A key piece of news relating to the Formula 1 driver market was made public last Wednesday when Ferrari announced that it had extended its existing high-value contract with Charles Leclerc on a multi-year basis. The exact length wasn’t revealed, but the iconic outfit said that its Monégasque driver would continue to wear the famous Ferrari race suits “for the coming seasons”, thereby making the likeable 28-year-old unavailable to others until well into the future.

Leclerc grew up in Monaco, walking to school every day along parts of the circuit and dreaming of one day racing for the iconic Italian team from Maranello. He’s always stated, too, that his desire is to become a world champion for them, with his new deal set to take him well beyond the record number of 179 Grand Prix starts for the team, currently held by Michael Schumacher. It certainly represents a leap of faith for Leclerc, if a very highly remunerated one, as Ferrari last won an F1 Drivers’ title way back in 2007, and its latest Constructors’ one was achieved just one year later.

Meanwhile, how his 41-year-old teammate, Lewis Hamilton, performs during the remainder of the season will dictate who is likely to race alongside Leclerc in 2027. Britain’s young Ferrari protégé, Oliver Bearman, is currently loaned to Haas to gain further F1 experience and is keen to get his chance to show what he can do driving for the renowned Scuderia as soon as possible.

McLaren was one of the teams that chose to use a revised livery in Monaco, and it had good reason to do so, as the race represented the Woking-based outfit’s 1000th Formula 1 Grand Prix, with the drivers also wearing special race suits. This is a long way from when the then 28-year-old New Zealander Bruce McLaren raced his McLaren M2B for the first time at Monaco in 1966.

With Monaco being synonymous with wealth and luxury, it came as no surprise when the Alpine F1 team opted to announce during the gap since the previous round in Montreal that an appropriate change of title sponsor will occur in 2027. The Austrian water treatment systems company, BWT, will be replaced by the high-value fashion brand Gucci, with the team becoming officially known as Gucci Racing Alpine, and, as part of the multi-year deal, the outfit will adopt Gucci’s black and gold corporate colours, together with its famous G logo. The team is also set to become the best dressed in the paddock, with the renowned fashion house proud to be the first of its kind to serve as a Formula 1 title partner.

In other news, Mercedes has withdrawn from negotiations for the potential purchase of Otro Capital’s minority shareholding in the Alpine team, and this means that there is still a possibility that the former Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner, and his associates may enter the frame on this front.

Lastly, Mercedes’ George Russell, who’s trying to put mental pressure on his young Drivers’ Championship-leading teammate, Kimi Antonelli, by saying the title is the latter’s to lose, will need to tread carefully for the next 12 months as, after he had angrily thrown his headrest out of his broken-down car onto a live race circuit part way through the previous Grand Prix in Canada, the stewards subsequently gave him a 5,000 euro fine, suspended for a year on the basis that no repetition of his behaviour will be seen. Having said that, any such fine would be mere pocket money for the apologetic and highly paid driver from King’s Lynn, who understandably chooses to live in Monaco these days, like most of his F1 racing colleagues, for mainly tax-avoidance reasons.