At Singapore, Ferrari endured yet another challenging day in a 2025 season filled more with disappointments than successes.
After a promising first practice session, in which Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished second and fourth respectively, the second session went much worse. The one most visibly affected was Leclerc. In a session repeatedly interrupted by red flags (mainly caused by George Russell and Liam Lawson), the Monaco-born driver barely managed to utilize the 60 minutes available, although at the end of the day he stated that he had a promising pace.
“The day was good. Good Free Practice 1, while Free Practice 2 was difficult, mainly because of traffic and red flags, not to mention the pit lane incident. Several things that happened were not positive, but we will reset and come back stronger. I think the pace is good and that is a good thing.”
However, the biggest problem of his day did not happen on track, but in the pit lane. After the red flag triggered by Lawson, all teams rushed their operations to get back on track quickly and make the most of the final minutes of the session.
It was while exiting the garage that an unusual incident occurred involving Leclerc’s Ferrari and Lando Norris’s McLaren. The McLaren mechanics released the two MCL39 cars almost simultaneously. It is clear that the mechanic responsible for monitoring Leclerc’s exit did not notice—or did not properly assess—the speed and distance of the two papaya cars.
Charles Leclerc left the garage and collided with Norris’s MCL39. Lando ended up against the curb leading to the pit wall, damaging the front wing endplate. Ferrari’s mechanics, realizing the situation, immediately assisted the McLaren team in recovering Norris, who was stuck against the curb with a damaged wing. Leclerc, however, managed to get on track but could not use the Soft tire set to improve his lap time.
“I analyzed what happened and obviously my camera was in front of my face, so I couldn’t see or check Ale’s (my mechanic) signal. But after talking to him, I think there was a bit of confusion with the two McLarens just released, and it seems they came out at the same time, so he thought they would be slower and I didn’t get the stop signal that way.”
“This is one of those typical cases where you rely on the team, but, I mean, these things happen. It was also a delicate moment because with all the red flags in the session, everyone was in a hurry to get out for a few laps. So it was a combination of factors. It’s not something we wanted, but these things happen.”
Leave a Reply