Charles Leclerc: “We are clearly the fourth team, and that hurts”

Charles Leclerc: “We are clearly the fourth team, and that hurts” | F1 Singapore GP. Charles Leclerc reflects on a frustrating Singapore GP for Ferrari.

The Singapore Grand Prix brought no positives for Ferrari or Charles Leclerc. After a strong start, which allowed him to climb from seventh on the grid to fifth after the first three corners, the Monegasque once again faced a race heavily impacted by constant lift-and-coast instructions and brake management. These constraints ultimately cost him a position to Kimi Antonelli, leaving him to finish sixth and well behind the Mercedes driver. Charles Leclerc’s frustration was visible both through angry team radio messages (“Don’t complain, we’re always doing 200m of lift and coast”) and in his post-race comments.

Leclerc: “We had to manage the brakes more than anyone else”

Reflecting on the race, the Monegasque made it clear that the weekend was extremely frustrating. He explained that the team struggled to keep the car in the optimal window, particularly with brake temperatures, forcing constant management throughout the race. The final gaps—46 seconds behind George Russell and 13 seconds behind Kimi Antonelli—were largely the result of this conservative approach, which required raising the pace only in the final laps. Charles Leclerc noted that although all drivers must manage brakes on a circuit like Marina Bay, he and Lewis Hamilton had to do so far more than others.

He added that the near-retirement incident affecting Hamilton at the end of the race is a stark example of the problems the SF-25 faced at Singapore. Charles Leclerc suggested that even Hamilton’s struggles with grip on new tyres and brake pressures were linked to the same underlying challenges.

Comparison with Mercedes

Ferrari arrived in Singapore hoping to close the gap to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship but instead left with a deficit of 27 points and a stark performance difference. Charles Leclerc highlighted that while they lost 15 seconds in the final 15 laps due to brake management, even without this they would have been around 30 seconds behind—a huge gap considering the team was closer to the top in previous races. “Mercedes has made a massive step forward, and we haven’t been able to match it,” he explained.

What frustrates the 27-year-old driver the most is that, after Red Bull, Mercedes has now also taken a leap forward to challenge for victories. In contrast, Ferrari remains clearly behind the top three teams. “Looking at McLaren and Red Bull, the gaps are more or less the same as previous races, but Mercedes has made a big step forward, just like Red Bull did a few races ago. We are clearly behind the other top three teams, and that really hurts,” he said.

Charles Leclerc concluded by expressing skepticism about any major improvement from Ferrari for the remainder of the season. With the team now focused on 2026, he believes meaningful progress in performance will be difficult to achieve. “I have little hope of taking such a step forward because our attention is already on 2026, so it will be complicated until the end of the season,” he added.

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