‘Strategy was perfect:’ Charles Leclerc nabs Ferrari’s first podium of the season

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari

The start of the 2025 Formula One season has been frustrating for Scuderia Ferrari. Heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the fifth race of the season, Ferrari hadn’t finished on the podium. That would all change thanks to Charles Leclerc’s phenomenal performance in Sunday’s race.

“I never expected to finish there [on the podium],” said Charles Leclerc after the race. “Honestly, I thought that this race was about defending the cars behind, especially Kimi [Antonelli], so it was really good.”

Expectations were high for Ferrari entering 2025 after finishing 12 points behind McLaren for second in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship and signing seven-time World Drivers’ Champion Lewis Hamilton to pair with Leclerc. With Red Bull showing signs of weakness in the second half of last season and Mercedes using an 18-year-old rookie driver, many thought that it would be Ferrari and McLaren challenging for race wins this season. However, that has not been the case for Ferrari.

So far, it has been McLaren dominating with four wins, with Ferrari’s highest result in a Grand Prix being Leclerc’s third-place finish in Saudi Arabia.

Ferrari couldn’t have asked for a worse start to the season in Australia, with Leclerc finishing in eighth and Hamilton in tenth. Leclerc and Hamilton were 19-plus seconds off the winner Lando Norris’ pace, showing a clear gap between the performance of two of F1’s top teams.

The second race of the season in China saw two scenarios play out for Ferrari: a dream start and a nightmare finish. It was the newest Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton, who put his car on pole for the Sprint Race. Hamilton fended off McLaren’s Oscar Piastri over 19 laps to win the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race. To go along with Hamilton’s surprise win, Leclerc’s fifth-place finish secured 12 points for Ferrari, the most by any team in the Sprint Race. From the highest of highs on Saturday to the lowest of lows on Sunday. After finishing fifth and sixth in qualifying, Hamilton and Leclerc were disqualified after the race. Leclerc would have placed fifth, but his car was under the minimum required weight (800 kg), and Hamilton would have finished right behind his teammate, but his skid wear plank was found to be below the required thickness for all cars.

Leclerc, who has performed much better than Hamilton in the Ferrari, finished fourth in the following two races. Hamilton’s best result came in the Bahrain Grand Prix when he finished fifth.

During this past weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari fans were shown signs of hope when Leclerc put together a Driver of the Day-worthy performance.

The door for a podium place was opened after Norris crashed out in the third qualifying session on Saturday, starting him 10th on the grid for the race. Leclerc would qualify fourth, right behind Mercedes’ George Russell.

Thanks to a safety car on the opening lap of the race, Leclerc was able to get his medium tires up to temperature and ease them into the race. Leclerc took better care of his tires on the opening stint, allowing him to run much longer than the other cars on mediums. Leclerc made his only pit stop of the race on Lap 30 while the cars around him on the same tires stopped between laps 19 and 21.

“He was a bit conservative at the beginning, since he was in dirty air and our strategy was to extend the stint,” said Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal. “His management was very good, and he was able to increase his pace from Lap 10 onwards, doing a wonderful job, especially when he was in free air.”

The long opening stint allowed Leclerc to have fresher tires than the cars ahead of him for the final 20 laps of the race. Leclerc came out of the pits in fifth behind Russell, with the yet-to-pit Norris becoming the new race leader. When the British McLaren driver pitted on Lap 35, Leclerc gained a position as he hunted down Russell. Eight laps after his pit stop, Leclerc was able to pass Russell into Turn 1 thanks to his fresher hard tires.

Leclerc was putting in stellar lap after stellar lap with Ferrari having implemented a strong race strategy for the 27-year-old driver. However, on a new set of medium tires, Lando Norris was now chasing Leclerc for the final podium place after passing George Russell with 10 laps to go. While Norris kept chipping away at the gap between him and Leclerc, Norris was never able to get within range to use his Drag Reduction System to pass the Ferrari.

As Leclerc crossed the finish line, he took home his and Ferrari’s first podium of the new season.

The Monegasque driver was surprised by the result, crediting his team’s strategy and the quick pit stop.

“We absolutely maximized everything this weekend,” Leclerc said. “We executed the race perfectly, both in terms of strategy and the pit stop. Our mechanics have worked very hard to arrive at this level, and I'm really proud of the job our team did today. We made the most of it.”

Leclerc was in the pit lane for 20.131 seconds, the fastest of any car in the race. Hamilton was right behind him with 20.144 seconds spent in the pit lane. As Leclerc noted, the Ferraris are winning the pit stop battle but not the battle on track.

While Ferrari will take the success of Leclerc’s podium finish with them to the Miami Grand Prix in two weeks, there are still plenty of concerns with the performance of Lewis Hamilton.

The 40-year-old British driver finished seventh, behind two McLarens, two Mercedes, Max Verstappen, and his teammate Leclerc. Hamilton has struggled to adjust to the car and find pace during qualifying and the races.

“It was a challenging weekend with a lack of pace and consistency across the three days,” said Lewis Hamilton. “The start of the Grand Prix was solid, but I had to manage the front tires in the first stint. The second half showed some improvement, closing the gap to Kimi [Antonelli].”

“Lewis struggled more with his pace in general and was not helped by the fact that he was often in dirty air,” Vasseur said. “We need to stay focused and work flat out, and I’m sure the results will come.”

Ferrari will hope that Leclerc can pick up where he left off, and the results will come for Hamilton at the Miami Grand Prix on May 4, 2025. For now, the drivers receive a much-needed break for two weeks, a break that Ferrari will use to reset and recharge, and improve the car for the rest of the season.