A fourth place finish can’t satisfy neither Charles Leclerc, nor the Ferrari fans, however, it was indeed the best possible result for him in the 2025 F1 Japanese GP.
Best possible outcome
Leclerc’s race was rather straightforward. In fact, following a very impressive qualifying lap on Saturday he managed to start the race from P4, and could not close the gap to Max Verstappen and the McLarens on the podium. However, Leclerc also managed to keep both Mercedes drivers at bay, forcing Russell and Antonelli to settle for P5 and P6.
Nevertheless, the Monegasque is not pleased with a simple top five finish. He commented on his race in the print media zone afterwards.
In the early stages he felt the pace was pretty good as he kept Oscar Piastri within sight at 1.5-2s, but the gap to the top 3 slowly grew as the race went on.
“It was a bit of an annoying race.”
“From lap one, I was completely on my own, the guys in front were too quick. In the first stint, I thought maybe there was something to do, but then they started to push more and they were just faster.”
A strong performance
Overall, Leclerc was not upset about his performance but rather about the lack of speed from the SF-25.
“It’s disappointing because when you put everything together, like we’ve done this weekend, the balance was in the right place. There’s just not enough performance in the car.
“So for now, we’ve just got to maximise the points, which is what we have done, and I hope that later on in the season, we can fight for better.”
Where McLaren and the Red Bull had more performance
Asked on where he could see rivals from McLaren and Red Bull gaining advantage over him, Leclerc said the esses section seemed to be the weakest point for the SF-25.
“A bit everywhere. Maybe, if anything, the first sector was a little bit weaker, but that’s only by eye, which can be a little bit confusing sometimes in the car because with the speed, you have this yo-yo effect as well that is difficult to take everything out of it because they were still quite far, like two seconds ahead [on the mediums]. But my feeling was that we weren’t particularly good in the first sector.”
Still an important day
It was still a precious experience for Leclerc, as it allowed him to get to know even better the tweaks of the SF-25 ran by Ferrari in the 2025 F1 Japanese GP.
“Yes, I think I learned plenty about the car this weekend. That is the positive of the weekend really. As much as we are disappointed with the fourth place, we should be happy of us maximising the result and we should be happy about all the lessons learned this weekend.
“As I said, Friday was a really, really good day for that. I really went in quite extreme directions in an idea that I’ve had since two or three weeks, I wanted to try it and it worked out, so I was pretty happy with that.”
While it’s definitely positive to have managed to stay ahead of both Mercedes for the entirety of the race, Leclerc reckons that it’s not the main goal of the 2025 season for Ferrari.
“Again, it doesn’t really make me happy, that’s really not the target, but at least, as I said, we’ve maximised the result.”
Radio check
Leclerc also discussed the radio messages he received from Ferrari during the 2025 F1 Japanese GP. His race engineer Bryan Bozzi repeatedly suggested a different engine configuration, but the Monegasque ultimately decided to not pick up on the message, replying: ”Yes, you’ve already told me. I don’t do it for a reason.”
The Ferrari driver admitted that sometimes it’s hard to hear or focus on the suggestions from the team in the middle of a race or session, but that this time instead he simply didn’t believe the advice received to be that helpful:
“Actually, I think it would be like that all season. I always tell him, please repeat it.
“Then at one point I just get annoyed because sometimes you just don’t hear the first time. Sometimes you do hear the first time and by the third time you just want him to stop speaking about it. But yes, again, there’s no problem.”
Leclerc summed up the hardships he is encountering while trying to make the SF-25 work. While hinting at the positive influence the upcoming updates might have on it, the 8-time race winner acknowledges that there’s not much else to be got from the current package:
“This is the pace. I think this is the pace. Honestly, what we’ve shown this weekend, there’s not much more in the car, so that’s where we are.”
