Charles Leclerc does not believe in an immediate return of Ferrari to the front: "Mercedes is at a very high level"

In 2025, the season began with a clear domination by McLaren de Lando Norris et Oscar piastri, winners of the first two rounds in Australia and China respectively. It was expected that the papaya-colored drivers would alternate victories during the first part of the season, untroubled by their rivals, whoever they might be. But at Suzuka, the McLarens met their match: the unsinkable Max Verstappen struck his two younger rivals head-on with a sensational qualifying lap that gave him pole position — and then victory on a circuit where overtaking was rare — despite a car theoretically less efficient.

And now, a year later, history is repeating itself. The Mercedes Benz George Russell and Kimi Antonelli picked up where McLaren left off by dominating the first two race weekends, while behind them, the Classic Ferrari for sale de Lewis Hamilton et Charles Leclerc They're fighting over the scraps. So, will the Reds be able, at Suzuka, to emulate Max Verstappen by finally snatching a victory from Mercedes? Charles Leclerc doesn't think so.

"I think it's a very different situation.", defuses the Monegasque. “I think that after the first free practice sessions, we’ll already have an idea of ​​where we stand relative to Mercedes. I don’t see any characteristics that would radically change what we’ve seen in the first two races, so for now I’d say no. But let’s wait and see. There are still some very long straights where we know Mercedes will be extremely strong, but it’s also a very twisty circuit in the first two sectors, so I hope we can have enough of an advantage to be faster over the course of the lap. But at the moment, that seems unlikely given what we’ve seen.”

Because since the start of the season, Ferrari has been significantly behind Mercedes, both in qualifying and race pace. While the Italians are clearly ahead of the rest of the field, they struggle to keep pace with the Silver Arrows, despite some lively battles in the early stages of the race. These battles, however thrilling, are short-lived before the Brackley-based team finds its rhythm and pulls away.

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The development race is on between Ferrari and Mercedes.

“I don’t think it’s as close as people might think. Obviously, in the first few races, you see a lot of battles between the cars, which is pretty cool, but as soon as you’re not getting the most out of those cars, you lose a lot of lap time.” explains Leclerc. "So our only chance of staying with them is to hold them up in the early laps, but as soon as they get some air, they showed their true pace in the last race, and I think they still have that four or five tenths advantage we saw in the first two races. So that's still a significant advantage. But yes, it doesn't discourage me, and again, we have things in the works. We need to focus on ourselves."

Indeed, the pipeline is full at Ferrari: major developments should arrive as early as the next races, but will that be enough to reverse the trend? "This championship will mainly be decided by the development and improvements that each team will bring." analysis by Charles Leclerc. “At the moment, we’re in a decent position, but of course, we’re not just here to get podiums; we want to win races, which, at the moment, seems very difficult because Mercedes is at a very high level. But we’re working very hard, and in particular the people at the factory are working extremely hard to bring developments to the team as quickly as possible. I know there are quite a few things coming soon. Whether that will make a difference or not, I don’t know, and I’m pretty sure the others aren’t on holiday either, so it’s going to be tough.”

The Monegasque driver also points to powertrain optimization as "the biggest difference" between Ferrari and Mercedes, adding that the Scuderia is lagging behind in terms of raw power. The Reds could take advantage of the ADUO (Additional Development and Evolution Opportunities) system to improve their engine's performance. If their engine is more than 2% slower than the benchmark engine, Ferrari will receive additional development credits. However, this system must be implemented every quarter of the season, after the sixth race, as defined at the start of the season. This race was originally scheduled for Miami (May 3rd), but with the new calendar omitting the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia rounds, discussions are underway to maintain the initial introduction of this system in Florida and avoid further delaying the possibility of the gap between engine manufacturers narrowing.