The 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix promised to be another Baku masterclass for Charles Leclerc after Ferrari dominated Free Practice 2 on Friday.
Yet the Monégasque’s stunning four-pole streak at the circuit came to a dramatic halt when he crashed out at the very start of Q3, abruptly ending his run at the top.
Speaking in a print media session post-race, Leclerc reflected on the challenges of overtaking during the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while also describing his Q3 performance on Saturday as disappointing.
“Yeah, I think it was a bit roll of the dice to get the right strategy today. I mean, the medium-hard or hard-medium was kind of the same. I mean, it was obviously the same on paper and then you would just hope that you were with the most amount of fast cars on the same strategy and I ended up with obviously Liam, which was very strong in the straight, very strong in the last section, very difficult to overtake even on the cars that had reverse strategy and I got stuck behind him the whole race, so it was very frustrating.“
“But yeah, good job to him and at the end of the day, the only thing I can do is to be harsh with myself and not having performed the way I should have yesterday in qualifying, obviously with a mistake in Q3.”
“It’s been a very strong season so far, but this weekend I haven’t been on the level where I should be and yeah, and I paid the price of it today.”
Power unit issue in his first stint of the F1 Azerbaijan GP
Leclerc’s race proved frustrating from the start, as he battled not only the difficulty of overtaking on the tight streets of Baku, but also an engine issue that hampered his power unit for the first 10 laps of his opening stint. The problem cost him at least a couple of tenths per lap, leaving the Monégasque unable to fight higher up the field and ultimately crossing the line in P9.
“I hope so. Unfortunately, I had a quite big power unit issue for like 10 laps in the first stint and we don’t really know what is the reason for that yet because it kind of came back from one lap to the other and we don’t know what happened, so I need more info about that.“
For most of Sunday’s race, Leclerc found himself stuck in a DRS train with Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, and Lewis Hamilton, unable to make a move or capitalise on the situation.
“It’s not like it’s been there for the whole race, so then I was fine towards the end, but in the phase where I think we probably had the chance to actually overtake cars, I was just stuck in the DRS and very slow down the straight, so I couldn’t do much in that first phase after that.”
Ferrari’s battle for the points
With 10 laps remaining, Ferrari instructed Leclerc to let teammate Lewis Hamilton pass in order to chase down Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson. Hamilton, on fresher tyres, had a better chance to make the move, but when he failed to overtake, the team asked to reverse their positions, putting Leclerc back into P8.
Leclerc’s race engineer then told him to prepare for a final-lap swap, but Hamilton slowed too late for the pass to happen, leaving the team to finish with Hamilton ahead of Leclerc.
Despite the shuffle, Leclerc said he wasn’t overly concerned, noting that the difference between P8 and P9 wasn’t significant at that stage of the race. Leclerc added that in a higher-points situation, the outcome might have mattered more, but he accepted the result at the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a pragmatic outlook.
“No, I think it was very clear, but I really don’t care for an 8th place at the end. I don’t think that this should be the talking point, unfortunately. We have been very slow all weekend and that’s where we should focus on.”
“P8 or P9, or P9 or P8 is not something that really interests me, so it’s fine. I mean, there are rules that we know we’ve got to work with and today maybe those rules were not respected, but again, P8, P9, P9, P8, that’s more going forward. Obviously, if we are fighting for sexier positions, which I hope it will be the case, then I hope that we will work in a different way. But on a day like that, honestly, I don’t really mind.”
Frustrating race weekend all round for Leclerc
Reflecting on the weekend, Leclerc admitted he was unhappy with himself after crashing in Q3. Despite having full power for the latter stage of the race, he acknowledged it still wasn’t enough to make a pass, resulting in a frustrating outing.
“Yeah, but again, I mean, the second part of the race was I had full power and it still wasn’t enough to get past, so it was a very frustrating race. But again, I think what I should be harsh on myself is for yesterday and for today. It’s kind of the result of my mistake in Q3 yesterday, so today was very frustrating, but it was frustrating for a reason and I shouldn’t do this mistake again in Q3.”
Setup change among Leclerc’s weekend battle
Leclerc decided to adjust his setup for the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a change he believes cost him early in the weekend. He reverted to his previous setup for qualifying, but his Q3 mistake prevented him from capitalising on the effort. He admitted it was a messy weekend but said he would use the experience to avoid repeating the same issues in future races.
“I did, but I already have the answers as of why. I did change my approach in terms of setup this weekend, starting the weekend and considering how strong I was in the past, I’m not sure what made me think this was a good. In qualifying, I went back to where I should be a bit more feeling better for qualifying, but then there was a mistake happening, so I couldn’t show that.”
“So all in all, it’s been a very messy weekend and I’ll look back into it in order to not do the same mistake going forward.”
