Charles Leclerc feels Ferrari can still have an “amazing season” in 2025 despite a disappointing start in the first two Formula 1 races of the year.
The Monegasque sits 10th in the standings going into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix as Ferrari has started the season off the pace of frontrunner McLaren.
Although team-mate Lewis Hamilton scored a surprising win in the Chinese GP sprint, the Scuderia has found itself far from the leading spots in the two Sunday races.
Leclerc finished eighth in Australia and fifth in China before he and Hamilton were disqualified from the latter as a result of a breach of technical regulations post-race.
The slow start has left Ferrari 61 points behind McLaren, but Leclerc feels the Maranello squad can use 2024 as an example of how it can turn around the situation as the year progresses.
Last season Ferrari also endured a slow start, but both Leclerc and the team stayed in the championship fight until very late in the year.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
Asked if challenging for the titles this year started to sound unrealistic, Leclerc said: “Not yet. If we go back to last year, looking at the first few races, the situation in terms of performance was quite a bit worse than where we are now.
“We kind of expected Red Bull to dominate the whole season, and by taking the points that were available at the beginning of the season with the performance we had, we ended up actually fighting for the championship – which was way above our expectations.
“There’s definitely not that feeling within the team at the moment. However, we do feel we haven’t maximized what we could have in the first two races, and that’s frustrating. But it doesn’t mean we cannot recover.
“The season is still very long. Small steps after small steps – we can still have an amazing season,” added the Ferrari driver ahead of the Japanese GP.
Leclerc admitted Ferrari is suffering from the same problem it had last year as it fails to dial the car in properly for qualifying, but the Monegasque believes the issues are even more serious now.
“We can’t use it if we don’t have better qualifying pace,” he said. “So if I take a step back that’s where we need to improve – qualifying. It was the case last year, and this year it seems even more so.”
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Leclerc, who won three races on his way to third in the championship last year, conceded Ferrari also needs to get on top of its tyre degradation problems, although some of those are a result of qualifying poorly.
“I won’t go into very specific details. I think we’re starting to understand the car and have some ideas where we’re lacking. Then tyre degradation being a big thing. When you start in front, everything comes to you a bit more.
“I think, very similar to last year, we have a good car in terms of race pace, but we couldn’t really show it until now. Whenever you start in the middle of the pack, degradation is worse, and you can’t really show your real pace.”
