Charles Leclerc's damning prediction about Red Bull that could leave fans worried

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed that it would be difficult to stop Red Bull under the current set of regulations and others might not get a chance before 2026.

It has been very tough for the rest of the grid to catch up and compete with Red Bull since the beginning of the new regulations in 2022, with Ferrari winning four races and Mercedes just one.

The Austrian team have absolutely obliterated the field in the 2023 season, with Max Verstappen, winning 10 out of 12 races and the other two going to his teammate Sergio Perez.

Ahead of the 2023 F1 Dutch GP, speaking with PlanetF1, Charles Leclerc said:

“That’s what we are trying to work towards. But for sure they have a really big margin and it’s going to be very, very difficult to catch them before the next change of regulations.”

Lewis Hamilton agreed with Leclerc and added:

“The fact is they are ahead, and most likely have been developing next year's car already a month before everybody else as they're 100, 200 points ahead in the championship."

"So it's very, very possible that Charles could be right, but we're working on the steep gradient trying to develop and get ourselves to close the gap. Whether or not we can next year will be proof within that, I hope we can.”

Charles Leclerc provides an update on his rumored new deal with Ferrari

It was recently reported that Charles Leclerc had signed a bumper 2+3 year deal with the Italian team that would see him earn around $80m by the end of it. However, he squashed the rumors away and clarified that he had not signed any deal.

Charles Leclerc said, as per RacingNews365:

"I wish I did this deal, it is a good deal! But no, there are no new deals and no discussion whatsoever [over the summer] but at one point we’ll definitely have those discussions."

My intentions are clear, on the team side I don’t know, but I’m not too worried either, it’s not the priority for now. We just want to try and work as much as possible on the car to get back to where we were last year which was to fight for wins and then we’ll see. At the end of the season, we’ll have those discussions."

It will be interesting to see if Leclerc signs a new deal and how long is he planning to race for Ferrari given their lack of success.