With Charles Leclerc likely to replace Kimi Raikkonen in the 2019 Formula 1 season, there has been talk of a mid-season driver swap between Sauber and Ferrari. Will it happen?
It was revealed last week that Scuderia Ferrari are ready to replace 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen with Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc, the 2016 GP3 Series champion and 2017 Formula 2 champion who is a driver of the Ferrari Driver Academy, in the 2019 Formula 1 season.
While this deal has not even been confirmed yet, rumors about it have escalated into rumors that Ferrari and Sauber could complete a mid-season driver swap and Leclerc could potentially replace Raikkonen at Ferrari before the 2018 Formula season even comes to a close.
However, Frédéric Vasseur, the managing director, team principal and CEO of Sauber, shot down these rumors. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Motorsport.
"“We have a contract until the end of the season and we didn’t speak so far about the future. I can understand we have some rumours in the press but it’s nothing to do with the reality. We are focused on our job, Charles is focused on the Sauber project, and the future will be discussed later on…It didn’t come on the table so far.”"
However, could it still happen? After all, according to Vasseur, it hasn’t come to the table yet, so if it does, I would not rule it out.
After struggling in the first three races of the season with a top finish of 12th place in the Bahrain Grand Prix and an underwhelming average finish of 14.67, Leclerc has come on strong over the course of the last five races.
In four of the last five races, Leclerc has finished in the top 10 and scored points. In fact, he finished in a career-high sixth place in the fourth race of the season, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and in the last five races, he has scored as many points as his teammate, Marcus Ericsson, has scored over the first 84 races of his Formula 1 career.
By Sauber standards, Leclerc has been on nothing less than a blistering pace. His average finish over the course of the last five races is 10.80, and he sits in a 13th place tie in the driver standings.
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Raikkonen, meanwhile, is still without a victory since he returned to Ferrari in the 2014 season. His most recent victory is still his win in the 2013 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix. He has driven in 102 of the 105 races that have been held since then, but he has not won any of them.
Raikkonen currently sits in fifth place in the drivers standings ahead of only Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen among the six drivers who drive for the sport’s top three teams. Those three teams, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, are the only three teams that have won any of the last 105 races.
The last time that a driver or drivers changed teams during a Formula 1 season was last season. Carlos Sainz Jr. moved from Scuderia Toro Rosso to Renault Sport to replace Jolyon Palmer in the season’s final four races, and Brendon Hartley replaced Sainz Jr. at Toro Rosso in those four races.
Pierre Gasly replaced Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso in five of the last six races last season, including the last three. Sainz Jr. still drives for Renault, and both Hartley and Gasly still drive for Toro Rosso. They all drive for their respective teams on a full-time basis.
There has already been a deal in the works this season for Hartley to be replaced at Toro Rosso in by McLaren reserve driver Lando Norris, but that deal was blocked by McLaren. It is unknown if Hartley will be replaced before the season comes to an end.
With all of this in mind, mid-season driver swaps are certainly not all that uncommon, so don’t discount Ferrari and Sauber from pulling one off with Leclerc and Raikkonen if that possibility comes to the table.
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Would you be surprised to see Ferrari and Sauber swap Kimi Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc before the 2018 Formula 1 season comes to an end? Would you like to see this mid-season driver swap take place?