Charles Leclerc keeps ignoring one telling piece of Fred Vasseur advice which may be hurting Ferrari

Follow us on Google Discover

Charles Leclerc’s Formula 1 season hasn’t gone quite as planned, and he’s currently on course to match his worst championship finish since 2021.

Ferrari’s car went backwards over the winter, after a dramatic and major overhaul, which looks a touch ambitious when looking back.

Leclerc is the lead Scuderia in the drivers’ championship, but fifth place isn’t where he wants to be. He wants to win.

Which his team have failed to do this season, meaning that they are the only team in the top four yet to climb onto the top step of the rostrum. There’s plenty of work to do ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations.

Leclerc has sought an ‘extreme’ solution at Ferrari to fix some balance woes that he has been dealing with for a while.

Teammate Lewis Hamilton wants to go ‘nose to nose’ with Leclerc, but hasn’t been able to match him despite the Monegasque driver’s own struggles.

READ MORE: Damon Hill says Lewis Hamilton can fix crucial Ferrari ‘problem’ Charles Leclerc might be incapable of solving

Charles Leclerc has ignored Fred Vasseur’s advice to set his Ferrari car up for Sundays

Ferrari’s secret car issue has been revealed after struggles in high-speed corners this year, and it turns out that the power steering is less than optimal.

Even Hamilton’s car developed an unexpected problem at the British Grand Prix, with his engine failing to deliver.

From the outside, it seems that there are problems all over the place at the Maranello-based outfit.

However, team boss Fred Vasseur has just revealed that Leclerc has been doing more to help himself on a race day, after wanting to set his car up for qualifying more in recent times.

“He did a real step forward in terms of race pace, perhaps also with the set-up of the car, and it’s all going into the direction to be more difficult for the Quali,” he told the F1 website.

“But I remember perfectly that two years ago we were telling him, ‘Charles, we are scoring points on Sunday, let’s be more focused on Sunday, let’s be more focused on the set-up on Sunday’, because it’s Sunday that we are scoring points.”

READ MORE: Ted Kravitz says Fred Vasseur is still under pressure at Ferrari after ‘very unhappy’ Charles Leclerc revelation

Can Charles Leclerc win a race in the second half of the 2025 F1 season?

With 12 Formula 1 races down in 2025, there are 12 more to go. Teams are starting to turn their full attention to 2026, which will create openings.

Openings that can be explored by Leclerc and Hamilton at races where the team will want to do well, such as the Italian Grand Prix.

Leclerc was ‘undone’ at the British Grand Prix by strategy and made the wrong calls to switch to the dry tyres.

After dealing with a lot of frustration throughout the race, Leclerc swore eight times in an explosive radio rant.

Ferrari’s recent upgrades have made their car slightly better, so they should be in a good position for the rest of the campaign. They just need McLaren to make the odd mistake.