The future of Charles Leclerc is still up in the air as the Monegasque has not yet extended his contract with Ferrari beyond the 2024 season. However, F1 presenter Will Buxton subtly revealed that the 26-year-old has already renewed his contract with the Prancing Horse, only to apologize for the same later.
Talking ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP, Buxton claimed that the end of 2024 could see a huge shakeup in the grid as most of the drivers would be out of a contract by then. However, he mentioned that the likes of Max Verstappen and Leclerc wouldn’t be involved in this chaos since they already have a long-term contract in place.
Buxton said, “Almost every driver apart from your Leclercs and your Verstappens who are locked in for the long haul and Norris, pretty much everyone else is up for renewal.” This immediately sent Ferrari fans into a frenzy as they were overjoyed on finally getting to know that their Monegasque hero will stay with the Italian outfit beyond the 2024 season.
However, the joy was short-lived as Buxton very quickly corrected himself on X and claimed that it was a mistake on his part. The F1 presenter then clarified his remarks by stating that Leclerc’s contract does end at the end of 2024. Buxton blamed the mistake on jet lag and claimed that he simply misspoke and there’s nothing more to it than that.
The British presenter further revealed that he met Leclerc and told him that he had mistakenly put out some false information. The Ferrari driver took it with a good laugh and said that his social media had been going crazy ever since Buxton spoke about his contract renewal.
Italian Journalist claims to be sure about Charles Leclerc committing to Ferrari beyond 2024
Despite all the chaos that Will Buxton unleashed, there are some other reporters who are absolutely sure about Charles Leclerc’s contract renewal. Italian journalist Leo Turrini is one of them. He recently claimed that the Monegasque has already committed his future to Ferrari beyond 2024 along with Carlos Sainz.
Turrini happens to be a regular face on the Sky Sports Italy show and usually has good information regarding the Maranello outfit. He said, “There will be official communication soon that Charles [Leclerc] and Carlos [Sainz] will remain at Ferrari beyond 2024.”
Ferrari have already announced that they will be undertaking a new design philosophy for their car. This was decided after the team realized that the current architecture of the car was inhibiting them from making more upgrades. Hence, with the new car, Leclerc and Sainz might be able to fight for wins much sooner than they would have expected.
