Breaking: Charles Leclerc makes ‘unacceptable’ comment after losing to Hamilton’s F…read more
Charles Leclerc makes ‘unacceptable’ comment after losing to Hamilton’s F…read more
Ferrari’s roller-coaster weekend at the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix finished on a bittersweet note, and Charles Leclerc did not disguise his frustration. After an abject qualifying session in which both scarlet cars were bundled out in Q2, Leclerc started 11th and new team-mate Lewis Hamilton 12th. On a circuit famous for its narrow, old-school layout and meagre overtaking zones, that slump in one-lap pace felt like a self-inflicted penalty.
From lights-out the pair fought as if still in qualifying trim, elbows out, hunting damage limitation. Leclerc threw his SF-25 at every gap he could find—twice skating over the limit in tense duels with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon—yet could climb no higher than sixth when the chequered flag fell. Hamilton, meanwhile, timed his charge to perfection. An aggressive undercut, a slick Ferrari pit stop, and a chassis balance he later called “the best I’ve felt all season” allowed the seven-time champion to slice through traffic and grab fourth, his strongest finish since switching from Mercedes.
It was the first Grand Prix—sprint races excluded—where Hamilton beat Leclerc head-to-head, trimming the deficit between them in the standings to eight points. That sting made Leclerc’s debrief with Sky Sports all the more candid. “Days like this you have to race with the heart,” he said, still breathing hard. “You push to the edge, sometimes past it, because starting P11 at Imola is, for a Ferrari driver, simply unacceptable. I can’t accept where we are.”
The 27-year-old insisted his on-track lunges were born of necessity rather than recklessness: “When you’ve got the car to be on the second row and end up midfield, you’re forced to take risks. I don’t think the move on Pierre was over the line; it was two drivers fighting. But we shouldn’t be putting ourselves in that position in the first place.”
Hamilton’s post-race tone was notably sunnier. The Briton, racing in front of the Tifosi in red for the first time, lauded the team’s overnight turnaround. “We changed a few things after Friday—something I’ve been trying to fix for a while clicked,” he said. “The set-up felt mega. Strategy was spot on, pit crew flawless. We’re not where we want to be yet, but this showed what’s possible.”
He also praised Ferrari’s unity under pressure: “There was a lot of heat on us after qualifying. To deliver double points and my best finish of the year shows the spirit in this team. And trust me, there’s more to come.”
Even so, Hamilton conceded qualifying remains Ferrari’s Achilles heel. Over a single lap, the SF-25 is sensitive to tyre preparation and wind, and the team’s experiment with a pared-back rear-wing package back-fired on Saturday when temperatures dropped. Engineers will now rush aerodynamic tweaks to next month’s Spanish Grand Prix, aiming to unlock the missing grip Leclerc so publicly demanded.
For now, the headlines will focus on two contrasting emotions within the same garage: Hamilton’s relief at a breakthrough drive, and Leclerc’s simmering impatience with a car fast enough to fight near the front on Sundays yet maddeningly compromised the day before. Whether that tension propels Ferrari forward or frays the partnership will be one of the stories to watch as the 2025 season rolls on.
