Good news for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari fans as the Monegasque enters contract extension talks

There is good news for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc as it is reported that the Monegasque driver might extend his contract with the team.

Leclerc signed one of the biggest contracts in the team's history at the end of the 2019 season, keeping him with the Prancing Horses until the end of the 2024 season. However, during his time with the team, he has only challenged for the title just once in 2022, finishing second to Max Verstappen.

His time with Ferrari has been riddled with uncompetitive machinery, weak leadership, and some costly mistakes from his end. There were some reports that Charles Leclerc might leave the Reds to join rival Mercedes and replace Lewis Hamilton.

But as per Formu1a.uno, Ferrari president John Elkann held a couple of meetings in Maranello. After mutual reassurances, the discussions on the extension of Leclerc's contract are now closer.

"So it’s not like we did a bad job [or] we didn’t arrive to our expectations" - Charles Leclerc

The Ferrari driver mentioned that the team did not regress in the 2023 season but rivals Red Bull made significant gains over the winter and are now a couple of steps ahead of them.

Charles Leclerc said, as per Planet F1:

“Well, honestly, the car [is] doing exactly what we expected it to do, so it’s not like we did a bad job [or] we didn’t arrive to our expectations. But unfortunately, Red Bull did twice [as much of] a step compared to us, so I think it’s more where we fixed the targets than anything else.”

“There are a few things that we’ve realized that should look much better for the future, and that gives me confidence for the future and now I understand a bit more why we are here now. I’m confident for the future, probably not for the short term because the gap to Red Bull is significant but I am sure that we will come back. I don’t want to give a timeframe but we’ll work as hard as possible for it to be quickly as possible.”

He added:

“For the car concept, we are looking into it. It is still too early to take conclusions about it. It hasn’t worked the way we wanted but that doesn’t mean we need to change completely from now. But we have some ideas on where we need to work [to catch Red Bull].”

It will be interesting to see if Ferrari can keep Charles Leclerc with them after his contract expires next season.