Ferrari again endured one of its worst Formula 1 qualifying sessions in 2025 at the Qatar Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton down in 10th and 18th respectively.
This followed a tough sprint event, where the Ferrari drivers qualified almost exactly in the same positions before finishing 13th and 17th, with Leclerc visibly struggling not to lose control of his SF-25.
Hamilton started the sprint from the pitlane as the Scuderia attempted set-up tweaks in a bid to alleviate the car’s flaws, but this was evidently vain – and even made things worse – as Hamilton lamented the car’s ‘sliding, bouncing, snapping and understeer’.
“It’s a fight like you couldn’t believe,” the seven-time world champion told Sky Sports F1.
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Despite the opportunity for new tweaks, things did not improve in the main qualifying session on Saturday night. Leclerc did make the top-10 shoot-out by just 0.01s in Q2, but he clearly got little satisfaction from it. The Monegasque cut a downbeat figure in the post-qualifying media pen, minutes after a high-speed spin in Q3.
“Incredibly difficult day, incredibly difficult weekend,” the Monegasque told F1 TV. “I don’t really know what to say. It’s been extremely difficult to drive this car, to keep it on track. I’m trying absolutely everything in order to extract anything I can from that car, but at the moment it’s the only thing that is possible for now.”
Speaking to written media about his spectacular Q3 spin, he explained: “I just took a stupid amount of risks, just like I do on every single corner in Q3 to try and get P8, P9, but it was a little bit too much.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
A two-stop strategy has been mandated for the grand prix due to concerns over tyre wear, which means Ferrari doesn’t have much scope for tactical variance in its bid to recover a decent points haul on Sunday.
Leclerc even admitted that his only hope was ‘getting a little bit lucky’ with safety cars – he otherwise fears he might not even score points.
“Am I optimistic for tomorrow? I am not, which is quite rare,” he told F1 TV. “Normally I’m a very optimistic person, but I have to say that this weekend, there’s zero performance in this car.
“I hope it will work better tomorrow, but nothing that I felt with this car made me think that I will have a better feeling tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, F1 TV asked Hamilton what message he would like to send his millions of fans in these difficult times, but the Briton was unusually elusive: “I don’t really have a message right now…”
After a long pause, Hamilton added: “I’m sorry. But I’m incredibly grateful for the support that I’ve had all year. I wouldn’t have made it through without them.”
Ferrari’s chances to secure anything better than fourth in the constructors’ championship have been slipping away – and the Italian outfit is unlikely to turn the tide. It has a 22-point deficit on third-placed Red Bull, whose lead driver Max Verstappen will start the grand prix from third.
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling
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