Having delivered a faultless driver at Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was left delighted with the race tempo of his SF25, however he additionally rued Ferrari’s woes in qualifying which has hindered the Scuderia all via the opening rounds in 2025.
Ferrari appeared to battle for tempo throughout the observe periods, and so vital have been their struggles that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been pressured to bolt on a second set of recent softs in Q1 to progress into the center section of qualifying.
Nonetheless, the SF25 got here within the race alive. Leclerc began on the medium rubber and was capable of run a really lengthy opening stint, managing his tyres higher than some other drivers.
The Monegasque then switched to the hards for his closing stint, and though he dropped down the order, he loved an enormous tyre offset and was capable of get previous Russell. Within the closing phases, Leclerc was pressured to carry off a late cost from Norris, however he managed to bag his first podium of the season.
His team-mate Hamilton additionally began on the mediums, and he additionally tried to increase his first stint. He was unlucky robust as he misplaced essential time when Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen overtook him on their recent tyres.
He displayed an ideal tempo on his second stint, and closed in on his Mercedes substitute Andrea Kimi Antonelli, however he was unable to maneuver any additional ahead than P7.
Assessing his race efficiency, Leclerc stated that he left nothing on the desk as he extracted the utmost of his SF25 following a tricky qualifying day.
“We completely maximised every thing this weekend. We executed the race completely, each by way of technique and the pit cease. Our mechanics have labored very exhausting to reach at this degree and I am actually happy with the job our group did at present.
“We made essentially the most of it. Wanting ahead, we’ve to concentrate on qualifying. Sector one was our predominant weak point in qualifying right here, whereas it could have been our greatest sector within the race, so we’ll work on discovering the correct stability there and push to make one other step ahead.”
Pushed on whether or not the consequence was the utmost doable, the eight-time race winner mirrored: “Yeah by far, I by no means anticipated to complete there. Truthfully, I assumed that this race was about defending the automobiles behind, particularly Kimi [Antonelli], so it was actually good.”
“We have to hold pushing the utmost. Hopefully upgrades are coming quickly to be able to enhance the automotive.”
Commenting on his radio change with Bryan Bozzi, who changed his former race engineer Xavier Marcos, Leclerc famous that they’ve established an excellent relationship over the previous twelve months.
“He was very chill. Bryan was very relaxed on the pit wall. For me it was a bit extra intense contained in the automotive however, yeah, we’ve an excellent relationship. I feel that we are able to see it on observe now and it reveals outcomes, so I’m actually completely happy about this,’ conceded Leclerc.
