Charles Leclerc expects “quite depressing” Ferrari winter after Qatar shocker

Charles Leclerc has admitted that Ferrari face a bleak winter following a disastrous Qatar Grand Prix.

It was Ferrari’s worst weekend of the year in terms of outright pace.

Even in Leclerc’s hands, he narrowly made it into the top 10 in both qualifying sessions.

A poor first lap in the sprint saw Leclerc drop out of the points.

It was a similar story in the race, although Leclerc benefitted from Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly’s crash to move up the order.

Leclerc gained one extra place at the end after Isack Hadjar’s puncture, ultimately finishing eighth.

Lewis Hamilton didn’t fare any better, getting knocked out in SQ1 and Q1 in the two qualifying sessions.

The seven-time world champion didn’t score in the race as he was stuck in a DRS train following the early stops.

Speaking after Sunday’s race in Qatar, Leclerc conceded he had “no confidence” in his Ferrari.

“I had no confidence in the car, I had no pace in the car, I had nothing in the car so it’s just… I’m quite glad the weekend is over, to be honest,” he told reporters.

“It was a very frustrating race from the very first lap to the very last lap.

“Again, after what happened yesterday in the first lap, I had no confidence, and I didn’t know what was going to happen with the car in the first few laps. But there’s not been one lap where we’ve been competitive over the weekend, so it’s been very frustrating.”

“Quite depressing” Ferrari winter

Ferrari’s poor weekend means they’ve secured fourth in the 2025 F1 constructors’ championship — their worst finish since 2020.

Ferrari can end the season strong with a good result in Abu Dhabi.

They’ve never won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but last year their cars finished second and third behind Lando Norris.

“On one hand, yes,” he added. “But at the same time, I’m just really looking forward to Abu Dhabi and trying to finish the season on a more positive note and hoping to give us a little bit more happiness to go on holiday because it will be quite depressing to go on holiday with two weekends just like this weekend.

“That would be very bad, so I hope we can have a better weekend.”