Charles Leclerc rues ‘frustrating’ Ferrari realisation after disappointing start to the 2025 F1 season

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari can still enjoy an ‘amazing’ season despite enduring a disappointing start to the 2025 campaign leaving a sour taste in the Scuderia’s ranks.

The pride of Italy already face a mountain to climb for Ferrari to fight defending champions McLaren for the F1 constructors’ championship. After missing out on their first teams’ title since 2008 last term by only 14 points, the Maranello natives are already 61 points behind.

Ferrari only scored 17 points across the first two rounds of the season to rank just fifth and level on points with Williams. The Scuderia also recorded some unwanted history last time out when Ferrari endured their first-ever double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix.

From the highs of Lewis Hamilton winning his first event with Ferrari in the Shanghai Sprint from pole position, the Maranello outfit saw Leclerc and the Briton booted out of the main race from P5 and P6 for being underweight and for excessive wear to the latter’s rear plank.

Charles Leclerc admits it is ‘frustrating’ Ferrari have not ‘maximised’ their 2025 F1 car

The Scuderia also made other strategic mistakes in Shanghai as Ferrari changed Hamilton’s set-up for the Chinese GP after winning the Sprint. Those changes saw the 40-year-old fail to rise from P5 on the grid, with Hamilton slower than Leclerc despite his front wing damage.

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Now, Ferrari will make changes to Hamilton and Leclerc’s cars at this week’s Japanese Grand Prix to try and help unlock more of the SF-25’s potential. Ferrari believe their simulator data proves the SF-25 can do well at Suzuka if they tweak the suspension settings used in China.

But, speaking in the Thursday press conference ahead of the Japanese GP, Leclerc admits it is ‘frustrating’ that Ferrari feel they are yet to maximise their 2025 F1 car after the first two rounds. He still has confidence the Scuderia can start to turn things around, though, noting:

“There’s definitely the feeling we haven’t maximised what we could have for these first two races. This is frustrating. That doesn’t mean we cannot recover. We are aware this season is still very, very long. Small steps after small steps, then we can still have an amazing season.”

Ferrari must rue not being as aggressive as McLaren with their suspension set-up change

Leclerc will hope Ferrari realising the potential of the SF-25 does not yield further frustration as the 2025 F1 season heads to Suzuka in round three. Team boss Fred Vasseur fears Ferrari unlocking their potential could ‘expose’ further mistakes as they must maximise everything.

The Scuderia are also playing catch up to McLaren in more ways than only the constructors’ championship ahead of the Japanese GP. Ferrari are ‘concerned’ by the gains that McLaren found with their pull-rod suspension introduced this term as they rejected a similar design.

Like McLaren, Ferrari moved from push to pull-rod suspension when designing their 2025 F1 car. But the Scuderia did not go as far as their rivals from Woking, and might now be paying the price with the SF-25 the second or third fastest car on the F1 grid in the right conditions.