Charles Leclerc told “he needs a new challenge” to win first F1 title

Ex-Haas team principal Guenther Steiner thinks it might be time for Charles Leclerc to seek a new challenge due to Ferrari’s failure to give him a title-contending F1 car.

Ferrari have been the biggest disappointment of the 2025 F1 season, scoring just one podium in the opening seven rounds.

A lot was expected of Ferrari after they narrowly missed out on the 2024 F1 constructors’ championship to McLaren.

Their strong end to last year, combined with the signing of Lewis Hamilton, meant expectations were high going into the season.

However, with Ferrari significantly off the pace set by McLaren, it looks like Hamilton and Leclerc will have to wait until 2026 to fight for the title.

Leclerc has been at Ferrari since 2019 after replacing Kimi Raikkonen.

While he’s made the team his own by out-performing Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, Ferrari have failed to give him the tools to fight for an F1 world championship for an entire season.

In 2022, Ferrari had a car comparable to Red Bull’s for the first half of the season, but poor reliability and strategy cost Leclerc several race victories.

A technical directive for the Belgian Grand Prix curtailed Ferrari’s season, and they’ve struggled to recover since.

2024 was arguably Leclerc’s best season to date, particularly in terms of consistency.

However, Ferrari rarely had the quickest car despite having won five races.

Steiner suggests Leclerc should leave

Steiner, who was Haas boss between 2016 and 2023, thinks Leclerc could benefit from a team swap.

The Austrian cited Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes to Ferrari.

But Steiner warned that making the incorrect team switch, like Fernando Alonso did on several occasions, could backfire.

“I’ll go gas, he needs a new challenge,” Steiner said on The Red Flags podcast.

“I think he’s been there a long time, sometimes change is good like Lewis left Mercedes to go to Ferrari.

“I think Charles, it’s like something new because at some stage everything just becomes routine.

“He is not in a position to win a championship, so if he maybe goes somewhere else, maybe he gets lucky, you never know.

“But he could be unlucky and go to the wrong team like Fernando Alonso did.”