Charles Leclerc fought tooth and nail in front of Ferrari’s adoring tifosi at Monza, but had to concede that fourth place was the limit on a day where McLaren and Red Bull proved too strong.
The Monegasque’s defiance brought early thrills in the Italian Grand Prix, but the lack of race pace soon dictated a quieter Sunday.
Leclerc was in the thick of the action in the opening laps as he attempted to hold back McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. The duel saw both drivers trading positions in quick succession before Piastri established control and began to pull away.
“It was a nice battle. I felt like I was overtaking when he was doing a mistake and he was overtaking me when I did a mistake,” said the Scuderia charger.
Despite throwing everything at it, Leclerc admitted the Ferrari simply lacked the outright speed of its rivals.
“They just had more pace than I did. I tried things that I think weren’t in the car and I lost the rear multiple times. That meant I couldn’t hope for much better unfortunately.
“I tried. I don’t have any regrets. Unfortunately today the pace of the car was a little bit worse than what we expected.”
Settling Into Fourth
Once Piastri had cleared off and Max Verstappen along with Lando Norris stretched ahead, Leclerc found himself managing the gap to Mercedes.
George Russell applied pressure mid-race, but the Ferrari driver held his ground and eased into a lonely run to the flag in fourth — just over four seconds shy of Piastri’s podium.
The result underlined Ferrari’s current position in the pecking order: competitive enough to frustrate, but rarely strong enough to beat McLaren, and now Red Bull on pure merit.
Looking Ahead to Favorable Tracks
Although disappointed not to deliver a podium at home, Leclerc is already looking to the final eight races of the season. He pointed to Baku, Singapore, and Las Vegas as circuits where Ferrari might have a better chance of fighting near the front.
“Baku is a track I love which I’ve been very strong in the past but in the race, it’s a track that’s very easy to overtake,” he explained. “If you don’t have the race pace in the race you can definitely feel it. That’s going to be tricky.
“Then you’ve got Singapore where qualifying is very important and the race is more difficult to overtake - I love this track as well.
“I think Singapore, maybe Baku and Las Vegas, maybe are the three tracks we’re closer to winning a race but that doesn’t mean we go there as favourites. We go there as third favourites.
“If Red Bull struggles for a reason or another, maybe second force but never the first one so it’s always going to be quite uphill and difficult.”
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For Leclerc and Ferrari, Monza laid bare both the strengths and the shortcomings of their package. The passion of the tifosi gave the team a boost, but against the relentless pace of Verstappen and the consistency of McLaren, fourth place was realistically the ceiling.
Leclerc’s willingness to fight, however, will be critical as Ferrari heads into the final stretch of the season searching for redemption — and perhaps, on the right circuit, a long-awaited victory.
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