What the Monegasque said
As already analyzed on Sunday right after the Japanese Grand Prix, there is no clear alignment in the statements made by Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, and Frederic Vasseur when describing the current state of the Ferrari SF-25, a car that is not delivering the performance expected before the start of the championship. In an interview with L’Équipe, the team principal stated that everything comes down to extracting potential, whereas Charles Leclerc said in Thursday’s press conference that there is currently no potential to extract from the SF-25—a view he reiterated on Sunday after the chequered flag, when he confirmed he had driven a perfect weekend, a perfect weekend that nonetheless only yielded a fourth-place finish.
Charles Leclerc, in addition to stressing that he couldn’t have done any more in Suzuka, also said he is approaching Bahrain with a different mindset than the one he had after pre-season testing in late February: “We have to push to the maximum, but I know the team in Maranello is doing that and I hope that starting from Bahrain we’ll have a bit more performance. Bahrain will be very important to understand the car. I’m going to Sakhir with a very different view of the tests, I have a very clear direction I want to take for my driving style and I hope it pays off,” Leclerc told Sky Sport.
Today’s edition of Corriere dello Sport reports a behind-the-scenes development regarding a stance taken by Charles Leclerc on Saturday evening in Suzuka after qualifying. “That’s it, I’m going my own way,” Charles Leclerc is said to have told Fred Vasseur and Ferrari’s top engineers, according to the Italian sports daily—a statement that indeed aligns with what he said less than 24 hours later after the race.
Charles Leclerc is therefore convinced he needs to follow a ‘personal’ path, not necessarily shared by the team principal or other key figures in Ferrari’s technical structure—a team that, according to Jacques Villeneuve, is being “taken over” by Lewis Hamilton. In any case, this is far from unusual in the motorsport world. At McLaren, for example, both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri also want to pursue separate development paths. However, it should be noted that the initial alignment between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in terms of driving styles and technical preferences, as stated at the start of the season, may no longer be intact.
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