Charles Leclerc says he respects Adrian Newey’s decision to choose Aston Martin over Ferrari and reiterated his faith in the technical team at Maranello to be successful in future.
Newey sparked a race for his signature when he announced he would be leaving Red Bull at the end of season, and it was confirmed earlier this week the has chosen to join Aston Martin. Despite interest from Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur to lure Newey to the Prancing Horse, Leclerc insists that Newey’s decision is not a blow to Ferrari.
“No, there are no disappointments,” Leclerc said. “It’s not like we haven’t tried or spoken to Adrian. I know that there were talks, and he made his decision. I respect his decision. At the end, at Ferrari, we have always considered the group more than the individual.
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“Of course Adrian has an incredible [record] and has done amazing things. But we have an amazing group and I have no doubts that going forward we have an extremely strong team to come back at the top.
“I’m really happy with the structure. Obviously it’s Fred’s job to try and put the team in the best possible place to try and win races, and I 200 percent trust Fred and I’m completely onboard with his vision.
“It’s a continuous process to try and improve Ferrari over the years and we are in the middle of this process. But I am super happy with the way he sees things and the things he does.”
Ferrari recently announced that Loic Serra, who joined from Mercedes, will take over as chassis technical director when he starts work with the team on October 1. That move reunites Serra with Lewis Hamilton, and the seven-time world champion shares Leclerc’s backing of the Ferrari set-up.
“Honestly, no [disappointment about Newey],” Hamilton said. “I feel like, while I’ve mentioned before that it would be an honor to work with Adrian, I have been privileged to work with two championship-winning teams that didn’t have Adrian.
“I think any team probably would have been happy to have had him. But at the end of the day he had to do what was best for him. It doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t change my goal, or my focus with the next move. I still believe 100 percent that there’s lots we can do there.”