Charles Leclerc would be open to working with Alfa Romeo Formula 1 boss Frederic Vasseur should he be chosen as Mattia Binotto’s replacement at Ferrari next year.

Last month Ferrari announced Binotto had resigned from his post as team principal after four seasons and would leave the team at the end of December.

Ferrari is yet to confirm who will step into Binotto’s role, but there is widespread speculation that Vasseur is the main candidate to make the switch from Alfa Romeo.

Leclerc has history of working with Vasseur in both Formula 2 and his rookie F1 season at Sauber in 2018, and when asked if his former boss would be a good option, he praised Vasseur’s “straightforward” and “honest” approach.

“I mean, Ferrari is a very different team to any other teams,” Leclerc said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “I can only comment on my experience with Fred which obviously has been good.

“I’ve been working with Fred already from the junior categories, where he has believed in me, and then we’ve always had a good relationship.

“But apart from that, obviously this shouldn’t influence any of the decisions. He has always been very straightforward, very honest. And this is something that I liked from Fred.

“Whether it will be him or not, I don’t know. And we’ll see hopefully in the in the next few months.”

Binotto’s future at Ferrari looked bleak ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi when reports in Italy suggested he would be moved aside from his job, only for the team to deny the rumours.

But it was soon announced that Binotto would leave the Scuderia, and Leclerc paid tribute after a four-year period driving under Binotto’s leadership.

“Mattia called me to announce that he would stop,” said Leclerc. “I respect his decision. And I can only thank him. Obviously he has believed in me right from the start, he extended me with a very, very long contract.

“And before being team principal, he was also inside the Scuderia for many, many years and he has contributed to the success that the team had in the past years.

“So I wish him the best. And obviously now it’s up to us to focus on the future, and try and take the right choices in order to be a bit more of a challenge to Red Bull next year.”

Leclerc was quick to shutdown suggestions that a change of team boss could disrupt Ferrari’s recent progress, with the Italian outfit claiming its first victories since 2019 this season.

“To be honest, I don’t know because from my own experience, I’ve never had a team principal change when I was racing for the same team,” he said.

“It will probably require a little bit of time for the team principal to get at ease with the system, and with Ferrari, because it’s obviously a huge team.

“But I believe that if it’s done the right way, I don’t think we will suffer any of it on the track. So I am pretty sure it will be a smooth transition.”