Winless Formula 1 driver claims young Charles Leclerc scuppered his chances of Ferrari move

Charles Leclerc ranks fourth on the all-time list of race starts for Ferrari in Formula 1. He recently passed Sebastian Vettel, and now he has Felipe Massa in his sights.

Leclerc has raced for the team 126 times and will overtake Massa (139) around the halfway mark of next season. Michael Schumacher, who won five titles with the Scuderia, leads the way on 180, with Kimi Raikkonen second on 151.

Even with Lewis Hamilton arriving in 2025, the Monegasque remains Ferrari’s golden boy. He’s been with their driver academy since 2016, securing his first F1 deal with engine customers Sauber in 2018 on the back of his GP3 and Formula 2 titles.

Leclerc spent just one year with the midfield outfit before graduating to Ferrari, and he would claim a famous win at Monza in his first season. He’s scored eight victories overall, along with 26 pole positions and 42 podiums.

He immediately outscored four-time world champion Vettel by 24 points, and before the start of his second year, the team announced that the German would be departing. Carlos Sainz arrived at the beginning of 2021 and has only just left for Williams.

Esteban Ocon says Leclerc and Max Verstappen are the most naturally-talented drivers in F1. All that’s missing for the 27-year-old now is a maiden title.

Kevin Magnussen claims Ferrari were ‘sniffing around’ before they signed Charles Leclerc

Sauber weren’t Ferrari’s only engine customers during Leclerc’s inaugural 2018 season. Haas, the American team set-up in 2016, also bought power units from the Italian manufacturer.

Their star driver that season was Kevin Magnussen, who scored 56 of their 93 points to finish ninth in the championship. He led them to an excellent fifth in the constructors’.

Magnussen was particularly impressive at the start of the year, bagging four top-six finishes in the first nine races. In an interview with Autosport, he claimed this generated interest from Ferrari.

Leclerc started a little slowly at Sauber with 13th, 12th and 19th in his first three races, and Magnussen says Ferrari started to view him as a back-up plan. He tested on their simulator, but the interest went quiet as Leclerc improved.

“In 2018, we had a really good car in the first half of the year,” he recalled. “Charles had just arrived in F1 with Sauber. And the start of his first season wasn’t great. And mine was really good! And then suddenly Ferrari was reaching out.

“Suddenly I was driving in their simulator, not for Haas, but for Ferrari. They were sniffing around. And I thought, okay… I was already getting excited about where this was going. But then Charles started to really kill it! And I heard nothing.

“I don’t know how close it got. But I think if Charles had not started to perform, if he had had a s****y season all year long, I think I would have been one of the drivers they would have looked at. Sometimes you feel like you are getting close, but still not that close. That’s the way it goes.”

Why Anthony Davidson would love to see Kevin Magnussen face Max Verstappen

Six years later, Magnussen has lost his spot in the Formula 1 grid. After Haas decided not to renew his contract and sign Ocon and Oliver Bearman instead, it’s likely that he’s driven in his last race.

Magnussen scored a remarkable podium on his F1 debut in Australia and, even more surprisingly, snatched pole position at the 2022 Sao Paulo GP. But he never managed to win a Grand Prix.

Magnussen ‘grinned’ at the prospect of joining Cadillac, F1’s new team, for the 2026 season. If they want a veteran driver, he may be on their list.

Anthony Davidson wanted to see Magnussen against Verstappen, because the Dane is a ‘tough nut’. He’s repeatedly ruffled his competitors with his aggressive wheel-to-wheel tactics, so their battles could be particularly fiery.