Leclerc changing driving style ‘quite a lot’ to tame Ferrari SF-25

Charles Leclerc says he’s been forced to overhaul his driving style “quite a lot” this season to wring every ounce of performance from a car that has left Ferrari languishing in fourth place in the F1 Constructors’ Championship.

With only a single podium in the first five races, the Italian outfit’s ambitions have been humbled, and Leclerc’s adaptability has become key.

The Monegasque, now in his seventh year with Ferrari, has had to navigate uncharted territory with the SF-25’s setup, adopting extreme configurations to unlock its potential and radically adjusting his driving habits to try and stay competitive.

“It’s always very difficult to compare drivers’ feeling, because if you don’t feel at ease, there’s always something that you struggle with more than the other driver, that’s why you can’t go as fast,” Leclerc explained on Thursday ahead of this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

“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."

While Leclerc's years of experience with Ferrari may suggest an edge over Lewis Hamilton in adapting to the team's machinery, he refutes the idea that the SF-25 naturally suits him.

“However, there might be things that, 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 enough, even though I feel like I’ve been driving quite differently this year, just because this car requires a different setup and a different way of driving.”

Pointy Car, Painful Process

Leclerc’s path to improved performance hasn’t been straightforward. He’s had to push the SF-25 toward his personal driving preference — a highly responsive front end — even though it makes the car harder to handle on the edge.

“I’m not obviously going to go too much into details, but it just makes the car a little bit trickier, very, very pointy, and that’s quite tricky to drive, especially when you are on the limit in qualifying,” he said. “But it’s something that I like, that I’ve always liked in my career."

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Leclerc noted that the change hasn’t been instant, requiring time and patience to align everything around this direction.

“But it takes a few races in order to readapt everything around the car, in order to go into that direction, which is the process that we are going through at the moment."

“The last races have been paying off, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will pay off for every race, and 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 benefits, at least on my side, I really like that direction.”

With the SF-25 still an evolving puzzle, Leclerc’s adaptability may prove crucial as Ferrari seeks to turn around its season and also provide Hamilton a car he can thrive in.

For now, though, the burden of extracting performance remains squarely on the driver — and Leclerc is rising to the challenge.

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