‘Charles Leclerc will be rewarded for his patience with Ferrari’

Charles Leclerc’s apparently unwavering loyalty to Ferrari will eventually yield reward for the Monegasque driver, according to a former F1 racer.

Leclerc has a season and a half left on his current long-term Ferrari deal, having first raced for the Scuderia in 2019 after enjoying their support through the junior categories.

It hasn’t been an easy ride for Leclerc in the five years he’s been with Ferrari, having had to watch on as contemporary rival Max Verstappen has romped to countless victories and multiple championships – Leclerc unable to compete due to Ferrari’s relative lack of speed, reliability, and operational sharpness.

David Kennedy: Fred Vasseur has an ‘exceptional pedigree’

Former F1 racer David Kennedy, a multiple Le Mans winner and a former junior category team boss rival of Fred Vasseur through his involvement with Status GP, believes Vasseur’s appointment as replacement for Mattia Binotto will eventually lead to stability and a more competitive Ferrari as he moulds the team in his image.

“I think it’s absolutely the right thing. Ferrari had so many political appointments in there, and some of them with very, very poor, in-the-trenches experience shall I say,” he told PlanetF1.com in an exclusive interview from Mondello Park in Ireland.

“Fred has earned his spurs in all the junior categories, and has an exceptional pedigree. He’ll know the business from nuts and bolts all the way through. This is a people business, and he will know who the stars are in terms of engineers and designers. He’s been at the coalface long enough and I think, given a little bit of time, and if Ferrari doesn’t do what they often do by getting wobbly knees and pulling the rug from under them, they’ll let him get on with it.

“I remember when Jean Todt started, he had a tough couple of years till he got the pieces in place. And, when he did, they were dynamite, and I think Fred is in that process.”

Asked for his thoughts on 1978 F1 World Champion Mario Andretti’sassertion that Ferrari need to look to former chairman Luca di Montezemoloto bring clear focus back to the team, Kennedy believes it would be the wrong move.

“I really don’t think so,” he said.

“He’s probably taken his eye off the ball. At the time, he was a young man fired up, corralling all the correct pieces together. He was the right man at that time, but time has moved on. He would probably do more unsettling, rather than settling. So I don’t think that would be the right, right choice.”

PlanetF1.com recommends

F1 driver contracts: What is the current contract status of every driver on the 2023 grid?

Explained: The 2026 engine regulations set to seriously shake up Formula 1

David Kennedy: Charles Leclerc needs foresight and faith

With Ferrari on a rebuilding path at the moment, Kennedy believes now is not the time for Leclerc to consider a move to another team – rumours in 2023 have circulated about a possible move to Mercedes in a seat swap with Lewis Hamilton.

Rumours have also swirled that Leclerc has already recommitted his future to Ferrari beyond the end of his current deal from the end of 2024, and Kennedy reckons the Monegasque’s patience will ultimately be rewarded.

“There’s a great phrase, ‘Hindsight is foresight to a gobshite’,” he said.

“It is exceptionally difficult to tell what the future is. You can get the best people and get them in a solid working environment, and good things will come from that. They’ve got the brand, they’ve got the pedigree the team management, the finance, the drivers, and there’s no reason why they should not be at the sharp end.

“我想如果他们不能incremen感到惊讶tally move that to the front. It’s not a silver bullet. It’s all those incremental pieces in there. If I was a betting man, I’d have my money on Ferrari.”

Kennedy turned to a story of one of his own contemporaries, Irish driver Tommy Byrne, who famously impressed in a McLaren test in the early 1980s – but ultimately wound up with no success in the sport – something that could have been very different had he had some more patience.

“There was a famous story where Tommy Byrne, who was bereft of any finances, found himself, having won everything, a McLaren test and was quicker than the F1 drivers,” he said.

“He got a Theodore drive who were at their depths, they hadn’t really begun to rise. He told the team ‘Here, you can shove this car somewhere that the sun doesn’t shine’. They said ‘OK, that’s fine, and goodbye’.

“Then, next year (in 1983), they designed a fabulous car, which Cafe de Columbia sponsored, with Roberto Guerrero [driving] and flew. So, if he had only known what was coming down the road, maybe he would have been able to have a totally different career.

“So you can’t make a decision about where you are now, you have to have a little bit of foresight and try and see, ‘Have I got the right people with me? Are they working in the right modus operandi? Have we got the right finances to make it work?'”

Asked whether there is light at the end of the tunnel for Leclerc, Kennedy was resolute.

“If those pieces are in place, again, good things will come,” he said.

“With Frederic on board, I’d be amazed if he doesn’t begin to show that this thing is turning around. I think the reward will come for Charles.”

Read Next:‘Tough as nuts’ ex-Red Bull racer suggested as ‘perfect’ Max Verstappen team-mate