1 week Ago By Jamie Woodhouse
Charles Leclerc has been urged to become “more incisive” and “convinced” over how he can make the Ferrari SF-25 stronger. That call comes from former F1 team boss Gian Carlo Minardi, who, after what he has been hearing, suggested Leclerc is in a better position to trigger that improvement than the Ferrari figures around him. While Lewis Hamilton took a Sprint pole and victory for Ferrari in China, the team has not made it onto the podium across the opening three grands prix, Leclerc’s P4 last time out in Japan their strongest result so far.
And after Japan, with the Bahrain Grand Prix coming up next this weekend, Leclerc was left bemoaning a lack of outright pace in the Ferrari SF-25, while Hamilton made reference to an “underperforming” element on his Ferrari and “a bit of a deficit between both sides of the garage, on an element of the car”. Team principal Fred Vasseur, meanwhile, said Ferrari remain in the process of fully getting to grips with their new creation. “We are still exploring the car and we are taking different directions to suit the drivers,” said Vasseur.
“But, I think Bahrain will be a different picture, because we had three days in Bahrain just last month, and more in control.” Leclerc, is not so confident of an improved showing in Bahrain. “I think this is the pace, honestly, what we’ve shown this weekend is there’s not much more in the car, so I think that’s where we are,” he said.
👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates 👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates It was after Bahrain F1 2025 pre-season testing that PlanetF1.com’s best guess over the pecking order starting out – formed from conversations with teams across the paddock and trackside observations – had Ferrari as the fourth-fastest team. P4 is where Ferrari currently sit in the Constructors’ Championship .
And while it has been reported in the Italian media that Ferrari has a new floor available for Bahrain, a fresh report has suggested that Vasseur and technical director Loic Serra want to hang fire on introducing it at the upcoming race, while the aerodynamicists are in favour. Vasseur and Serra apparently want the SF-25’s balance stabilising before such an aerodynamics change is made, so that its effectiveness could then be properly assessed. So, at this point, Minardi wants Leclerc to step up.
“Leclerc, he still fought,” Minardi began in conversation with Motorsport.com’s Italian branch , speaking after Leclerc finished a distant fourth behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri at Suzuka. “I would like him to be a bit more incisive, more convinced of what he has to do to improve the car.
“Probably contrary to the team, he knows perfectly well the problems they still have to face, because they seemed a bit optimistic in saying that first, you have to know the car. “It’s their job to know the car, especially because they made it!” Leclerc sits P6 in the early F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship standings , two positions and five points ahead of Hamilton. Read next: Fernando Alonso’s ‘lingering bitterness’ over McLaren queried in Verstappen praise.
