“It’s embarrassing, I don’t understand how we can be this far off.” In the few words Charles Leclerc spoke over the radio immediately after the checkered flag, the Monegasque’s frustration was clear following a qualifying session that ended with ninth place. The situation was made even harsher by the gap to pole in Q3: nearly two seconds.
The disappointment was hard for Charles Leclerc to hide, compounded by the result of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who struggled at the back of the grid after failing to get his tires up to temperature at the decisive moment of Q1. The Monegasque started his post-qualifying analysis from that very point.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Charles Leclerc admitted, explaining that even before the session began he expected a difficult qualifying, marked by the car’s shortcomings in wet conditions. This expectation was also shaped by the struggles Ferrari has historically had in the rain since his arrival at Maranello.
“We’ve had this problem for seven years. It’s always been one of my strengths in the junior categories, but when I arrived at Ferrari, I never found the right feeling in the rain. And it’s always the same. We try different things every time, but nothing works. I have no explanation, but it’s starting to be a bit long… Every time it rains, we already know what to expect.”
“I try to forget it and give everything, but even today, with a good lap, there was nothing to do. Even when I tried to improve on the final lap, there was no pace. Even with the mistake, I was still a tenth slower than before. When I see the gap, it’s really hard to understand.”
It’s no secret that in wet conditions the key is getting the tires up to the correct working temperature to generate grip. Charles Leclerc highlighted that this remains Ferrari’s main weakness, unable to make a difference when the track is wet.
However, for the Monegasque, this is not the only issue. Despite numerous experiments over the years to improve tire warm-up, the scenario has not changed: “I don’t think it’s only that. In the past, we’ve also tried different solutions for tire heating, and they haven’t worked, so it’s frustrating.”
The change in conditions, according to Charles Leclerc, explains the performance difference between the free practice sessions—where the SF-25 had managed relatively well—and qualifying. It confirms that the Maranello car remains extremely sensitive to tire temperature variations, especially in qualifying, where it struggles even in dry conditions.
Although no one realistically expected the setup to be optimized for rain that wasn’t forecast, Ferrari appeared to suffer more than other teams with the transition to wet conditions. Particularly in the intermediate phases, the car becomes even harder to manage, despite Ferrari abandoning the extremely low-downforce Monza wing in favor of a higher-downforce solution intended to help in such conditions: “It’s not nice, especially because our car is very difficult to drive.”
“Moreover, Las Vegas is a street circuit, it’s night racing, it’s cold and wet. When you combine all these elements, you end up with a tough qualifying session. In the team, we have Lewis, we had Carlos, who know what it means to drive in these conditions,” Charles Leclerc admitted.
“And yes, it’s clear we need to make progress in those conditions. It’s extremely difficult for us to drive. On my side, I can only say it’s incredibly hard to drive. I know exactly what I need to go faster. However, it’s very hard to achieve it. But we will try.”
Starting this far back is a significant disadvantage, especially as Ferrari tries to keep alive its faint hopes of finishing second in the Constructors’ Championship. With Red Bull comfortably ahead and the Ferrari so far behind, even third place could slip away—a risk Charles Leclerc is fully aware of.
“Honestly, I think it will be difficult to finish second in the Constructors’ standings. What I want is to fight for wins, so certainly the SF-25 won’t hold us back. I will still try to do something special. We have fairly high downforce, which theoretically should have helped us in these conditions. I think overtaking will be difficult,” Charles Leclerc concluded.
Leave a Reply