{"id":13362,"date":"2025-04-12T09:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T09:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/13362\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T09:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T09:21:08","slug":"leclerc-disagrees-with-lewis-hamilton-in-ferrari-upgrade-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/13362\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc disagrees with Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari upgrade verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ferrari has arrived at the Bahrain GP with its first slew of upgrades for the SF-25 \u2014 and its drivers have very different perspectives on how those upgrades have performed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Lewis Hamilton was straightforward in saying the upgrades are \u201cdefinitely working,\u201d teammate Charles Leclerc<\/a> wasn\u2019t quite as enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

Bahrain GP updates aren\u2019t enough for Charles Leclerc<\/p>\n

The start to the 2025 Formula 1 season hasn\u2019t been an easy one for Scuderia Ferrari, with the team sitting fourth in the World Constructors\u2019 Championship 76 points bereft of leader McLaren.<\/p>\n

The first step to changing the pecking order has come this weekend, with the team introducing a slew of new parts to the SF-25.<\/p>\n

Those changes include a redesigned floor, floor edges, and diffuser heading into Bahrain.<\/p>\n

High temperatures and rookie drivers in FP1 made for mixed results, but as things settled down in FP2, it revealed a dismal picture: Charles Leclerc was the fastest of the two Ferraris in fourth, with Hamilton down in P8.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Hamilton told media that \u201cthe upgrades are definitely working\u201d for him.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIt\u2019s just good to see that we\u2019re taking steps forward, and yeah, we\u2019re trying to now extract more from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that we can make the right steps overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over on the other side of the garage, Charles Leclerc painted a much different picture.<\/p>\n

The new tech at the Bahrain Grand Prix:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Ferrari SF-25 upgrades explained with significant new floor on the list in Bahrain<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Uncovered: F1\u2019s latest tech secrets on display at the Bahrain Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite \u201ctrying to push into a direction that allows me to extract a bit more from the car,\u201d the Monegasque driver admitted to media that \u201cthe potential of the car remains the same, and we\u2019re just not fast enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now. It\u2019s annoying, but it is the way it is, and it actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible, but they are incredibly fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked directly about the upgrades, he did agree that they had delivered what the team had promised, which Leclerc said was \u201cpositive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut unfortunately, the gap to McLaren is still too big.\u201d<\/p>\n

The warm conditions in practice when compared to the temperatures during Bahrain\u2019s pre-season test caused issues for much of the field, including Leclerc.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously you go into a session expecting the grip that you had at the test, and it\u2019s completely different,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got to readjust the car, and there will be a lot of work during the night to try and turn the situation around.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this upgrade issue isn\u2019t just a Bahrain-specific problem; Leclerc foresees that Ferrari will need to focus on damage limitation until the car evolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to maximize the car potential that we have for now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that means finishing fourth, third, fifth \u2014 I don\u2019t know what that will be, but we\u2019ll have to take it, and I hope at one point we\u2019ll be back at being the fastest car on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere it will be a matter of maximizing the car again, but for wins and not for P3 anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Our bold predictions for the Bahrain Grand Prix<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari has arrived at the Bahrain GP with its first slew of upgrades for the SF-25 \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4203,5070,997,13,225,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-13362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-bahrain-grand-prix","9":"tag-charles-leclerc","10":"tag-ferrari","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114324260988220184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}