Qualifying fix key to keeping Ferrari in the title race - Leclerc

Charles Leclerc is not writing off his drivers’ championship hopes this early into the season, but says Ferrari needs to find answers to its qualifying problems quickly to keep him in contention.

Ferrari entered this year expecting to challenge for both titles after falling just 14 points short of winning the constructors’ championship last season, but has struggled so far and Leclerc’s third place in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was its first podium of 2025. Leclerc finished just eight points behind race winner Oscar Piastri after showing strong performance, but says qualifying fourth was the most costly issue that the team needs to resolve.

“I think we are close on race pace,” Leclerc said. “I think free air dictates who is going to win the race a little bit. That’s always been the case. Maybe this year a little bit more than other years. And obviously when that is the case, qualifying is more important. But unfortunately, for two years, we are just struggling in qualifying to put everything together.

“This weekend the problem is it’s not always the same issue. This time it was four tenths in the first three corners. For the rest of the lap, we were fast. And in the race, actually, the first sector was probably the best sector we had. So we’ve got to look at that.

“Obviously, there are answers in what we are doing, and we are doing something wrong, clearly. We’ve got to find it. We cannot lose too many races before finding it because we’re already 50 points down in the drivers’ championship. We’re not looking at it too much, but 50 points is a big number. I don’t want to be losing more points than that in the next few races.”

Leclerc ran long on medium tires and led for a spell before making a later pit stop for hards than many of his rivals, allowing him to climb into the top three. Keen to praise the way Ferrari executed on both Saturday and Sunday, he believes it is only car performance that is lacking.

“I feel like we’ve maximized absolutely everything we could have this weekend – there wasn’t anything more in the car,” Leclerc said. “I think we need to focus on qualifying because it’s been a very long time I haven’t been as happy with the car balance. I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not, but unfortunately, the car potential is just not good enough to fight for better in qualifying.

“In the race, the good car balance had results. We were all surprised by our pace in free air on the first stint. That was really good. Everything else was perfectly executed. Strategy was great. Pit stops have been great the whole season and also the whole of last year as well. There wasn’t much more we could have done.”