‘Passengers’: Leclerc’s blunt verdict as Ferrari slip out of F1’s front fight
Charles Leclerc didn’t bother dressing it up. After an attritional Singapore Grand Prix that yielded sixth for him and eighth for Lewis Hamilton, the Monegasque said what everyone in red has been feeling for weeks: Ferrari aren’t in the fight anymore.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front,” Leclerc admitted, painting a stark picture of the pecking order. In his view, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull have converged at the top, while the SF-25 has fallen off the back. “McLaren always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and are the same level of McLaren. Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull. And then there’s us.”
The word he kept coming back to was the one no driver wants to say out loud: passengers. That’s how Leclerc described both himself and Hamilton in the Ferrari right now, wrestled all weekend by braking gremlins that never quite went away in Singapore’s stop-start rhythm.
Five races, no podiums
It’s been five grands prix since Ferrari last climbed the rostrum. In that same stretch, the opposition have landed punches: Max Verstappen took back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku, while George Russell delivered for Mercedes under the lights in Singapore. The trend line isn’t flattering for Maranello, and Leclerc thinks this might be the new normal. “The picture we’ve seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks like for us.”
That’s a hard comedown from last year’s title-chasing highs. Leclerc won’t call 2025 his toughest Ferrari season — “every time you don’t fight for wins, it’s difficult,” he said — but coming in with high expectations and watching the margins slip away stings. “You come low of your expectations from the beginning, and you don’t even see a progression throughout the year. It’s not easy.”
The SF-25’s ceiling looks well defined right now. One-lap punch? Occasionally. Race range? Too narrow. When the braking system isn’t predictable and the tyres don’t stay in their window, you end up nursing a car instead of racing one — and that’s where Ferrari found themselves at Marina Bay, managing issues rather than attacking strategy or pace.
What the table says — and what it doesn’t
With six rounds to go, Ferrari sit third in the Constructors’ standings, 27 points adrift of Mercedes and with Red Bull eight points behind. That’s a precarious middle seat: too far to threaten second on raw pace, close enough to be dragged into a dogfight for third if the form guide holds.
None of that has dented Leclerc’s drive. Frustration? Yes. Fatigue? No. “It takes a lot of energy, but that doesn’t demotivate me,” he said. “It motivates me, if anything, much more to try and turn the situation around. It’s very tough, especially after a race like today, where you are not even fighting for a podium, you have to manage lots of issues. It’s just not a nice feeling.”
Hamilton is feeling it too. The seven-time champion has slotted into the team with trademark calm, but there are only so many points you can drag out of a car that’s off the pace and finicky on the brakes. When both drivers are talking about being along for the ride, that’s not just Saturday-night heat talking — that’s system level.
Where’s the next step?
Ferrari’s task is clear and uncomfortable: find race-day grip and confidence on the brakes, or see the season ossify into damage limitation. Upgrades don’t land overnight and correlation is king; what’s worked for rivals lately — Red Bull’s Monza step, Mercedes’ balanced platform — has only sharpened the contrast.
None of this is terminal, and the margins at the front are famously elastic. But the narrative shifted in Singapore. It wasn’t a blip or a bad bounce of the Safety Car. It was the lead driver saying the quiet part out loud: right now, Ferrari’s fate is being dictated to them.
Passengers don’t win titles. And that, more than any gap on the timing sheet, is what Maranello has to fix.
