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Charles Leclerc commented on his "good" lap as he pointed out the deficits of his Ferrari after the Sprint qualifying session in Miami earlier. The Italian outfit has had an uncompetitive pace throughout the season so far and is far off from their rivals.
The Sprint qualifying session at Miami came to an end as F1 makes its first trip to the US this year. Andrea Kimi Antonlli clinched pole position; however, Charles Leclerc could only get up to P6, 0.326 seconds slower than the Mercedes. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is set to start in P7, who was over half a second slower than the pole sitter.
This has been the case for Ferrari in almost all sessions so far in the season. Although Hamilton did manage to win the Sprint in China and Leclerc pulled the team's first podium finish in Jeddah earlier, Miami doesn't seem to be a competitive track for them once again.
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Right after finishing his final lap, Charles Leclerc got to his team through the radio, informing them about their poor pace despite his "good lap."
"This was a good lap actually, we are just slow," he told the team.
Seemingly, the SF-25 is not comfortable to drive. Considering both the drivers' onboard footage, they were struggling with grip out of the corners as they kept correcting their steering input, making them lose crucial time.
Charles Leclerc reveals changing his driving style to adapt to the SF-25
Ferrari was in a competitive position during the concluding races in 2024. They finished the Constructors' Championship in second place, with only a narrow margin to McLaren. While they were expected to carry that momentum into this season, that hasn't been the case. The Maranello-based outfit continues to struggle for a competitive pace.
Reacting to the drivability of the car, Charles Leclerc revealed that he has been changing his driving style quite a bit to adapt to the car through extreme setups.
"It’s always very difficult to compare drivers’ feeling, because if you don’t feel at ease, there’s always something that you struggle with more than the other driver, that’s why you can’t go as fast," Charles Leclerc said (via Motorsportweek). "On my side, this year we’ve gone in quite extreme directions in terms of set-up, in order to extract a bit more out of the car, so I feel like I’m changing quite a lot of my driving style in order to fit the new requirements from this car."
He further mentioned that although he has been behind the wheel of a Ferrari for a long time now, it has been a unique challenge this season as the SF-25 requires a different driving style.
"However, there might be things that, it’s been seven years that I’ve been with Ferrari, so there are most likely things that are also very natural to me now, after so many years with the team that I don’t realise enough, even though I feel like I’ve been driving quite differently this year, just because this car requires a different setup and a different way of driving."
Lewis Hamilton has been facing similar issues with the car, however, his case is different, considering he has made a huge switch from Mercedes to Ferrari. While the team is expected to improve during the later stages of the 2025 season, it is tough to say if they will be in contention for the World Championship.
