It’s been a shaky start for Ferrari after five rounds of the 2025 Formula 1 season. The Prancing Horses have only seen a podium in Saudi Arabia at the hands of Charles Leclerc. The Monégasque held Lando Norris at bay to take third, in a race where his teammate struggled.
A new experience for both drivers
After taking third, Leclerc said the “potential is there” when it comes to the SF-25’s race pace. Meanwhile, teammate Lewis Hamilton took seventh and said there was “nothing positive” to take from the difficult outing.
Team boss Fred Vasseur is fully behind Hamilton to help him regain his form. The Frenchman also confirmed Leclerc’s statement of the car’s potential.
Leclerc is later asked whether Hamilton adapted to his driving style since the 27-year-old has been with the Scuderia since 2019.
“I mean, this is maybe a question more [suitable] to Lewis than for me. But I mean it’s quite new for me also his direction, it’s quite extreme, so it’s not something that I really, I didn’t really set up the car that way in the past.”
Leclerc said both drivers are new to this, despite he has been with the team for quite some time.
“I think this is new for both of us. Then, of course, I know the car better than Lewis and the team, but yeah, it’s quite an extreme direction, so it’s something new as well for me.“
Leclerc on Hamilton and Sainz over the car’s direction
Carlos Sainz was Leclerc’s teammate from 2021 before he left for Williams. He was asked whether his driving style is better suited to the latter rather than Hamilton.
While driving style is important, Leclerc says the car setups allow more than enough freedom to suit a driver’s style, including Hamilton’s.
“Well, first of all, I see lots of things around that most of the time that driving style is super important. I feel like you have more than enough freedom in the car setup to adapt a car to someone’s driving style. So that doesn’t change a lot.”
Leclerc says it is always “more helpful” to have both drivers pushing in the same direction. With that said, he admits surprise at Hamilton’s same approaches at corner entries.
“It’s always a bit more helpful to be pushing in the same direction, because we need the same thing from a car.”
“And as I said with Lewis, I was very surprised how similar we would approach the corners in corner entry.”
Leclerc does not wish for any comparisons with other drivers since they need the same thing.
“I don’t want to do any particular comparison with other drivers. But yeah, when Lewis came, I did not expect that, and we are both quite aggressive in corner entry. That means we require the same things out of the car for sure.“
