Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur has said that he is “not scared at all” when it comes to contract discussions with Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc has a year left on his current deal but has been linked with a move away from the Scuderia in recent weeks.
That comes following a frustrating start to the 2023 season that has seen him fail to finish two of the opening three races.
Reliability eliminated him from the Bahrain Grand Prix, which brought with it a penalty for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix next time out.
In Australia, an early error left him stranded in the gravel following contact with Lance Stroll on the opening lap.
“Frustration is good,” said Vasseur of Leclerc’s current mindset.
“I would be very upset if they were happy with the current situation.
“He was two times on the first row. We had the DNF on the first one that we got the penalty on the second one. Melbourne was not the best weekend of his life.
“If he’s not frustrated in this situation, it’s a drama and he has to stop.”
Leclerc’s current frustration follows a 2022 campaign that started brightly, only to fade to the point where he narrowly held on to second in the drivers’ championship.
That has prompted suggestions that the 25-year-old is looking elsewhere, with enquiries rumoured to have been made at Mercedes.
There, 38-year-old Lewis Hamilton is in the final year of his contract.
However, Vasseur does not feel the need to jump at shadows when it comes to discussing an extension with Leclerc.
“We’ll do it in the course of the season,” Vasseur said.
“He’s under contract with us for more than one year now, and we’ll have time to discuss it.
“I’m not scared at all and I think it’s not the right moment to do.”
While it fell short of its ultimate target last year, a case can be made for Ferrari adapting well to the current generation of technical regulations.
The squad won four races during the course of 2022 and looks the nearest match to Red Bull this season should it string a weekend together.
Team boss Vasseur is a large piece of that puzzle, though he argues so too is Leclerc.
“He’s clearly part of the project. That means he is not a spectator of this,” the Ferrari boss explained.
“He is involved in the development of the team and he’s part of the development because he’s developing himself.
“He is a performance contributor, both on track and out of the track.
“As long as he will play this role, we are on the good path.
“It’s true in every single team that you are always building a team on the driver,” he added.
“If you ever look over the last 20 years or even more, all the successful constructors in F1 took time, but it was always a team built up around someone.”
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