Leclerc: No interest in Mercedes switch or engine
Nov.5 - Charles Leclerc says he has no interest in moving to Mercedes - or even enjoying the superior power of the reigning world champions' dominant F1 engine.
Late last year, the impressive 23-year-old pushed his Ferrari contract out until 2024, only to find himself at the wheel of the Maranello team's 2020 slump.
However, Leclerc insists he is not tempted with a switch to Mercedes, whose Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas last weekend wrapped up the German team's seventh consecutive world championship.
"Mercedes is doing an excellent job and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way they operate," he told Sport Bild.
"But I prefer to stay at Ferrari, where I will do everything I can to get the team back to the place where it belongs."
The biggest problem with Ferrari's 2020 package is the engine, following the controversial legality saga of last year.
But Leclerc says he wouldn't even want a dominant Mercedes engine in his red car.
"No, no," he smiled. "I drive for Ferrari and I am proud to drive for Ferrari. It is a legendary team in Formula 1.
"All I want at the moment is to get Ferrari, our engine and our car back to the top level, and I am very sure that we will succeed in doing this."
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Smart Boy!
This kid's a class act. Future stardom.
Let me tell you a story: Many years ago (perhaps 1969?) I happened tpo be a pit marchall at a Can-Am race at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California...after the race, everyone was all business, packing up and getting everyone on the road as quickly as possible...except for the Ferrari team! While the others were busy taking off, instead the Ferrari guys carefully set up an enormous banquet table, loaded with absolutely delicious goodies from one end of the table to another, which everyone sat down to to enjoy, vino and all. How I wished I could join them, they were going to enjoy the whole racing experience, results be damned! (BTW they lost the race). From that time on, I've always understood that for some people, racing is a lot more than just win or lose, it's cultural, it's family, and most of all, it's fun! I understood this, and clearly so does Charles! Fantastico!
Well said, Richard, I have many 'family' racing stories from back in the day. Sad, the Thomas Wolfe referenced addage had it right. "You can never go home again." Now we are more like Otto Berman's, "Nothing personal, it's just business."
Fantastico the culture of cheating and getting away with it. God bless the FIA otherwise known as Ferrari international assistance.
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