Charles Leclerc has highlighted how the "very extreme" way Ferrari had to set up the SF-25 led to more errors from both him and Lewis Hamilton earlier in the F1 season.
The Maranello-based squad has struggled with its 2025 car across the campaign, and a double disqualification at the Chinese Grand Prix forced the Italian team to run its floor higher than ideal.
It has not only compromised performance but also pushed Leclerc and Hamilton down certain set-up avenues, something that has since been improved by subsequent upgrades.
Nonetheless, the former has been able to score regular podium finishes, with five in the opening 14 rounds of the year.
After pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Monegasque driver looked poised for a first victory of the season, but a mysterious issue with his SF-25 halted his early momentum, consigning him to fourth.
Prior to that, Leclerc stated he was "very satisfied" with his form over the first part of the year.
"In terms of my own performance... I'm very happy with the way I perform," he explained to media, including RacingNews365.
"The best moment as a driver? No, because I want to win. So, as for my own performance, I'm really happy. You always want to improve, and obviously, like Silverstone, for example, was a very poor weekend from my side.
"Those weekends you want to have the least possible in a season. Apart from that, I'm very satisfied. That is a good thing."
The eight-time grand prix winner did not secure his first podium of the campaign until the fifth round, making his hit rate over the past 10 weekends one in two.
Leclerc credited that uptick in form to being able to get the SF-25 into a more "reasonable window" more consistently, with fewer errors also as a result.
"I also think the upgrades go in the right direction of making the life of the drivers, Lewis and myself, a little bit easier because at the beginning of the season, it was extremely difficult.
"We had to set up the car in very extreme ways, and that made us also do more mistakes.
"Now we are a bit more in a reasonable window, which helps us to extract the maximum out of the car. It’s good that we see the result."
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