After a 50-year absence from top-flight sportscar racing, Ferrari sealed back-to-back outright victories with their win at Le Mans this year.
Ferrari’s F1 team principal Frederic Vasseur was present throughout the weekend this year, while Charles Leclerc also looked on in the garage during the 2023 race.
It is not uncommon for F1 drivers and personnel to attend Le Mans as spectators, Alpine had both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly in their garage this year, and Leclerc did not hide his dreams of competing in the iconic endurance race one day when speaking to Eurosport TV.
It is impressive that Ferrari can produce a Hypercar after its decades-long absence from taking part in Le Mans, and then win back-to-back races at a track that has been dominated by Toyota in the past five years.
Now or never for Charles Leclerc and Le Mans dream?
If there was ever a time for the Monegasque to consider competing in the world-famous sportscar race alongside his F1 duties, it is probably now.
The last driver to contest both an F1 season in the same year as Le Mans was Fernando Alonso in 2018 when he led #8 Toyota to victory for the first time. It was at the same time he dealt with the messy aftermath of the McLaren-Honda partnership, which culminated in him branding their engines with the famous line “GP2 engine” at their home race in Japan.
Leclerc has been plagued with the same issues in F1 with Ferrari over the past few years, having recently retired from the Canadian Grand Prix with an engine problem that put him down on power.
He’s approaching 27 years-old this year, which means he is entering his prime years as a driver.
Fellow F1 drivers have proven their success
Several other ex-F1 drivers were making their mark in the Hypercar class over the weekend. Out of the 168 drivers competing across 68 cars, 18 drivers previously competed in an F1 Grand Prix.
Among them were previous Le Mans outright winners Sebastian Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Nico Hulkenberg, Andre Lotterer, Kazuki Nakajima, and Kamui Kobayashi.
Antonio Giovinazzi also took part as the defending champion in the #51 Ferrari, however, it was his teammates in the #50 that took outright victory this time.
The Italian used to race for Leclerc’s former team, Alfa Romeo, in F1 alongside Marcus Ericsson who won the 2022 Indy 500. The Monogasque’s former teammate in Formula 2, Antonio Fuoco, was also part of the winning team this year.
Even though Leclerc has blown them out of the water whenever he has competed against them, ironically they are the ones that have found success elsewhere to validate their skills as a top class driver.
Leclerc has not won a championship since his F2-winning year in 2017, maybe it would make more sense in the short term to have at least one marquee title to his name.
Charles Leclerc at Le Mans would make commercial sense for Ferrari
The FIA and Automobile Club de l’Ouest have worked together to ensure there are no clashes between Le Mans and F1 races in the last few years. This opens the door for potential F1 driver entries, should their teams allow them in driver contracts.
As Ferrari has demonstrated that it is capable of winning in both their Le Mans entries, it would make commercial sense for Ferrari to put Leclerc in and generate hype around the story.
It was what gave Alonso’s career a new lease of life when he attempted to win the unofficial triple crown (Monaco, Indy 500, Le Mans) when it was clear he was not going to win any F1 titles in the near future.
Although Leclerc has many more years ahead of him in F1, Ferrari faces the challenge of needing to build a successful car to keep hold of his services. Perhaps enticing him with a Le Mans drive could be a good way to secure their future in years to come.
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