The first European triple-header of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship wrapped up in Barcelona, and Ferrari concludes it with two podiums, both secured by Charles Leclerc in Monaco and Montmeló.
While the one earned in the Principality was well-deserved, the result of an SF-25 that proved very competitive through the streets of Monte Carlo, today’s podium came thanks to the intervention of the Safety Car, which shuffled the cards—especially in terms of tyres—giving Charles Leclerc a significant advantage in his battle with Max Verstappen for the third step of the podium.
At the end of the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur commented on what he saw in Barcelona and the two previous races while speaking to Sky Sport F1.
What do you think of the contact between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen at the restart?
“I don’t think anything of it. Max lost the car coming out of the final corner after the restart because the hard tyres are difficult to bring up to temperature. Then on the straight, they moved about 20 centimetres—one to the right, the other to the left. If we look at every contact like this one, we’d still be here discussing them until Canada.”
The podium was fortunate, because at a certain point in the third stint, Charles Leclerc was struggling a lot on the mediums…
“Yes, that’s a good summary of what happened. It’s still hard to understand why we had a better pace on the softs than on the mediums. That applies to us and many other teams. On the softs, we had a more consistent pace. In the end, it’s a good podium because we would have been fourth before the Safety Car. Then Max didn’t have softs at the end, he went on the hards, and we took advantage of that to get onto the podium. We sacrificed qualifying, and our strategy was clear—even if we expected a bit more from the mediums.”
On the other side, Lewis had a straightforward strategy, but in the end it didn’t work out…
“Lewis’s race was good up until the final stint. Until that point, he had a good pace. In the last stint, he had a problem. He was complaining a lot about the balance, which had been fine in the first two stints. So probably something happened to the car. Still, he brought home good points for us.”
Are you satisfied after the Imola–Monaco–Barcelona triple-header?
“This triple-header went well for us because we made good progress compared to what we saw in Miami and the earlier races. At Imola we had a tough qualifying but did well in the race. In Monaco we were strong, and here we sacrificed qualifying to perform better in the race. I don’t know if it was the right choice, but in the end, we got a podium and second place in the Constructors’ Championship. Now we focus on the next one.”
Is the goal to attack Max and the McLarens?
“It’s to do the best job we can. We did the same last year and we’ll keep doing it. There are still 15 races left, and we’ll try to improve and catch up to McLaren, even though they’re very far ahead in the championship. We’ll try to close the gap.”
