Leclerc lays bare Ferrari's current Achilles' heel

In the wake of Ferrari’s challenging start to its 2025 F1 season, Charles Leclerc has addressed the team’s concerns and pinpointed specific areas where the Scuderia’s SF-25 needs improvement.

Just two races into its campaign, the Italian outfit finds itself languishing in fifth place in F1’s Constructors’ Championship, a staggering 61 points behind leader McLaren.

This gap is attributed not only to operational missteps, such as the double disqualification in China, but also to a noticeable shortfall in the car's overall speed.

Ferrari’s contender has flickered with promise – as Lewis Hamilton demonstrated in last Saturday’s Sprint event in China – but failed to ignite consistently, leaving Leclerc to confront the team’s shortcomings head-on.

While the team has made strides on several fronts, including high-speed corners, Leclerc has singled out the SF-25’s performance in medium and low-speed corners as its current Achilles’ heel relative to McLaren.

Leclerc Lays It Bare

“Honestly, it’s never really one thing,” Leclerc explained. “If we look at qualifying in Melbourne, they were very, very strong compared to us in the last sector, which could be about tyres maybe more than anything.

McLaren’s dominance in that phase exposed a gap Ferrari couldn’t close. Yet, the race told a different story.

“But then if you look at the race, it’s completely different and it’s just overall performance where we were just lacking speed, whether it’s low or high speed or degradation,” Leclerc admitted. “It was basically all in one.

©Ferrari

“The high speed, I think we did a big step forward. Low and medium speed seems to be the area where we need to work on a little bit more for now.

“I know and I think we know where we need to push in terms of performance for this car,” he added, signaling a shared understanding within the team.

Flashes of Brilliance Amid the Struggles

Ferrari’s opening two races haven’t been devoid of highlights. Leclerc topped the timesheets in FP2 in Melbourne, while Hamilton clinched victory in the Shanghai Sprint, proving the SF-25’s potential.

Yet, these moments have been fleeting. Poor execution – like the double disqualification in China – and inconsistent pace have overshadowed the car’s capabilities.

Leclerc’s own resilience shone through in Shanghai, where he battled to fifth place despite losing an endplate in a first-lap clash with Hamilton, only to see the result erased by the stewards.

©Ferrari

“I think we were generally quick,” Leclerc assessed, reflecting on the Shanghai weekend.

“We’ve seen it yesterday [in the Sprint] with Lewis. We saw it towards the end of the stint where I was very strong. All in all, I think we had a really good race car.

“Today I did a step with the car and I think that made it a lot better also for today. I felt there was a lot more potential,” he said, hinting at untapped speed thwarted by circumstance.

As Ferrari regroups, Leclerc’s diagnosis offers a roadmap. The team’s engineers now face the task of bolstering performance in low and medium-speed corners without sacrificing their high-speed gains.

For a squad accustomed to the weight of history, the pressure is immense. But Leclerc’s clarity and determination suggest that this is a chapter still being written – one where Ferrari could yet turn the page on its early 2025 woes and chase the glory that once seemed within reach.

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