Italy’s Corriere della Sera and its correspondent Daniele Sparisci informs that Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has signed the contract extension with the Maranello team – 5 years until the end of 2024!
Charles Leclerc has also got a salary increase (9mio per year):
“The envelope with the new contract, to be kept among the memories of a fantastic vintage. These are sweet days for Charles Leclerc, increasingly at the center of Ferrari’s plans. After promises of love and mutual compliments came the signing of a marriage that promises loyalty and emotions. The agreement was reached for five seasons, a long period by Formula 1 standards. The Monegasque will also receive an important salary adjustment (there is talk of 9 million a year, going up, more than triple than before). The increase repays the amazing debut with 7 poles and 2 wins, including the one at home in Monza, and also serves to fix the internal balance by reducing the salary difference with Sebastian Vettel, who finished behind in the standings (the German receives about 35 million ).
Ferrari armored the Principality champion looks into the distance. The Maranello team lays solid foundations for trying to build a winning cycle, “stability and serenity” are words used a lot by the ad Louis Camilleri. The latter choice goes in that direction. So far Charles has driven with a contract similar to the ones of the Academy drivers (he comes from the youth program) and the agreement would continue until 2022. But the constraints, economic and not only, were too many to continue on those conditions. The negotiation for renegotiation was conducted by Nicolas Todt, the manager who has been following him since he was a child.
Since arriving in Maranello, the boy who grew up in the myth of Ayrton Senna has taken very little to bring out the qualities that the engineers had already noticed during the tests and in the junior races: at his second race in Ferrari, in Bahrain, he signed the pole and he would have won if a breakdown hadn’t slowed him a few laps from the finish. “We expected it fast – said Mattia Binotto -, but in front of such performances one cannot help but be surprised”. For the team principal, who follows him almost everywhere, it is “an investment in the future” and as such must be protected by a good policy. With the extension until 2024, Ferrari removes its young champion from the drivers market. He has already received many “attentions”, too many: Mercedes seems to have tried to approach him at the beginning of autumn. Whether it was just a disturbing action or something more, in Maranello they wanted to bar every window.
A few days ago, at the Sports Management toast, someone asked Charles what gift he would like to have for Christmas. He replied: to win the championship in the coming years. Despite appetite, he is aware that the mission can take time. But he accepted the challenge, betting on his 22 years and the maturation of a “young group” which in Mattia Binotto recalls that of the beginning of the Todt-Schumacher era, “when investing and looking to the future with stability and serenity”.
Expectations must be measured on the track, next season will provide several answers , even the name of who will accompany the number 16 on his Ferrari adventure. Sebastian Vettel has only one way to be reconfirmed, to amaze. Immediately, because the team for 2021 must be defined early: by May we must have clear ideas. Among the many candidates, including the Lewis Hamilton dream, there is a certainty. Anyone who arrives knows that Charles is at the center of the red planet.”
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