According to Motorsport Italy, Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc is the only certainty of the Maranello team and his contract could be renewed soon until 2024. On the other hand, Sebastian Vettel’s future with the Italian side will most likely be decided after the first part of the 2020 Formula 1 season.
In the recent meeting with the media, on the occasion of the traditional Christmas dinner in Maranello, Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri and Team Principal Mattia Binotto discussed about many of the hot topics regarding the Scuderia’s situation.
Analysis, budgets and the season to come, but it is not surprising that the statements regarding the drivers is the one that generates the most interest, a topic that has always triggered the imagination of the fans and also of some experts. What emerged in the evening of the Maranello meeting are basically four points: Charles Leclerc is a reality destined for a long future in red, Sebastian Vettel a question mark that will find an answer at the beginning of next summer, Fernando Alonso a closed chapter, Max Verstappen an unwelcomed driver after his recent Ferrari accusations.
Let’s start with what Louis Camilleri said: “Charles’ incredible performances were the most notable event of the season, and it’s not just for his talent”. The 2019 of the Monegasque driver went beyond the most optimistic expectations, a judgment that also includes the mistakes made by Charles during his first season in red.
The words of Camilleri seem so much an investiture that in fact makes Charles Leclerc one of the main fixed points in the future programs of the Cavallino, and together with the words there are the facts, or rather the talks started already last summer between Ferrari and the management of Charles to further extend the current contract, which links the Monegasque to the team until the end of 2022.
There was talk of an extension of two more years, which means his new contract will be avialable until the end of the 2024 season, with a substantial salary increase. It is not surprising therefore that for Ferrari an “asset” like Charles is to be armored in the long run, both to remove him from the market and to ensure the contribution of a young man of absolute value.
Vettel’s future depends on … Seb
Here the context becomes much less defined, because to predict what will happen we will have to wait for the verdicts on track. Traditionally, the driver market is coming alive at the weekend of Monte Carlo, or at the end of May, and next year the stage in the Principality will be the seventh event on the calendar.
A big part of Sebastian Vettel’s future will be decided in the first third of the 2020 season, because those results will define the status of the driver with whom Ferrari will have to sit down to talk about the future. The palmares in these cases needs very little: to have a good bargaining power you need arguments to spend in the present in the near future, and the business card will inevitably end up being what Seb will have done in the first third of the season. Sebastian hopes to be able to boast a return in line, or better, than that of Charles Leclerc, and if this is the scenario, then he can ask to stay on his terms.
If instead Seb cannot put important results on the table (especially considering the internal comparison with Charles) then the Scuderia will have the knife on the side of the handle. The hypotheses are two: to end the partnership after six seasons together, or a renewal with a lower salary and, if necessary, a role of support to his teammate if the classification situation required it.
Ferrari, like all teams, will have one or more alternative plans to cover themselves in front of a potential farewell to Sebastian Vettel, and even in this case it is conceivable that there will be two strategies. A more aggressive, or the hunt for a top-driver, the other more wide-ranging.
What will it depend on? From how Charles Leclerc will behave, always in the fateful first seven races of 2020. If Charles confirms that he can put on his shoulders the ranks of title contender, the shortlist of candidates to get on the second ‘red’ will be wider. Once again a good start in 2020 could make the difference for many drivers, from Ricciardo, to Sainz and Giovinazzi.
And Vettel? If the adventure in red ends there could be a farewell to Formula 1, as well as a return to Red Bull or a move to McLaren, thanks to the good relationship that Seb has with Andreas Seidl since his first steps with BMW-Sauber.
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