Haas rules out Leclerc for 2017 race seat

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Haas F1 has ruled out the possibility of test driver Charles Leclerc being in the running for a race seat with the team in 2017.

Leclerc has had three free practice outings with Haas so far this year at Silverstone, Hockenheim and the Hungaroring taking the place of regular driver Esteban Gutierrez.

However his next scheduled FP1 appearance this week in Sepang has been cancelled, with hopes that it will be rearranged for the Brazilian Grand Prix next month. Lecerc will also get a final outing at Abu Dhabi.

"He's too young, in our opinion," Haas F1 team boss Guenther Steiner told Motorsport.com when asked if the 18-year-old Monaco driver was a possible candidate for next year's racing line-up.

"He's very good, but I think it's better to do another season in either GP3 or GP2. I have no say in his career, it's Nicolas Todt [Leclerc's manager], and I think he agrees with me on that one."

Leclerc is currently competing in the GP3 Series, and is leading the series standings by 24 points from Trident’s Antonio Fuoco. He needs to win the championship to secure the superlicense points that would allow him a chance of moving into Formula One.

Steiner refused to be drawn on which of the other potential drivers were in the running for next year's Haas line-up.

Asked once again whether there was any update about the prospect of Gutierrez re-signing with the team, Steiner replied: "Same answer - there is no answer! You'll have to ask him.

"We will be ready when we are ready, put it this way," he continued. "We're not in a big hurry, so we'll just take our time.

"I think we've created a little bit of interest driver-wise, which is a compliment. A few people are speaking to us who maybe a year ago thought 'why should I go there?'"

Steiner added that he was surprised that the news of Felipe Massa's retirement and Jenson Button's 2017 sabbatical hadn't led to more developments in the driver market so far.

"Everybody thought that if one made the move, everything would happen, but nothing happened. It's very strange," he said. "There's a demand there. It's a good thing for the young drivers, we get some fresh blood in it, and some people can shine."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.