Charles Leclerc laments struggles with balance of the Ferrari during the F1 pre-season test

Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari is struggling with balance issues during the first F1 pre-season test, and that's what the team was essentially trying to fix. The Monegasque driver is heading into the 2025 season with expectations of fighting for the title.

These expectations have been cemented after a couple of years of rebuilding that Fred Vasseur has been executing at Ferrari. The last two seasons have seen the Italian team finish 3rd in 2023 and 2nd in 2024. This has been a gradual process forward, and the kind of form the team showed in the second half of 2024, it has become a contender for 2025.

The three days of running for Ferrari saw Charles Leclerc look relatively comfortable on the first day, but it was the second and third days where he did his race simulation that he didn't appear to be in sync with the car.

Talking to the media afterwards, Leclerc admitted it was a bit tough to make predictions on where the car would be, especially since the conditions in Bahrain have been quite unique. Expanding on the struggles he's had with the balance, he told Motorsport,

“It's a bit difficult to confirm the feelings because I don't think I've ever experienced Bahrain like this before, it was cold, it was rainy, these are not the temperatures we are used to. So it's difficult to make a reference compared to previous years where we had warmer conditions,”

Leclerc added:

“I would wait a little longer before making any predictions. At the moment we are working hard to try to improve the balance, we struggled a bit in the last two days. We will see in Melbourne. But let's say that in the last two days we struggled a bit more with the balance, so that's where we are focusing more”.

Charles Leclerc pinpoints McLaren as the team that appears strong

Charles Leclerc reaffirmed that trying to ascertain a pecking order based on the pre-season test might not be the best thing, as Bahrain has never been this cold, he did, however, feel that McLaren appears to be strong, even though it was still quite early to take a call on that.

“We don’t know what fuel levels everyone is running on. McLaren seems strong, but it’s early to talk, we have to focus on ourselves and not get carried away by first impressions because we don’t know anything. There are still a lot of question marks. But we have learned a lot from these first tests and that will certainly help us hit the right window,”

Charles Leclerc would also have an interesting challenge at hand in Ferrari, as the driver is teamed up with 7x F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton. Camaraderie aside, the young driver would be looking at beating his teammate and dominating him over the course of the season.