Leclerc at Ferrari until 2022, team confirms

New recruit Charles Leclerc has signed on for four years at Ferrari, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene has confirmed, with the Monegasque staying at the Italian team until at least 2022.

The F1 world was sent into a frenzy when Ferrari announced Leclerc and Kimi Raikkonen would be swapping seats in 2019, with the Finn returning to the team where he made his F1-debut in 2001 for two more years. 

Leclerc, despite being a rookie, has already been hailed as a future champion, with the 20-year-old displaying some excellent driving in his first year in the sport, taking his Sauber to places where the team only could've dreamed of in past years.

"This has nothing to do with the respect that I have for Kimi, that is great, as a human being and a driver," Arrivabene made sure to F1i.

"But if you have to do a choice, thinking about the future of the team, I think we made the right choice, for us and for Kimi.

"I signed with Charles in November 2016 the first contract in the Ferrari Driver Academy - In that contract we already designed and committed and signed and wrote his future in Formula 1.

"So Charles Leclerc is not a big surprise, he's one of the talented drivers that we have in Formula 1.

"Thank God, it's a guy that he grew up with us and I hope that he is going to continue his career with us, at least until 2022 for sure."

Leclerc won the Formula 3 championship in 2016 before moving on to Formula 2, where he did exactly the same thing. That was enough evidence for Ferrari to promote him to F1 and place him at partner team Alfa Romeo-Sauber, where he's done so well that the team wants the Monegasque for itself.