The Monegasque is fifth on the grid in Abu Dhabi after Ferrari radically changed the SF-25’s setup. In a burst of optimism, Charles Leclerc promises a podium, seemingly forgetting those starting ahead of him. Hamilton, on the other hand, faces his third consecutive disappointment by failing to reach Q2, a habit that has become all too familiar. Next year, Ferrari will need another Lewis.
The relationship between Leclerc and the SF-25 has been both turbulent and tormenting. It is unlikely that Charles Leclerc will want this car in his Monte Carlo museum, where he keeps many of his F1 machines. Until the very last lap of the final qualifying session of the year, he had to literally fight to maintain control. Ferrari engineers managed to bring the car back into a more optimal operating window compared to the previous two rounds, but there is a lot of Leclerc in the fifth-place finish achieved at the end of qualifying.
After Friday’s practice sessions, the team decided to take risks. “We made some aggressive choices,” Frederic Vasseur revealed, and overall the car’s behavior matched the track conditions well. However, achieving fifth place required a perfect lap from Leclerc, just 85 thousandths of a second behind George Russell’s Mercedes. “I’m satisfied with my fast lap in Q3,” Charles Leclerc commented. “I think there wasn’t much more to get today. The team did an excellent job managing to turn the situation around this weekend.”
A small smile emerged after the harsh disappointments in Lusail. “I can’t wait for tomorrow’s race to see if the changes we made will help us gain positions,” Charles Leclerc continued. “But we can’t fool ourselves too much, because the cars ahead of us are very fast. It’s up to us to maximize the result tomorrow, and I’ll do my best to take every opportunity at the start, hoping to bring home one last podium for the team this season.”
Leclerc’s optimistic prediction is tempered by reality: ahead of him will start George Russell’s Mercedes (a manageable but tricky rival) and the top three in the world championship standings, who, judging by Friday’s long runs, operate at a different pace.
For Lewis Hamilton, another difficult Sunday awaits. It has become routine to see him in front of cameras for brief interviews while Q3 is still ongoing. The FP3 error cost him the last half-hour of the session, and another mistake on the final lap of Q1 (losing three crucial tenths in the last sector) excluded him from Q2.
“The team did an excellent job preparing the car in time for qualifying after the FP3 incident,” he commented, “but my mistake in the last sector cost us dearly. I know this track well, and tomorrow I will try to bring a more positive result for the team.”
What should worry Hamilton is that his Q2 exclusion no longer makes headlines, and when things don’t go as they should—as is the case—other news takes over, like his morning slalom to avoid photographers at the paddock entrance.
Sunday night’s chequered flag cannot come soon enough for both drivers, but especially for Hamilton. A physical and mental reset is desperately needed, and Ferrari will be praying that the man who arrives in Maranello next January is the real Lewis Hamilton – the one capable of turning the page on 2025 and attacking the new era with fresh fire.
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