Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have both secured a drive with Ferrari as their contracts end at the conclusion of 2024 season.
Leclerc and Sainz’s new contracts will not be a topic of discussion at the moment, according to Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur, who acknowledged that the team is focusing on the SF-23 development.
Given that their existing contracts expire at the end of the season to come, both drivers will shortly need new contracts. However, due to the team’s present challenges and the amount of work already needed to be done on the “development of the car,” Vasseur has temporarily suspended contract negotiations.
Last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix was another disappointing race for Ferrari, as Sainz finished fifth despite starting second and Leclerc finished eleventh.
Leclerc was having a terrible time in qualifying, but nobody knew why. After a shocking Q1 elimination, Ferrari changed the entire rear of the Monegasque’s car, and he started from the pit lane.
Ferrari has some significant issues to address in order to determine what is causing their inconsistency, therefore delaying contract negotiations is a reasonable course of action.
“I think you asked me the same question one week ago and I told you that,” Ferrari team principal Frederick Vasseur responded after he was asked about the drivers’ contracts ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
“So far, we have enough to do with the development of the car, that we have a lot to do on the technical side, and we’ll speak about drivers a bit later.”
Vasseur is keeping his attention on just one race at a time, despite the fact that Ferrari has had some form of problems for the majority of races this season.
Ferrari is expected to finally begin showing progress on a Grand Prix basis, which can be monitored by concentrating on one competition at a time.
“Honestly, that I’m taking the race one after one and I’m thinking about the next one that it’s difficult to predict where we’ll be in six month time in term of development and we have to be realistic,” Vasseur said.
“But you never know what could happen and you never know also what will be the right of development over the next couple of weeks or months… But let’s take the races one after one and to be focused on what we are doing on track.”
