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Ferrari have made history as the first Formula 1 team to surpass the €100m (£86.5m) combined wage threshold for their drivers, following Charles Leclerc's new contract extension announced on Wednesday morning — perfectly timed ahead of his home Monaco Grand Prix.
The Scuderia confirmed that Leclerc has committed to the team "for the coming seasons", despite his previous deal not being due to expire until the end of 2029. According to The Race, the eight-time Grand Prix winner has in fact tied himself to Maranello beyond the 2030 season, though Ferrari have declined to reveal the precise length of the agreement.
The timing is significant. Leclerc had been exploring his options in a bid to find a championship-winning environment, with links to Aston Martin, McLaren and Red Bull surfacing over recent months. The new deal appears to draw a definitive line under that uncertainty — and many F1 observers now believe the 28-year-old Monegasque will retire as a Ferrari driver.
What remains to be seen is whether Ferrari have included the kind of performance-related exit clauses that reportedly existed in his previous contract. Earlier reports had suggested Leclerc could have triggered a break clause at the end of 2026 had the Scuderia failed to provide a car capable of fighting for the title. With Ferrari pushing hard on multiple technical fronts this season, the stakes around those provisions are higher than ever.
Leclerc's new contract comes with a substantial pay rise. According to a report by RacingNews365, his salary will rise to as much as €50m per year (£43m), up from approximately €34m (£29.5m) on his previous terms.
That figure still sits below the wage Ferrari are paying Lewis Hamilton, who joined the team from Mercedes on a reported €60m (£52m) per year. Hamilton himself has spoken of his belief in Ferrari's capabilities this season, but it is the combined cost of their driver lineup that now sets Ferrari apart commercially.
The two salaries together push Ferrari's total driver wage bill past €110m (£95m) — breaking the €100m barrier that no other team has previously crossed. Red Bull currently hold the second-highest driver wage bill at €75m (£65m), with Max Verstappen alone accounting for €70m (£60.5m) of that figure.
The contract announcement arrives at a pivotal moment in the 2026 season. Leclerc currently sits third in the drivers' championship after five rounds, with his best results being third-place finishes in Australia and Japan. He trails championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli by 56 points, a deficit that underlines just how much Ferrari need to find performance against a dominant Mercedes operation.
With Monaco offering Ferrari one of their best opportunities of the season, Leclerc will be desperate to convert home advantage into points — and perhaps begin closing the gap at the circuit he knows better than any other on the calendar. The new contract ensures that whatever unfolds this weekend and beyond, the Monegasque's future is firmly, and expensively, in red.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.
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