Ferrari: Charles Leclerc caught between sporting and commercial plans
Yesterday at 06:51 AM
Scuderia Ferrari is very busy these days, as are Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. The countdown to the next Formula 1 championship will inevitably be marked in the coming weeks by enormous media attention on the Italian team. The Testing of Previous Cars program, which began last week at the Fiorano circuit, has the sole aim of accelerating the on-track learning curve of the Briton alongside his new support team within the Maranello outfit. We are talking about a top driver who does not need a so-called "muscle awakening."
This is because he enjoys excellent athletic preparation, a focus maintained even when the engines are off. Unlike "rookies" who need to familiarize themselves with the performance of Formula 1 cars, such as Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, or Isack Hadjar. In fact, with the tests scheduled at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona this week, the historic Italian team is set to exhaust the maximum kilometers permitted by the FIA for this type of track testing in 2025, thus being unable to offer any driver from its academy the chance to gain some mileage in an F1 car.
After all, Lewis Hamilton is too important an investment for the Maranello team, and managing the communication around the historic team has underscored the high expectations surrounding the partnership between the most successful driver and team in the history of the top category. Simultaneously, as the seven-time Formula 1 world champion takes his first steps into the red universe, Charles Leclerc has essentially seemed like a supporting character. This was inevitable, even though the many fans present at the Fiorano track certainly did not fail to show their support for the Monegasque.
The 1997-born driver, being sharp, knows that the spotlight on the eve of the 2025 Formula 1 season would inevitably be monopolized by his illustrious teammate. Paradoxically, despite a heavily lopsided record of achievements between the two, within Ferrari, the veteran status in terms of time spent with the team belongs to Charles Leclerc, who will begin his seventh season with the Prancing Horse. His deep knowledge of the team will be one of the weapons the Monegasque driver must capitalize on in the internal battle, especially in the early part of the upcoming championship.
However, there are a couple of precedents that do not support this assumption. When Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes, he quickly outperformed Nico Rosberg, who had been with the team for three years, proving to be more competitive than the German. Conversely, Charles Leclerc was "beaten" in the championship standings by Carlos Sainz when the Spaniard joined Ferrari. A similar situation occurred when Charles Leclerc outpaced Sebastian Vettel in his first year at Ferrari. Every situation, however, must be contextualized. When a team assigns leadership status to a driver, it removes any obstacles in the career of the chosen one to build the sporting project.
Although the result of unpredictable circumstances, Lewis Hailton’s desire to close his extraordinary career with Ferrari found wide-open doors in Maranello. This is something that could never have happened at Red Bull, which has built its sporting project around Max Verstappen for years. The Ferrari top management repeatedly emphasizes that the arrival of the seven-time world champion will also benefit Charles Leclerc; however, it is hard to believe that the Monegasque driver, in the prime of his career, needed a sort of tutor to refine his skills.
No modern-era F1 world champion has needed internal rivalry to elevate their performance. The clear impression is that Ferrari has inadvertently overlapped two programs: one sporting and long-established, and the other commercial, sudden but at the same time highly lucrative. The British champion, regardless of sporting results, will fulfill his professional ambition, bringing guaranteed financial benefits to all parties involved.
This opportunity arose while the Maranello team had already centered its sporting program around Charles Leclerc. This is evidenced by the massive salary invested in the Monegasque for his multi-year, highly lucrative renewal. The hope is that the technical project 677 will live up to the drivers’ abilities from the first race of the 2025 Formula 1 season at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia, so that the fight for the title will remain an internal matter between the two new teammates. In such a case, the objectives of the sporting and financial programs will align, rendering the distinction irrelevant.
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