Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc believes that about “90% of the rumours” regarding the so-called internal turmoil within the Maranello team are in fact “completely unfounded”, despite the difficult start to the 2023 Formula 1 championship.
Charles Leclerc was even one second per lap slower than Max Verstappen in the opening round of the 2023 F1 campaign and in the end could not even finish on the podium at the Bahrain International Circuit due to an electrical problem which forced him to retire with 18 laps to go, while running in third place, far behind the RB19 cars. This was a completely opposite start as compared to his triumphant start to 2022: last year, the Monegasque won the Bahrain Grand Prix, then finished second at the Jeddah circuit and went on to take another race win, at the 5.278-kilometre Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne.
The poor performance and result from two weeks ago in Bahrain inevitably meant intense scrutiny from the Italian media, with several reports stating that there is a sense of uncertainty within Maranello. The resignation of Ferrari’s head of vehicle concept (David Sanchez) led to even more controversy, as the French engineer decided to leave the team, just like other important Ferrari figures, following the departure of ex-team principal Mattia Binotto at the end of the previous season.
New Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur was quick to deny any talk of internal turmoil ahead of the second round of the season, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and Charles Leclerc and Carlos did the same thing on media day in Jeddah.
“Honestly I obviously saw these rumours and then went to Maranello [after Bahrain] so I was at first I was like ‘oh I’m not sure how the team will react to it’ but then we’ve had a meeting with the whole team, with all the Ferrari employees. I was really surprised,” – the Monegasque driver added, as Charles will have to take a ten place grid penalty for Sunday’s race due to the reliability issues suffered in Bahrain – “Everyone is fully on it and fully positive still, which is great. We all need to push in the same direction as I said this is the most important.”
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In addition to a team-wide meeting in Maranello, the Italian media reported that the Monegasque driver asked for reassurances directly from Ferrari president John Elkann regarding the Italian side’s future in a private meeting.
“This is absolutely untrue.” – Charles Leclerc replied when quizzed if he’d sought reassurances from the Ferrari top man – “There have been loads of rumours around the team – which, for once, 90% of them were completely unfounded. I don’t know from where it is coming from and to be honest I don’t want to even spend any energy on trying to find from where it’s coming from. We just need to be on it and focus on ourselves.”
Charles Leclerc urged the Maranello team to avoid such controversies and instead remain focused on the key goal, that of improving the SF-23 on-track performance rather than listening to outside rumours and reports.:
“We still need to be fighting like crazy to be back at the top and keep pushing. When it’s Ferrari who doesn’t go as well as it should then there’s lots of voices and all of these things around the team but we need to be good at spending our energy right inside the team, pushing in the right direction and making a difference and come back stronger. I feel this has been the case in the last few weeks so I’m really looking forward to be being back on track, stop the talk and get back to driving.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc concluded.
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