Coming into the Miami GP, Charles Leclerc stands fifth in the driver standings, with 47 points scored for the Scuderia Ferrari. Ferrari was seen as a strong contender entering the 2025 season. However, the Italian team has been struggling more than expected, with a mere 78 points in the constructors’ championship. After a disappointing start in Australia and a disqualification in China, Leclerc has consistently improved his pace.
A new set-up for an improved race pace
The Monegasque driver opted for a “quite extreme” set-up that he is “only seeing the benefits” from.
For confidentiality reasons, Leclerc did not detail the tweaks made on his SF-25, though he elaborated on the front-end changes made to his machine:
“I’m not obviously going to go too much into details, but it’s just made the car a little bit trickier, very, very pointy.”
This contributes to the sensitivity of the car, challenging the pilot further during the qualifying session – when everything counts. Leclerc has incidentally been known as a very solid qualifier.
“And that’s quite tricky to drive, especially when you are on the limit in qualifying.”
“But it’s something that I like, that I’ve always liked in my career,” explained Leclerc in the print media session.
Adapting to a new set-up requires patience and work over several race weekends, described the Monegasque.
“It takes a few races in order to re-adapt everything around the car in order to go into that direction, which is the process that we are going through at the moment […].”
An hopeful yet cautious Leclerc
While Leclerc recognizes that Ferrari’s work “[…]in the last races has been paying off”, the Ferrari driver remains prudent and alert to potential changes to continuously improve the SF-25’s performance.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will pay off for every race, so we still need to keep that open minded approach and make sure that we can reverse, just in case we need to.
“But we are still exploring in that direction and still pushing into that direction, because, for now, we are only seeing the benefits.“
Pleased with the current form of the car, Leclerc said: “at least on my side, I really like that direction.”
Leclerc reflects on adapting to Ferrari’s new SF-25 setup
Comparing his positive car feeling to his teammate Hamilton’s disappointing recent results, Leclerc explained that “it’s always very, very difficult to compare drivers’ feelings because if you don’t feel at ease, there’s always something that you struggle with more than the other driver and that’s why you cannot go as fast,”
The current configuration of the SF-25 is radically different to what Leclerc has been comfortable with in the past. The 27-year-old pilot has had to adapt his driving habits to extract the best out of his Ferrari.
“On my side, this year, we’ve gone in quite extreme directions in terms of set-up in order to extract a bit more out of the car so I feel like I’m changing quite a lot of my driving style in order to fit the new requirements from this car.”
Leclerc acknowledges edge over Hamilton, adapting to Ferrari’s evolving configuration
In Formula 1, a driver’s main competitor is first and foremost their own teammate. Leclerc recognizes that he hold an edge over 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. Strong of several years with the Scuderia Ferrari, Charles Leclerc is undeniably more at ease than his teammate.
“However, it’s been seven years that I’ve been with Ferrari so there are most likely things that are also very natural to me now after so many years with the team that I don’t realise – even though I feel like I’ve been driving quite differently this year, just because this car requires a different set-up and a different way of driving.”
This new set-up appears to still be paying off, with Leclerc securing P2 in the only free practice of the F1 Miami GP.
