The ‘extreme’ Leclerc set-up that's moved him clear of Hamilton
Charles Leclerc has been quizzed about a more extreme set-up direction on his Ferrari that has moved him clear of Lewis Hamilton
Charles Leclerc is “only seeing the benefits” of a more extreme set-up direction on his Ferrari that has moved him clear of new Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
While Hamilton’s start at Ferrari has become increasingly difficult and left the seven-time world champion looking and sounding forlorn at times, Leclerc’s 2025 F1 season is going from strength to strength.
He scored his first podium of the year in Saudi Arabia, which was also Ferrari’s first in a grand prix following Hamilton’s sprint race win in China.
Leclerc’s turning point seems to be a new set-up direction from the Japanese Grand Prix, which he described at the time as “quite extreme” and an idea he’d wanted to try for a few weeks.
Leclerc has never elaborated on the details of the set-up, only repeatedly referring to it as more extreme and something new for him.
When asked by The Race in Miami on Thursday if it was across the whole car or in a specific area, Leclerc said: “I'm not obviously going to go too much into details, but it's just made the car a little bit trickier, very, very pointy.
“And that's quite tricky to drive, especially when you are on the limit in qualifying. But it's something that I like, that I've always liked in my career.
“It takes a few races in order to re-adapt everything around the car in order to go into that direction, which is the process that we are going through at the moment and in the last races has been paying off.
“That doesn't necessarily mean that it will pay off for every race, so we still need to keep that open minded approach and make sure that we can reverse, just in case we need to.
“But we are still exploring in that direction and still pushing into that direction, because, for now, we are only seeing the benefits.
“At least on my side, I really like that direction.”
As Leclerc references the increased rear instability that has come from his changes, the indication is that he has more broadly gone “extreme” in terms of car characteristic, rather than focused on one specific set-up item that is much more aggressive than before.
Leclerc has always thrived in a car with a strong front end. He dislikes understeer and has tremendous ability to cope with excessive rear instability - as long as it's predictable.
Based on the advantage Leclerc has held over Hamilton in high-speed corners since Japan, regularly holding a higher minimum cornering speed, it suggests Leclerc is tolerating a little more instability in the entry to quicker turns.
This mitigates some of the problematic understeer that tends to come later in the corner in the Ferrari, so overall makes it quicker.
The qualifying results against Hamilton have swung drastically since. Having been two tenths faster than Hamilton in Australia, then two tenths slower and one tenth slower in China sprint and main qualifying respectively, Leclerc has since had a large margin.
Leclerc was three tenths faster in Japan, then six tenths faster in Bahrain and half a second ahead in Saudi Arabia. That was worth four, seven and three places on the grid respectively.
As this has developed, Hamilton has been doubtful of turning things around. And he seemed subdued again in Miami on Thursday, especially when asked about his adaptation to the Ferrari and the tricky performances.
“The engineers I'm working with now are used to setting up a car for a different driver and a different driving style, and I'm used to driving a car with a different driving style,” said Hamilton.
“So it’s a combination of a bunch of different things.”
Asked if he is able to drive this car instinctively, or is having to think consciously, Hamilton said: “You're generally always a mixture of the two, but I’m definitely working hard to adjust to this one for sure.”
That has been difficult, and potentially exaggerated by Leclerc’s “extreme” approach that Hamilton has struggled to follow.
Initially, Hamilton hoped his emerging deficit would be explained by different set-up choices and that a new floor would help him in particular.
But that hasn’t been the case. And according to Leclerc, Hamilton’s set-up converged more with his - which suggests he cannot quite make it work.
“It’s always very, very difficult to compare drivers’ feelings because if you don't feel at ease, there's always something that you struggle with more than the other driver and that's why you cannot go as fast,” said Leclerc.
“On my side, this year, we've gone in quite extreme directions in terms of set-up in order to extract a bit more out of the car so I feel like I'm changing quite a lot of my driving style in order to fit the new requirements from this car.
“However, it's been seven years that I've been with Ferrari so there are most likely things that are also very natural to me now after so many years with the team that I don't realise - even though I feel like I've been driving quite differently this year, just because this car requires a different set-up and a different way of driving.”
