When Charles Leclerc is hopeful of “turning point” for Ferrari

Charles Leclerc is hopeful that a new front wing at the F1 Spanish Grand Prix will act as a “turning point” in Ferrari’s 2025 season.

Ferrari are enduring a hugely disappointing start to the campaign and have lagged well behind their rivals across the opening five race weekends, both in qualifying and the grand prix itself.

Leclerc scored Ferrari’s first podium of the season at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix by finishing third, 31 seconds in front of teammate Lewis Hamilton, whose struggles to adapt to the SF-25 continued in Jeddah.

The Monegasque has been left frustrated by Ferrari’s performance deficit so far this year but hopes that things may change from Barcelona, the ninth round of the season.

F1 teams will face harsher tests to clampdown on flexi-wings in Spain, where Ferrari are planning to debut a new front wing design.

“I think we are behind in terms of actual performance of the car,” Leclerc said. “We are behind McLaren and Red Bull, for sure, behind Mercedes I believe also.

“On one hand, I’ve gone in the direction that I’ve been speaking of in the last two or three weekends and I feel like I’ve never been as much at ease with the car than I’ve been at the moment. So we are extracting the maximum out of the car.

“We just need a better car. And I think a turning point for the season will be in Barcelona, with a new front wing, I hope it can play a little in our favour.”

Charles Leclerc details Ferrari struggles

Leclerc has pinpointed qualifying as Ferrari's main weakness, particularly considering the benefit of clean air being crucial this season, with four of the winners from the opening five races have started from pole position.

“I think we are close on the race pace. I think free air dictates a little bit who is going to win the race. That's always been the case,” he explained.

“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.

“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.”