Leclerc: Ferrari "not anywhere close" to rivals after Singapore GP qualifying

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has lamented a poor Singapore Grand Prix weekend so far, having qualified seventh at a Formula 1 track where he is a two-time polesitter.

Leclerc was second-fastest in Free Practice 1 but dropped to ninth and 10th in the next two sessions, before taking eighth, sixth and seventh across the three qualifying segments.

“We got off to a good start in FP1,” Leclerc explained to Canal+. “Then we had to make some tweaks, and unfortunately we’ve been struggling since FP2 – especially me, I must say, as I was nowhere in FP2 and FP3.”

“I’ve been completely unable to feel the car over the last two weekends, and what’s weird is that has been on street circuits where I typically am rather confident. We need to work and understand what’s wrong, because I’m not at the level where I should be and we’re losing points.”

Leclerc was outqualified by team-mate Lewis Hamilton – whose performance he labelled “impeccable” – for the first time since the British GP, with a lap 0.096s slower in Q3.

This had much to do with the SF-25’s behaviour, with Leclerc explaining to Sky Sports F1 that he was “really, really struggling to find the grip”.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

“I have a lot of understeer on the car, but the car is still very snappy and unpredictable, and I know that it's not my strength whenever there's understeer in the car,” he added.

“This weekend [it] has been the case from FP2 to qualifying, and we don't really find any ways out without making the car even more unpredictable, which is not what you want on a city track, so it's been a very, very tough weekend.”

This follows another tricky weekend in Baku – a track where Leclerc took four consecutive pole positions from 2021 to 2024 but was not in contention last time around, crashing out in Q3 and finishing the race ninth.

Asked if his current struggle was circuit-specific, the Monegasque pondered: “I hope it's circuit-specific, but for now I don't quite have the explanation, because it's not like we changed massively the car in the last two races.”

Leclerc had been pinning his hopes on those two street tracks and is now looking to Las Vegas – “maybe” – as Ferrari’s main chance of victory in 2025, though he admittedly is “less hopeful now”, as he told written media in the post-qualifying pen.

“We are not anywhere close to being on the level of McLaren, Red Bull and actually now Mercedes – on some occasions, and actually quite recently, they've just been a step [ahead].”

Championship-wise, if the final classification of the Singapore GP were identical to the starting grid, Ferrari’s deficit to second-placed Mercedes would balloon from four to 27 points, and Red Bull would be just 10 points away from the Scuderia – hence the aforementioned “we’re losing points” comment.

Additional reporting by Sam Shephard