Charles Leclerc drops a bombshell verdict on Ferrari's pace in China

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc gave a worrying verdict on the team's pace after the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, as he believed that locking out the third row was the maximum potential for the SF-25. It was a mixed day for the Italian team as they emerged victorious with Lewis Hamilton in the sprint race by a comfortable margin and looked the car to beat heading into qualifying later on Saturday.

However, Hamilton and Leclerc found it difficult to extract performance out of the car over one lap as they slipped behind McLaren and Max Verstappen for the majority of the session. In the end, they could only muster a P5 and P6 for the main race with the seven-time F1 world champion leading his new teammate on the grid.

In his post-qualifying interview with Sky Sports, Charles Leclerc dropped a bombshell statement as he believed that the third-row lockout was the potential of the car as he believed that they were three-tenths behind the reigning world champions. He said, via Motorsport.com:

"[In qualifying] the potential was just not there. The overall grip was just not there. In Australia, I felt like we didn't do a great job in qualifying and we were further away than we thought but if we had put everything together I think we were expecting to be three-tenths off. I think these three-tenths that we see today are generally where we are.

"Lewis did a great, great job yesterday but I feel like today I did a good job, I'm sure Lewis did a good job as well, and that's the potential of the car. Is there a little bit more in the car? Maybe. Three-tenths I don't think so. We need to look forward to tomorrow."

Charles Leclerc had finished P4 in the Sprint qualifying and was two-tenths behind Lewis Hamilton's lap time. He was able to close the gap to a tenth over a single lap by changing his setup at the end of the Sprint.

Charles Leclerc previews the team's chances of winning the Chinese GP

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc stated that he believed that there was race pace in the SF-25 but admitted that racing in the dirty air would be trickier on Sunday.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, he reflected on the tire management factor over 57 laps and said:

“The tire management looked good. We just need to try and find free air from where we start. This is going to be a bit tricky because, starting P5 and P6, we've got quite a few cars in front, so to find free air is never easy. But we'll try our best and hopefully, our race pace is better than the guys around.”

Charles Leclerc had finished P5 in the Sprint race and trails his teammate by a single point in the driver's standings following Lewis Hamilton's win in the Sprint.