Charles Leclerc lost confidence in Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car after sudden ‘change in behaviour’ in testing

F1 fans got their first taste of seeing Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc behind the wheel of their 2025 Ferrari this yearduring pre-season testing.

It was the first time both drivers had several hours to drive the car on track, with Hamilton setting the quickest time out of the two on the second day of testing.

Hamilton’s 1:29.379 was 0.052s faster than Leclerc’s best effort over the three days, as the seven-time world champion got to grips with driving the Ferrari power unit for the first time and working with his engineer Riccardo Adami.

The fastest lap set by Hamilton beat Carlos Sainz’s effort in testing just 12 months prior, with him completing a total of 162 laps in the SF-25.

Hamilton seemed all smiles about the car, while Leclerc was also positive about the race runs he completed and the pace over one lap, which showed that Ferrari was not far off McLaren and Red Bull.

According to a report by Motorsport.it however, Leclerc did lose a bit of confidence in the car when he encountered an issue.

Charles Leclerc lost confidence in Ferrari’s 2025 challenger after ‘behaviour’ change

Ferrari has spent much of the winter break trying to rectify some of the problems it faced with their car last year, with them completing a key change to their car at the behest of Hamilton.

The suspension of the SF-25 now incorporates a pull-rod layout at the front, the first time Ferrari has done so in the current regulation spec, and now puts them in line with Red Bull and McLaren.

The new layout offers more aerodynamic potential but does make it harder for mechanics to set up the car if they need to make adjustments to the front suspension.

It also creates another problem on track for Leclerc, according to the report, which stated that he lost confidence in the rear of the car due to the sudden switch from oversteer to understeer.

The low temperatures are said to have played a factor in the car understeering, but Leclerc did suffer more from high tyre degradation during his race run on the second day.

Where does Ferrari rank among the big four teams after F1 testing?

Ferrari was among the teams to complete the least amount of laps during testing, owing to a series of factors including the rain that hit the track on the second day and Hamilton having to cut short his race run on day three due to an anomaly in telemetry data.

Up against the big four teams, George Russell actually produced the quickest time of the entire test although with the caveat that we do not know the engine modes or fuel loads.

It was clear that Ferrari was running slightly lower engine modes during testing, with the same also being said for Red Bull who didn’t even complete a race run in representative conditions.