Why Leclerc is only interested in winning the F1 title with Ferrari

Charles Leclerc has revealed that “no matter how long it takes” he only wants to become Formula 1 world champion with Ferrari due to his love for the historic Scuderia.

The 27-year-old joined the Ferrari academy in 2016 before being promoted to its F1 squad three years later, where he has since won eight grands prix and finished as high as second in the standings. 

Leclerc’s lack of a world championship is therefore a stain against him given his immense ability, having finished above his team-mate in all but one of his years at Ferrari and won several titles at junior level. 

The Italian outfit has simply struggled to give him a car that’s capable of claiming a championship, especially this year as Leclerc is fifth in the standings and 161 points behind leader Oscar Piastri in the dominant McLaren.

So when asked ahead of this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix what prevents Leclerc from looking to move elsewhere, he said: “Because I love this team very much, I think that’s the answer.

“I’ve always loved Ferrari and that’s where I draw my motivation from because I want to bring back Ferrari to the top, no matter how long it takes.

“I’ll do absolutely everything until I stop believing in the project, but at the moment I’m fully into it, I’m fully working on it and that’s what motivates me.

“Of course that doesn’t erase the disappointment that I had at the beginning of the season when I saw that we were quite a few steps behind McLaren. But then you reset and you find your motivation in other goals, in other targets, which is now to hopefully get a win this year.

“It’s underwhelming compared to where we wanted to be, but it’s a situation we are in and as a driver I’ve got to make the best out of this situation, not only for the team but also for myself. I’m very competitive as well so the fact that we’ve got two cars is also something that pushes me to keep being at the top of my game and to keep improving.”

The expectations of Ferrari are often greater than any team due to its history and tifosi, which was particularly seen this year when it hoped to kick on from last year’s runner-up finish to McLaren. 

Obviously that didn’t happen, with neither Leclerc nor team-mate Lewis Hamilton yet having won a grand prix, but the Monegasque revealed he needs to block the outside noise to get to the top.

“This is what I’ve been doing since I started with the team,” said Leclerc. “Obviously 2019 was a little bit more difficult because I was young, everything was new… and there was also a lot of hype on just me… being in red for my second year in Formula 1 was just very special.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Jayce Illman / Getty Images

“But since then it’s important to do a step back and to not always react on emotions and on what’s being said around.

“I think it’s very important to just stay focused and on that I think we are doing a good job – but not good enough, because we must be back winning soon.”

The 2026 campaign presents a fresh opportunity to do so given the wholesale regulation changes, with cars set to become lighter and narrower with more focus on electric energy. 

Leclerc has previously expressed his skepticism about the change, but since testing the 2026 car on the simulator he has slightly changed his mind.

“The rate of improvement is very impressive,” he said. “I think for all the teams there are big big gains found every week, so since the last time I actually commented [on the regulation changes], it’s definitely gone better and that is a good thing.

“I still think that it’s going to be a huge change and there will be some things that I think are going to be very difficult to change. We’ll just have to adapt to these new cars and also the way we will fight is going to be very tricky.

“But I take that as a challenge. I’m sure that if we win I will absolutely love those regulations. If we don’t then it might be four very long years [until the next change].”