EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsIt's a story Charles Leclerc has told many times, but his eyes still light up at the memory.After winning Formula 1's Italian Grand Prix for the first time in 2019, the Ferrari driver ordered a taxi to take him to a celebratory dinner in Milan. As he settled into the back of the cab for the 30-minute journey, the driver asked him if he'd watched the race at Monza earlier the same day."Why, yes I did," Leclerc responded proudly.Barely acknowledging his passenger's reply, the taxi driver burst into a gushing monologue about the brilliance of Ferrari's new superstar driver, who he had proudly watch deliver Ferrari's first home victory since 2010."For like 20 minutes he spoke to me about 'that young driver,'" Leclerc recalled in a recent interview with ESPN. "He told me that the driver was incredibly talented, that he was bringing Ferrari back to the top, and that he had won for Italy -- and he was obviously speaking about me."As the taxi filtered its way through the Milan traffic, Leclerc chipped in with occasional "grazie" between compliments. At first the taxi driver seemed puzzled by his passenger taking on a first-person role in the story, but continued to offer his analysis of the race regardless of the interruptions.As the taxi pulled up outside the restaurant, Leclerc thanked his driver again -- this time for the safe journey into the centre of Milan. It was at this moment that the penny dropped."He kind of looked at me a little bit weird," Leclerc added. "And then I saw he understood who I was and I told him, 'Yeah, it's me.' His expression ... I mean, his face ... it's a face that I'll never forget."And that was probably the last time in Italy that I could go somewhere without being recognized. Since then, for sure, every time you go in Italy for that race week, wherever you go it's craziness. To eat in the city center of Milan now, during race week, it's now a bit challenging."This weekend at Monza, Leclerc will experience the "craziness" of being a Ferrari driver at the Italian Grand Prix for an eighth time, but despite the taxi driver's prophecy all those years ago, he has yet to return Ferrari to the very top. His win at Monza in 2019 and again in 2024 remain the clear highlights of the past seven visits to Temple of Speed, but the ultimate goal of a championship by the end of the season has proven elusive.The magic of Monza"At Monza as a Ferrari driver, your week starts on the Monday rather than on a Wednesday at a normal race," Leclerc explains when asked what it's like to be a Ferrari driver at Monza. "And already arriving in Milan, it's a big city, but everybody is aware that the grand prix is that week. There's already a lot of support, the excitement, and you can see that the city is already preparing for the grand prix, which is quite rare -- there's just a build-up to the grand prix that is like nowhere else."And on top of that, I think it's probably the only race of the season where every team member has got some family around that come for that race. So everybody in the team is in the same kind of mood with the excitement of the Tifosi. The family is there, so there's a bit more pressure, and that makes the environment of the race very, very special."It's early in our interview, but Leclerc has already mentioned the word "pressure." Arguably Ferrari's two drivers face more of it than any other on the grid over the course of a season, so perhaps it's inevitable that it multiplies for the team's home grand prix.But asked to expand on the feeling and how he manages it, Leclerc substitutes the word "pressure" for "excitement.""Pressure maybe is not the right word," he says as he course corrects. "I would say it's more excitement. There's just a huge amount of excitement before the weekend."When you get into the car, you've got the two [data] screens in front of you so you don't see much outside the garage, but then when they take away the screens, you see that massive grandstand in front where they normally put the huge flag with a Cavallino [Ferrari's famous prancing horse]. And then you say, 'OK, now I'm in Monza.'"You go out on track and there's just craziness all around. The first out lap of the weekend, we normally always wave to the grandstands and people are just going crazy even during a practice session. To feel that amount of support is very special."But to answer your question, it's not negative pressure in any kind of way. It's not overwhelming because it's only positive. It's only positivity and there's just so much positivity, it is really cool."Blind love?No other team on the F1 grid can offer what Leclerc is describing. For passion, history and romance, Ferrari stands in a league of its own regardless of whether it is building a car capable of challenging for the championship.It's among the reasons why Leclerc's seven-time champion teammate, Lewis Hamilton, ended a 12-year relationship with Mercedes to finish his career at Maranello. Hamilton was not the first to be lured by the magic of Ferrari, and he won't be the last.But could it be that Leclerc, who joined the team's driver academy in 2016 after following in the footsteps of his late godfather Jules Bianchi, is too in love to leave?For all the glory of his two victories at Monza, the 28-year-old's time at the Italian team has been statistically underwhelming. He has scored just nine wins since his Ferrari debut in 2019 and not once mounted a serious challenge for the title.During that same period, his go-karting contemporary, Max Verstappen, has won 64 grands prix (taking his career total to 71) and become a four-time world champion with Red Bull. That comparison is not necessarily a reflection of Leclerc's ability -- he is still considered one of the fastest drivers in the sport -- but of Ferrari's ongoing underachievement in Formula 1.Last season was among the most disappointing of Leclerc's time at Ferrari after clear progress in 2024 made way for a winless campaign