Leclerc denies desperation talks with Ferrari boss: “90% of rumours untrue”
Leclerc reportedly demanded to talk to Ferrari president John Elkann at Maranello to thrash out what went wrong at the Bahrain Grand Prix, amid suggestions that multiple key employees were desperate to leave due to the leadership of CEO Benedetto Vigna.
Team principal Fred Vasseur, who is supposedly in Vigna’s bad books for travelling to Bahrain with his friend Toto Wolff, denied claims of a rift and now Leclerc has joined him.
“This is absolutely untrue,” Leclerc said about his alleged demand to talk with Elkann ahead of the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“There have been loads of rumours around the team. For once, 90 percent of them were completely unfounded.
“I don’t know where it is coming from and, to be honest, I don’t want to even spend any energy on trying to find where it’s coming from. We just need to be on it and focus on ourselves.”
David Sanchez, Ferrari’s head of concept, is leaving his job and reports in Italy claim that many other key cogs want to quit.
Leclerc’s own future is often debated with a switch to Mercedes mooted, as Lewis Hamilton’s eventual replacement.
“Honestly I obviously saw these rumours and then went to Maranello. At first I was like I’m not sure how the team will react to it’.
“But then we’ve had a meeting with the whole team, with all the Ferrari employees. I was really surprised.
“Everyone is fully on it and fully positive, which is great. We all need to push in the same direction as I said this is the most important.”
Leclerc retired in Bahrain with an electrical issue - the worst possible start to 2023 for a Ferrari team whose 2022 was blighted by reliability failings.
He said in Jeddah: “We still need to be fighting like crazy to be back at the top and keep pushing.
“When it’s Ferrari who doesn’t go as well as it should then there’s lots of voices and all of these things around the team but we need to be good at spending our energy right inside the team, pushing in the right direction and making a difference and come back stronger.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
