Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc laments disappointing 2025 start: “Worse than expected”

Charles Leclerc has revealed that the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season has been “worse than expected” after Ferrari ended 2024 fighting for the constructors’ championship, and finished just 14 points behind winners McLaren.

“These first races have been worse than expected, and we really hope that we can be back up to fight at the front with the McLaren. So, I hope the warm weather will help us,” the Monegasque driver explained to the media in Bahrain.

F1 returns to Bahrain this weekend after pre-season testing took place at the Bahrain International Circuit in February. When asked if the data during pre-season testing had made the team feel more positively about the season than the reality they were met with in Australia, or if the expectations came from the strong end to 2024, Leclerc explained:

“I’m speaking more about the expectations that we finished last year, where we are in a good momentum with the team, that you’ve got a good car, then obviously the expectations of what you are trying to target at least as a team is to at least start from there and try and improve.

“So on that, we were a little bit disappointed to see that we had gone a step back at the beginning of this year. After this testing, as we said, it’s very difficult to know where you are. I felt like we maybe kind of saw straight away that McLaren was very strong, but it was still to be confirmed.

“Now it’s confirmed and I hope that we can turn that situation around. There’s a lot of work in the background, obviously. I think that the last weekend has been more or less where we are as a team, where we stand as a team. We’ve got a few new parts here, which I hope will help us to close that gap a little bit.”

The Maranello outfit has had a tricky start to 2025. Leclerc finished eighth in Australia, with Hamilton in tenth for his first race with Ferrari. Despite the latter’s sprint win in China, things took a turn in the Chinese Grand Prix when both cars were disqualified – Leclerc for not meeting the minimum weight and Hamilton for excessive plank wear. The pair finished fourth (Leclerc) and seventh (Hamilton) in the Japanese Grand Prix.