Charles Leclerc was severely unhappy with his “undriveable” Ferrari car as teammate Lewis Hamilton secured the sprint win

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was unhappy with the drivability of his SF-25 when his teammate Lewis Hamilton secured his first Sprint win with the Italian team at the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday. The Monegasque native has looked a step behind his new teammate throughout the weekend, which was evident in the sprint qualifying when Hamilton got pole position compared to Leclerc's P4.

The eight-time F1 race winner did not have the greatest start during the sprint. Heading into Turn 14, he lost his P4 position to Mercedes driver George Russell. The Ferrari driver was unable to overtake the lead on the track despite closing the gap in the last laps of the Sprint and came home to finish P5.

In the final few laps of the Sprint, Charles Leclerc was heard complaining about the driveability of his car in Turn 13 before the long back straight at the Shanghai International Circuit. On his team radio, the 27-year-old complained:

"We've got a problem in turn 13. It's undrivable. I cannot turn the car at all."

In his post-Sprint interview with Canal+, Charles Leclerc admitted that he had taken a different setup direction than his teammate Lewis Hamilton and would be making changes before qualifying, saying:

"We're going in a different direction than Lewis. We'll try to get closer to his for the race, but I'm not expecting miracles. The biggest problem this weekend is me, and I'm not completely comfortable."

Charles Leclerc had finished the 2024 edition of the Sprint at the Chinese GP in P4 and had struggled with the SF-24 as well.

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Charles Leclerc previews his chances of a turnaround in qualifying

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc stated that he was optimistic that the 2025 challenger had the potential for a better starting position in qualifying, but was pessimistic about his chances of a quick turnaround over a single lap.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the Ferrari driver said:

"The potential is there, but there's work to be done on my side. I've never been comfortable since FP1. It's a track where I've always struggled, but that's no excuse. We're going to try to pull off a miracle in qualifying, but it's going to be complicated."

On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton mentioned that he was comfortable in the car from the start in China, adding to F1TV:

"It felt great to come here and be more comfortable in the car because in Melbourne I didn't feel great in the car. From Lap 1 this weekend we have been on it. The engineers and mechanics have done a great job to finetune the car and it felt great."

Lewis Hamilton will be the favorite to get pole position in the qualifying session as well and would hope to be joined at the front of the grid by his teammate Charles Leclerc.