Charles Leclerc Claims McLaren are "On Another Planet" Despite Upgrades to the SF-25

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has been vocal early in the season about the lack of performance in the SF-25, regularly claiming that McLaren, and even Red Bull and Mercedes, are consistently a step above the Italian team.

Leclerc managed to secure P4 in Japan, a surprising result considering the pace the Mercedes drivers showcased throughout the weekend.

In response to the poor start, Ferrari's technical team has implemented three modifications to the car's floor, introduced an updated diffuser, and adjusted the rear wing, all aimed at enhancing the car's performance and speed for the drivers to leverage.

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So far, Leclerc believes that the updates are effective and producing results after just two practice sessions.

Garage scenes in motion 🎥 ⚙️ pic.twitter.com/HM2ZCBqipX
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 11, 2025

Even though the upgrades are effective, Leclerc still believes that Ferrari has a significant gap between themselves and the rest of the field, especially the two powerful McLaren cars.

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“To be honest, the potential of the car remains the same and just not fast enough," he said after FP2.

"When we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now. It’s annoying, but it’s the way it is. "

"We’ve got to maximize the car potential that we have for now, if that means finishing third or fifth, I don’t know what that will be, but we’ll have to take it and I hope that at one point we’ll be back at being the fastest car on track."

"It actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible, but they are incredibly fast."

“With Mercedes, it seems that we are pretty much there. With Red Bull, it’s a bit more difficult; I think Max [Verstappen] had one less tyre compared to us in FP2, so I think he’s probably a bit in front."

Charles 🗣️"The temperatures are so much higher than during testing here, so FP2 was tricky. The feeling in the car is completely different and we have to adjust the car to suit it. We will work on that tonight and try to optimise the setup."
Closing our practice day in Bahrain 🇧🇭
— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 11, 2025

Ferrari and Leclerc still have more performance to gain throughout the weekend and in the upcoming races, as it usually takes time to fully extract the potential from a brand new package.

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He remains hopeful that this is the case, with setup changes and new data potentially further bridging the gap between the team's performance and their expectations.

“I think there’s some performance still to be found on our side, maximizing the car, the upgrade, and we’ll see where that leaves us tomorrow," he remarked.