Charles Leclerc has firmly denied that Ferrari entered the 2025 Formula 1 season gripped by overconfidence, despite the team’s underwhelming form and a massive performance deficit to reigning champions McLaren.
Coming off a resurgent 2024 campaign in which Ferrari pushed McLaren to the final rounds of the championship, expectations were high in Maranello.
The Italian outfit committed to an aggressive redesign of the SF-25, diverging from the path taken by most of their rivals who chose to evolve their existing machinery.
But with only two podium finishes in the opening eight races, and a daunting 177-point gap to McLaren, criticism has mounted regarding Ferrari's strategic design choices and whether ambition gave way to hubris.
No Overconfidence, Just High Hopes
Leclerc, however, offered a resolute defense of the team’s mindset during the season’s inception, maintaining that internal expectations were rooted in genuine optimism rather than misplaced audacity.“I don’t think we were overconfident, no,” Leclerc told the media on Thursday, ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
“I think there was a lot of hype around the team at the beginning of the season, but not really that we can control, mostly because Lewis was joining the team and it was a big thing for the F1 paddock.
©Ferrari
“So there was lots of talks about Ferrari and loads of hopes as well maybe that we will be at the level that we are not at the moment.
“Obviously the hopes were also within the team, that we had done a good job and we wanted to be fighting for the championship or at least to start where we ended up the season last year, but that didn’t happen.
“But I don’t think we were overly optimistic. We were just focusing on ourselves and as a matter of fact, we have not been good enough for this first part of the season.”
Focus on the Present, Eyes on the Future
Given Ferrari’s current underperformance, save last weekend in the atypical streets of Monte Carlo where Leclerc battled for pole and finished second, one might assume that the Scuderia’s relative weakness might not bode well for 2026.
But Leclerc was quick to dispel that concern, arguing that the characteristics of next year’s car, designed to the sport’s next-generation regulations, will be radically different – and thus not directly impacted by this season’s flaws.
Read also: Hamilton slams ‘BS’ rumors of tensions with Ferrari race engineer“I don’t think so because this year and next year are so different that I think we won’t be running into the same issues,” he explained.
“I’ll be very surprised if that’s the case because the car should be running in a very different place next year.
“So yeah, I don’t think that if we don’t resolve it this year then we won’t be starting on the right path next year.
“However, just for us and for this season, as we are still fully focused for this season, it’s extremely important to understand and to fix it as soon as possible.
“So that’s why we are so keen on trying everything possible to improve it [the car].”
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