04/05/2025 19:35
Charles Leclerc has sounded the Ferrari alarm after "maximising the
potential" of the car in Miami Grand Prix qualifying left him only
eighth on the grid. Leclerc, who did not take part in the Sprint
after crashing on the recon lap, will start on the fourth row in
Florida, with the SF-25 being out-qualified by both Williams
drivers of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, with team-mate Lewis
Hamilton only 12th. The 2025 season has been a major
disappointment for Ferrari up to this point, with only one grand
prix podium, through Leclerc in Saudi Arabia, although Hamilton did
win the China Sprint. Leclerc has been vocal about needing to make
extreme set-up changes to extract performance from the car, but
expressed frustration that after maximising the package in
qualifying, he was only eighth, something he was pressed about by
RacingNews365. "It is frustrating, but we are maximising the
potential of the car, and it is just that the potential of the car
is not there," he explained. "When I finished the lap in
qualifying, I felt very satisfied, and it is only bringing us P8 or
something, so we've got to look at it. "A track like this also
highlights our weaknesses, there are a lot of low speed corners and
both the Williams are in front of us, and I consider my lap a good
one. "So it is pretty easy to understand where we are lacking."
Article continues below. Leclerc also bemoaned a "strange" feeling
in the SF-25, but was hesistant to say whether it was down to the
set-up changes he was forced to make. "In qualifying, we were just
not fast enough, we've got to analyse, and there was something
strange on our side," he continued. "I had to massively change the
car, the tools and everything, in order to have a balance that I
liked, but it was very different, so we've got to look into what
happened." The Monegasque was then careful to deny the idea that
the feeling of the SF-25 was off following the rebuild done by the
mechanics after his crash. "I don't want to say that for now," he
added. "The mechanics did an incredible job, and to be honest, we
changed a few things on the car in terms of set-up. It is unclear
to me whether the set-up changes had a much bigger impact than I
thought or if there is something off."
