Ferrari could have gone much faster with Charles Leclerc on the first day of track action in view of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Maranello team showed up well at the 6.174-kilometre Jeddah Corniche Circuit, but needs to do better if it wants to fight McLaren. Something is needed in terms of setup to optimize performance and fully exploit the potential of the SF-25 car. Today, after overnight simulator work, small adjustments are expected, with fine-tuning aimed squarely at the Prancing Horse’s objective.
Let’s analyze the telemetry comparison between Lando Norris’ best time in the second free practice session, which as in fact the fastest of Friday and Charles Leclerc lap which was good enough for fourth place, 0.482 seconds slower than the British driver’s benchmark. It is also worth pointing out that the Monegasque lap time was done using soft tyres already worn from three previously aborted laps and their respective cooldown laps. The instability of the rear end had forced him to return to the pits for a front wing adjustment of no less than -4 clicks. A significant change, indicating the need to shift the balance.
The aim was to make the Italian car more predictable and manageable during turn-in and cornering. Charles Leclerc himself, at the end of the lap, confirmed via radio that the feeling was overall positive, considering the state of the tyres. From his point of view, the car had finally become “coherent,” with a rear axle able to follow the very precise front end smoothly.
Over the radio, these were precisely the points mentioned as most critical to correct. Looking at the telemetry data, the most evident gap emerges in turns 1–2. In this section, the Monegasque loses a full 0.279 seconds to Norris. The reason? Lando is able to brake later and more progressively, without needing to apply the brake twice as Leclerc is forced to do.
This is especially true in high-speed segments, where the SF-25 has shown it can shine thanks to a more than solid aerodynamic balance. The Saudi Arabian track is a tough test for any F1 car: extremely high speeds, tight corners, walls just inches away. For this reason, a razor-sharp front end is needed, enabling sharp, quick, repeated and stable changes of direction.
To achieve this characteristic, teams tend to stiffen the front end, inevitably sacrificing some grip in slower corners. And in fact, this is where Ferrari takes the hit. If in the fast sections the car seems “glued” to the track, in the few more technical parts, like turns 1, 2 and 27, the car struggles to rotate, losing valuable time. Bryan Bozzi, Charles Leclerc’s race engineer, addressed this clearly.
This factor, combined with better traction on corner exit—also thanks to fresher tyres and a more “responsive” rear end—allows McLaren to pull ahead. In turn 4, the SF-25 car’s issues are confirmed: Charles Leclerc goes through the corner 10 kilometers per hour slower, but makes up a few hundredths in the following stretch by lifting off the throttle 30% less. There, between turns 5 and 9, Ferrari instead shows its strengths.
The rear stability and solid aerodynamic platform allow car number 16 to handle direction changes very effectively, gaining half a tenth also thanks to intelligent use of the pedals. Afterwards, telemetry does not show major differences. The time lost in sector 2 comes from tyres already worn out by the three aborted laps, which no longer provide the same performance as fresher compounds.
In fact, in the high-speed chicane that characterizes sector 2, namely turns 16–17, there are no visible differences. On the contrary, Charles Leclerc manages to go full throttle even before Norris, but the rear tyres’ traction suffers from some wear, underperforming on corner exit and losing 0.092 seconds. In the final straight, the limits of the Maranello car re-emerge: turn 27 is a faithful mirror of the situation.
The stiff front end doesn’t allow Charles Leclerc to rotate the car as he would like, forcing him into a wider line and a delayed throttle application to avoid brushing the wall. The data is clear: 8 kilometers per hour lower minimum speed compared to the McLaren, and compromised traction. The overall impression is that the SF-25 is still highly sensitive to setup and tyre compound changes.
Charles Leclerc did the most he could with his Ferrari, even adapting his driving style with more progressive and linear pedal input, and trying softer lines to compensate for the lack of cornering rotation. Lando Norris, for his part, could count on a well-balanced MCL39 and tyres in the perfect operating window, without which the gap would have been significantly smaller.
— see video above —
