Again nothing to get for Ferrari: After the disappointing weekend in Baku, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in Singapore landed again in the lower half of the top 10. This time: brake problems. They made the drivers working early on the close city course, at the very end of Hamilton’s brakes were completely over.
“From round eight, it was basically just about managing the brakes,” explains Leclerc. “Everyone has to handle it on a distance like this one piece, but this time we were on the worse side. That made the race extremely difficult.”
However, the fundamental performance weakness of the SF-25 weighs even more heavily for the Monegassen: “Unfortunately, we don’t have a car at the moment to fight with the boys. McLaren has had the same lead over us since the beginning of the season.”
“Red Bull has taken a step since Monza and is now on the same level as McLaren. Mercedes also caught up – and then we come. It is not easy because of course you want to fight for better positions. But at the moment it feels like we are just passengers of the car and couldn’t get out.”
Leclerc had already described Ferrari’s driving behavior after qualifying as “undermined, but still nervous and unpredictable” – a mix that also made confidence in the car even more difficult. He does not expect an improvement because the course is set to 2026: “The picture we saw this weekend will probably determine the rest of the season.”
However, Leclerc does not resign the view of other difficult races. “It costs a lot of energy, but it does not demotiv. On the contrary – it motivates me to turn the situation even more,” says the Monegasse, who was still fighting for the designer title with Ferrari 2024, but is often only trying to limit damage.
“If you come from a year in which you are fighting for the World Cup and then suddenly not more progress, that’s course difficult. But giving up is out of the question for me.”
Vasseur: “Must improve us”
Team boss Frederic Vasseur speaks openly about the disappointment. “The past two weekends have been extremely frustrating,” said the Frenchman. “In Baku and Singapore the pace was at the beginning [in den Trainings] There, but we didn’t manage to use the potential of the car throughout the weekend. “
The problem with the brakes threw back in the race in Singapore in Singapore: “We had to drive lift-and-coast very early in the race to get the temperatures under control. This also loses your feeling of reference for braking and for the rhythm. This costs time and trust.”
Even if Red Bull and McLaren have recently made progress, Vasseur sees the problems primarily in their own house: “We have to increase the potential of the car and improve the processes on the race weekend. Only when both come together can we attack again.”
The Frenchman still remains optimistic: “From Austin we have to get a weekend again, where everything is right – the car, the strategy, the execution. Then we are able to fight good placements again.”