At the Miami checkered flag, car number 16 — the first SF-25 to finish — trailed the Grand Prix winner by a full 57 seconds. And to think that Ferrari had approached the U.S. weekend with cautious optimism: the race turned into a complete disaster, so much so that Charles Leclerc, in the post-race interviews, fell into a silence that smacked of resignation. Between deeply hidden potential and performance far from expectations, the Monegasque’s faith in the SF-25 project continues to waver.
“They’ve been telling us since the beginning of the season that this car still has untapped potential. After this race, do you still believe that’s true?” When Sky Italia journalist Mara Sangiorgio asked the question, the Ferrari driver hesitated. “I’ve been saying for four races now that we’re extracting the maximum potential from this car,” he explained. “This weekend, there was simply none to extract — we need to understand why. Here in Miami, I didn’t have the good feeling I had in the previous trio of races (Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia).”
Is the Ferrari SF-25 already a failure? Charles Leclerc’s long silence
Leclerc’s answer didn’t satisfy the Italian reporter, who pressed again: “I have to ask — how much do you still believe in this car?” At this point, the Ferrari driver’s face darkened, and he fell into a thunderous silence. Leclerc didn’t speak for several seconds, searching for the right words to respond as gently as possible. The time lost in silence and his stunned expression revealed a Charles burned by a car that now seems irredeemable to most.
With a response that seemed more polite than heartfelt, a visibly shaken Leclerc tried not to be too blunt: “Well… I always believe… After a day like this, of course, there’s a lot of frustration,” he admitted. “I can’t be positive after such a race, but I’ll keep believing until the end.”
Charles Leclerc calls for updates: Ferrari to bring fixes already at Imola
As he made a desperate effort to leave some sliver of faith in the SF-25, Leclerc added a condition: “But we need to improve the car, because right now it’s just not good enough.” With that, Charles Leclerc called for urgent upgrades to get the red car back on a competitive path. To avoid derailing their championship after just six weekends, Ferrari will bring some fixes already for the Imola weekend. Then comes a more substantial package set to debut at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, where a new technical directive — expected to trouble McLaren and Mercedes in particular — will also take effect.
Ferrari is clinging to its last hopes and counting on help from the upcoming technical directive. The Imola–Barcelona doubleheader will determine the storyline of the 2025 season: is the Scuderia doomed to suffer all the way to the Abu Dhabi finale? Have the drivers already given up on the SF-25? Charles Leclerc didn’t want to say it outright — but in cases like this, silence may speak louder than any statement.
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