Bernie Ecclestone writes off Charles Leclerc's championship chances

Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said that Charles Leclerc will not win the world championship this year in the Ferrari.

The Scuderia had started this season really well and the Tifosi was hoping that this would finally be the year where they got back to winning a world championship.

However, after a scintillating start things have started to awry, with reliability issues hitting Charles Leclerc hard.

Indeed, the Monegasque has seen a big lead in the championship become a big deficit to Max Verstappen and, with the Red Bull looking reliable and fast, it’s currently hard to see who is going to stop the Dutchman from retaining his title.

Speaking to Swiss newspaper Blick, Ecclestone seems to subscribe to that line of thought, too, with him having this to say:

“Errors are creeping in again.

“The reliability we are seeing is often reminiscent of the old days and the drivers themselves are not always confident on the track.

“It means Max is having an easy time in the Red Bull with six wins already.

“Like many people, I had hoped that Ferrari would succeed again after more than 14 years.

“Unfortunately, I have to say that anyone who continues to put their money on Ferrari or Leclerc will get nothing.”

It’s a pretty emphatic verdict from Ecclestone who has seen it all from Ferrari during his years involved in the sport, from dominance with Michael Schumacher to previous barren spells at the end of the 20th century.

All Ferrari can do, then, is try and turn things around in the second half of the campaign and see where it takes them.