Charles Leclerc’s 2025 F1 Singapore GP saw him finish P6 after qualifying P7 on Saturday. The Ferrari driver faced significant challenges throughout the Singapore GP.
Brake management
Leclerc’s Singapore GP was compromised early by technical difficulties. Asked about his disappointing result following a solid opening lap, the Ferrari F1 driver spoke openly about the frustration he experienced. Ferrari faced more severe brake degradation than their competitors on the Marina Bay street track.
“Oh yes, from lap 8 basically it was all about managing those breaks,” Leclerc explained. “I think everybody has to manage to a certain extent on a track like this, but I think we were on the worst side of things and that makes it extremely difficult.“
“I mean our whole race was very tricky,” he concluded. The brake management required careful attention throughout each corner of the demanding circuit. The loss of pace ultimately allowed Kimi Antonelli to overtake Leclerc in the closing laps.
Team orders were not an issue
Leclerc’s Singapore GP saw him and his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, swap positions on two occasions. Questions about potential team orders tensions inevitably arose given past incidents. The Ferrari driver quickly dismissed concerns about internal friction.
“No, I mean obviously we spoke about it last time and I don’t want to go too much into the detail, but I think we agreed on how we want to work forward. But obviously today we couldn’t really show that because obviously Lewis had break problems, but I had no doubt that it would have been the case anyway.”
Hamilton’s technical troubles prevented the pair from demonstrating their agreed approach. However, Leclerc expressed confidence that their understanding would have held regardless.
The Monegasque driver redirected his attention to Ferrari’s real concerns, stating “I really don’t think that this is the biggest problem of the team at the moment.”
Ferrari’s performance gap
The most troubling aspect of Leclerc’s F1 Singapore GP came in his frank evaluation of where Ferrari stands. His comments highlighted Ferrari’s struggle to keep pace with the development of their championship rivals.
“Unfortunately we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front,” Leclerc stated. “McLaren always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and are the same level of McLaren.”
Leclerc proceeded to paint a clear hierarchy with Ferrari at the bottom. “Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull and then there’s us. It’s not easy obviously because you want to fight for better positions, but at the moment it just feels like we are passengers to the car and we can’t extract much more.”
Ferrari now faces a critical development challenge heading into the final races. Closing the performance gap to the top three teams remains should remain their priority.
