{"id":203364,"date":"2025-06-21T20:17:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T20:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/203364\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T20:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T20:17:11","slug":"charles-leclerc-responds-to-ferrari-perception-as-future-rumours-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/203364\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc responds to Ferrari ‘perception’ as future rumours\u00a0addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc believes caution should apply when speaking about Ferrari\u2019s form in F1 2025, and acknowledged the pressure the Scuderia races under.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ferrari occupies third in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, 16 points behind Mercedes, as McLaren has romped away at the front with almost double the points tally of the Brackley-based squad.<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc \u2018surprised\u2019 by Ferrari rumour mill<\/p>\n

Having finished in the runner-up slot in F1 2024, Ferrari, on paper, appears to be having a similar season to last.<\/p>\n

But, last year, Ferrari\u2019s diligent upgrades on an already competitive car meant the SF-24 finished the year as, perhaps, a capable match for McLaren\u2019s title-winning MCL38.<\/p>\n

This year, that is very much not the case as the SF-25\u2019s performance usually sees the Scuderia as the fourth-quickest of the top four teams and, if it weren\u2019t for Red Bull\u2019s single-sided scoring with Max Verstappen, would likely have slipped to fourth.<\/p>\n

Ferrari<\/a> has scored just three podium finishes so far this season, and victories appear out of reach at this point as McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes have each reached the top step of the podium.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, the team\u2019s performance sparked a deluge of speculation that largely focused on the future of team boss Fred Vasseur, but also suggested that Leclerc is evaluating his future with the team.<\/p>\n

The Monegasque is under contract until 2029, marking a decade since he first stepped up into the Scuderia\u2019s driver line-up in 2019, but reports in Italian media claimed Leclerc could be eyeing up a switch to Mercedes or Aston Martin in a bid to land his maiden title.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the speculation as he spoke to the media over the Canadian Grand Prix, Leclerc denied he had ever said anything about considering leaving Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very surprised. I mean, I have no idea where it\u2019s coming from, so, yeah, I\u2019d rather just ignore it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve never said anything of this in the last few races; if anything, I keep saying how much I love the team and how much I want to bring back Ferrari to the top. So, yeah, I was just surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that most of the rumour mill has focused on Vasseur, rather than the driver pairing of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc echoed Hamilton\u2019s support for Vasseur.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a vision that we share; us three, Fred, Lewis, and myself in order to try and get back to winning, and we\u2019ve been working to put that all together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, for sure, our plan, and I think we shall stick to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Ferrari from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<\/a>F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Fresh Lewis Hamilton evidence emerges after Ferrari damaged by groundhog hit<\/a><\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc: Being second at Ferrari isn\u2019t good enough<\/p>\n

While Leclerc appeared to pour cold water on the suggestions of him eyeing up a departure, the Monegasque pointed out that the perception of the team\u2019s season being bad has been exacerbated by such speculation, even if there is an acknowledgement things could be better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think none of us is satisfied with how it\u2019s going at the moment, that\u2019s clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came into the season thinking that we had chances to challenge McLaren and Red Bull in order to win the championship. That has not been the case so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, it\u2019s fair also to say that I don\u2019t think many people understood, apart from McLaren\u2026 like they\u2019ve done a huge step forward compared to last year, a lot more than anybody else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we compare ourselves to our other competitors, apart from McLaren, it\u2019s not like we are having a shocking season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are second in the constructors and yeah, as a matter of fact, this is not good enough, and we\u2019re not happy with that, and we need to understand what McLaren found.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we also need to be careful about everything that is going around the team, because sometimes, I think, it can change the perception of someone\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcLaren is doing an outstanding job. We are absolutely not happy with the situation we are in at the moment. However, I feel like we just need to find \u2013 ourselves as well as Mercedes and Red Bull \u2013 the outstanding thing that McLaren has found.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expectation around Ferrari coming into the season, thanks to its strong end to 2024 and the arrival of Hamilton, has perhaps put the team\u2019s slide under the microscope more than if it had had a more low-key season last year, but Leclerc said the pressure that is always applied to Ferrari means that nothing short of outright success will ever be good enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are already putting ourselves under a lot of pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, there are some talks that are not something that you want to hear. But the pressure is normal to have it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are working for Ferrari, second is never good enough, but we are all aware of it, so it\u2019s not like the outside pressure is having any influence on the pressure that we put ourselves [under] first.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be winning. As I keep saying, it\u2019s not good enough, but I\u2019m not the only one to say that. All the team knows that it\u2019s not good enough and that Ferrari should be winning, and that\u2019s what we are putting all our efforts into, to try and bring Ferrari back to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, McLaren is a stronger team, and it\u2019s up to us to react, but yeah, we definitely need to forget everything that is said around the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think that\u2019s something I got used to over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there are times when you\u2019ve got more rumours to deal with, because the questions are obviously directed towards certain topics, and it\u2019s not always a nice thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I understand it and, at the end of the day, that\u2019s how Ferrari is and has always been. So you\u2019ve got to deal with it, but I don\u2019t think we are affected by it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Next:\u00a0Why Ferrari\u2019s vicious cycle of impatience must end with Fred Vasseur<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc believes caution should apply when speaking about Ferrari\u2019s form in F1 2025, and acknowledged the pressure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[5070,4199,707,4200,7181,225,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-203364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-charles-leclerc","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-fred-vasseur","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114723202219367223","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203364","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=203364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}