Charles Leclerc admits he would “love” to try MotoGP and rallying in the future but doubts Ferrari would allow him.
The Monegasque made no secret of his passion for two wheels during a visit to the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello last year and since then has gone on to create his own custom motorbike in collaboration with French builder Bad Winner.
And after Lewis Hamilton took to the track in Valencia last month with Valentino Rossi in a swap event between Mercedes and Yamaha organised by Monster Energy, Leclerc wants to be next.
“I would love to try MotoGP, but I am not sure Ferrari agrees. I need to ask but I would love to,” he told fans at the Autosport International event last weekend.
“Bikes, I love bikes in general, but I am not sure if Ferrari agrees for me to try a MotoGP bike.”
Ironically, Ferrari would be well-placed to organise a similar event thanks to their close association with Ducati, both of whom carry the Mission Winnow branding from Phillip Morris International.
Meanwhile, Leclerc also revealed he’d like to take on what Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas has done several times already this off-season and go rallying.
“To be completely honest I am obsessed with Formula 1 so in the off-season, I would like to have more races in Formula 1, but if I had to choose probably rally is something I would like to experience one day,” he said, with his hometown of Monte Carlo also well-known for the WRC event that kicks off each year.
“It is quite different to what I am used to going around in circles from the morning to the afternoon so probably rally is something exciting that I would like to try.”
As Charles has already alluded to, however, the chances of Ferrari ever permitting him or any driver to give it a go is small given the potential risks involved.
So it’s not surprising to hear then that the Italian team wasn’t too pleased when Leclerc went for a skydive shortly after the season finale in Abu Dhabi last year.
“Yes, you normally should do, [and] I do,” he said on if he needs to inform Ferrari of any bold plans.
“[But] I didn’t for skydiving because I just told myself that in the case it will go wrong I will not be here to be told off. So, yeah, I just went for it, and then they were a little bit upset.
“At the end, I won’t do it a second time. It was amazing, but it was just to do it once.”