Charles Leclerc: Ferrari still figuring out McLaren’s “special” 2025 improvement

Ferrari F1 driver Charles Leclerc has admitted that his team is still trying to understand the “special” step forward McLaren have made in 2025.

McLaren are set to secure their 10th F1 constructors’ championship at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix with six races to spare. 

They need to score just 13 points to clinch the title, highlighting how dominant their season has been.

Heading into 2025, many expected the championship battle to be extremely close. 

With the regulations largely stable over the winter and McLaren having beaten Ferrari to last year’s championship by just 14 points, another tight fight was anticipated.

Instead, McLaren have run away with the constructors’ title, while Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris remain locked in a close fight for the drivers’ championship.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Leclerc conceded that Ferrari are still trying to decode McLaren’s impressive performance step.

“I think we’re all disappointed as a team and especially when with Ferrari you’re always targeting to be back on top and not to fight for second, third or fourth in the constructors’,” Leclerc said.

“That’s not what we want and we’re not happy. I am not happy. We’ve got to do better. That’s very clear for every member of the team. Honestly, if I knew exactly the area where we’re lacking it would be easy work.

“It’s not as easy as that but what I can say Mercedes, Red Bull and ourselves did the same step from last year to this year but there’s one team that found something special and that’s McLaren.

“Now it’s up to us what they’ve done so special in order to close that gap. Red Bull probably found part of the solution and we could see that in the last few races. Mercedes and ourselves didn’t yet.

“We’re working towards that. We know what areas we are lacking - how do we achieve that is another story. There’s a lot of work to understand that and to find the solutions. McLaren did a step that nobody else did.”

Leclerc not ‘expecting miracles’

Ferrari head to this weekend’s race in Singapore following another underwhelming outing. 

Leclerc finished ninth in Baku after crashing out in Q3, while Lewis Hamilton finished one place ahead in eighth.

Leclerc expects Ferrari’s performance level to be “similar to Baku” but acknowledged that McLaren will likely be even stronger than in recent races.

“I don’t think we can expect any miracles,” he explained.

“In Baku it’s not that we weren’t competitive, we didn’t do a good job in qualifying and me the first to not put everything together and to not put a lap in Q3 obviously, but I don’t think we expect to be more competitive here. I think it should be similar to Baku.

“I think McLaren will have even more of an advantage on a track like this, so we might be a bit further away compared to McLaren. But I think compared to our main competitors, which are Mercedes, we should be in a bit of a better place if it stays warm - which I think it will.”