Charles Leclerc’s comments on McLaren echo the prevailing sentiment in the paddock: until the Spanish Grand Prix, overcoming the Woking-based team will be a daunting task
The Barcelona round, the ninth race of the 2025 season, is set to be a pivotal moment — the FIA will abolish the current regulations on flexible wings, effectively reshaping the aerodynamic landscape of the cars.
This in-season regulation change aims to eliminate the controversial wings that have sparked debate for months — wings that have undoubtedly played to McLaren’s advantage. Leclerc’s remarks follow those of George Russell, who addressed the topic after the Jeddah GP: ”Winning is all that matters to me. We can catch McLaren with the updates coming (expected at Imola). Spain will also be a key round with changes to the front wing regulations. “.
““We’ll have to see how the pecking order shapes up after that. Until that weekend, it’ll be tough to close the gap to McLaren. What we’re currently lacking is qualifying performance. That mostly stems from lower aerodynamic load compared to McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes. Our strength, however, lies in tyre degradation. We’ve seen that our race pace is strong, but we fall short in qualifying — and that’s where we lose out every weekend”.
On his personal feeling in the car: “Still, there are many things I’m happy about. For several weekends now, I’ve been unlocking something in terms of performance, and I know there’s more to come. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this comfortable in the car — now we just need to extract more performance overall”. “.
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP
