Charles Leclerc wants a “good shock” from Ferrari to repeat Monaco F1 fairytale

Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc says his automobile’s particular low-speed weak spot means it’s going to be extraordinarily tough to repeat his 2024 residence win on the F1 Monaco Grand Prix this weekend.

Final 12 months, Leclerc lastly discovered redemption across the streets he roamed as a toddler, taking his first residence win from pole after a number of years of heartbreak and near-misses.

The favored win led to emotional scenes after the race as Ferrari’s season bought off to an encouraging begin with one win apiece for Leclerc and former team-mate Carlos Sainz, in addition to seven additional podiums. That was earlier than McLaren stole a march on the remainder of the sphere and Ferrari suffered a dip in kind, which it recovered from by the tip of the 12 months.

However the Scuderia has not met targets for its 2025 automobile and has been properly behind McLaren, whereas additionally being outscored by Mercedes and Max Verstappen in the one frontrunning Purple Bull.

Whereas Ferrari continues to be onerous at work trying to salvage its season relatively than specializing in 2026 – with extra upgrades coming in Barcelona – the SF-25’s predominant weak spot in slow-speed corners has been a key attribute that’s set to be punished across the slim confines of the Principality, rendering Leclerc way more pessimistic about his possibilities this time.

When requested how he rated his possibilities to combat for an additional residence win, Leclerc replied: “If you would like an trustworthy reply, then low, as a result of sadly our automobile hasn’t been notably sturdy in low-speed corners and there’s solely low-speed corners right here in Monaco.

“On paper, it doesn’t seem like essentially the most promising observe for us. However Monaco is so distinctive and so totally different from something we race on over the season that we are able to have an excellent shock as soon as we put the automobile down tomorrow – which I hope will occur.

“And if it does, then I hope to be there on Saturday as a result of qualifying will stay a very powerful a part of the weekend. However on paper, it’s going to be a troublesome one.”

With Monaco being so distinctive by way of nook layouts, tarmac and bumps, the standard guidelines do not all the time apply right here, which is leaving the door ajar for Leclerc.

“There’s been years the place we undoubtedly didn’t count on to be on pole, and while you assume that you’ve zero hopes, you simply go for it – possibly a bit bit greater than individuals which might be making an attempt to handle expectations in Q3. And also you handle to do one thing particular, like we did in 2021 the place we had been nowhere all season, however we managed to place it on pole right here.

“So, I nonetheless have hopes that we are able to reproduce what occurred final 12 months. Clearly, it is nonetheless very contemporary in my thoughts to come back again on this paddock. The final time I used to be there, we gained, and it was a really particular second for me.”

With Monaco set-ups so singularly targeted on low-speed efficiency, it means groups have to fret a lot much less about discovering a balanced set-up that’s performing throughout wildly totally different nook sorts. That may very well be a method for Ferrari to search out efficiency the place it’s not anticipating it.

“That’s undoubtedly one of many questions we additionally requested ourselves coming right here,” Leclerc agreed. “The reply, we’ll have it on observe tomorrow.

“We don’t actually know but what to anticipate. However it’s true that there’s solely low-speed right here. So clearly, we’ll attempt to focus and put the automobile in one of the best place potential for low-speed corners, whereas usually on most different tracks you simply attempt to discover a compromise between high-speed and low-speed.

“I hope we’ll uncover one thing new about our automobile that we haven’t seen but for the reason that starting of the season.”

Photographs from Monaco GP – Thursday