Formula 1: Ferrari and Sauber planning a driver switch for 2020?

The situation revolving around who Ferrari’s second driver will be beyond the conclusion of the 2018 Formula 1 season has taken yet another crazy turn.

The numbers of turns — 100% unconfirmed, speculation-based turns — that the situation revolving around who Ferrari’s second driver will be once the 2018 Formula 1 season ends has been completely unprecedented.

That number just continues to shoot up.

After it was revealed in June that Ferrari were ready to replace 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen with Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc in the 2019 season and it was then revealed that Leclerc and Ferrari had reached an agreement, former Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne passed away suddenly at the age of 66.

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Marchionne was a huge fan of Leclerc before he passed away in late July. He wanted the 20-year-old Monegasque to replace the 38-year-old Finn next year, and that is what looked slated to take place.

But after Marchionne’s passing, Louis Camilleri took over as Ferrari’s news CEO, and he prefers that the teammate to four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel, who signed a contract last summer to continue driving for the team through at least the 2020 season, is Raikkonen.

As a result, it was speculated that Raikkonen would sign a two-year contract extension to continue driving for Ferrari through the 2020 season as well. At this point, Leclerc was tipped to sign with Haas as the replacement for Romain Grosjean next year.

But after the weekend of Ferrari’s home race, the Italian Grand Prix, all signs once again pointed toward the 2016 GP3 Series and 2017 Formula 2 champion replacing the 20-time Grand Prix winner next year, as Ferrari reportedly wanted to honor the wishes of the late Marchionne be promoting Leclerc as opposed to re-signing Raikkonen.

This rumor was expected to be confirmed last week, but it never was. As a result, another rumor emerged that the Ferrari junior driver would, in fact, replace Raikkonen, but that Raikkonen would, in fact, return to the Ferrari in the 2019 season on a one-year contract extension as opposed to a two-year contract extension. This new rumor involved Leclerc replacing Raikkonen ahead of the 2020 season.

Now this rumor has been taken one step further.

Instead of suggesting that Raikkonen will retire at the end of the 2019 season assuming Ferrari re-sign him for one more season before they sign Leclerc as his replacement for the 2020 season, this rumor suggests that Leclerc will replace Raikkonen at Ferrari for the 2020 season and that Raikkonen, who will be 40 years old at this point, will replace Leclerc at Sauber, completing what would effectively be a driver switch.

This is the case despite the fact that Antonio Giovinazzi has been tipped to replace Leclerc at Sauber whether he leaves the team at the end of the 2018 season or at the end of the 2019 season.

The best (or worst, depending on how you view it) part about all of this? None of it has been confirmed — none of it. That said, something regarding this situation should definitely be confirmed within the next few weeks.

Will a driver switch between Ferrari and Sauber involving Kimi Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc take place ahead of the 2020 Formula 1 season? If not, who will Sebastian Vettel’s teammate be at Ferrari in each of the next two seasons?