Formula 1: What does Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari deal mean for 2021 and beyond?

Ferrari confirmed that Charles Leclerc is set to remain with the team through at least the 2024 Formula 1 season. What does this mean for next year and beyond?

Ferrari and Charles Leclerc reached an agreement to extend the contract of the 22-year-old Monegasque through the 2024 Formula 1 season earlier this week. As such, he is set to stay in Maranello for at least another five years.

Leclerc also becomes the driver with the longest active contract, and by two full seasons as far as contract expiration years are concerned.

Only three other drivers are under contract for beyond 2020, and only one of those three drivers is under contract for beyond 2021.

More from Formula One

• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
• Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
• Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
• Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points

Sergio Perez recently signed a three-year contract extension to stay at Racing Point through 2022 while Esteban Ocon’s initial Renault deal is a two-year deal through 2021 and George Russell was confirmed at Williams through 2021 amid speculation that he would leave for Mercedes after 2020.

The recent confirmation of Leclerc for another half-decade with the Italian team is a big deal to say the least after the rising star won two races in his first season at Ferrari in 2019. He is widely considered a future world champion, and a world championship for him at Ferrari would be the first for the team since Kimi Raikkonen, who he replaced ahead of the 2019 season, won the title back in 2007.

But aside of the obvious impact on his own career, what does Leclerc’s deal mean moving forward for everybody else?

As far as Silly Season is concerned, it really doesn’t mean a whole lot. He was already set to return to the team in 2020, and the 2020 driver lineup has been set for several weeks.

Additionally, when he signed with the team back in September of 2018, then team principal Maurizio Arrivabene stated that the plan was for him to be there through at least the 2022 season.

This confirmation in itself really just confirms what everybody has known for more than a year. In other words, on paper, nothing changes, except for the addition of a signature.

With that being said, its impact is still huge, especially with what plagued Ferrari throughout the back half of the 2019 season.

In 2019, Leclerc became the first teammate to beat four-time champion Sebastian Vettel since Vettel arrived at Ferrari as two-time champion Fernando Alonso’s replacement in 2015. Leclerc won more races than Vettel (2 to 1), took more pole positions than Vettel (7 to 2) and finished higher in the driver standings than Vettel (264 to 240, fourth to fifth place).

But there was still teammate drama.

Vettel’s season was plagued with unforced errors, just as were his 2017 and 2018 campaigns, two seasons in which he very well could have been champion had it not been for these errors. Many of the points, including two wins, Leclerc lost were due to issues out of his control, while for Vettel, the total opposite was true.

Vettel even nearly ended up suspended for one race due to his repetitive poor driving and decision-making on the track that endangered other drivers, most notably in the Italian Grand Prix, which Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver to win since Alonso in 2010.

But most significantly, he caused a wreck that involved only himself and Leclerc late in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Moving forward, Ferrari are going to need a clear number one and number two driver to have any chance at success beyond a two or three-race span. Leclerc proved, with his success coupled with Vettel’s prolonged struggles, that he is that number one driver.

Vettel is 32 years old, and he is set to enter a contract year at Ferrari in what is slated to be his 13th year in Formula 1. There are already rumors about a potential Ferrari exit after 2020, and suffice it to say that is looks more likely that he will be elsewhere in 2021.

Meanwhile, Leclerc is more than 10 years younger than Vettel and is now under contract through 2024, four years beyond his teammate.

Do you think Ferrari have finally gotten the message?

Leclerc is their number one driver. He is their future. Rather than string it out over a year by year or even a two-year by two-year basis, they have solidified him in their lineup for a total of at least six years only a few weeks after year one came to an end.

And if Vettel wants to be back with Ferrari in 2021, the pressure will now be at an all-time high in 2020 because of it, which doesn’t exactly bode well for him given how the last three years have gone when he has faced any kind of pressure.

For that reason, Ferrari already need to start considering their options for 2021. Sure, Vettel could end up staying if he can serve the team well in a number two driver role, but there are several other drivers who could prove to be better options, and it would be shocking if Ferrari aren’t already making note of that, especially amid Leclerc’s new deal.

Think about it; this new deal could have come at any time, even over the course of the next several years, but it came only 22 days after the 2019 season wrapped up.

What do the futures of Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari hold beyond the conclusion of the 2020 Formula 1 season with Charles Leclerc now under contract with the team for another half-decade? Big changes could be in store for both parties.