While Charles Leclerc certainly would have been hoping for a home win in Monaco, a second-place finish was perhaps more than he could have dreamed considering the challenges he’s faced with the SF-25 this season.

That being said, Leclerc has cautioned that Ferrari will need to “reset” its expectations coming into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc resets expectations after Monaco

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

The F1 2025 season has not been an easy one for Charles Leclerc.

The Ferrari team overall has been struggling with the rear end of its SF-25, which has caused both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to feel unstable while cornering, therefore limiting performance.

But after a series of challenging weekends, Leclerc had a breakthrough in Monaco. He missed out on pole position by the blink of an eye and held his second place all the way through to the checkered flag.

It was a much-needed boost for the team, which also saw Hamilton come home in fifth.

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Coming into media day ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, though, Charles Leclerc was prepared to admit that there was little Ferrari can expect to carry into Spain from their strong Monaco performance.

“We’ve got to reset a bit our expectations going into this weekend compared to a weekend like Monaco where it was a bit more positive,” he told media, including PlanetF1.com.

“However, it doesn’t change our approach. More than an extreme setup, the balance that we are trying to target is very, very aggressive this year and we’ve got to run like that and that doesn’t change now. So we are still in the same situation for this.”

Regarding his Monaco performance, Leclerc admitted that he was “genuinely surprised” by his speed.

“The previous years we always kind of expected to be strong in Monaco,” he explained.

“We were not saying that we are going to dominate the weekend, but we know that we are going to be strong.

“This year I genuinely thought that we would be poor. I think that gave us more understanding of our car and maybe the strength of this car that played a bigger part than what we thought in Monaco.”

Leclerc said he wouldn’t shy away from being “happily surprised again this weekend,” but that he doesn’t “think there’s any downplay for this weekend.

“It’s what I genuinely think, and I think we will be back to normal, which means a situation that we have struggled with since the beginning of the season, especially in qualifying. In the race it may be better.

“We also expect a very warm weather. We’ve seen that with warm temperatures, McLaren tends to be very, very, very fast. So everything points towards a more normal weekend for us.”

Asked about how he feels his championship chances stand considering Ferrari’s lack of pace, Leclerc said, “I don’t want to be thinking so much long term just because I have no visibility.

“I know what’s going to come for us in terms of small adjustments and improvements on the car. I don’t know what’s coming for the [other] teams, so it’s very difficult to predict or expect anything.

“On paper, it is going to be a tough one to go and beat McLaren in a year like this where they’ve been so dominant for the first part of the season.

“It’s going to be very tough, but I’ll give everything until the end. I hope this weekend helps us to do a step in the right direction and then hopefully with new parts as soon as possible, we can then take the lead in terms of performance on track at least and then that will help us to hope for better.

“But we cannot afford to lose too many races, and starting from this weekend, I hope that we’ll be closer to the guys in front.”

Of course, with the incoming Technical Directive designed to clamp down on flexi-wings as well as an incoming Ferrari upgrade designed to target the SF-25’s “nervous” rear end, there’s still hope that anything can happen. But Leclerc isn’t betting on that this weekend in Spain.

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