Questions for Leclerc before the start of the season
Despite a better time during the last morning of winter testing, the Monegasque driver does not approach the start of the year with certainty. Difficult weather conditions and numerous yellow flags have indeed disrupted the three days of running.
It is a season that promises to be closer than ever. After three days of testing on the Sakhir circuit, it’s now time for an assessment.
Among the teams that have shown speed, we find Ferrari. The Italian team has always been close to the front of the race. Their new driver Lewis Hamilton notably achieved the second-fastest time of all these tests, just 31 thousandths behind the surprising Williams of Carlos Sainz, who had the same tires. Despite these good performances, Leclerc paints a mixed picture of these three days of testing.
« Three very complicated days, very complicated trials », he summarized at the microphone of Canal +. « The sensations on the first day were good. Then, on the second and third days, the conditions became much more difficult, so it was much more complicated. It’s the first time we’ve had such changing conditions in Bahrain. Yesterday, we even had rain, and the temperature was very low on the first day. So very different conditions from one day to the next, which makes it difficult to establish a benchmark in terms of times, an important element for the team. »
A single-seater difficult to analyze
Due to changing track conditions particularly caused by the weather, the engineers faced difficulties in providing an optimal single-seater for the driver, especially since the team from Maranello, like all other teams, needed to test numerous car configurations to study the direction to take. It is complicated to compare these tests to the past and identify our strengths and weaknesses compared to last year. This makes these tests much more difficult to analyze. Despite the uncertainty looming, the Monegasque expressed satisfaction with the work carried out by the team during these tests.
« But at least, the sensations I experienced and what we learned are significant. […] I would say it’s a positive test because we managed to complete the entire program we were aiming for, but we are heading into the first race with a few more unknowns. But I think this will be the case for all the teams due to these changing conditions. »
McLaren: The team to beat in 2025?
The question now is where Ferrari will be in the hierarchy. The Monegasque has taken advantage of the sessions in which he wasn’t driving to observe his opponents, particularly McLaren. The British team deprived the Italian team of the constructors’ title in 2024. Even though the times are not very significant, the former Alfa-Romeo driver expects to see them competing for victory this season.
“The tests are primarily used to focus on ourselves, but when there’s a race configuration stint, we always keep an eye on what others are doing,” he told the media, including RaceFans. “There are still many unknowns, so we must take these observations with caution. That said, this stint was very important to understand where we were struggling compared to them, but also in relation to my own feelings.”
The Ferrari driver is already eager to be in Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of the season to get an initial sense of this more unpredictable than ever Formula 1 season.
