'Desperate' Leclerc ready to DITCH Ferrari for F1 rivals

Leclerc, Ferrari, France, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Charles Leclerc

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'Desperate' Leclerc ready to DITCH Ferrari for F1 rivals

Charles Leclerc has had a difficult season at Ferrari, with claims of a potential move for the F1 star surfacing

Matthew Hobkinson Lead Editor

F1 Editor & Journalist

Wednesday 14 June 2023 15:57

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Former Williams team manager Peter Windsor has claimed that Charles Leclerc "might be desperate" enough to leave Ferrari for Alpine, insisting that the Monegasque driver "will be will be unbelievably frustrated" at his current situation.

Leclerc has endured a tough season at Ferrari so far this year. The 25-year-old is 128 points adrift of Max Verstappen in the driver standings, sat in seventh behind team-mate Carlos Sainz.

The Spanish Grand Prix also proved to be a disaster for Leclerc after he failed to make it out of Q1. He went on to cross the line in 11th just outside of the points, but even the gain of eight places would not help improve his mood.

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And Windsor has now claimed that Leclerc could be considering abandoning ship at Ferrari, with a move to Alpine possibly being considered.

'He might be that desperate'

"The big figure there is Charles Leclerc," he told his YouTube channel. "Without any doubt at all, the guy will be unbelievably frustrated and very annoyed.

"And he’ll be wanting either Ferrari to magically get their act together and the car to be really quick, or he’ll be thinking [about a move]. He may even be thinking: ‘Alpine might be better than this lot in terms of my driving and doing what I know I can do. Look at them – top 10 every Q3 now.’

Charles Leclerc has endured a difficult season at Ferrari so far in 2023

"He might be thinking like that. He might be that desperate. I’m not saying Alpine’s a massively bad thing to do – don’t take that out of context – all I’m saying is he might be that desperate to leave Ferrari.

"Now, it could well be that Ferrari are slowly, slowly gathering some traction and some pace and the next upgrades look like they’re going to be really efficient in the tunnel and Charles will be working around that.

"But I think the problem with Charles is that he’s not got massively good driver management around him, Jock Clear excepted – and I don’t know how much involvement Jock’s got now.

Charles Leclerc (L) and senior Ferrari engineer Jock Clear (R)

"Let’s say he left Ferrari and went to Alpine, that would be quite interesting, wouldn’t it?

"Let’s say it’s not Red Bull or Mercedes obviously because there’s no slot for him – and he absolutely for sure wants to leave Ferrari just to breathe different air and see what he can do, and there’s nothing to lose if you go with a lesser team and everything to gain – I would guess Alpine would be at the top of his list."