Memo to Ferrari: Give Charles Leclerc a title-winning car – he’s ready
Charles Leclerc has raced for Ferrari since the start of the 2019 season
Charles Leclerc has been restricted to just eight F1 wins in almost seven full seasons as a Ferrari driver.
His podium finish at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, which saw him hold off the faster McLaren of Lando Norris for much of the race, was another reminder that he is a world champion-calibre driver stuck in an underperforming car.
Is Charles Leclerc ready to compete for the F1 title?
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com’s conclusions from the 2025 United States Grand Prix
If Lewis Hamilton was disappointed to be denied a Ferrari with which to compete for the title in 2025, just imagine how Charles Leclerc felt.
The momentum had been building up nicely across last season, his three wins in Monaco, Monza and Austin marked by the confidence with which he seized those occasional opportunities.
With Ferrari falling just 14 points short of McLaren in the 2024 constructors’ championship, the pain of Carlos Sainz’s impending exit was intensified by his suspicion that the team was finally on the verge of mounting a sustained title challenge at last.
Then came February. Then came the incomprehensible decision to change the car’s concept for the final year of the current rules. Then came the ride-height issue that shipwrecked Ferrari’s season.
Ah. So that’s how it’s going to be, then, is it? Another wasted year.
Lewis Hamilton vs Charles Leclerc: Ferrari head-to-head scores for F1 2025
? F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates
? F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates
More than once this season Leclerc has spoken of the emotional challenges of the start of 2025 as the reality dawned that his title ambitions would have to be shelved for another 12 months at least.
All his career, stretching back to that first victory lost at Bahrain 2019, Leclerc has been told that his time will come at some point.
Yet here was an acknowledgement that, no, he doesn’t have all the time in the world to realise his potential.
That, you suspect, is why the rumours linking him with a future away from Ferrari have been more persistent in 2025 than ever before.
Unlike in previous years, however, Leclerc has rarely allowed the frustration of Ferrari’s shortcomings to seep into his driving, instead using it to drive him to ever-more complete performances.
Six podiums (and a pole in Hungary) this season is probably six more than the badly born, fundamentally flawed SF-25 really merits.
More on Charles Leclerc and Ferrari from PlanetF1.com
Regular readers will be aware that this column has often sought to make parallels between Leclerc and Max Verstappen over the years, such are the similarities between them in terms of both talent and technique.
It has always felt strangely significant, for instance, that Leclerc’s infamous accident at Monaco’s Swimming Pool in 2021 came at exactly the same stage of his career (three-and-a-bit seasons in) Max hit his lowest point at that precise spot in 2018.
At this stage – eight years in – Verstappen was marching his way to a second successive title in 2022 while Leclerc, who turned 28 last Thursday, remains limited to infrequent podiums and even rarer wins.
That’s the difference that having the right car – and, yes, the right team – can make: one driver’s destiny, another’s unfulfilled promise.
Charles’ growth has been stunted to a large extent by the environment to which he has been exposed at Ferrari, far more pressurised and chaotic than the settled, razor-sharp, well-drilled team Max found at Red Bull.
Yet Leclerc in 2025 has regularly cut through the noise to produce the kind of performances Verstappen would supply on a near-weekly basis in 2020 as he began the ascent from ground zero to his first title.
All Charles is really lacking now is the car to match his talent.
When he finally gets it, wind him up and watch him go.
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