The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was back on track, and it showed. In Formula 1, his talent always stands out, especially when he’s behind the wheel of an imperfect car. The mistake he made in the first free practice session could not erase the entire weekend. A silly slip-up caused by a moment of distraction. It could happen. Once back in action, the Monegasque immediately found good feeling again without suffering from the earlier absence.
A different work plan. Yes. Keeping in mind that the Ferrari driver had not been able to carry out race pace simulation in FP2, on Saturday he took the time for a stint with a heavy fuel load. In his run to estimate performance over 300 kilometers, he put together fast and consistent laps. It should be noted that in his case we’re talking about only 7 laps in total, compared to Lewis Hamilton’s 11 on Friday.
The rest of the time he focused on flying laps with his Ferrari SF-25. On the medium tyres, he worked hard to gain confidence with the setup studied in the simulator. Step by step, he studied the track and the car until he reached excellent levels of competitiveness. Then, on the soft tyres, he didn’t give up after the first attempt. He worked with his race engineer to understand where improvements were needed and made them in the final minutes.
The tyre issue was quite delicate. Between the medium and the soft, there wasn’t a big performance gap, while the differences lay in how to activate them and keep them in the right operating window. Unsurprisingly, Charles Leclerc’s best lap on the C3 tires came on his third attempt, when the Ferrari driver managed to bring the surface temperature into the target range and maintain it for the whole lap. This was an unknown going into qualifying.
At the end of FP3, the Monegasque was in the slipstream of Lando Norris’s McLaren. Beating the British cars was tough, as was beating the two Williams, especially that of George Russell. At the end of the session, Charles Leclerc placed eighth. Unfortunately, the result came down to two factors: errors and tyres. In the first Q3 attempt, just like his teammate, he lost the car in turn 1 because the tyres weren’t ready.
In the second attempt, he lost focus at turn 6. He even got a bit upset with Isack Hadjar, although it did not seem like the Frenchman had disturbed him. The mistake was mainly due to distraction that he himself caused, as the tension was sky-high. In front of the microphones, he didn’t blame Isack, although he maintained that with the walls so close, you can immediately feel a car 100 meters ahead. That’s why he’s angry. He was confident about getting pole and lost it because of this.
Charles Leclerc pointed out that in sector 1 he was the fastest of all, yet he has to settle for just eighth place. On top of that, he’s two tenths behind Lewis Hamilton, who takes sixth. The Monegasque driver was livid and couldn’t stay calm. He had already exploded on the radio, jumping out of the car once he got back to the pit lane. He couldn’t accept it, because he cared and knew he had the chance to beat everyone.
In the third free practice session, he had been very comfortable and strongly reaffirmed that his mistake in FP1 hadn’t caused any problems. Then he made a sort of critique of the team—perhaps indirect, but the message came through loud and clear. Charles Leclerc referred to the fact that for two seasons now, he always has to suffer a lot on Saturdays in the Italian car.
His anger gradually turned into a desire for redemption when he promised that today he would try to do something special. He has to rebuild an entire weekend in 300 kilometers, essentially, but the Monegasque has no intention of raising the white flag. He concluded with a sentence that perfectly reflects Ferrari’s 2025 status: “We’ve made life much harder for ourselves…”
Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari is showing a valuable trait: saying what he thinks. And that’s a good thing, because the Prancing Horse really needs it. Yesterday, the seven-time world champion’s qualifying didn’t end the way he wanted. In Q3 he lost performance, as the Pirelli C6 compound doesn’t suit the SF-25 very well. In Q2 it seemed like the Briton could fight at the front. But that didn’t happen.
The feeling Lewis Hamilton has with his car is never quite right. There’s always something that doesn’t work as it should. And that’s a shame because the former Mercedes driver, despite being forty years old, can still easily make his mark. It must be said that in free practice he had to take on double duty, as Charles Leclerc’s crash forced the team to revise its program.
Even though he had more time to study the behavior of the Italian car, he could not exploit it as effectively as his teammate. On his first Q3 run, he arrived at turn one with cold tyres. That prevented him from taking the ideal line, and so he had to lift off. Then, in the next flying lap, he improved but not enough to be among the front-runners.
The tyre surface temperature wasn’t right. And on a track like the one in Canada, that’s a very important factor due to its energy profile. Lewis Hamilton will start fifth, in a race where he can still be a key player. Everything will depend on race pace. Friday had been quite poor, with heavy degradation and inconsistent lap times. However, the setup change will undoubtedly help in that regard.
Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that progress in qualifying has been made, especially since the Monaco Grand Prix, but he stressed that the car’s overall performance has remained the same. The reason, in his view, is quite simple: the SF-25 is not being updated. Since the beginning of the season, only one upgrade package has been introduced, and from that point on, work has focused solely on optimization.
The Briton’s criticism is justified, though it reflects a clear policy set by Frederic Vasseur. Since the Ferrari team principal took the helm, the approach has been to make do with very limited resources. Put like that, it may sound exaggerated, but that’s essentially the point Lewis was making. He even gave examples, pointing out that his former team is bringing updates very frequently.
That is precisely why there have been no clear steps forward. And who can blame him? In today’s Formula 1, especially under the current regulations for ground-effect cars, maximizing performance through setup is crucial. But so is modifying or correcting the car, otherwise there is no way to make significant progress. Ferrari is also in difficulty because it needs more than just updates; it needs corrections, and that takes more time.
Reflecting on his performance, the British driver still said he was satisfied with the result achieved, even if, he admitted, something more could have been attempted, maybe with a different medium tyre strategy. His former teammate did just that and took pole position with a masterful performance. A result that Charles Leclerc would have beaten, had he not made that mistake in turn 8.
For Lewis Hamilton, the teams ahead remain stronger. In the race, the podium is still within reach for the seven-time Formula 1 world champion, although fighting back won’t be easy. As for the win, there are no realistic options. The goal is to give it everything and make the most of the good balance found in race pace simulations. With a fresh set of tyres to start on, the confidence is there.
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