There are two ways to look at Charles Leclerc’s season: on one hand, the personal satisfaction of another year performed at a very high level, and on the other, the disappointment of having a car that never allowed him to fight for the results he expected. And it is precisely from this element that the Ferrari driver started when describing his year, hoping for a much stronger 2026.
The final race of the season is often the moment to take stock of the year, and for Charles Leclerc this is one he would like to archive as soon as possible, with the hope that the new regulations coming in 2026 will finally allow him to fight for the target he has been chasing for a long time.
It was a dream he hoped to touch already this season, because even inside the walls of Maranello during the winter break, there was a genuine feeling that this could finally be the right year to aim for the world title. That illusion was boosted by a car that had been deeply revised in many of its elements, conceived to open new development paths and which instead, paradoxically, became its downfall.
For this reason, Ferrari chose to halt aerodynamic development early, focusing all its energy on 2026, the year that will mark the start of a new technical cycle. It was a decision that inevitably affected the second half of Ferrari’s season, forcing the team to remain on the sidelines while its rivals continued to grow. The results suffered, weighing heavily on morale, as seen in Qatar.
Speaking about what happened in Lusail, the scene of one of Ferrari’s worst weekends of the year, Charles Leclerc pointed out that Maranello was fully aware of the difficulties expected, linked to the characteristics of a track that did not suit the SF-25. Despite that, Ferrari disappointed, showing a level of performance below what was expected internally.
“We have some ideas about what we could have tried. Whether they would have been the solution, however, is another story,” Charles Leclerc commented. “It was certainly a weekend made worse by the fact that Qatar was not a track where we were going to be strong, but we still didn’t reach the level of performance we should have had. We should have done better, even if it wasn’t a friendly track.”
For this reason, even without concrete championship targets, the Abu Dhabi weekend could act as a turning point for Ferrari. The hope is to finish the year with a result capable of restoring at least some positivity in Maranello ahead of the winter break, because another ending like Qatar would be very hard to digest.
In Lusail, high tyre pressures, lack of grip and the track layout full of long corners all played a decisive role. But both Frederic Vasseur and Charles Leclerc expect that at Yas Marina the SF-25 can return to fighting for better positions. “For this weekend I expect that we will return to the position where we should be, probably the third force or something like that,” the Monegasque said.
Looking at the season as a whole, the Ferrari driver said he is satisfied with his personal level of performance. What held him back, however, was an SF-25 below expectations, which never allowed him to realistically enter the fight even for a single race win. His hope of winning in Hungary vanished because of issues linked to plank wear, a limitation that affected the car throughout the year.
“Personally, I’m quite satisfied [on a personal level]. I think it’s been a good season from my side. You always try to improve from one year to the next, and that’s what I tried to do this year. I’m satisfied with the work. Then, unfortunately, the performance is not where it should be. And I’m not as satisfied with the results and the performance shown, especially keeping in mind that we finished last year on a positive note. Expectations were different.”
“But we kept pushing. I think that, as a team, we reacted well from the first to the last race, trying to turn that situation around. It wasn’t easy because we didn’t have many upgrades, since we are focusing mainly on 2026. But I think that, as a team, we worked well at the track. What we are missing, in the end, is the car performance. And for that reason I hope that next year will be better.”
Charles Leclerc rightly pointed out that one of the toughest elements of the season was the lack of updates, something that adds to the limitations shown by the car since the very first races of the year, when it became clear that Ferrari would not be able to fight for its targets, as those weaknesses were far deeper and more rooted in the project.
“We were on the back foot technically from the first race. It’s not that this massively changed our approach to the season, but we understood quite quickly that we wouldn’t fight for the world championship because McLaren was too strong. Red Bull, of course, was starting to make big progress,” Charles Leclerc confirmed, expressing support for the decision to stop development early.
“It didn’t make much sense to put all our resources into trying to secure third or second place, even if everything had gone perfectly in the constructors’ championship. I would have much preferred to push development all year and try to fight 100% for that world title. But if you’re in the position we were at the beginning of the year, I think it was a fairly obvious choice, so I don’t regret it.”
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