Charles Leclerc has admitted he was “surprised” at how his Ferrari car “came alive” to propel him to an eventual third place in the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Leclerc repelled Lando Norris’ advances in the closing exchanges to come home third in Jeddah to bring an end to Ferrari’s protracted wait to claim a podium in 2025.
The Monegasque maintained his fourth-place starting spot in the opening stages, but he inherited the lead on Lap 22 once the three cars ahead all came into the pits.
With clean air proving valuable around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, Leclerc’s lap times improved to the point where he was matching the drivers on fresh tyres behind.
“The car just felt good,” Leclerc told media including Motorsport Week.
“And to be honest, I was struggling a lot when I was behind George with the car balance, a lot of understeer, and I hate that.
“And as soon as he pitted, the front came alive and the car felt a lot better.
“So then I could manage the fronts a little bit better and the performance came much better once I was in free air.”
Ferrari’s call to run an extended stint on the Medium compound paid dividends as Leclerc utilised the fresher rubber to storm past George Russell to move up to third.
But although the recovering Norris threatened that position during the closing laps, Leclerc crossed the line with a little over a second in hand over the McLaren driver.
“I knew it was going to be tight,” he recalled. “He was very quick and I wasn’t worried.
“But I knew that it was going to be tight and I didn’t know what to expect with the traffic, especially.
“At one point, I had to avoid, I think, [Gabriel] Bortoleto and I went in the marbles and I lost a lot of time.
“And Lando nearly got into my DRS range, which would have been a bit trickier than to keep him behind.
“But then I think he got stuck around 1.2s, 1.3s for the last two or three laps. I was happy to keep that position and to have the first podium of the season for the team.”
Leclerc highlights essential Ferrari improvement
However, Leclerc has acknowledged that Ferrari must discover how to unlock more potential from the SF-25 over one lap to be in contention to achieve race victories.
“I feel like we’ve maximised absolutely everything we could have this weekend,” he assessed. “There wasn’t anything more, I think, in the car.
“I think we need to focus on qualifying because at the moment it’s been a very long time I haven’t been as happy with the car balance.
“And I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know that I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not.
“But unfortunately, the car potential is just not good enough to fight for better in qualifying. But in the race, I think the good car balance, yeah, had results.
“I think we were all surprised by our pace in free air on the first stint. So that was really good. I think everything else was perfectly executed.
“Strategy was great. Pit stops have been great the whole season and also the whole last year as well. There wasn’t much more we could have done.”
READ MORE – Charles Leclerc growing concerned by static Ferrari gap to F1 leaders in 2025
