Formula 1: Could Red Bull Racing snag Charles Leclerc from Ferrari in 2019?

By Asher Fair | Aug 12, 2018

MONTMELO, SPAIN - MAY 12: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team C37 Ferrari (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) /

Ferrari still haven’t signed Charles Leclerc for the 2019 Formula 1 season. Could this open the door for Red Bull Racing to sign him?

Charles Leclerc, the 20-year-old 2016 GP3 Series champion and 2017 Formula 2 champion who is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, in in the midst of his first Formula 1 season driving for Alfa Romeo Sauber following two seasons of test driving for Formula 1 teams. In 2016, he test drove for Scuderia Ferrari and Haas, and last year, he test drove for Ferrari and Sauber.

While Leclerc has only driven in 12 races in his Formula 1 career so far, it was widely believed that he would be the replacement for 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari next season. In fact, many people believe that this still might happen.

In June, it was revealed that Ferrari are ready to replace Raikkonen with Leclerc next year, and later in June, it was revealed that Ferrari and Leclerc reached an agreement that Leclerc had not yet signed.

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Yet in each of the five races that have been held since it was revealed that Ferrari are ready to sign Leclerc as Raikkonen’s replacement, Raikkonen has finished on the podium. Until this five-race span, he had not finished on the podium in five consecutive races since he did so during his championship season back in 2007, and he is the only driver who has finished on the podium in each of the last five races.

In fact, only one other driver, four-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, has finished on the podium in four of the last five races.

Perhaps Ferrari are no longer “ready” to sign Leclerc over Raikkonen given the recent success that Raikkonen has had while continuing to play a support role to his teammate, four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari’s clear number one driver.

Seeing as they haven’t done so, the possibility certainly exists that Ferrari will sign Raikkonen to a one-year deal for the fourth consecutive season, thus keeping him with the team for the sixth consecutive season and ninth season overall.

If this happens, could Aston Martin Red Bull Racing try to snag Leclerc as their replacement for Daniel Ricciardo, who signed a two-year contract last Friday to drive for Renault Sport starting in the 2019 season?

The odds of this happening are slim, as Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner recently discussed the fact that their decision regarding who will replace Ricciardo as Max Verstappen’s teammate next season will likely come down to either Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr., who is still a Red Bull Racing driver but was loaned to Renault for the 2018 season, or Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly. Toro Rosso are the Red Bull Racing junior team.

Plus, if Ferrari do not sign Leclerc, he would likely move to the Ferrari-powered Haas team, likely as Romain Grosjean’s replacement, next season. Haas have been right in the middle of the battle for “best of the rest” this season, so this move would be a nice step up from Sauber for the Monegasque. The odds are slim that he will stay at the Ferrari-powered Sauber team next year if Ferrari do not sign him.

While the possibility of Red Bull Racing signing Leclerc for next season is not as crazy as it seems, it is hard to picture him leaving the Ferrari organization for Red Bull Racing just so he can drive for one of the sport’s top-tier teams for an extra season when he could very well go to a competitive mid-pack team in 2019 and then make the move to Ferrari in 2020.

After all, Ferrari are still more competitive than Red Bull Racing, so a move to the latter may not be in Leclerc’s best long-term interests.

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Could Red Bull Racing potentially snag Charles Leclerc if Ferrari do not sign him as Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement for the 2019 Formula 1 season, or will Leclerc simply either stay at Sauber or move to Haas until Ferrari are ready to sign him? Is there still a chance that Leclerc will replace Raikkonen next year?

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