Charles Leclerc has conceded that Ferrari has “work to do” after the team encountered balance issues with its SF-25 machine during Formula 1 pre-season testing.
Predominantly, the off-season talk surrounding Ferrari has been the starry arrival of Lewis Hamilton with fans and media alike keen to see how the seven-time champion fares in his new surroundings.
However, from a technical aspect, Ferrari has produced a unique proposition with its SF-25 which features several changes compared to its predecessor.
This includes the attention-grabbing switch from pushrod to pull-rod front suspension for the first time in 10 years.
On the second day of F1’s three-day test at the Bahrain International Circuit, it appeared that all things new were gelling well at Ferrari.
Hamilton was fastest in the morning session and held onto second spot through to the end of the day as Leclerc’s best effort propped up from third.
On the third and final day, however, the wheels came partially off for the Scuderia as rising temperatures (as opposed to uncharacteristically cold days prior) exposed some of the SF-25’s weaknesses.
The assessment is that Ferrari’s 2025 car is a prancing horse that needs breaking in and taming.
“We see the numbers we expected, even if yesterday afternoon and today we had a little more difficulty in managing the balance, so there is still a bit to do,” Leclerc told Sky Italia.
“Without a doubt the weather has played a fairly important role these days, not only in terms of pure temperatures, but also for the wind.
“I would wait a little longer before making any predictions.
“At the moment we are working hard to try to improve the balance, we struggled a bit in the last two days.
“We will see in Melbourne. But let’s say that in the last two days we struggled a bit more with the balance, so that’s where we are focusing more”.
Even if temperatures ramped up ever so slightly on the final day of testing, Bahrain was still far cooler than anyone would have anticipated.
For that reason, Leclerc is cautious of drawing any permanent conclusions.
“It’s a bit difficult to confirm the feelings because I don’t think I’ve ever experienced Bahrain like this before, it was cold, it was rainy, these are not the temperatures we are used to,” Leclerc said.
“So it’s difficult to make a reference compared to previous years where we had warmer conditions,”
Ferrari can’t get distracted by impressive McLaren
One thing that can be gleaned from testing is that McLaren is looking mightily impressive and its race simulations suggest team papaya is the one to beat.
Leclerc was outshone by Lando Norris during parallel race simulations on Thursday but without having all the information of what his rivals are up to, the Monegasque driver believes the pecking order represents something of an “unknown”.
“In testing you focus a lot on yourself, but obviously you also look at what the others are doing, even if you don’t know how they’re going, there are still a lot of unknowns, so we have to take the times with a pinch of salt,” Leclerc added.
“However, it was very important for us to understand what we’re missing compared to them and compared to my feelings. There’s still a lot of work to do to be ready for Melbourne and that’s what we’re trying to do.
“McLaren seems strong, but it’s early to talk, we have to focus on ourselves and not get carried away by first impressions because we don’t know anything.
“There are still a lot of question marks. But we have learned a lot from these first tests and that will certainly help us hit the right window,”
As Ferrari bids to suss out the SF-25’s particular quirks, Leclerc admitted the nature of F1’s pre-season testing limited his opportunities to swap notes with Hamilton.
But Leclerc knows what Ferrari is “missing” compared to the likes of McLaren and he and his new team-mate now have two weeks to work on a fix.
“It was very important for us to understand what we are missing compared to them, but also compared to my own feelings, and as I have said several times, there is still a lot of work to do to be ready for Melbourne: this is what we are trying to find together with Lewis,” he said.
“The fact that one drives in the morning and the other in the afternoon means that one works and the other does not, so there is not much time to talk, but when we have a few free minutes we always talk about the car, the sensations, our expectations and what we have not yet managed to do as we would have liked, trying to compare notes.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc fastest for Ferrari on final morning of 2025 F1 pre-season testing
