Is Vasseur the Answer to Leclerc's Championship Winning Dreams?
Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is going into the 2023 season in high spirits.
The 25-year-old driver secured nine poles last season: the most out of the whole grid.
Having won GP3 series championship in 2016 and the FIA F2 championship a year later, Leclerc was ready to take his seat in a Formula One car.
Leclerc started out in the Sauber C37 alongside Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson until Ferrari offered him a seat in 2019.
Image via scuderiafans.com
From then on, he has achieved only five wins with the team but racked up 18 podiums throughout his Ferrari career so far.
But what is next for Charles and his future at the Italian squad?
With now former team principal Mattia Binotto having left the team in November, Ferrari now have a new principal taking the lead.
Sauber Motorsport CEO, Fred Vasseur, was appointed just over two weeks after Binotto’s step down was announced.
Vasseur was Sauber principal when Leclerc made his Formula One debut back in 2018; meaning the pair are familiar faces to each other.
Image via scuderiafans.com
“We have two very good drivers and both of them are able to do the job,” he says.
“We will have the capacity to provide them with exactly the same car and the same structure and the same support.
“What is clear is that the target is to win with Ferrari and for Ferrari. There will be no number one and number two, but if at some stage I have to take action, I will take action. It doesn’t matter if it’s for one or the other but if at one stage of the season I have to do something, I will do it.”
Leclerc finished second in the championship last season; 62 points clear of teammate Carlos Sainz who joined the team in 2021.
There have been recent talks about Leclerc and his contract too.
The Monegasque driver is out of contract at the end of the next season and people are questioning whether he will remain or leave the prestigious team.
The real question is whether Vasseur will push Leclerc to win his first Drivers’ Championship or will he open the chance up to both drivers.
