race another time. What matters is that the following weekend, in Austria, Charles Leclerc puts together a race made of talent and a lot of determination: an unlikely strategy, but one that he meticulously planned with his race engineer Marcos, using the Saturday Sprint as a test bench.
Three on-track overtakes against a struggling Max Verstappen, a throttle issue in the last ten laps that forced him to take slow corners with the throttle fully open. Leclerc wins against everyone’s expectations, except his own – because when asked, he replies that he knew exactly what to do. “Tomorrow we’re going to get them,” he had said after the Sprint. A man of his word.
The same cannot be said for the head engineer of the Scuderia. While support for the “Predestined” was growing strong in these moments, support for Mattia Binotto – who had angered him the previous week by pointing fingers at him in public – hit an all-time low. Many, including rivals, such as the enigmatic Christian Horner, who never misses an opportunity to add fuel to the fire, questioned the lack of support for Charles Leclerc’s title campaign, as he boasted a respectable lead on track and in the standings over his teammate, who was struggling more with the new-generation cars.
The engineer from Lausanne may or may not thank the (serious, performance anxiety-induced) mistake that Leclerc made during the French Grand Prix weekend, crashing into the barriers after losing the rear just before rejoining the pits. However, it would be dishonest to say that the mistakes in Imola and France cost Charles Leclerc the championship when Ferrari let him down as a team in the first half and then disappeared in the second – after a regulatory update that completely invalidated the F1-75 project, possibly also due to a last series of updates made in France that had altered the balance of a car that, until the previous weekend, was heavily focused on the front end.
While Leclerc clenched his fists, feeling powerless as the dream faded before his incredulous eyes, Mattia Binotto began counting the days until the end of his tenure at Ferrari around the same time. John Elkann’s confidence, never solid towards him, had collapsed in the face of yet another catastrophic defeat. Frustrated and angry over the mistakes until Brazil, Charles Leclerc became the team player he had been called to be after 2020. He doesn’t complain about the hypothetical “others,” doesn’t react to press critics, points the finger only at himself, but is always ready to motivate the team, to spur them to do better, to work, and work hard, to fill the gaps “that we already know exist, but I prefer to discuss them with my team in private.”
Dirty laundry, after all, is washed in the family – not in front of the cameras. And so, once he politely bid farewell to Mattia Binotto, Charles Leclerc goes to Paris and receives the trophy for vice-champion with a bitter smile but the determination of a soldier for whom the war has just begun. More than a heart in his throat, a pit in his stomach – an emptiness to be filled, piece by piece, shoulder to shoulder with trusted people and friends.
Ferrari 2023: Charles Leclerc’s Farewell Feared by Many
As the heir of the rapidly declining Mattia Binotto’s Empire, General Vasseur is an old acquaintance of Leclerc, but as a true Frenchman (some might say “stingy”), he doesn’t give anyone any discounts. They like each other precisely for this reason. “Charles is someone who is not afraid to express his own opinion and knows how to choose the right moment to do so,” Fred Vasseur declared to L’Équipe some time ago. “And I have no problem telling him exactly what I think, even when it comes to criticism, because I know he values honesty more than compliments.”
The 2023 Ferrari is compromised from the beginning – or, better to say, since the previous year. It is a chrysalis that needs to gain a new vision before it can spread its wings and then explain itself to others. A project to be rewritten but first needed to be fully understood, turned over like a Rubik’s Cube in search of a solution that could at least mitigate the balance problems.
Then, the next chapter – the revolution. To achieve it, time is needed, but above all, the honesty that Fred Vasseur talks about, a collective conscience from those who hold Maranello in their hands, and now also the duty to lift the team up. Not a single man – not a single Mattia Binotto, not a single Frederic, and certainly not a single Charles Leclerc. Even Michael Schumacher needed the support of the entire team, and above all, a formidable duo in Todt and Brawn, to start winning in red.
It’s not easy to admit one’s mistakes – a discipline in which Charles Leclerc excels as a champion, sometimes exceeding in excessive self-criticism (reprimanded by Fred Vasseur himself, despite appreciating the honesty) that becomes a tempting bait for the press, for those who don’t want to stop and think, to remember, who looks at the finger instead of the moon it’s pointing at. It’s been heard around that he is demoralized, that his star doesn’t shine anymore, that he thinks of leaving – that he can’t wait for it. In Spain – let it go. As usual, they are focused elsewhere, just like their driver.
Yet, when directly confronted with this feline attitude, Leclerc ignites with an irony that is not always appreciated (“I’m really happy about this question – because I’m not demoralized at all. Not at all, zero!”). He reminds the audience – reminds those who call him “Predestined” one day and forget it the next, because they do – that in a stalemate situation like the one the team is in now, it is essential to keep your head down and be patient.
There are no “magical” solutions to the problems that Ferrari is facing: Leclerc is not Mazinger, he cannot transform into a more competitive car – he can only do his best with what he has, including limiting risks (those flashes of genius, like in Baku!) when they are not worth it.
Rather than giving in to (sometimes) flag-waving hysterics, it should be the past that he doesn’t want to look at – too focused on the present, on the future – to guide the pen of the writer. Let it be his words, always wise and measured, even when he succumbs to adrenaline and reproaches the team for not listening – let them listen, let his feedback inspire those who watch Ferrari today and seek answers in the Drivers’ Championship, as explained by F1 expert Sara Esposito for FUnoanalisitecnica.
Charles Leclerc, the “Predestined,” has been, from the beginning, for the press and the fans, a solitary reference figure, the oil on the engine representation of “Ferrari’s youth team,” the “warrior spirit” that would solve every problem. In short, a makeshift solution for the expectations of millions of people after twelve years of setbacks and disappointments. No big deal. To this day, he suffers not only from that first and dramatic misjudgment towards him but also, and perhaps above all, from the little esteem for the actual role he holds in the Scuderia, for the Scuderia.
Charles Leclerc is now twenty-five years old – but he still categorically refuses the “ifs,” and his “buts” have tripled in the meantime. He wears the Prancing Horse on his chest and the passion of a true fan in his expression – on his wrist, a beaded bracelet, a gift from a fan, of no value: “F-O-R-Z-A-F-E-R-R-A-R-I.” And there lies the Destiny – the Red Thread; a promise, a burden on his heart.
Buy official Ferrari F1 products!
