A filmmaker with a soft spot for Ronnie Peterson, Gilles Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinen and above all, Tazio Nuvolari and Ayrton Senna, is also a diehard Formula One fan since the age of 4 (mid-90's). An avid researcher of the past of Grand Prix Racing since before it was even named F1, and with a thirst for knowledge of the ins and outs of the actuality of the sport, as well as for the technical aspects that define it, is a member of GPblog since 2023, where he has put his love of racing to good use.
Ferrari F1 driver, Charles Leclerc believes the Scuderia can't fight McLaren yet because they're not optimising their qualifying performance, something the Italian team change via the setup of the SF-25, opines the Monegasque.
Ferrari dropping the ball in quali, thinks Leclerc
"It's true that since a year and a half, basically the trend has been completely inverted compared to the years before where we had a really good qualifying car and then in the race we were struggling," said Leclerc to media present at Shanghai after the race in China, where even after losing 20-30 points worth of downforce following a clash with teammate Lewis Hamilton, he still proved to be faster than McLaren and Mercedes across certain points of the race.
"I wish I had the answer for now"- Charles Leclerc after the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix
"Now since the beginning of 2014 we are very fast in the race but struggling in qualifying. We need to find that balance because we are paying the price of not being on top of things in quali."
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Is it a particular trait of the SF-25, or the setup? "It's a good question. I wish I had the answer for now. We are trying to look for the right answer to that problem. We don't really have them yet," said Leclerc before elaborating that he failed to see how a "design feature" would make the car slow in the short runs, and the opposite in the long runs, something which gives him hope that Ferrari can find a way to turn their Saturday performances around.
"My opinion is [that it's] more about the optimization of the car for the short run and finding the balance with the setup between the two. We'll work on that," concluded Leclerc.
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