Ferrari boss slams media rumors surrounding Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has had enough of rumors about his drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz leaving the team. Ahead of the Monaco GP, Vasseur dismissed all the reports that concerned his star driver lineup deserting the Italian team for better fortunes.

Leclerc and Sainz are locked in with Ferrari until the end of 2024. Despite their secured future, rumors of a potential exit arose as Lewis Hamilton's contract extension saga with Mercedes continues. While the Mercedes-Ferrari driver swap was in the news, Sainz was making headlines as the possible target by Audi.

Vasseur, however, dismissed the rumors as he said (via Sky Sports F1):

"As a joke, I could say that two weeks ago you were sending Sainz to Audi, one week ago you sent Leclerc to Mercedes - now I am alone."

He added:

"Last week you sent them to Sauber, and Charles to Mercedes, they didn't come to see me and say - 'Fred don't worry it's not true'. We know that each week we will have a new rumor and we are just focused on the car."

Vasseur also dismissed the reports of a £40m contract offer to rope in Lewis Hamilton. However, the Frenchman admitted that any team on the grid would like to have the seven-time world champion in their driver lineup.

The 54-year-old team boss said:

"You know perfectly that at this stage of the season each week you will have a different story and we are not sending an offer to Lewis Hamilton, we didn't do it."

He added:

"We didn't have discussions. I think every single team on the grid would like to have Hamilton at one stage, it would be bull**** to not say something like this."

Fred Vasseur concluded that the team is focused on developing the SF-23 and is not distracted by the rumors. He also added that the contract discussions would slot in after a couple of months.

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Ex-F1 boss points out why Lewis Hamilton won't join Ferrari

F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

Bernie Ecclestone has given his take on the heavily rumored Mercedes-Ferrari driver swap. Ecclestone questioned the legitimacy of the rumors as he doesn't see Lewis Hamilton replacing the Scuderia's lead driver. He also argued that Hamilton shouldn't join the Italian team if Charles Leclerc is happy to desert the team.

The 92-year-old said in an interview with Press Association:

"I would be surprised that Ferrari would want to get rid of Leclerc to sign Lewis because they are very much in love with Leclerc."

He added:

"Lewis has said that when he does decide to stop he would still want to be connected with Mercedes so it would surprise me if he wanted to leave. And if I was Lewis and I saw that Leclerc is happy to leave Ferrari, I would think there has to be a problem there."

The Ex-F1 boss concluded by saying that Hamilton is better off at Mercedes, with whom he has been for the last decade.