in 2025. Even so, just five races into 2026, and ahead of his home race in Monaco, Leclerc signed a new deal that will extend his tenure at Maranello into the next decade.His previous contract was set to expire at the end of 2027, a date that would have allowed him to assess the competitive landscape under F1's current rule set before choosing whether to jump or stay put for 2028. He would have been 30 years old when making the decision, giving him the flexibility to reposition himself, if necessary, for the remainder of his career.In recent weeks, two of the potential avenues that might have been available have been closed off after Verstappen committed to Red Bull until 2030 and Lando Norris did the same at McLaren, but when Leclerc signed his new contract, neither of those deals had been inked. So, what was it that convinced Leclerc to pull the trigger early and extend his stay at Ferrari?"It's not that it was a decision where I only spoke to Ferrari and that was it," Leclerc explained. "It's not that I just wanted to stay here just for the sake of staying here. There's been discussions [with other teams]."And at the end, for me, the project that excited me, and that has always excited me the most so far, is Ferrari. To win with Ferrari is my absolute dream, but it was not only relying on just loving Ferrari. It was relying also on the project."We were trying to build the best picture out of the opportunities we had to make the right choice in order to have the most likeliness to become a Formula 1 world champion, and I strongly believe that Ferrari is the team for that."Didn't the other teams he spoke to provide equally compelling cases for his long-term future?"That is a very valid question," Leclerc responds. "And it's a very difficult exercise also to make because you are speaking with competitors who don't really want to give you much information but still have to sell their project."At the end of the day, by speaking with people, you can get a lot of feeling. And you kind of understand the direction [of all the teams] and on top of that, I'm sitting behind a computer every day of the year looking at their data."There are things that I also know and that we kind of know. The paddock is a small world and you kind of know in which kind of direction it's leaning towards. You get a sense of that and then you make your decision based on that."When Leclerc speaks about his long-term belief in Ferrari, more often than not he mentions team principal Fred Vasseur in the same breath. The Frenchman arrived in Maranello ahead of the 2023 season -- four years into Leclerc's time at the team -- and has made a point of removing some of Ferrari's famous emotion from the equation when it comes to decision making within the organization.That's not to say the team is any less motivated to win, but when Ferrari does top the podium, Vasseur has made a point of seeing the glass half empty. Equally, when things don't go to plan, he ensures the same glass is presented as half full -- when perhaps in the past it would have laid shattered on the floor."I think the fact that the whole environment is also less emotionally affected has also helped me to be in an environment which is a lot more calm no matter what happens," Leclerc says. "There's so much passion within Ferrari and that's an incredible strength, because when things don't go quite right, there's so much motivation to try and turn the situation around, but it can bite you as well, because when things go wrong, people feel it very deeply. And when things go right, it's the same."But to have that fluctuation during a race weekend, in particular, is sometimes kind of tricky to manage. And I think Fred really brought that calm. Whatever happens during the weekend, he's always kind of the reference because he's quite emotionally flat, at least with us, and that is a really good thing for Ferrari."Vasseur's clarity of thought is one of the key reasons Leclerc bought into a longer-term future at Ferrari."I have a very close relationship with Fred, and I think Fred shares a lot about the vision that he has from the team -- the choices that we've made on this year's car and what's looking like for the future years. In general, I think I have a very clear vision on where we want to go and what we want to do with our project."Without going too much into the detail, because that would be silly of me, but as I was saying earlier, I think with Ferrari when we negotiate, it's kind of an open book because I'm speaking with the team I'm racing with at the moment. So I know exactly what is the vision. I've been part of this team, I know exactly what I like from this car and what the future looks like, and that gives me a lot of optimism."Beyond the long termMore than a decade since he joined Ferrari's driver academy, Leclerc's love for Ferrari remains undimmed. Despite the arrival of a seven-time world champion alongside him in the team, his contract extension earlier this year ensures, on paper at least, that love will be reciprocated for years to come.It's easy to understand Leclerc's desire to remain at Maranello -- the adulation from the Monza crowd alone is enough to justify it -- but with nine years already under his belt in Formula 1, there is still one thing that, perhaps in the next nine years, could prise him away."I love Formula 1, I love what I do, but also family is so important for me," he says. "I'm not sure how my life will evolve in the next few years -- I don't know, I really don't know."But again, I love what I do so much that I would love to be here. But it's also taking a lot of time from home, so there's a balance to find at one point. I'll still be racing in nine years, 100%, but if Formula 1 by then is having 40 races a year, I don't know."Maybe it's hard to understand because if I had heard myself saying that before getting to Formula 1, I wouldn't have believed it, but at one point there's also the family time, and obviously the time spent at home is important."
