Charles Leclerc has pinpointed the Azerbaijan, Singapore, and Las Vegas Grands Prix as Ferrari’s best opportunities to secure a win during the 2025 season. Despite these being the most promising events, he acknowledges that Ferrari remains the third favorite heading into each of these races, trailing behind stronger competitors.
The Monegasque driver recently finished in fourth place at the Italian Grand Prix held at Monza, performing in front of Ferrari’s passionate home crowd. Leclerc engaged in a hard-fought battle with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at the race start, ultimately maintaining the same position he began with. Meanwhile, teammate Lewis Hamilton recovered from a grid penalty to finish sixth.
Challenges Ferrari Faces on Different Circuits
Leclerc shared his insights with Sky Sports F1 about the difficulties Ferrari faces across various tracks, noting that the Azerbaijan circuit has historically been one of his strengths but remains tricky due to high overtaking opportunities.
Baku is a track I love, which I’ve been very strong at in the past, but then again, coming to the race, it’s a track where it’s also very easy to overtake, and if you don’t have the race pace in the race, you can definitely feel it,
Leclerc said.
He continued by highlighting Singapore’s unique characteristics, where qualifying results play a crucial role and overtaking during the race is much harder, making it a track he also appreciates. Las Vegas rounds out the trio of circuits where Ferrari might be more competitive, though Leclerc insists the team still lags behind the leading contenders.
So that’s going to be tricky, but then you’ve got Singapore, where qualifying is very important and then the race is more difficult to overtake, and I love this track as well. So I think Singapore, maybe Baku and Las Vegas are the three tracks that maybe we are a bit closer to win a race, but that doesn’t mean we go there as the two favourites.
I think we still go there as third favourites, he said. If Red Bull struggles for a reason, [we are] maybe a second force, but never the first one, so it’s always going to be quite uphill and difficult.
Insights on Monza Performance and Race Dynamics
Reflecting on the Italian Grand Prix, Leclerc described his duel with Piastri as a close and demanding contest where both drivers capitalized on their opponents’ mistakes, but ultimately McLaren showed stronger pace. Leclerc admitted to struggling with car control, which hindered better results.
It was a nice battle. I felt like I was overtaking when he was doing a mistake, and he was overtaking me when I was doing a mistake, and they just had more pace than I did. I tried the things that I think wasn’t in the car and I lost the rear multiple times. That meant that I couldn’t hope for much better unfortunately, but I tried.
I don’t have any regrets. Unfortunately, today the pace of the car was a little bit worse than what we expected.
Potential Implications for Ferrari’s Season Outlook
Leclerc’s acknowledgment that Ferrari approaches the key upcoming races as an underdog underscores the challenges the team faces in catching up to dominant rivals like Red Bull. The team’s struggles with race pace suggest that the remaining Grands Prix will test Ferrari’s ability to maximize performance under pressure. Success in Azerbaijan, Singapore, or Las Vegas could become pivotal for Ferrari to gain momentum and prove their competitiveness in the 2025 F1 season.
