This was a intently contested F1 season between three drivers from two completely different groups. Nevertheless, a lot of the race seemed like a two-horse race between the pair of McLarens, with Max Verstappen’s late cost including spice to the state of affairs.
In the event you return 12 months, you may need been shocked to seek out Ferrari absent from the image, given how nicely the Scuderia carried out final season. The staff was simply 14 factors wanting the constructors’ championship within the ultimate race towards McLaren, whereas it was simply 18 factors behind Charles Leclerc and present champion Lando Norris, and eight factors earlier than Abu Dhabi, when Norris was seen as Verstappen’s greatest menace.
Ferrari and Leclerc carried out so nicely that it was really the Monegasque who had essentially the most factors after the 2024 summer season break, 4 factors forward of Norris and 19 factors forward of Verstappen. The truth that he then completed 2025 with no win, leaving him 181 factors behind Norris within the rankings, didn’t go unnoticed by Leclerc.
“This 12 months has not been simple in any respect as a result of we begin with such expectations,” Leclerc informed RACER. “The second half of the season ended with us being the staff that scored extra factors. So look ahead to subsequent 12 months, hoping to proceed that momentum.”
“However McLaren did an unimaginable job in that winter break and got here again with an enormous benefit over the opposite groups, a lot larger than we anticipated. Then Pink Bull stepped as much as their stage. And Mercedes and now we have been a bit inconsistent and, at the very least in addition to McLaren and Pink Bull, are struggling to seek out their approach with this technology of vehicles.
“So, it has been a troublesome season, however I believe my objective in any season that is developing is to profit from what I’ve. That does not imply I am happy with the season. I am preventing for fourth, fifth, sixth place. It isn’t notably enjoyable. However trying again, I believe it was a really robust season for me. To that finish, I am very vital of myself and all the time attempt to discover methods to enhance, however it was a powerful season for me. ”
With complaints from administration about too many dissatisfied drivers, the season could not have been simpler – getting essentially the most out of the least. Clive Rose/Getty Photos
After the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, the place each Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton retired from the race, the 2 drivers have been informed by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to speak much less and give attention to driving. These have been feedback you might think about would have stung Leclerc, on condition that he had scored back-to-back podiums earlier than the Brazil race and was in good kind in an uncompetitive automobile, however he did not present it.
As an alternative, Leclerc stated he’ll try to do higher, as the whole staff does. It isn’t that the 28-year-old believes he has shiny areas to enhance, it is that he believes he can nonetheless enhance even when the automobile does not all the time permit him to achieve his full efficiency potential.
“I bear in mind becoming a member of the staff in 2019 and we had a much bigger weak spot,” he stated. “For instance, one is tire administration, and I put a whole lot of effort into that. That is the place expertise helps, as a result of I do know extra of the state of affairs and know easy methods to adapt higher. And as a driver, I felt extra full.”
“So I can not say there are massive issues that we nonetheless want to enhance on. We’re making some little tweaks right here and there making an attempt to enhance issues like the way in which we work with the engineers and the way in which we strategy corners the place the grip is a bit low. However these are simply small factors and it is actually steady enchancment.”
“We’re not making an attempt to alter one thing as a result of one thing is not working, we’re simply making an attempt to push it additional in the correct route, as a result of nobody is resting on this paddock and everyone seems to be pushing as onerous as they will to get higher.”
And in relation to vehicles, that appears to be all that is lacking for eight-time champion Leclerc. He is extremely fast in a single lap and able to delivering massive outcomes every time the automobile’s kind permits, however the one query mark is how he’ll deal with the strain of a season-long title combat.
Leclerc stated the ache of not being within the championship combine was getting used as gasoline to get by way of a troublesome 12 months like 2025, though he could not say the automobile was the one factor lacking.
“It might be very boastful to say[that you need a car to win the title]and I am not that individual, however I am certain we’re doing a very, actually good job and a greater automobile will give us a greater likelihood to compete there,” he mused. “For the time being, we have not been ready to try this as a staff, so it is irritating, however it additionally motivates us in a technique to flip round this example that has been happening for a few years. And that is what motivates me.”
“But when the query is, ‘Do I really feel like I can win a world championship?'” I do. I’m working in the direction of it day-after-day and hope that day will come as quickly as doable. ”
The primary alternative for that day to come back is subsequent season, when vital regulation modifications are made that would reset the aggressive panorama. Regardless of discuss of a powerful Mercedes energy unit mid-season, Leclerc just isn’t down on Ferrari’s probabilities, though he admits he was burned by the way in which final 12 months went and won’t permit expectations to get too excessive after the disagreeable shock of this season’s pecking order.
“As a staff, there are all the time areas that we have to enhance and F1 is all the time evolving. Everyone seems to be pushing their limits and discovering new methods, new good methods to strategy the bounds that have been there a few months in the past. Typically we’re forward of others in some methods, typically we’re behind others, and now we have to go searching and attempt to enhance. So we’re all the time bettering.”
“What do you consider subsequent 12 months? It’s totally troublesome as a result of we’re all ranging from scratch. What is going to occur subsequent 12 months is a really massive secret. Whilst a driver, it’s totally troublesome to speak about issues like that, since you do not actually drive in the identical situations within the simulator or something like that, and issues are only for you. So it’s totally troublesome to know clearly the place everybody goes into subsequent 12 months.”
“One factor for certain is that we really feel we’re doing nicely, however it’s very troublesome to convey the sensation, as a result of even from final 12 months to this 12 months, we type of had a sense and thought we have been getting into the correct route, after which in a 12 months the place the rules did not change that a lot, McLaren managed to shock everybody with an enormous efficiency.
“Subsequent 12 months, we’re speaking about modifications that in all probability by no means actually occurred within the historical past of F1, at the very least not lately. There’s an engine, there’s a complete philosophy of how the automobile works. Every part round it will change.”
“So it offers groups a whole lot of alternatives to seek out options. If any staff places every part collectively it could actually make an enormous distinction. I hope that staff is Ferrari.”
