During the F1 Monaco GP last weekend in his post-qualifying and post-race print media sessions, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella spoke about Ferrari and Charles Leclerc as they pushed the Woking-based team very hard.
In 2024, Charles Leclerc ended his bad luck curse at his home race in style by taking pole position once again, and then winning the Grand Prix for the first time.
This year, the 27-year-old was very pessimistic heading into the race as he feared a tough weekend with the struggles Ferrari faces in slow corners.
However, Monaco is a track where a driver can make a difference. While Ferrari generally looked stronger than they did in Miami or qualifying at Imola on both low and high fuel, the Monegasque driver was extracting the absolute maximum out of his SF-25 machinery.
Leclerc was fastest in all three practice sessions ahead of qualifying at the F1 Monaco GP as he pushed hard and kept it clean around his home streets.
It was also clear McLaren had more to come in qualifying as their faster car eventually told when it mattered. It was a fine lap by Lando Norris to take pole position, with the Ferrari driver doing a great one of his own to beat Oscar Piastri to P2. The championship leader could not match his teammate or Leclerc when it mattered.
Stella on the different strengths of Ferrari in F1 Monaco GP qualifying and the excellent performance from Leclerc
In his post-qualifying print media session, Andrea Stella explained the strengths of the Ferrari at Monaco in 2025 were different to previous years, highlighting how clear Leclerc was of everyone else at the Tabac corner before the Swimming Pool section.
Stella also outlined how good Leclerc is around Monaco. Since Ferrari’s bad misjudgement in 2019 that saw him out in Q1, he has qualified P1, P1, P6, P1 and P2 over the last five seasons in Monaco. A pretty impressive record.
“For instance, Tabac, Leclerc is by far the fastest in that corner, which shows also that Ferrari are very competitive, but not necessarily in the way they used to be competitive.
“Like they were mainly competitive in previous years in the low-speed section. While this year their car seems to be better in high-speed, and perhaps they lost a little bit of performance in low-speed.
“I don’t know about this, but they’ve always been competitive in Monaco. Leclerc is a specialist.
“And I think Monaco with this generation of cars, what used to be medium-low speed, now is probably medium-high speed. Like the speed in some of the corners is… I would like to be on the stands and watch the car live in Tabac, because it must be pretty impressive.”
Leclerc continues to give Stella and McLaren headaches in the F1 Monaco GP race
After Lando Norris got out of turn 1 in the lead, the only question was when the top 3 would make their two mandatory stops as passing on track was never going to happen.
While Leclerc did his best to keep the pressure on Norris — and he was hassling hard in the closing stages when Verstappen was out on old tyres in the lead before he boxed again — the Brit always had things under control.
It meant Piastri never had a chance to attack the home hero either as the Ferrari driver and the Australian’s teammate had better pace on Sunday as well.
In fact the main concern for Stella and co. was Leclerc jumping Norris once the McLaren driver had caught a huge gaggle of cars behind the Williams for a second time.
No chance to get Piastri ahead
“I have to say we need to look into that [options on getting Piastri ahead]. Because to be a 1-2, there should have been phases in which Oscar needed to have enough pace to close on Leclerc.
“And once you are in the gearbox of Leclerc, then you can think about options.But we were always a little too far from Leclerc to think about options with Oscar.
“So despite the race being more complicated than a normal Monte Carlo race, actually I think for the first three, there weren’t many options to change the order.
“If anything, the main stressful point for us came when Lando needed to go through the block of backmarkers for the second time. And we knew that that could have been a possibility for Ferrari to try an undercut with Leclerc.
“But I have to say the strategy team were sharp in recognising that that was a risk, and then pulling Lando in, and then the pitstop crew did a very good pitstop and we covered this attack from Leclerc.
“So I’m not sure there was much more we could have done to bring Oscar to P2.”
Stella surprised by Hamilton struggles in F1 Monaco GP
Andrea Stella also noted his surprise that Lewis Hamilton could not join Charles Leclerc in the top 4 by the end of the Monaco GP last Sunday.
Red Bull decided to start Max Verstappen on hard tyres, hoping for a red flag or Safety Car later in the race once they switched to mediums.
Despite the Red Bull driver dropping off massively on the yellow walled tyres as the stint went on, the seven-time World Champion was nowhere near his teammate, the Dutchman and McLarens as he struggled for race pace. 50s covered the Ferrari teammates at the flag.
“And I have to say, I’m not sure if Lewis had problems, but Lewis should have been in the race today.
“So actually he should have been the one capitalising on this kind of approach from Red Bull.”
