Charles Leclerc confident Ferrari will bounce back despite tough season start

Dominika Jordan
Apr 3, 2025, 06:52 AM ET

Charles Leclerc remains optimistic about Ferrari's prospects, despite the team having only amassed 17 championship points in the first two races of a season where they were expected to be title challengers.

The Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had disappointing finishes in the season-opener in Australia, coming in eighth and tenth, respectively. In China, two weeks later, they managed to finish fifth and sixth, only to be disqualified for technical infringements.

"The first two races were difficult," Leclerc acknowledged during a press conference leading up to the Japanese Grand Prix. "The pace was not exactly where we expected it to be, and to lose even more points than we already did, [the disqualifications] hurt the team a lot. But I'm confident that we've learned from it."

Leclerc pointed out that there remains a significant performance issue with the car, attributing Hamilton's victory in the Chinese sprint race more to his skill as a seven-time world champion than to the car's performance. "The performance, compared to McLaren specifically, is just not good enough," the Monegasque driver said. "So it's not about how hard it is to extract the maximum performance out of the car; it's just that there's not enough performance in the car for now. But little step by little step, I'm hoping that we can close that gap, starting from this weekend."

Both Ferrari teammates are focusing on the Japanese Grand Prix, eager to move past their disappointing disqualification in China. Leclerc, who finished third in the drivers' championship last season with three race wins, believes the team is still in a better position than they were in the early stages of 2024.

"There's definitely the feeling that we haven't maximized what we could have in these first two races," Leclerc added. "This is frustrating, but that doesn't mean that we cannot recover. We are aware that the season is still very young, and with small steps, we can still have an amazing season."

A crucial area of improvement, according to Leclerc, is gaining more pace in qualifying. This would allow both him and Hamilton to start higher up on the grid, giving them a better chance to compete with the frontrunners. Despite his ultimate disqualification in Shanghai, Leclerc showcased impressive speed during the race.

This speed was particularly noteworthy, given that Leclerc had to race most of the event without part of his front wing due to an early collision with Hamilton—an experience he hopes to avoid repeating. "By changing the tools and adapting the driving, it didn't have as much of an influence as we thought," he said. "But it's still faster to have a full front wing."

As the Ferrari team looks to rebound from a challenging start, Leclerc and Hamilton remain determined and focused on making steady progress, starting with the upcoming race in Japan.