Leclerc at a crossroads: "Winning with Ferrari is my obsession." But 2026 will be crucial for the future.

In no man's land. That's where Charles Leclerc lives this year, a world in between that, in his seventh year in red, can only feel cramped. A definition used Sunday after the Italian GP to describe Ferrari's situation, trailing Max Verstappen's Red Bull and the two McLarens, but also to describe an entire championship without peaks, in which the Maranello team is second in the Constructors' Championship but also stuck with zero wins, with only five podiums in sixteen Grands Prix. It was supposed to be a year of great battles for the Ferrari driver, after a 2024 season that ended with a title fight against McLaren in the final race, with three wins and three pole positions.

The reality, however, turned out to be very different than expected, and Charles, fourth off the podium at Monza on Sunday, admitted: "I didn't have much faith in my ability to win a GP this year before arriving in Monza, and I don't have it now, so I'd say this race hasn't changed much." There are now eight GPs remaining until the end of the year, and in three races the circus will arrive in Austin, where Charles won his last Grand Prix in 2025. Almost a year of drought for a driver who is raring to go, always chasing the best possible result, and who carries the fate of an entire team on his shoulders: "I'm not indifferent to Verstappen's victories or those of Piastri and Norris," Leclerc explained at the height of this difficult season, "but what I care about is bringing Ferrari back to the top, that's my only obsession." An obsession that for Charles seems to become, year after year, an existential torment: he, a generational talent, arrived at the helm of the most coveted and historic team in F1 at a very young age, watching others around him grow, win, and change. Above all, Max, his great rival from the lower categories, who seemed destined to battle Charles for a long time, but who instead saw his own story take different paths, ones that—at almost 28, like Leclerc—led him to four world titles. Leclerc resists, because the dream is a lifelong one, and the future, outside the halls of Maranello, is even more uncertain for him.

In January 2024, shortly before Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari was made official, Leclerc signed a multi-year contract extension with the team. As with all current F1 contracts, these long-term agreements include a series of exit clauses tied to the team's performance, according to specific timeframes and procedures. For Charles, his focus is now firmly on 2026, the year of the regulatory change and a major opportunity for top-flight teams: whoever manages to bring the winning project to the track will have the chance to usher in a new era of dominance. "My mind is on 2026," reiterated the Monegasque, who, amid the bitter thoughts of another year of compromise and resignation, sees the season of technical revolution as a hope to cling to. Meanwhile, in F1, young drivers are overwhelmingly conquering the grid: the youngest, Kimi Antonelli, is nine years younger than the Monegasque, and with him, nine of the twenty drivers were born in 2000 or later, including Oscar Piastri, the Australian McLaren driver on course for his first world title. Charles will still wait his turn, patiently, showing, when the opportunity allows, the brilliance of a talent that is itching to emerge, always eager to emerge, every race weekend, in every on-track battle. But will his time ever come? A question Charles cannot help but ask himself, hidden beneath the weight of a passion for red that is worth more than anything.