Christian Danner: Leclerc out of options for team switch

While much of the spotlight at Ferrari in 2025 has been on Lewis Hamilton’s rocky adaptation to life in red, Christian Danner thinks Charles Leclerc may be quietly battling his own career crisis.

The former grand prix driver, now a German television pundit, told motorsport-magazin.com: “Of course, Leclerc is thinking about whether his life as a driver, his career at Ferrari, will take him where he wants to go: the championship. He’s definitely questioning that. I’m convinced he’s also asked himself this year: my God, what am I even doing here? It’s going to be nothing again.”

Leclerc, Ferrari’s most consistent scorer this season, has shown flashes of impatience but continues to commit himself to Maranello as another title bid slips away and second place in the standings looms.

“Leclerc is intelligent and a calm, analytical type,” Danner continued. “What are the alternatives? Well, under certain circumstances, Mercedes. What Russell can do, Leclerc can do. “Red Bull is in the midst of an ultimate technical fiasco, and of course, he has to deal with Max Verstappen, at least in the short term.

"At McLaren, it’s clear everyone would want to go there, but is he needed there? I’d say no. That means the alternatives simply aren’t there. Leclerc needs to focus on what he has.”

Even after taking pole in Hungary, the 27-year-old admitted a race win this season is unlikely. “I don’t think there’s one track at the moment where we think we are stronger than McLaren,” he said. “For now, I don’t think there’s any tracks where I go to and think we will be the favourite, but I hope I’ll be surprised.”

Suggestions have emerged that Ferrari could actually benefit from finishing third in 2025 to gain extra wind tunnel time for the 2026 regulations. But Leclerc rejects the idea. “I’m pretty sure it’s better to finish second than third,” he said.

“However, as you said, there’s also the wind tunnel time. This is not something we think of too much. When we are on track, we just want to finish as high up as possible and then we’ll deal with whatever amount of hours in the wind tunnel we have.

“We want to target the highest possible. Second place in the constructors’ is one of our targets, but the biggest target is to come back to winning races as soon as possible. Wherever we finish, we’ll work from there and see how many hours we have next year."