#charles exit clause i am looking at you

[slythereen]

that’s it. lestappen gate 2024 who says yes

THE AGENDA IS BACK

[thearchercore]

why charles, ironically, is a good fit as a potential condender for a red bull seat and why red bull needs a driver like charles (an essay)

charles embodies the "red bull gives you wings" mentality and branding. red bull prides themselves with pushing limits, constant adrenaline rush of the sports they currently sponsor/participate in. just look at his recent instagram posts, he loves doing weird side quests for the adrenaline rush -- something ferrari does not particularly enjoy. for instance, he once tried skydiving (to quote @gaslightgirlsummer "he’s legally not allowed to do it anymore. he was actually legally not allowed to do it when he did it the first time around either"). when he got asked about it, he said "in case it went wrong, i would not be here to be told up".

max and checo, on the other hand, prefer only racing. they don't do anything extra during their prep or training. in fact, max prefers to train in the privacy of his own balcony. the both don't really resonate with the initial message red bull is trying to push, they only do so exclusively when racing.

red bull is in desparate need of keeping themselves interesting for potential sponsors and just in general, being in the public eye and remaining relavant. their main goal is to sell the drinks, after all. max recently had an interview with the TIME magazine, released around the vegas weekend, conducted around COTA, the interview highlighted that max's focus is on racing and the PR responsibilites pretty much drain his energy because they are part of the sport. it showcased that despite the results in racing, they need someone who's more interesting for sponsors/events to keep themselves in the spotlight, which max and checo don't really do. charles, on the other hand, attends these events quite smoothly.

recently, christian horner at the ferrari movie premiere:

Christian Horner says Ferrari would be ‘crazy’ not to keep hold of Charles Leclerc:

Horner on the contract extension rumours:

🗣️: “It’s totally natural, he’s a great driver. I’m sure they’ll want to keep hold of him and they’d be crazy if they didn’t.”

there's more but to align it with my previous charles PR rebrand post, it's truly fascinating to see charles and his PR team push the narrative of all his adrenaline side quests as of recent from his training (24 hour ski trip from italy to austria and back, or the sliding). i'm not saying that charles is going to red bull, i still believe he wants to give ferrari one more chance, but i am convinced charles has a solid back up plan if ferrari does not deliver again, and red bull keeps their door open in case charles wants to look for a team alternative in the future. don't forget contracts have mutliple exit clauses, and it would be stupid to think charles did not secure the ferrari contract with multiple to make sure he wouldn't waste his active racing years at a team that won't deliver and help him achieve the WDC title. don't forget what charles said - he's ready to leave ferrari if he does not believe in the project anymore.

"Whenever I don't believe in the project anymore, I'll have to go away. Because it’s in these kinds of situations that you don't get the best out of yourself, that you don't help the team as much as it needs to be helped."

and that's exactly what's happening. now it's up to ferrari to deliver on the said project.

[charles-leclerc-official]

I feel like you're the only person on here rn who gets me in my desire for Charles to stay at Ferrari. How can people wish him away :( He IS Ferrari

I agree 100% I find it hard to imagine him at any other team.

But I will add that for people thinking it would be smart for him to move teams, you need to think long term. With the 2026 regulations coming it's becoming clear that you want to either be in a Ferrari or a Mercedes powered car. Red Bull is likely not going to be as strong 2026 and onward(I may be wrong but everything is pointing to a weaker Red Bull in 2026) Leaving just for 2025 would be a very bad move career wise.

A lot of people have been talking about what Charles should do for his career, for his legacy. You think he doesn't know that he likely could have had championships by now if he had gone to a different team at some point? He knows, I assure you he knows. He has spent a lot more time thinking about this, and know more than we do. He knows all this and went through it all and he chose to stay. You can disagree with his choice, but it's his career and his goals.

I do not think that any of what has happened is "leave the team worthy" no one is happy right now, but things will cool down, and things will bounce back.

I think the only way he'd leave would be if Ferrari massively dropped the ball on the 2026 regs and it didn't look like there was going to be a championship car for the rest of his career. He has exit clauses for that very possibility.

