Formula 1: Charles Leclerc signing with Ferrari culminates long process

The long-drawn-out process to determine who Ferrari’s second driver will be in the 2019 Formula 1 season finally ended when they signed Charles Leclerc.

After months and months of waiting to see who Scuderia Ferrari would decide to sign to be the teammate to four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel next season, the Italian team finally made the decision to promote Ferrari junior driver Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc, who is in his rookie season in Formula 1 and drives for Alfa Romeo Sauber, is set to replace 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen beginning next season. Raikkonen is currently in his 16th season in Formula 1. He is in his eighth overall season and fifth consecutive season driving for Ferrari. He is set to replace Leclerc at Sauber next year.

But while Leclerc signing with Ferrari has been speculated as a legitimate possibility since last December, the process that took place over just the past few months before the 20-year-old Monegasque officially signed with the Scuderia to replace the 38-year-old Finn was very long-drawn-out.

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In June, it was revealed that the Maranello-based team were ready to replace Raikkonen with Leclerc beginning in the 2019 season. This revelation was followed with another revelation roughly one week later that Ferrari and Leclerc had agreed to a contract that had simply not yet been signed.

But after it was revealed that Ferrari were ready to replace him with Leclerc, Raikkonen did something that he had not done since his 2007 championship season. He finished on the podium in five consecutive races, causing fans to wonder whether or not the deal involving Leclerc replacing him was still on.

If this didn’t end these plans altogether, it seemed as though the sudden death of former Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne did. Marchionne, who was a huge fan of Leclerc who wanted him promoted to Ferrari as soon as possible, died in late July at the age of 66.

At this point, it was believed that Ferrari had rethought their driver strategy for next season under new CEO Louis Camilleri and that Raikkonen was set to sign a two-year contract extension to remain with the team through at least the 2020 season. As a result, Leclerc was tipped to sign with Haas as the replacement for Romain Grosjean.

However, during the weekend of Ferrari’s home race, the Italian Grand Prix, of all races, signs started pointing to the idea that instead of moving forward with their new plans, Ferrari began leaning toward honoring the plans that Marchionne had in place before his passing.

These plans involved signing the Ferrari junior driver.

But after the expected date of Ferrari announcing Leclerc as Raikkonen’s replacement passed and they had not announced anything, speculation begun that Leclerc would, in fact, replace Raikkonen, but not until the 2020 season. It was rumored that a driver swap between Ferrari and Sauber would take place at this time.

Now Ferrari have finally confirmed that Leclerc, not Raikkonen, is set to be Vettel’s teammate next season. As a result, the speculation regarding who their second driver will be in 2019 can finally end.

With everything that has been speculated in regard to Ferrari’s second driver situation for the 2019 Formula 1 season over the last few months, are you pleased that they decided to promote Charles Leclerc as opposed to re-signing Kimi Raikkonen, or would you rather have had them sign Raikkonen to another contract extension?