Despite being the most successful team in Formula 1, Ferrari’s recent years have not replicated their massive success. Even after having a talented driver like Charles Leclerc in their wing, the Italian team managed to win several races but no championship since 2008. Amidst this, Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur opened up to talk about the frustration Leclerc is having in the team.
Vasseur has been at the Maranello-based team for a year now. This was after the higher-ups of the Italian team sacked Mattia Binotto in 2022. Vasseur was brought as the successor of Binotto to steer the team into success, but it was only just. Even in 2023, Vasseur failed to provide much to talk about either.
Nevertheless, he was concerned about the Monegasque’s frustration. Speaking on this, he said in a report published by F1’s Beyond The Grid podcast, “Frustration is there, but again, I think it’s a very positive mood. I can’t imagine Charles, after five years in F1, not frustrated with the current results. It has to be part of the motivation. You can’t be happy with this when the challenge was to win that.”
Notably, Leclerc is regarded as one of the top talents in F1 right now. With the right car, the young Monegasque can challenge Max Verstappen and win F1 titles. However, with the state of the situation that Ferrari has been in since 2019, it was simply not possible as the 25-year-old had to settle with a few race wins.
The Italian team got battered by Mercedes in 2019 and 2020 followed by Red Bull in 2022 and 2023. In 2021, they were nowhere to be seen against Mercedes and Red Bull’s joint attack. All in all, Ferrari finished in P2, P6, P3, P2, and P3 in the championship over the years since Leclerc’s debut in 2019. Admittedly, no matter how worse the situation is, Leclerc is still committed to Ferrari and faithful to the Tifosi.
The bond between Charles Leclerc and Ferrari
Ferrari brought in Charles Leclerc in 2019 to fill the gap left by Kimi Raikkonen. From there on, the Monegasque had a massive rise and he is now the poster boy of the Prancing Horse. He often extracts out impeccable performance to prove his worth and this resulted in the rise of his desirability among top teams.
As Leclerc is still tied to Ferrari, no other teams offered a switch to him, but they are no doubt interested in having a driver like him in the team, of course. For Leclerc, he ‘would love to’ stay with the Maranello-based team in the future.
As things stand, Ferrari is also trying to respect Leclerc’s decision. They working on to live up to his expectations by giving him a race-winning car. The engineers back at Maranello are looking to improve their 2024 F1 challenger where they are specifically looking at things like race pace, and tire degradation.
Notabley, Red Bull is set to remain strong till the end of the 2025 F1 season. However, Ferrari can still prove to Red Bull what Red Bull has done against Mercedes in the 2021 F1 season.
