Charles Leclerc didn’t name names in Monaco when he acknowledged there’d been interest from elsewhere before signing yet another long-term Ferrari deal. He didn’t need to. In the paddock, the shortlist of teams with the budget, the ambition and the vacant headspace to even contemplate prising Ferrari’s golden boy away is never very long.
Martin Brundle certainly isn’t buying the idea that Leclerc’s phone was ringing off the hook from up and down pit lane. Speaking on Sky F1, Brundle suggested the conversations — because they will have been conversations, however politely everyone pretends otherwise — were “at least” with Mercedes and McLaren.
“No, no, it wouldn’t have been everybody,” Brundle said when asked whether Leclerc would’ve been talking to multiple rivals before committing. “But obviously he’d be talking to McLaren and to Mercedes at least.”
It’s a telling little window into how the driver market still works even when everyone’s being terribly grown-up about “futures” and “projects”. The top drivers listen; the top teams ask; and everyone maintains plausible deniability until a contract lands. Leclerc, for his part, stuck to the message he’s always been comfortable with.
“I’m not going to say who, but they can say it if they want,” he said in Thursday’s FIA press conference at the Monaco Grand Prix. “But for me Ferrari was always the choice.”
Ferrari announced earlier in the week that Leclerc has signed a new multi-year contract, with the understanding being that it stretches beyond 2030. In a sport that rarely plans further than the next regulation tweak, it’s a statement of intent from both sides — and a bet, too. Ferrari’s betting Leclerc remains its best route back to sustained championships. Leclerc is betting the team that’s given him everything in F1 can finally give him the one thing that still defines careers at the sharp end: a title-winning car.
That tension sits underneath the romantic framing. Leclerc arrived at Ferrari in 2019 with the weight of expectation that comes with being the anointed one, and he’s delivered enough flashes to justify the hype — pole positions, big drives, and eight grand prix wins — but not the sustained run of dominance that would make a long contract feel like the obvious, painless choice. His last victory remains the 2024 United States Grand Prix, a stat that doesn’t read like the record of a driver signing into a new decade with absolute competitive certainty.
Jenson Button, alongside Brundle on Sky, framed it in a way that will resonate with anyone who’s watched drivers wrestle with the Ferrari question over the years. Button praised the loyalty — and acknowledged the emotional pull — but he also offered the reminder that sentiment doesn’t win championships.
“Ferrari have had glimpses of a great car,” Button said. “They’ve won races here and there, but it’s not been a championship-winning car, so it is difficult for a racing driver.
“But Charles also said he wouldn’t be in F1 if it wasn’t for Ferrari. They gave him the opportunity at an early age, the backing they gave him… So it’s nice that he’s on board with the team and he’s part of the family, but at some point you’ve got to get selfish and you need to think about what’s best for you.”
Coming from Button — who famously left Brawn after winning the title to chase a different kind of destiny at McLaren — it lands with a little extra bite. Drivers will talk about loyalty right up until the moment they don’t. They’ll talk about “family” until a rival offers a better route to Sunday afternoons at the front. The honest truth is that most of the grid would rather be loved at Ferrari than employed anywhere else, but they’d all rather win than be adored.
Which is why Brundle’s throwaway line about Mercedes and McLaren matters. It’s not scandalous; it’s simply logical. Mercedes, always opportunistic at the top end, would be negligent not to have an idea of who’s available — and when — especially when top-level talent is the rarest currency in the sport. McLaren, too, has been operating like a team that expects to fight at the very front for years rather than weekends, and you don’t do that without keeping options open.
Leclerc hasn’t merely signed a contract; he’s chosen a timeline. If his deal really does carry him beyond 2030, it effectively ties his prime years to Ferrari’s ability to turn promise into process, and process into trophies. It also narrows the windows where a move to a rival becomes realistic without the sport having to contort itself around buyouts, clauses and political mess.
In Monaco, Leclerc smiled his way through the questions and kept his answers neat. But the subtext is unavoidable: he listened, he weighed it up, and he still chose red. Whether that ends up as stubborn loyalty, smart patience, or the kind of decision drivers quietly regret at 35 depends on Ferrari — not on how many teams came calling.
