Charles Leclerc has dedicated years to the Scuderia Ferrari team, but that dedication has so far failed to pay off in the form of a World championship. 

Yet it’s the hope of that championship that keeps him with the team, as Ferrari mechatronics engineer Francesco Cigarini believes that Leclerc fears a change of team would come at the exact moment the Prancing Horse becomes a formidable contender.

Why Charles Leclerc’s dedication remains with Ferrari

Back in 2016, Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc was signed to the Ferrari Driver Academy with the intention of guiding him into the outfit’s Formula 1 team. After a season with Sauber in 2018, Leclerc made the jump to Ferrari for 2019, and it’s been there that he has remained.

As part of the Prancing Horse stable, Leclerc has taken eight Formula 1 victories and secured a best finish in the drivers’ championship of second back in 2022.

Naturally, his hopes trend toward winning a World Championship – and as Ferrari mechatronics engineer Francesco Cigarini told Formula1.it, it’s that hope that keeps Lelcerc around.

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Cigarini was very complimentary of Leclerc, calling him “a huge talent, a huge one.

“I knew him when he was little and I loved him right away, partly because he was what we had been missing with Jules Bianchi.

“Unfortunately, we suddenly lost a friend, a leading driver, and then we found [Leclerc], who could rekindle this hope.

“I won’t deny that we saw a lot of Jules in Charles: he is a huge talent, also an explosive talent that needed to be tamed over the years, because you have the talent but you have to work hard on the team, on letting them know what you want, on being able to work and make the tyres work.

“These are all aspects that you find over time, by working.”

But for all of those positive associations, Leclerc has yet to win a World Championship, prompting Formula1.it to ask if there’s any chance that the Monegasque driver could one day hang up his Ferrari overalls for those of a different team — a team, perhaps, more capable of helping him secure that honor.

“It’s possible,” Cigarini admitted, “but in my opinion, his thinking is, ‘What if I change teams and in a year or two Ferrari puts the car I need to win the World Championship on the track?’

“Then you have to see what alternatives you have and how certain you are about those alternatives.

“I asked myself the same question when I decided to leave: ‘What if the next one is the right one and we start winning again?

“But at a certain point, I made my choice, so he could make the choice. I don’t see it as feasible for now, but I’ll tell you that in my opinion, the question he’s asking himself is: ‘What if I finally leave everything I want from the car and it comes the following year?’”

While every F1 driver hopes to take a title, there is indeed a certain prestige which comes with winning that title for a team like Ferrari — and Cigarini was asked if he believed Leclerc’s regret at not winning with Ferrari would be greater than not winning a championship at all.

“Yes, but it depends on his position within Ferrari,” Cigarini explained, “because if, for example, he realises that he no longer has the same feeling as before, at some point he will have to leave, but I don’t think that’s the case at the moment.

“He has the lofty ambition of bringing the title to Ferrari and he’s doing it for himself, because it’s a path he wanted to take and he’s fully committed to it.”

That commitment will continue; Leclerc extended his Ferrari partnership in 2024, and while the terms of that agreement aren’t specifically clear, he committed himself for the next “several seasons to come.”

The F1 2026 season will bring with it a complete regulatory transformation, which means that once again, the status quo will almost certainly face a major upheaval, one that Leclerc will be hoping will come along with a better shot at securing the World Championship.

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