Why Charles Leclerc still backs Ferrari’s 2026 “bet”…

Charles Leclerc remains convinced Ferrari made the right decision to focus early on the 2026 regulations despite what has been a difficult 2025 season for the Scuderia.

Speaking ahead of the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the race that will bring a challenging season for the Monegasque to a close, Leclerc reflected on his difficult campaign. Qatar, as you'd expect, was a sore point for the driver.

“Well, we have ideas of what we could have tested. Whether these are the solutions is another story. So we don't have the 100% solution to it.

"But we've got ideas in what we didn't try during that weekend. And obviously, we're clearly doing something wrong during the weekend, as we weren't strong from FP1 to the race. So yeah, we have ideas.

"Whether we have the clear solution, I don't think so.”

Asked whether the team is expecting a similar level of performance in Abu Dhabi, Leclerc rejected that idea.

"No, surely it's been accentuated by the fact that Qatar was never going to be a track where we would be strong. But we didn't perform at the level where we should be anyway. We should have done better even though the characteristic of the track was not good for us.

"But for this weekend, I expect us to be back to where we should be, which is probably third team or something like that."

The second part of the season saw Ferrari's performance tail off as rivals such as Red Bull and Mercedes continued to bring upgrades. Ferrari instead chose to prioritise development of next year's car where both the chassis and powertrain will undergo substantial changes.

“In the beginning of '22 we actually started off quite strongly, but we were struggling with porpoising where Red Bull had a very stable platform, and they were actually quite a lot overweight.

"So as soon as they took off that weight, they were suddenly at the level where they've been since then. And then for that last year, we focused very early on next year's car, which I hope is a bet that will be a winning one.

"But for sure, it has some influence from the last two thirds of the season where we've been struggling more than others because we didn't bring that many upgrades. But in general, it's just been a generation of cars that were very, very difficult to understand.

"And what worked back at the factory, I think everybody has been surprised once or more times that when you bring it on track, it doesn't correlate exactly to what you were expecting from that part.

"And that was the challenge of it. And other teams did better, especially McLaren and Red Bull.”

The eight-time race winner has no regrets in regard to the focus of development, despite it meaning this year's car failed to improve.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari (Photo by: Noushad Thekkayil / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Not so much because we were at a technical disadvantage from the first race. 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.”

While the results don't necessarily reflect the performance of the driver, who has been hindered by tricky machinery, Leclerc is still happy with his own performance after a handful of podiums this year.

“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.

"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.

"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.”

With just one race left, Ferrari has little hope of finishing higher than fourth in the constructors' standings. But in 2026, expectations will be high.