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Charles Leclerc is a Ferrari prodigy who has the Italian brand to thank for everything that he's achieved. From a very early age, the brand kept an eye on him and as soon as he turned heads in Formula 2, he was parachuted to an F1 seat.
He made his debut in F1 in 2018 and by 2019 he was a Ferrari driver. He's been one of the youngest talents that the Italian team has banked on and It's safe to say that he has delivered.
This will be his 5th year as a Ferrari driver and in these 5 years, he has not had a realistic chance of fighting for a title even once. In 2019 he had a decent car that won a couple of races. In 2020 and 2021 Ferrari was nowhere close to the competition. In 2022 the car looked like a genuine title contender at the start of the season before everything turned pear-shaped.
He's in his 5th year right now with his current contract ending at the end of the 2024 F1 season. If reports are to be believed then Ferrari and Charles Leclerc are already in negotiations for a contract extension beyond 2024. All of this is on the back of Charles Leclerc's emotional team radio message where he shouted why he was so unlucky.
Looking at the landscape, his current contract status, and the fact that he still has another year left, Leclerc should not sign a contract extension already.
Ferrari has not shown signs of improvement
Since last season when Ferrari was a regular podium contender and picked up multiple wins, the team has only regressed. We could give Fred Vasseur the benefit of the doubt that this is his first year but by no means does this guarantee that Ferrari can be a contender in the future.
Ferrari arguably still has the least reliable car on the grid. Not to mention the team is still vulnerable when it comes to strategy. The team has ended up compromising its star driver's race with some very strange strategies far too many times.
Since the 2018 failed campaign, Ferrari has not shown signs of an upward trend, and in no manner whatsoever should Charles Leclerc feel compelled to sign an extension on its current trajectory.
There's no harm in waiting for next season
The biggest reason why Charles Leclerc should not sign the extension this season is because his contract does not run out until the end of next season. In the meantime, Charles Leclerc will have enough time to analyze and assess where the team is going and if there is a realistic case of Ferrari scripting a revival in F1.
Not only that, one more year means there will be an opportunity for wheels to turn in the F1 paddock. One year is a long time and who knows maybe there is movement in one of the top teams. At the moment, Mercedes, Red Bull, Aston Martin and McLaren, all of them seem filled with talent with no vacancy in the short term. However, F1 is a strange sport.
What if Lawrence Stroll doesn't want his son in Aston Martin anymore? What if Lewis Hamilton retires all of a sudden? Or what if Fernando Alonso's inextinguishable flame finally dies? Charles already has a contract until the end of the 2024 F1 season and he should see things out before committing to anything.
Ferrari's incompetence is starting to wear down Charles Leclerc
The biggest issue for Charles Leclerc has to be the fact that the team's incompetence is starting to wear on him. The driver was emotional and close to tears in Brazil. The thing that the outsiders and general fans don't understand is the amount of effort both physically and mentally it takes to achieve something in F1. There is a lot of investment that goes into driving a Formula 1 car and getting the best out of it.
In the last couple of years, Charles Leclerc has lost a potential title challenge, multiple wins, multiple points, and other great results that he deserved due to Ferrari's shortcomings.
This has taken a toll on him and that bit is quite obvious. There's only a handful of years that a driver can spend facing disappointment race after race and not letting it affect his overall performance.
The 2023 F1 season is evidence that it has started to affect Charles Leclerc adversely. This hasn't been a vintage season for him in any way. There have been too many off weekends and too many races where things have gone wrong. He can't continue driving in this manner and he needs a glimmer of hope. If Ferrari can provide it to him then great but if it cannot, Leclerc needs to look at other options.
Either way, he's not going anywhere with another year left in his contract and this is precisely why Charles Leclerc needs to wait things out before signing an extension with Ferrari.
