Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has opened up about taking advantage of the close title fight, the likelihood of Max Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship, and which McLaren driver he expects to come out on top with four rounds to go in the 2025 F1 season.
While Lando Norris took the championship lead from McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri by 1 point after emerging victorious in Mexico City, Verstappen kept his title aspirations alive with a strong third-place finish. He now trails the Brit by 36 points.
Meanwhile, Ferrari are encountering a rather challenging year after missing out on the Constructors’ Championship by only 14 points in 2024. Leclerc sits fifth in the standings with 210 points and zero wins under his belt, over a hundred points behind Verstappen in third. The Monégasque has already been eliminated from F1 title contention this season.
Leclerc relies on the SF-25’s competitiveness to capitalise on the close title fight
Speaking in a print media session ahead of the Mexico City GP, Charles Leclerc weighed in on the closely contested battle for the F1 Drivers’ Championship that finds only 36 points separating the top three rivals.
With regard to the title contenders being unable to afford a DNF and whether that gives him a slight advantage when engaging in wheel-to-wheel battles with them, Leclerc admitted that he has nothing at stake going into the final few races in 2025.
Noting the upper hand he has on Norris, Piastri, and Verstappen in terms of putting his race on the line, the 28-year-old also remarked that he requires the SF-25 to be competitive in order to pull off aggressive starts and capitalise on the aforementioned advantage in the upcoming rounds.
“Yeah, I think the context is always important when you’re fighting someone. You’re aware that in my case there’s not much to lose; in their cases, there’s a lot to lose. So that gives a little bit of an advantage.
“But to use this advantage, I need to be on their pace, and at the moment it doesn’t seem that we are on the pace of McLaren or Red Bull.
“But if we are, for sure, especially at the start [when you have] these kind of situations, you know that these three drivers will be a bit more cautious with me than they will be in between them so yeah, that’s a good thing to know.”
Leclerc is not ruling Verstappen out yet
Asked whether he believes Verstappen can still clinch the 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship and whether the Red Bull driver’s recent run of form has astounded him, Charles Leclerc responded, “I’m never surprised.”
The eight-time race winner commended Verstappen’s ability to stay at the top of his game. At the same time, he emphasised how teams like McLaren have already shifted their focus to the 2026 car and partially attributed the Dutchman’s recent wins to the Milton Keynes outfit introducing crucial upgrade packages later in the season.
Despite not ruling the four-time world champion out of contention, Leclerc reckons that bridging a considerable deficit in only four rounds is a big ask and that he would rather wager on a McLaren driver.
“Max [Verstappen] is always driving at a very high level and considering Red Bull is probably the team that has pushed the development more than other teams [it’s not surprising].
“I think McLaren had stopped quite a while ago; we also stopped quite a while ago. And Mercedes and Red Bull are the two teams that pushed for a bit longer. So it’s not a complete surprise.
“I’ll be very surprised if he manages to win the championship from where he is. I mean, again, he’s always on top of things and always performing extremely well but it’s still 40 points and 40 points is significant.
“So yeah, if I had to bet one dollar, I’d probably would on the McLaren drivers but yeah, you can never rule out Max really.”
Either McLaren driver could win the 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship
In terms of which McLaren driver he anticipates to come out on top and win their maiden F1 Drivers’ title, Charles Leclerc was unable to provide a definitive answer.
Highlighting the massive step forward Piastri has taken this season and Norris’s resurgence in the recent races, the Ferrari driver surmised that either could emerge triumphant in this neck-and-neck competition between the McLaren teammates when the 2025 F1 campaign comes to a close in Abu Dhabi.
“Oh, which one? That’s a difficult one. I don’t know.
“I mean, Oscar [Piastri] has been very, very strong this season and has been very solid. If you look at the last two, three races it seems that Lando [Norris] is coming back to a very, very strong form. So it’s going to be close; I don’t know.”