The thing about the team right now is that we are undergoing a big restructuring. People think the timer started for a championship fight when he joined in 2019. Unfortunately we lost a lot of time to Binotto. The timer actually started in 2023 when Fred took over. It takes a long time to bring these changes. This is the first year Fred has been in proper control and he is still assembling the team. Cardile leaving was a good sign that things are changing for the better.

I need you all to imagine how it would feel if in the next 5 years Ferrari managed a championship worthy car/team and Charles had left. That isn't really a reality I want to live in, and I don't think he does either. And the thing is that it will become clear sooner than that. If it seems like it's not possible going into 2026, fair enough.

I see a lot of posts talking about what Charles should do, and what they want to see. You can share your opinion, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is Charles' goals and his choices to move toward those goals.

"I just want Charles to be in a good car": okay, we all want that.

"I don't think Ferrari can give it [a championship car] to him": we will have to see about that, the team is changing a lot on the technical side at the moment. I personally still believe it's possible within the next 5 years.

"I am tired of waiting": I don't know what to tell you, no one is holding a gun to your head to be a fan of a specific driver or team.

"We found out who are the Charles fans and who are the Ferrari fans": You can still be both. And begging Charles to leave for his own good does not really show you support him more than anyone else. And again, our opinions on what he should do don't matter.

"Ferrari have had so much time and still haven't produced a championship car": Again, we are 1 year into a change at the team that is still clearly for the better. I don't know what to tell you, if you don't want to stick around and see if they and Charles can do it no one is forcing you.

"How can you want him to stay at a team that is treating him like this?": I want better and am expecting better from the team on this front. Me wanting Charles to stay at Ferrari does not mean I like/support the way things have been handled for him and that I want them to keep happening.

And you are entitled to your opinion. That is fair enough.

I am trying to be as realistic as I can be. I am not asking you to agree with me or even support Ferrari. This is how I see things right now, and I don't like the current narratives telling people how they should feel. You can feel positively or negatively about the situation, both are understandable. Toxic positivity and toxic negativity are both unpleasant pitfalls. I try my best to avoid both.

No one take this as me defending Ferrari at the moment. I am not happy with the performance of the team and the way things have been handled with Charles. It was not a good look and Fred and the team need to do better.

I say all this to point out that there is more logic to it than just blindly wanting him to stay at Ferrari. People are reacting to a small stretch of time and failing to consider the big picture. The multi-year future.

Driving for Ferrari and attempting the mad goal of a championship with them is Charles' goal. If that changes he'll let us know. But I support him in this completely.

And to the people saying they want him to go to Mclaren, STRAIGHT TO JAIL I BETTER NOT CATCH YOU

[chussyracing]

what has been happening in the world of motorsports lately?

Charles' race engineer Xavi Marcos will be replaced by Bryan Bozzi from Imola onwards while Xavi moves to a different project within the team

Ollie Bearman will be completing junior FP1 session for Haas in Imola

Ferrari tested new anti-spray wheel covers during their filming day in Fiorano (they look horrendous) - as well as the new upgrade package they will introduce in Imola

besides them, also RBR and Mercedes are bringing upgrades - Mercedes will introduce them over the next 4 races, Oscar will get full package Lando got in Miami and Sauber are set to introduce the upgrades to help with their bad pitstops

Pierre will have a special Senna tribute helmet in Imola

Jamie Chadwick scored her first podium in Indy NXT

Miami GP donated over 40 thousand portions of food that was left over from the race weekend through Food Rescue US

Marc Priestly says multiple Red Bull workers are considering departure from the team after Adrian Newey left (if you don't know him, he is maybe the most well known former mechanic)

Helmut Marko said that the rumours about Daniel getting replaced by Liam Lawson were started by Liam’s management and that’s why it was reported by a New Zealand journal first

Red Bull will present RB17 hypercar that Adrian Newey developer at Goodwood

George has a film??? Made with UBS (but it is actually a short video on social media?)

