Leclerc ready to play the wildcard while title trio walk the tightrope
Charles Leclerc isn’t in this championship fight anymore, but don’t mistake that for switching off. The Ferrari driver heads into Mexico City talking like a man with free chips to play while the table’s big stacks—Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen—measure every move.
“I don’t have much to lose,” Leclerc said, speaking to media ahead of the weekend. “They’ve got a lot to lose.” In a season that’s boiled down to McLaren versus Verstappen, Leclerc has just been mathematically counted out. He sits in a quiet patch of the standings—George Russell a long way up the road, Lewis Hamilton a healthy margin behind—yet that Austin podium hinted there’s still plenty of bite in his year.
The plan from here is simple: if Ferrari are on the pace, he’ll lean into the risk. Especially off the line. “Context matters when you’re fighting somebody,” he said. “If we’re level on speed, especially at the start, those three will be a bit more cautious with me than they are with each other.” Translation: expect elbows. If the car’s got the legs, Leclerc won’t mind sticking a nose into a gap the title contenders might leave open.
The caveat is obvious: Ferrari have to be there. Leclerc admits McLaren and Red Bull have tended to have the edge, and he reckons the development race explains some of that. In his view, McLaren and Ferrari wound down upgrades earlier, while Red Bull—and intriguingly, Mercedes—pressed on for longer. That, he says, is why a late-season swing in form isn’t shocking. “I’m never surprised by Max,” Leclerc added. “He’s always operating at a very high level. Red Bull have pushed developments more than other teams.”
Verstappen has hacked the deficit down to 40 points, which makes things interesting if not yet dramatic. Leclerc’s money—literally a dollar, in his hypothetical—would still go on orange rather than blue. “I’d probably bet on the McLaren drivers,” he said, while quickly adding the obligatory caveat everyone in F1 has learned by now: you never rule out Verstappen. “Forty points is significant,” Leclerc noted. “I’d be very surprised if he manages to win it from where he is—but you can never count Max out.”
As for which McLaren? That’s trickier. Piastri’s been a metronome this season, hard to rattle, with a knack for managing big Sundays. Norris, though, looks like he’s rediscovered that electric form of mid-season. “It’s going to be close,” Leclerc said.
Zoom out and Leclerc’s stance is classic late-season opportunism. When championships get tight, race starts get cleaner, margins get smaller, and strategy rooms avoid coin flips. That’s where the drivers on the periphery can pinch results—by braking a touch later, hanging on around the outside, or running the longer first stint others can’t risk. Mexico City’s long run to Turn 1 has seen more than a few bold attempts from drivers with less to lose. Expect Leclerc to be very alive to that.
There’s also a subtle note in his comments about Ferrari’s mindset. The team’s had its share of noise this year, some of it loud enough to be heard in other paddocks, but Leclerc sounded more pragmatic than agitated. Pace first, opportunity second. If the SF-25 can qualify on the first two rows, he’ll do the rest.
None of this changes the headline act. McLaren’s duo are handling the most intense title run of their young careers, Verstappen is mounting a late charge that feels both familiar and faintly improbable, and every lap now carries weight. But in the gaps between those storylines there’s room for a spoiler. And Leclerc, with clear air in the points and a fresh reminder of how to stand on a podium, looks ready to try.
He won’t overplay it. He knows the math. He just knows the psychology too. When the leaders protect, the brave can pounce. Mexico might be a good place to test that theory.
