Charles Leclerc insists he is happy with his own personal performances in 2025 despite his Ferrari team still waiting for a first Grand Prix victory of the year. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Mercedes joined Red Bull and runaway champions McLaren as winners of multiple races this term.
But Ferrari have rarely, if ever, been serious contenders for victory on any given Sunday. There was hope that might change when Leclerc, from nowhere, qualified on pole for the Hungarian Grand Prix. But despite a strong start to the race, Leclerc dropped out of the podium spots and admits the pace was “nowhere” when he needed it.
He is approaching a full year since his last victory and, while Leclerc believes Ferrari have made progress this year, he feels it has been masked by what their main rivals have been able to achieve. “We did a good step forward, but we did the same step as Red Bull and Mercedes,” he told The Athletic.
“McLaren has been kind of dominating since the beginning of the season. On that side, it’s a little bit disappointing. But on my side, I’m happy. I’m very happy with the way I perform – I just wish we were fighting for victories.”
Leclerc’s last two outings have been among his worst all year. While he says he is pleased with his form in general, the Monegasque was self critical after a messy weekend in Baku, where he is normally so strong. He ended a streak of four Azerbaijan Grand Prix pole positions in a row by crashing in qualifying and could not make up for it in the race, finishing ninth.
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Things were not much better in Sunday’s Singapore race, after which his team-mate Lewis Hamilton declared Ferrari are “fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth at best” for the rest of the year. But there remains optimism for what Ferrari can achieve next year with new technical rules and engines providing everyone with a fresh start.
Leclerc shrugs off the ‘Il Predestinato’ nickname he has been given by Ferrari’s ferocious but loyal fanbase – loosely translating to ‘The Chosen One’ – but would dearly love to be the one to deliver title glory for the Tifosi after a drought of almost two decades. He said: “I enjoy the people calling me that, but it’s not really something I think of so much. It’s not like I wake up in the morning and I’m like, ‘Ahh, I am the Predestinato, I need to be!’ It’s not that kind of pressure.
“It’s nice to hear it sometimes, but it’s not something that adds pressure or makes me feel any different way. At the end of the day, whether I’m called like that or not, my duty and my goal are the same. It’s to bring Ferrari back to the top. I’ll do absolutely everything in order to achieve that.
“What I want really is to have zero regrets, looking back, that I’ve done absolutely everything in order to achieve that. Whether I’ll achieve it or not, I don’t know. I cannot control everything. But I know that at least whatever I have in my control, I’ll try to be at my maximum.”