McLaren has new merch line for Monaco which is inspired by the (good) old times

German media are saying that Audi already took over Sauber and both current drivers would be out of the team

Abbi Pulling became the first woman to win British F4 race <3

the f1 Brad Pitt movie’s budget is already over 300 m AMERICAN DOLLARS

Joe Saward thinks that Alpine might be the destination for Carlos Sainz starting from next year because neither Mercedes nor Red Bull want to commit to him and rather prefer to wait and see how people shift across the teams first and since Carlos Sainz sr worked with Bruno Famin for Peugeot in Dakar, he has some links to it

speaking of, Carlos Sainz sr has been confirmed as Ford’s driver for Dakar 2025

multiple drivers or former drivers (Charles, Lando, Oscar, Zak Brown, Mark Webber, Ollie Bearman, Arthur Leclerc and even Adrian Newey) went to see Grand Prix de Monaco Historique this weekend (also just for fun: Zak Brown drove Williams FW07B

after Guenther Steiner sued Haas, Haas took a look at Surviving to Drive and they are suing him for unauthorized use of their trademark :))

Loic Serra and Jerome d’Ambrosio will start officially working for Ferrari from October

MotosportWeek spoke to Alex about his future and he refused to confirm he will drive for Williams next season (despite having a contract through 2025) and James Vowles didn’t want to comment on potentially letting him go sooner with an exit clause either

there are more rumours about Chicago GP, this time of it potentially being signed already from 2026 onwards

it’s been confirmed that the HP (ew) deal is worth 100m dollars a year with additional benefits and all technique equipment from the company (laptops, computers, printers, 3D printers etc) to Maranello

Ford confirmed their targets for 2026 RBR power unit are being met, the rumours about them being behind in the development are nonsense and they obviously don’t know where others stand with their engines

Helmut Marko said that if he was in Newey’s position he would choose red (or something like that I am paraphrasing oe24.at)

[presdestigatto]

i need to hear all your thoughts on the situation because i’m currently shitting myself

hey hello!! did you sleep through the chaos 👀 never in my wildest dreams did i imagine this would happen, we were talking about alex and yuki and ollie and now we have lewis hamilton 😭 we found out it was an option and within a day it became official!! i’ve never gone through so many emotions in my LIFE

Before Skysports put out their confirmation I did a small doom post here (and then they announced it and my brother sent me the screenshot of the Skysports post and i had the most fevered five hours of my life). I think my thoughts remain mainly the same 12h after the official announcements? I think we’re all concerned about how this is going to affect team dynamics. My thoughts on this are:

-We’re free from the Sainz clan and the Spanish media 😭😭 Worst fucking experience of my life.

-I’m not too worried about incidents on track because Lewis and Charles are both really clean racers. I know we all have some lingering shadow from the Sebchal era, but I think (and I may be wrong) that Lewis has only had Spain 2016 against him in this regard. I think the racing will be exciting and I’m looking forward to it.

My primary concern is that apparently Lewis reached out to Elkann 3 weeks ago. Now this is giving me stress ulcers because:

-It sounds like Ferrari did not put too much thought into how they’re going to manage two no.1 drivers. It sounds like Elkann jumped at the opportunity to sign Lewis Hamilton.

-Looking at that multi-year contract, I am 99% sure Lewis has been promised equal treatment. A 2+1 contract is not some pre-retirement fun. And kudos to them both for believing they can beat each other but I will be very!! stressed!!

-How does this factor into Fred’s restructuring because I doubt he was planning to sign a driver of Lewis’ calibre. Ultimately though it’s good for Ferrari as a team- if the car is good we’re going to witness some real racing and maybe even end RB’s domination before the new regs (haha.)

But as a 1644 enjoyer I think 2025-2028 (if neither of them utilise their exit clauses) will be a fun ride and I hope one way or another the title is coming back to Maranello. (In my delusion I think Charles can take 2024, 2025 and Lewis can have 2026) Honestly? I hope Charles bags the wdc this year so twitter is a bit less of a hellhole going into 2025. There are so many unknowns right now, the press conference in Bahrain will be so juicy and I can’t wait.

I think we just have to look at the positives and have faith in Charles as a driver. I’m just going to enjoy this season first and hope Seb’s returning in 2025 🥹 lmklmklmk what u think too!!