Charles Leclerc is set for another season of disappointment with his Ferrari team. With Formula One set to crown a brand new champion, the Monegasque driver will be ruefully looking on.
Now in his seventh season with the Scuderia, Leclerc has eight race wins to his name but has never really challenged for the drivers’ title. The SF-24 was the class of the field in the 2024 run in, with Leclerc scoring more points after the summer break than any other driver. Further, as a team Ferrari chased down McLaren over the final six race weekends, closing a 79 point gap to just 14 come the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
In Zandvoort, Piastri took a major step towards a maiden crown with his seventh victory of the campaign. The Australian’s advantage was magnified when teammate Norris retired late in the race with an oil leak, leaving him 34 points adrift in the standings.
Ferrari weird decision in final year of regs
With 2025 being the final year of the current set of car design regulations, expectations for the year were that team’s would only be finding marginal gains and the battle for wins and titles would be tight. Yet Ferrari chose to build a completely new car for the year unlike McLaren who refined their 2024 racing machine – and the project has failed.
Yes the Scuderia are in second place in the championship, but much of that has to do with Kimi Antonelli’s underperformance at Mercedes and an almost nil contribution from Yuki Tsunoda to the Red Bull cause.
Charle Leclerc has one second place in the drivers championship to his name, but has never realistically been able to mount a proper challenge. And with Lewis Hamilton now his team mate, the fact the Monegasque is comprehensively beating him in the head to head stats, is gratifying for Leclerc – but no cigar, as they say.
For Leclerc: “Its gone bad”
Speaking to the F1 Show, Jacques Villeneuve argued that Leclerc may be realising his dream is slipping away. “Charles is frustrated, because he’s probably starting to understand that he will never be world champion,” Villeneuve said. “It’s gone bad, it’s gone worse. Next year is a whole new set of regulations, and normally that’s not when Ferrari’s at its best. It’s a difficult situation for him. He’s been there for a long, long, long time and his star has fallen a little bit.”
Villeneuve contrasted Leclerc’s plight with his teammate. “At least Lewis can rely on the fact that he’s a multiple world champion, so it doesn’t matter if his star falls a little bit. He will always be that big global star anyway that goes beyond Formula 1.”
Leclerc’s record remains respectable — eight career wins and still not yet 28 years old. His ambition is to win at Ferrari, but his future may be shaped by an exit clause in his contract, said to become active in 2026 by F1 Oversteer. Much was written this year about Max Verstappen’s exit clause, which was said to be activated should he fall below P3 in the drivers’ championship come the F1 summer break.
Insider: Red Bull is completely helpless
Leclerc’s Ferrari exit clause
Leclerc’s exit clause may well be more of an attritional affair, given the years in the wilderness he has suffered at Ferrari. Just eight Grand Prix victories for the Ferrari driver is not the reason he has earned the admiration of Toto Wolff.
The Mercedes boss is hoping to get his driver pairing onto new one year deals, given that Max Verstappen may become available in 2026 should Red Bull flunk the exam of a new power unit and a new chassis. Yet should the quadruple world champion remain unavailable, Toto Wolff may make Leclerc his top target.
Should Ferrari struggle again with a new ruleset, their rivals may well be circling to recruit Charles Leclerc. Jacques Villeneuve has never been shy of an opinion, and his diagnosis of Leclerc is as sharp as ever: “star fallen,” “never world champion.” For the man who once turned F1 into a family feud with Schumacher, this is familiar ground. The tragedy for Leclerc is that Villeneuve’s words ring uncomfortably true. Ferrari is still Ferrari — full of promise, dripping with history — but once again unable to give its leading man the platform to match his talent.
Leclerc’s situation is particularly cruel. At 28, he is still young enough to be the future, yet old enough for people to start seeing him as the past. His contract ties him to Ferrari until 2029, but the whispered exit clause is already the most talked-about escape hatch in the Italian media since Fernando Alonso’s taxi back to Switzerland.
Charles like Verstappen destroys team mates
Meanwhile, Norris and Piastri duel in papaya, Verstappen has been dethroned, and Ferrari finds itself not the protagonist but the tragic supporting act. If McLaren’s dominance is the headline, then Ferrari’s collapse is the melancholy subplot. And for Leclerc, the realisation that he might never be world champion is not so much Villeneuve’s provocation as the echo of every tifoso’s private fear.
Max Verstappen is known as the destroyer of his F1 team mates careers. With the exception of Daniel Ricciardo, the Dutch driver has crushed the likes of Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Sergio Perez and now this year finished off Liam Lawson in just two race weekends, while Yuki Tsunoda has scored 12 points to Max’s 205 across their fifteen outings together as team mates.
Yet Charles Leclerc is quietly following in the footsteps of the four times world champion. He saw off Marcus Ericson in his rookie year with Sauber in 2019, before moving to Ferrari and dominating quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel 23-11 in qualifying. When Carlos Sainz joined Ferrari in 2021, the team mate battle was resolved by one point in the Spaniard’s favour come Abu Dhabi, but in their other three seasons of racing it was Leclerc who came out on top. Their qualifying tally was 41-22 in favour of the Monegasque driver.
Charles is in the process of demolishing seven times champion Lewis Hamilton and his star could be in the ascendancy still, but clearly not with Ferrari. Now eighteen years since their last end of season championship, the Scuderia appear as far off the pace as ever – despite their apparent ‘best of the rest’ position in the standings.
‘More Sprints and inverted grids’ for discussion at the F1 Commission
Formula One continues to evolve at breakneck pace, with CEO Stefano Domenicali juggling an agenda that spans Sprint races, the post-2026 regulations, and the pressure to keep historic circuits like Monza competitive. Speaking with the Italian press, Domenicali sets out his vision for the sport’s next decade, touching on everything from inverted grids to Africa’s bid to host a race.
Sprints are one of the hottest topics. Once divisive, the format now enjoys broad support from promoters, fans and even the drivers. “For the future it will be necessary to understand how to manage the theme of Sprints, whether to increase them, how to do it and whether to evaluate different formulas,” Domenicali said. “Except for us long-time fans, everyone wants Sprints. All promoters would like them and are willing to pay for them. Even the pilots now ask us to do them.”
Where once the grid voted 18 against, 2 in favour, Domenicali revealed the ratio has now flipped. “We talked about it during the dinner in Austria and everyone said that organising more Sprint events each year would be perfect. They are changing their minds. In the end, the drivers were born to race.”…. READ M ORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
