MONACO (AP) \u2014 Charles Leclerc said he turned down offers from other Formula 1 teams before signing a new multiyear deal with Ferrari, insisting it would mean more to win his first drivers\u2019 title with the Scuderia than anyone else.<\/p>\n
The fresh deal \u2014 announced ahead of his home Monaco Grand Prix taking place this weekend \u2014 extended the 28-year-old Leclerc\u2019s association with the storied team that began a decade ago, initially in its academy.<\/p>\n
Leclerc has yet to become champion after seven full seasons as an F1 driver so changing teams was an option in a bid to fulfill his dream, he told a news conference on Thursday \u2014 without saying who came in for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were, yes,\u201d he said of rival bids that were on the table. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say who \u2014 they can say it if they want. For me, Ferrari was always the choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he was given assurances by Ferrari about its future competitiveness, Leclerc said it was \u201cpart of all the discussions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut winning in red for me has got a very unique feeling,\u201d Leclerc added, \u201cand something that I\u2019ve dedicated all the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t manage to achieve that yet, at least in a full season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercedes has dominated the start of the F1 season, winning the first five races \u2014 the last four victories going to Kimi Antonelli.<\/p>\n
But Leclerc, who is third in the drivers\u2019 standings, believes that could change around the iconic twisty circuit in Monaco.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, if there\u2019s one track I will bet on on us, it\u2019s probably Monaco,\u201d said Leclerc, who won F1\u2019s most famous race in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I still believe that Mercedes have had a significant advantage since the beginning of the year. So I think they would be very, very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/p>\n
The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONACO (AP) \u2014 Charles Leclerc said he turned down offers from other Formula 1 teams before signing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-714829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}