Leclerc doubles down: “Winning in red” remains the mission as Ferrari eyes its reset
Charles Leclerc walked into Austin on his 28th birthday sounding fed up with the noise and absolutely sure of what he wants. The Ferrari driver has been buffeted by another round of speculation over his future — including whispers from Italy that Maranello’s engineers weren’t thrilled with his blunt post‑Singapore assessment — but he’s not blinking.
“I’ve always loved Ferrari so much and my only obsession at the moment is to win in red, whether it’s now or in the future,” he told reporters on Thursday. “I want to bring Ferrari back to the top.”
That was as clear a line in the sand as you’ll get in a sport that thrives on grey areas. It’s also a response to a very public nudge from his manager, Nicolas Todt, who told Singapore’s Straits Times that “we need a winning car” for one of the grid’s standout talents. Leclerc had already been painfully honest after Marina Bay, calling wins “very unlikely” in the SF‑25 and admitting Ferrari “do not have the race car to fight with the guys in front.”
The criticism stung in the paddock. The rumors that followed annoyed him more.
“There are lots of speculations around me, and around the team,” Leclerc said. “Too many people speaking things not coming from actual facts… it’s not great to see all these things around the team all the time. We’ve just got to focus on our things.”
Leclerc’s been a Ferrari man from the start, graduating from Alfa Romeo as a junior to the works team and winning eight grands prix along the way. He knows how the circus spins when results dip; he just chooses not to look anymore. “I used to quite a bit,” he said of reading the chatter. “Now, I don’t think it brings me anything. We do a PR briefing so we’re aware, but between races I don’t look at it because there’s no truth to it. We’re working extremely hard and we’re united in trying to come back to the front.”
That “front” might not be a 2025 story. Ferrari has been lighter on late‑season upgrades than key rivals, a strategic call that inevitably makes the scoreboard look worse before it looks better. Leclerc knows why.
“I’m optimistic because I know the team and the people,” he said. “We’re pushing massively to improve our processes, the way we work. There are new people coming with different mindsets and ways of working, and that gives me optimism. Next year is going to be a very important turning point.”
Next year, of course, is the sport’s biggest regulatory reset. The 2026 cars shrink and slim down, bolt on active aero and shift the power unit split to roughly half internal combustion, half electrical energy — a huge jump in battery deployment. Ferrari’s bet is that discipline now buys them competitiveness when the slate is wiped.
“Some of our competitors came with upgrades recently,” Leclerc noted. “It might seem we’ve lost a bit of performance compared to them, but that’s kind of expected when we don’t have upgrades and the others do. That’s a choice, and I hope a choice that will pay off at the beginning of next year.”
The other thread tugging at the season is contractual. Ferrari announced in January 2025 that Leclerc had signed on for “several more seasons,” without disclosing terms. In F1, every deal has an escape hatch somewhere, usually tied to performance. But the market for A‑list seats can be cruelly narrow. McLaren has Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri nailed down. Red Bull has Max Verstappen, the gravitational center of that team. Mercedes has George Russell and Kimi Antonelli installed. Opportunities exist on paper — they always do when regs flip — but there’s no obvious golden parachute waiting in 2027 unless someone blinks or a midfield project nails the new rulebook.
It’s worth remembering: nothing is for life. Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari for 2025, leaving Mercedes after 12 seasons, proved that even the most settled marriages can end with a single phone call. But right now, Leclerc’s stance isn’t complicated. He wants to win — here, with this team, in red.
That’s what makes the coming months so fascinating for Ferrari. The Scuderia’s leadership has been explicit about the long game for 2026, even as the short term tests patience. Leclerc has thrown his weight behind that plan and, in public at least, shut down the exit-route whispering. If the project lands, he’ll be the face of Ferrari’s resurgence alongside Hamilton. If it doesn’t, the same single‑mindedness that has him swatting away gossip today will drive the next round of hard questions tomorrow.
For now, the message is simple and unmistakable: the obsession remains. The rest can wait.
