Disappointed Leclerc says he is a ‘passenger in the car’ after another Ferrari setback

Charles Leclerc says both he and teammate Lewis Hamilton feel like “passengers” in Ferrari’s current Formula 1 car, admitting they’re unable to extract more performance to challenge for podium finishes this season.

The Scuderia suffered another difficult weekend in Singapore, following similar struggles in Baku. Both drivers once again finished outside the top five, as persistent braking issues and a general lack of pace limited their chances to compete with the frontrunners.

(right after overtaken by Antonelli)

🆑 Don’t even complain. For fuck’s sake, we are doing 200 metres of LICO all the time.

🙃pic.twitter.com/2OMzI2LXxG

— 에클레어 (@sharr__leclerc) October 5, 2025

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“From lap 8, basically, it was all about managing those brakes,” Leclerc explained after taking sixth place at Marina Bay, while Hamilton finished eighth. “I think everybody has to manage, to a certain extent, on a track like this. But I think we were on the worst side of things and that makes it extremely difficult. Our whole race was very tricky.”

In Baku, Leclerc had even allowed Hamilton to move ahead to attack the cars in front, though the position wasn’t returned. The same strategy was planned for Singapore, but worsening brake problems saw Hamilton fall back behind Leclerc anyway.

Still, the Monegasque insisted that internal team coordination isn’t the main issue. “I really don’t think that this is the biggest problem of the team at the moment,” he said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front. McLaren has always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and had the same level of McLaren. Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull, and then there’s us.”

“It’s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions. But at the moment, it just feels like we’re kind of passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more.”