Racing
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Ferrari has moved to end speculation over Charles Leclerc’s future by extending the Monegasque driver’s Formula 1 contract for the coming seasons, with the announcement made ahead of this week’s Monaco Grand Prix and without disclosing the length of the new deal.
The renewal keeps in place one of the longest-running relationships between a leading driver and a top team on the current grid. Leclerc joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2016, won the Formula 2 title in 2017, made his Formula 1 debut in 2018 and stepped up to Ferrari’s works team in 2019. At 28, he has now become Ferrari’s second-most capped F1 driver with 155 starts for the team, and he also sits second on its all-time pole list with 27, both behind Michael Schumacher.
That made the timing significant. Leclerc arrives at his home race in Monaco running third in the 2026 drivers’ championship behind Mercedes pair Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, with four podium finishes already this season. Ferrari’s decision underlines that he remains central to its effort to turn that pace into a sustained title challenge.
It also shuts down the recent Silly Season talk that Leclerc could look elsewhere in pursuit of a world championship. Instead, Ferrari has publicly tied its future to a driver shaped by its own system and closely identified with Maranello.
In Ferrari’s announcement, Charles Leclerc said he “couldn’t be happier” to continue with the team, calling Ferrari “so much more than just a team” and “a second family.” He said the pair had shared “incredible moments and some tougher ones,” but added that he believed in the project “more than ever” and wanted to keep pushing “toward our shared goal of bringing the World Championship back to Maranello.”
Leclerc also framed the extension as a commitment to Ferrari’s wider identity. He said being a Ferrari driver was both a dream and a responsibility, and vowed to keep giving “absolutely everything” to return the team “to where it belongs, at the very top,” for the people in Maranello and for the tifosi.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur, speaking in the team statement, said the extension felt “something very natural” because Leclerc had been part of the Ferrari family for many years. Vasseur said the team had seen him grow into “one of the strongest drivers in Formula 1” and into someone “completely at one with the team and everything Ferrari represents.”
By committing again to Leclerc without opening the door to a timetable debate, Ferrari has made its position clear. Its championship push will continue to be built around the driver it developed, the driver most embedded in the team, and the one it believes can still lead the return of the title to Maranello.