With his future having been a big talking point ahead of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc has revealed that contract discussions with Ferrari have “not yet started”; however, he does look set to remain at Maranello.
Perhaps as a result of the cancellation of last weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, contract rumours have dominated the build-up to the Monaco GP, with Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton having been linked to each other’s seat.
Supposedly, Ferrari are planning a £40 million offer to poach Hamilton from Mercedes for 2024, with the Italians ideally wanting him to replace Carlos Sainz.
However, some reports have stated that Ferrari would potentially allow Leclerc to switch to Mercedes in order to make room for Hamilton, and to make the deal in general much easier.
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Neither looks set to happen, with Hamilton having admitted on Thursday that a new deal with the Silver Arrows is “almost” ready to be signed, whilst Leclerc isn’t currently thinking about his immediate future.
Leclerc is, of course, contracted until the end of 2024, meaning he doesn’t really need to consider his options until this time next year.
With time being on the Monegasque’s side, he revealed that talks with Ferrari over a new deal are yet to get underway.
“I haven’t set myself a deadline to deal with this. We will see when the time comes, the discussions have not yet started and I think it is Fred (Vasseur, team principal) who will have to be asked the question,” Leclerc told La Gazette de Monaco.
Leclerc hasn’t been fazed by any of the rumours regarding his future ahead of his home Grand Prix, where he’s targeting a third consecutive pole position.
The 25-year-old has been electric at Monaco over recent years, with him often being unbeatable on Saturday.
Despite having claimed back-to-back poles at Monaco ahead of qualifying, he’s never finished his home race higher than fourth, something he’ll be hoping to change this weekend.
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He is remaining purely focused on the task at hand and isn’t allowing himself to be distracted by rumours regarding his future, with him being in “love” with Ferrari.
“I love Ferrari,” Leclerc admitted.
“I always dreamed of driving for this team. These rumours don’t really affect me and I’m mostly trying to focus on what there is to do on the track because we are not yet at the level where we would like to be.”