Charles Leclerc finished second in a very closely contested 2025 F1 Monaco GP, and admitted he believed in his chances of winning his home race for a second year in a row “until the very end”.
The Monegasque driver started second and challenged eventual winner Lando Norris until the final few laps. Norris had maintained a sizeable gap out in the lead for most of the race, but when Max Verstappen stayed out longer than most in his middle stint and took the lead, he held up Norris to the point where Leclerc could cruise to the back of the McLaren and start a challenge for the race win.
Leclerc believed “until the very end”
Ultimately his charge didn’t result in a win, but the Ferrari F1 driver admitted to believe it until the final stages of the race, and revealed how he’d spent “all night” on Saturday planning and strategizing how he would make his move on the McLaren if the opportunity presented itself during the Monaco GP:
“It’s very difficult [to overtake]. When Max [Verstappen] at the end was in front, I really believed in it until the very end,” he admitted. “I thought about it all night, the two or three places where I could try something on Lando [Norris], and I was willing to take all the risks possible to try and get that win.
“Unfortunately, these opportunities never came. Or at least I had maybe two or three laps where I was like, ‘OK, maybe I go for it’.
“But Lando straight away saw those and defended very well. So I basically couldn’t really go and try something.
“At the end, there were no opportunities for me.“
Expanding on the places where he was considering an attack on the McLaren, Leclerc mentioned he thought about a move into La Rascasse and at the Fairmont hairpin – although he laughingly admitted the latter was an “optimistic” move at its best:
“I think there were maybe two laps in Rascasse, which was the place where I was trying, and then maybe one in Fairmont [hairpin].
“But the Fairmont one was very optimistic, maybe, [laughs].”
“Positive” weekend despite “never being happy” with P2
Although he admitted he will “never really” be happy with a second place finish, Leclerc believes second place at the Monaco GP is a positive result considering how Ferrari’s F1 season has gone so far, and the expectations coming into the weekend were never really considering a podium finish, let alone a challenge for the win:
“I’m never really happy with a second place,” he bluntly said. “Then if you do a step back and you look at our season, I think this is a very positive result for the whole team.
“And especially coming here, we had very low expectations, just because our low-speed performance have been very, very bad all season. However, I think here it’s a very specific track because there’s a lot of bumps, there’s a lot of kerb riding, and I think our car is pretty good on that. And that helped us to close the gap.
“So, yeah, I think we did a really good job. And 18 points plus the 10 of Lewis [Hamilton] are very valuable points for the situation we are in. And on that, I think we should be proud.
“Am I over the moon for second place? Not really, but it’s been a very positive weekend anyway.”
Low speed weakness was the reason behind pre-race pessimism
The Ferrari F1 driver believes Monaco GP’s unique characteristics meant the team’s low speed cornering weakness was somewhat negated by the good mechanical platform the SF-25 offered through the kerbs and bumps of Monte Carlo.
But he is well aware that this is a very specific circuit and doesn’t expect its Monaco strenght to translate to good performance around other circuits coming up:
“I think [low speed cornering] is our biggest weakness, by far,” he said. “And I think that’s why also I came here very pessimistic and saying that I thought that top 10 will already be a challenge.
“Our low speed performance is very poor, [but] I think on a track like this, there are so many bumps and kerbs that our car is actually performing very well on those.
“So this is helping us, but unfortunately it’s only going to help us on such an extreme track like here. So we’ve got to work on our low speed performance.”
Overtaking difficulty “part of the magic” of Monaco
When asked about his thoughts on the newly mandated two-stop strategy in the Monaco GP, Leclerc admitted he probably liked it due to the chance it provided him to challenge Norris’ McLaren, but is aware that some teams played “games” in the midfield – but he believes the difficulty of overtaking on race day is also part of what makes Monaco a “magic” F1 experience for drivers:
“I think being second today, I was pretty happy that this was the case, because it’s, well, at least give you a little bit more hope that something is possible,” he said of the mandated two-stop. “And honestly, it was quite interesting, because with the traffic and everything, there was lots of things happening, or at least you had to push through traffic, which is a very tricky thing to do, especially here in Monaco. So I think it gives more opportunities.
“I’ve heard also there was quite a lot of team games behind us. Whether this is the kind of action we want to see going ahead, I don’t know. I haven’t looked at the race yet.
“But I think it’s always been a bit like that in Monaco. But it’s so special for that, especially on the Saturday when you are pushing to the limit.
“And that’s why it’s so important and tense for drivers to go into qualifying in Monaco, because we know that on Sunday you don’t have as many opportunities.
“And that is part of the magic of Monaco. I understand we need to try and find a way to make it a bit more exciting. And maybe that’s the way to go. But I haven’t checked the race to really judge.”
