Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc has now secured a decisive advantage over Lewis Hamilton in their first Formula 1 campaign as teammates in Maranello. Following his fourth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, the Monegasque driver is mathematically guaranteed to finish 2025 with a better race record than the seven-time world champion. His result at Ferrari’s home race sealed the head-to-head battle in Grand Prix finishes, with Leclerc now leading Hamilton 12-2 after Monza. The qualifying statistics also underline Leclerc’s dominance, as he holds a 12-4 lead against his British teammate in one-lap pace.
If the disqualified and non-finish results were to be factored in, Charles Leclerc’s lead would be even more emphatic. Including the controversial Chinese Grand Prix – where Ferrari suffered their first-ever double disqualification – and the Dutch Grand Prix – where both drivers crashed out, though Leclerc was ahead at the time – the Monegasque would be ahead 14-2 in race results. Despite this clear superiority in internal competition, Ferrari’s 2025 campaign has been far from what the Scuderia expected. The team sits second in the constructors’ standings but trails McLaren by an enormous 337 points. Moreover, Ferrari remain the only team among Formula 1’s so-called “big four” who have not yet celebrated a single race victory after 16 of the 24 scheduled Grands Prix.
Charles Leclerc’s belief in Ferrari’s ability to win a race in 2025 is showing signs of weakening. While the driver has maintained hope that a victory is still possible, he has privately expressed concern that the opportunities are diminishing. Reports from Sky Italia suggest that his optimism, once unwavering, has started to fade as the season progresses. Publicly, the 27-year-old has identified the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Las Vegas Grand Prix as Ferrari’s most realistic chances to finally take a win this year. These three venues, he has argued, could give the SF-25 a better opportunity to perform.
The 27-year-old driver made these assessments after the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where Ferrari had entered the weekend confident that they could challenge for victory in front of their home fans. The Scuderia’s engineers had believed the low-downforce nature of the track would suit the strengths of the SF-25. However, once the race began, it became clear that Ferrari were unable to optimise the car, with the technical team facing numerous difficulties in getting the machine into its ideal operating window. Despite the SF-25’s relative efficiency on circuits requiring less downforce, Ferrari were unable to convert that into a podium fight.
The Italian Grand Prix underlined Ferrari’s struggle. Leclerc finished 25.624 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, who took victory for Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Verstappen had also dominated qualifying, taking pole with a lap of 1:18.792, while Leclerc managed only fourth with a 1:19.007. Although disappointed, Leclerc nonetheless left Monza believing that Ferrari could mount stronger challenges at specific upcoming circuits. He indicated that Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Las Vegas stood out as tracks where Ferrari might edge closer to winning, although he also recognised that McLaren and Red Bull would remain major threats in those events.
According to his comments after Monza, Leclerc explained that he considered Baku an opportunity because it is a track where he has traditionally performed well, although he acknowledged that the circuit makes overtaking relatively easy, which increases the risk of being exposed if Ferrari’s race pace is not strong. He also highlighted Singapore, where qualifying has an outsized importance due to the difficulty of overtaking during the race. Finally, he pointed to Las Vegas as another venue where Ferrari might be closer to fighting for a victory. At the same time, he admitted that Ferrari would still not enter any of these races as favourites. Instead, he believed they would realistically line up as the third-strongest contender behind McLaren and Red Bull.
The 2025 Formula 1 season has therefore left Ferrari with a complex picture. On one hand, Charles Leclerc has comfortably outperformed Lewis Hamilton in their first season as teammates, establishing himself as the clear leader within the team. On the other, Ferrari as a whole remain winless and are struggling to match McLaren and Red Bull across a full race weekend. While the Monegasque still clings to the hope that a breakthrough victory is possible before the end of the year, his private doubts suggest that even he recognises the scale of the challenge that lies ahead.
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