Charles Leclerc sounds Ferrari alarm after 'weaknesses' exposed

Charles Leclerc has sounded the Ferrari alarm after "maximising the potential" of the car in Miami Grand Prix qualifying left him only eighth on the grid. 

Leclerc, who did not take part in the Sprint after crashing on the recon lap, will start on the fourth row in Florida, with the SF-25 being out-qualified by both Williams drivers of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton only 12th. 

The 2025 season has been a major disappointment for Ferrari up to this point, with only one grand prix podium, through Leclerc in Saudi Arabia, although Hamilton did win the China Sprint.

Leclerc has been vocal about needing to make extreme set-up changes to extract performance from the car, but expressed frustration that after maximising the package in qualifying, he was only eighth, something he was pressed about by RacingNews365.

"It is frustrating, but we are maximising the potential of the car, and it is just that the potential of the car is not there," he explained.

"When I finished the lap in qualifying, I felt very satisfied, and it is only bringing us P8 or something, so we've got to look at it.

"A track like this also highlights our weaknesses, there are a lot of low speed corners and both the Williams are in front of us, and I consider my lap a good one.

"So it is pretty easy to understand where we are lacking."

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Leclerc also bemoaned a "strange" feeling in the SF-25, but was hesistant to say whether it was down to the set-up changes he was forced to make.

"In qualifying, we were just not fast enough, we've got to analyse, and there was something strange on our side," he continued.

"I had to massively change the car, the tools and everything, in order to have a balance that I liked, but it was very different, so we've got to look into what happened."

The Monegasque was then careful to deny the idea that the feeling of the SF-25 was off following the rebuild done by the mechanics after his crash.

"I don't want to say that for now," he added.

"The mechanics did an incredible job, and to be honest, we changed a few things on the car in terms of set-up. It is unclear to me whether the set-up changes had a much bigger impact than I thought or if there is something off."