Charles Leclerc ‘really believes’ in Ferrari’s F1 project even if Red Bull win in 2024

Charles Leclerc says he is fully behind Frederic Vasseur’s Ferrari F1 leadership even if Red Bull go on to win again in 2024.

Ahead of the new season, Leclerc signed a new multi-year deal to keep him with the team.

Shortly after it was announced that Leclerc’s new teammate will be Lewis Hamilton, who will make a shock switch from Mercedes.

While Ferrari look to be in better shape to take the fight to Red Bull in 2024, Max Verstappen is still the heavy favourite.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Leclerc explained why he decided to commit to Ferrari despite title success still being so far away.

“As I was saying I love Ferrari and I think I will always be grateful for what they have done for me since the GP3 year, giving me the chance to get to Formula 1, then the chance to join Scuderia Ferrari,” he said.

“The project has to make sense, because I am also aware that if I believe in the project then obviously you are more motivated as a driver and that’s when the best out of the driver comes out so I had to ask myself a question whether this was the best place I’d see myself to try and have the best chance to win the championship in the next few years, and didn’t have to think a lot because as I said we have those very long discussions with Fred, what we want to achieve, how we want to achieve it.

“I’m totally onboard, I really believe in the vision that he has for Ferrari, and we are both aligned in the way that we want to win a world championship as soon as possible, so it was probably more rational than last time  as I take more decisions with the heart than with the head but this time it is the project behind it.”

Looking ahead to the 2024 season, Leclerc isn’t getting carried away by Ferrari’s testing form, with challenging for victories the target, rather than a title challenge.

“To be challenging for maybe more wins definitely would be a step forward and that would be a positive season,” he added.

“We need to continue on the positive momentum on the second half of last year, as much as it’s not been a positive season as a whole because we started much lower than our expectations at the beginning of 23.

“The second part of the year was much more positive, the team and everyone in the paddock felt that we were in a positive spiral and was going towards better things and with a very clear vision of where we wanted to go and how to go there – and this is exactly how we need to approach the season, to continue that way, in clear vision, and significant step forwards every time we put something inside the car which was the case in the second half of last year.”