Charles Leclerc says he has no regrets over Ferrari’s decision to abandon development of their 2025 challenger early in the season.
After a difficult start to the year, Ferrari halted upgrades in April.
Team principal Frederic Vasseur later admitted he had “underestimated” the psychological impact of stopping development after just a few races.
His explanation has since been criticised by Jean Alesi, who labelled it a “weak excuse”.
Ferrari’s lack of upgrades has left them on course for another winless campaign – their third since 2020.
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Speaking ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Leclerc said the decision was a “no-brainer”, even if it made the season a frustrating one.
“Not so much because we were at a technical disadvantage from the first race,” Leclerc said.
“It’s not like it changed massively our approach to the season and we saw it relatively quickly that we wouldn’t be fighting for the world title because McLaren was too strong. Red Bull was obviously starting to make big gains.
“There wasn’t very much of a point to put all our resources in trying to take the third or the second place if everything was going super well in the constructors’ at the cost of next year, whichever cost it may be. It’s never something you want to do.
“I would have much preferred pushing the development the whole year to try and clinch that world title 100%. But if you are in the position that we were in at the beginning of the year, I think it was kind of a no-brainer so I don’t regret it.”
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Leclerc happy with his own performance
For Leclerc, it has been another standout season.
He has dominated new teammate Lewis Hamilton across every major metric.
Leclerc has taken all seven of Ferrari’s podiums this year, while Hamilton has not finished higher than fourth in a grand prix.
“Personally, I’m quite satisfied. I think it’s been a strong season on my side. You always try to improve from one season to the other. And that’s what I’ve tried to do this year. And I’m satisfied with the work. Then, unfortunately, the performances are not where they should be,” Leclerc added.
“And I’m not as satisfied about the result side of things and the performance we’ve shown, especially after last year, when we ended up strong. The expectation was another one. But yeah, we’ve pushed.
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“I think we reacted well as a team from the first race to the last race, trying to turn that situation around. It wasn’t easy because we didn’t have that many upgrades as we are focusing mostly on 2026. But yeah, I think we performed well as a team on track.
“Then what we are missing eventually is the performance on the car. And for that, I hope that next year will be better.”
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