2022 was arguably Leclerc's best and worst season to date, as he finished an impressive second in the Drivers' Championship, but crucially missed out on winning chances in Spain (engine failure), Monaco (strategy error), Azerbaijan (engine failure), France (failure) and Hungary ( strategy error). In a season in which he could have become Ferrari's first world champion since 2007, he ended up 246 points behind the eventual title winner.
Since then, Red Bull's dominance has given Leclerc fewer opportunities to compete at the top step, but he has had his moments. In 2023, he qualified on pole position for three of the final five races of the season, but his best chance of a race win arguably came in Las Vegas. He had the pace and strength to take on Verstappen, but had to settle for second place after the team botched another safety car strategy.
It wasn't all his fault, but you could say Leclerc didn't live up to his title-winning potential.
Fred Vasseur (Ferrari team boss) and John Elkann (Ferrari managing director) reaffirmed their trust in Leclerc at the beginning of the year and gave him a new contract that would keep him at Maranello until 2029 – possibly beyond the term of future teammate Lewis Hamilton.
However, this physical and psychological investment is undermined by the Spaniard sitting next to him.
Sainz is proving his worth, even without a confirmed seat for next year
Ferrari
When Sainz joined Ferrari from McLaren in 2021, he had a reputation as a solid, reliable and reliable driver who could work with a younger star. He had made it with Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso; with Lando Norris at Woking, and was expected to make it alongside Leclerc at Maranello.
Few have put El Matador Jr next to Norris and Leclerc as a potential F1 world champion – even though he has the same number of race victories as Leclerc and has only been on the podium twice less during their time as teammates.
But Leclerc has outperformed Sainz in other areas. Since 2021, he has scored 720 championship points, compared to the Spaniard's 650.5, and has also qualified stronger, starting higher on the grid than Sainz in 45 races, compared to the 23 races in which Sainz overtook Leclerc.
Maybe that's why life in Maranello was harder for the Spaniard than it should have been. Despite his positive results on the track and his performance comparable to Leclerc, Sainz has had to negotiate short-term contract extensions and will soon be sidelined ahead of the arrival of Lewis Hamilton in 2025.
Despite this, Sainz is still the only Ferrari driver to have won a Grand Prix since the 2022 Austrian GP – a fact that is certainly not part of the Scuderia's playbook.
A future world champion? Not in its current form…
Ferrari
Should the team continue on this Freaky Friday course – with Sainz succeeding while Leclerc picks up the pieces, rather than the other way around – it will raise growing doubts about Leclerc's true potential to challenge for a Formula 1 world title, especially if Hamilton competes next season.
When Leclerc spoke to Günther Steiner – the former Haas boss turned TV presenter – in post-race interviews in Australia, he barely managed a smile despite securing the team's first one-two finish since the 2022 Bahrain GP. He was somewhat more positive in the panel press conference that followed, but his answers still did little to inspire hope in his ability to go on to win a world title.
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