This was a closely contested F1 season between three drivers from two different teams. However, much of the race looked like a two-horse race between the pair of McLarens, with Max Verstappen’s late charge adding spice to the situation.
If you go back 12 months, you might have been surprised to find Ferrari absent from the picture, given how well the Scuderia performed last season. The team was just 14 points short of the constructors’ championship in the final race against McLaren, while it was just 18 points behind Charles Leclerc and current champion Lando Norris, and eight points before Abu Dhabi, when Norris was seen as Verstappen’s biggest threat.
Ferrari and Leclerc performed so well that it was actually the Monegasque who had the most points after the 2024 summer break, four points ahead of Norris and 19 points ahead of Verstappen. The fact that he then finished 2025 without a win, leaving him 181 points behind Norris in the rankings, did not go unnoticed by Leclerc.
“This year has not been easy at all because we start with such expectations,” Leclerc told RACER. “The second half of the season ended with us being the team that scored more points. So look forward to next year, hoping to continue that momentum.”
“But McLaren did an incredible job in that winter break and came back with a huge advantage over the other teams, much bigger than we expected. Then Red Bull stepped up to their level. And Mercedes and we have been a bit inconsistent and, at least as well as McLaren and Red Bull, are struggling to find their way with this generation of cars.
“So, it’s been a tough season, but I think my goal in any season that’s coming up is to make the most of what I have. That doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with the season. I’m fighting for fourth, fifth, sixth place. It’s not particularly fun. But looking back, I think it was a very strong season for me. To that end, I’m very critical of myself and always try to find ways to improve, but it was a strong season for me. ”
With complaints from management about too many dissatisfied drivers, the season couldn’t have been easier – getting the most out of the least. Clive Rose/Getty Images
After the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, where both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton retired from the race, the two drivers were told by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to talk less and focus on driving. These were comments you could imagine would have stung Leclerc, given that he had scored back-to-back podiums before the Brazil race and was in good form in an uncompetitive car, but he didn’t show it.
Instead, Leclerc said he will strive to do better, as the entire team does. It’s not that the 28-year-old believes he has bright areas to improve, it’s that he believes he can still improve even if the car doesn’t always allow him to reach his full performance potential.
“I remember joining the team in 2019 and we had a bigger weakness,” he said. “For example, one is tire management, and I put a lot of effort into that. That’s where experience helps, because I know more of the situation and know how to adapt better. And as a driver, I felt more complete.”
“So I can’t say there are big things that we still need to improve on. We’re making some little tweaks here and there trying to improve things like the way we work with the engineers and the way we approach corners where the grip is a bit low. But these are just small points and it’s really continuous improvement.”
“We’re not trying to change something because something isn’t working, we’re just trying to push it further in the right direction, because no one is resting in this paddock and everyone is pushing as hard as they can to get better.”
And when it comes to cars, that seems to be all that’s missing for eight-time champion Leclerc. He’s incredibly quick in a single lap and capable of delivering big results whenever the car’s form allows, but the only question mark is how he will handle the pressure of a season-long title fight.
Leclerc said the pain of not being in the championship mix was being used as fuel to get through a tough year like 2025, although he couldn’t say the car was the only thing missing.
“It would be very arrogant to say[that you need a car to win the title]and I’m not that person, but I’m sure we’re doing a really, really good job and a better car will give us a better chance to compete there,” he mused. “At the moment, we haven’t been able to do that as a team, so it’s frustrating, but it also motivates us in a way to turn around this situation that has been going on for many years. And that’s what motivates me.”
“But if the question is, ‘Do I feel like I can win a world championship?'” I do. I am working towards it every day and hope that day will come as soon as possible. ”
The first opportunity for that day to come is next season, when significant regulation changes are made that could reset the competitive landscape. Despite talk of a strong Mercedes power unit mid-season, Leclerc is not down on Ferrari’s chances, but admits he was burned by the way last year went and will not allow expectations to get too high after the unpleasant surprise of this season’s pecking order.
“As a team, there are always areas that we need to improve and F1 is always evolving. Everyone is pushing their limits and finding new ways, new smart ways to approach the limits that were there a couple of months ago. Sometimes we are ahead of others in some ways, sometimes we are behind others, and we have to look around and try to improve. So we are always improving.”
“What do you think about next year? It’s very difficult because we’re all starting from scratch. What will happen next year is a very big secret. Even as a driver, it’s very difficult to talk about things like that, because you don’t really drive in the same conditions in the simulator or anything like that, and things are just for you. So it’s very difficult to know clearly where everyone is going into next year.”
“One thing for sure is that we feel we’re doing well, but it’s very difficult to convey the feeling, because even from last year to this year, we kind of had a feeling and thought we were going in the right direction, and then in a year where the regulations didn’t change that much, McLaren managed to surprise everyone with a huge performance.
“Next year, we’re talking about changes that probably never really happened in the history of F1, at least not recently. There’s an engine, there’s a whole philosophy of how the car works. Everything around it is going to change.”
“So it gives teams a lot of opportunities to find solutions. If any team puts everything together it can make a big difference. I hope that team is Ferrari.”
