This was a Formula 1 season that ended down to the wire between three drivers from two different teams. But for the most part it seemed to be a horse race between the McLaren duo, with Max Verstappen’s late attack making the situation even more tense.
Go back 12 months and you would probably have been surprised at Ferrari’s absence from that picture, given how strongly the Scuderia finished last season. The team fell just 14 points short of the Constructors’ Championship against McLaren at the final round, while Charles Leclerc was just 18 points behind current champion Lando Norris – an eight-point lead over Abu Dhabi, when Norris was seen as Verstappen’s biggest threat.
Ferrari and Leclerc had finished so strongly that it was actually the Monaco native who scored the most points after the 2024 summer break, beating Norris by four points and Verstappen by 19. To then end 2025 without a single win, and 181 points behind Norris in the standings, was not on Leclerc’s radar.
“It certainly hasn’t been easy, because you start the year with expectations,” Leclerc told RACER. “We finished the second half of the season as the half of the season with the most points. So you look forward to next year, hoping to continue that momentum.”
But McLaren did a fantastic job over that winter break and came back with a big lead over others, much bigger than we expected. Then Red Bull stepped up a bit to their level, and Mercedes and we are a bit inconsistent and struggling to find our way with this generation of cars, at least as well as McLaren and Red Bull.
“So it’s been a tough season, but I think my goal in every season I go is to try to maximize what I have. That doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with the season, in a way that fighting for fourth, fifth or sixth place isn’t something I particularly enjoy. But looking back, I think it’s been a very strong season on my side. And for that I have to be happy with it. I’m still extremely critical of myself and always try to find ways to improve, but it’s a strong season on my side side.”
A season of maximizing profits for minimal benefits couldn’t have been made easier by management complaints about drivers complaining too much. Clive Rose/Getty Images
After the Sao Paulo Grand Prix – where both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton withdrew from the race – the two drivers were told by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to talk less and concentrate on driving. They were comments that you would think would have stung Leclerc, given his previously strong form in an uncompetitive car – he scored back-to-back podiums ahead of Brazil – but he didn’t show it.
Instead, Leclerc said he would try to do better, as the whole team would. That’s not to say the 28-year-old believes he has glaring areas to improve, but that he can still develop further, even if the machine hasn’t always allowed him to show his true performance potential.
“I remember joining the team in 2019 and there were bigger weaknesses,” he said. “One of them, for example, was tire management, and I put a lot of energy into that. Experience helps you there, because you know many more situations, you can adapt to them much better. And as a driver I felt a lot more complete.
“So it’s not that I wouldn’t say there’s still something big that I still need to improve; it’s fine-tuning here and there, trying to improve the way I work with my engineer, the way you approach a corner with a little less grip. But these are just fine details and it’s actually a continuous improvement.
“It’s not that something isn’t going well, so you’re changing it. You’re just trying to push more in the right direction, because no one is resting in this paddock and everyone is doing everything they can to get better.”
And speaking of the machinery: for eight-time winner Leclerc, that seems to be the only thing missing. Lightning fast over one lap and capable of big results when the car allows it, the only question mark is how he would handle the pressure of a season-long battle for the title.
While not saying the car is the only thing missing, Leclerc says the pain of not competing in the championship is being used to propel his work through difficult years like 2025.
“It would be very arrogant if I said that [I just need the car to win a title] and I’m not that kind of person. But I definitely feel like I’m doing really well, and with a better car it would definitely give me better chances to fight there,” he mused. “Right now we don’t have that as a team and that’s frustrating, but in one way also motivating to reverse the situation that has been there for years. And that’s where I get my motivation.
“But if the question is: ‘Do I feel capable of winning a world championship?’ I do. And that’s what I’m working towards every day and I hope that day will come as soon as possible.”
The first opportunity for that day is next season, with the major rule change that could reset the competitive picture. Despite talk of a strong Mercedes power source mid-season, Leclerc is not gloomy about Ferrari’s chances, although he also admits he is burned by the way last year has gone and won’t let his expectations get too high after this season’s nasty pecking order surprise.
“As a team there are always areas you need to improve and Formula 1 is constantly evolving. Everyone is pushing their own boundaries and finding new ways, new smart ways to approach certain limitations that you had two or three months ago. Sometimes we are ahead of the others on some things and sometimes we are behind, and you have to look around and try to improve. So it is a constant improvement.”
“How do I think about next year? It’s very difficult because we’re all starting from scratch. It’s a very big secret how everyone is doing next year. Even with drivers it’s very difficult to talk about things like that because we never really drive in the same situations on simulators etc. and we keep things to ourselves. So it’s very difficult to have a clear idea of ​​where everyone is next year.”
“One thing is for sure, I feel like we are working well. But to give you a feeling is very difficult to do because even from last year to this year you have a feeling, you think things are going in the right direction, but then you come to a year where the regulations didn’t really change much and McLaren managed to put in a huge amount of performance and surprise everyone.
“Next year we’ll be talking about a change that has probably never really happened, at least recently, in the history of Formula 1. There’s the engine, there’s the whole philosophy of the way the car works. Everything around it is going to change.”
“So that gives the team a lot of opportunities to find solutions. If one of the teams brings everything together, it can create a huge difference. I hope that team is Ferrari.”
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