Charles Leclerc is “stuck for a long time” at Ferrari says the 1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill believes that Monegasque Charles Leclerc has no attractive alternative to staying at Ferrari for the long term. The update is, there is no move on currently for Charles Leclerc, despite the rhetoric he will head to Mercedes, according to Hill.
Charles Leclerc himself has fuelled speculation about his future by saying last month that he had not ‘yet’ started talks with Mercedes, with the Monegasque insisting that for the time being he remains focused on his work with Scuderia Ferrari.
Speculation linking Leclerc to Mercedes has emerged amid uncertainty over Lewis Hamilton’s future at Mercedes, with the seven-time world champion’s contract due to expire at the end of this 2023 campaign.
However, Damon Hill expects Lewis Hamilton to continue with Mercedes in 2024 and therefore sees no realistic alternative to Ferrari for Charles Leclerc.
READ MORE: Ferrari tells LeClerc to “do better”
A truly iconic moment 😍#OnThisDay in 2012, Pastor Maldonado became an #F1 race winner 🏆 pic.twitter.com/EdCkhFznYV
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 13, 2023
Leclerc can’t move from Ferrari
“I think he’s pretty much stuck with Ferrari for a long time,” Damon Hill told Sky Sports about Charles Leclerc.
“He’s never really been in a position to be in a prolonged fight for the championship. There were times when it was good, and then it faded. There’s also some stains on his copy with the qualifying, the ‘banzai’ trick that goes wrong.”
“When you look at the top teams and who they have, they are probably happy with what they have at the moment. So I’m not sure there’s anywhere else he could go.”
“Red Bull, I doubt it. At Mercedes, I’m sure Toto [Wolff, team boss] will choose to stay with Lewis [Hamilton] until he decides he’s not going to race anymore. So I think Charles is a perfect fit for Ferrari.”
“So I think he’s in it for the long haul, until they give him a car he can fight for the championship with,” Hill concluded.
READ MORE: Domenicali calls out “selfish drivers”
