{"id":31814,"date":"2025-03-21T14:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=31814"},"modified":"2025-03-21T14:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:15:07","slug":"leclerc-admits-to-being-a-step-back-from-hamilton-in-shanghai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/21\/leclerc-admits-to-being-a-step-back-from-hamilton-in-shanghai\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc admits to being &#8220;a step back&#8221; from Hamilton in Shanghai"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/20\/hamilton-unhappy-with-negative-media-reaction-to-team-radio\/\" target=\"_self\">Lewis Hamilton silenced critics<\/a> with a statement lap to put himself in Pole Position for the China Sprint Race. The 7-time Champion had the edge over Charles Leclerc, <strong>who concedes he is still chasing lap-time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns began to emerge about Ferrari&#8217;s pace after the first round in Australia &#8211; in terms of absolute performance and getting the SF-25 in a good operating window.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton&#8217;s performance should help quieten some of the doubts surrounding the Maranello squad&#8217;s 2025 project.<\/p>\n<p>On the opposite side of the garage, though, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/10\/ferrari-have-quite-a-bit-of-work-to-be-ready-for-2025-leclerc\/\" target=\"_self\">Leclerc<\/a> explains <strong>he still has margin to improve<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4>Ferrari and Leclerc will work on set-up<\/h4>\n<p>When Hamilton&#8217;s Ferrari move was first announced, one of the main talking points was his qualifying form.<\/p>\n<p>The general consensus has been that Leclerc will enjoy an edge over the British driver over one lap &#8211; at least in the early stages of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst one Sprint qualifying is not enough to draw conclusions from, <strong>Hamilton&#8217;s efforts are a reminder of his calibre<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Leclerc certainly wouldn&#8217;t have underestimated the 40-year-0ld heading into this year, and will work diligently to male set-up adjustments after the Sprint Race.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/16\/ferrari-have-no-answers-to-unbelievable-mclaren-pace\/\" target=\"_self\">Optimising the SF-25 is proving tricky in early 2025<\/a>, a theme Leclerc touched upon to the media:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;ve struggled on my side of the garage. <strong>From the beginning I felt I was a step back compared to Lewis<\/strong>, and Lewis was just faster today.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Struggled a lot in Turns 1-2-3, which was more or less the same struggles I had last year. So that was a bit of a shame.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"kFi4wD2YSA1aQtoYb1q2tA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2205181112\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'kFi4wD2YSA1aQtoYb1q2tA',sig:'yd_sasqN6IOIgDC36ptSiRj6ioDgmRgJ_wXcGU5jOiU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2205181112',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But apart from that, everything was quite tight. So obviously it&#8217;s a shame we start P4.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;But Lewis is on Pole and hopefully we can have a good race together tomorrow&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;We <strong>really struggled to put everything in the right window<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;At the end of the day, it felt a little bit better in qualifying but not where I wanted it to be. So still some work to be done for qualifying tomorrow.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;However <strong>in the race it&#8217;s another story<\/strong>, and this will only be seen tomorrow.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>A big test for Ferrari in Shanghai<\/h4>\n<p>Fundamentally, the SF-25 has proven a slightly less consistent machine than the engineers in Maranello would have liked.<\/p>\n<p>Still, McLaren&#8217;s surprise drop-off in Sprint qualifying is evidence that every team will experience highs and lows throughout the season.<\/p>\n<p>Ensuring these inconsistencies are <strong>understood and rectified quickly is the key<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Establishing a reliable baseline is of especially high importance this weekend, given the <strong>high levels of tyre degradation<\/strong> shown in Free Practice.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"UilZVgssRI9AGQUVvTUcsg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2205976314\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'UilZVgssRI9AGQUVvTUcsg',sig:'vi2mERzZfVw3_K-OCGInquT2AWlUvMUSPv8afymRyn8=',w:'594px',h:'422px',items:'2205976314',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Managing tyres will be tricky in the Sprint Race, especially in the event of a multi-team battle at the front.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, Hamilton and Leclerc must ensure that tomorrow&#8217;s Sprint can inform their decisions for Sunday&#8217;s race &#8211; <strong>where strategy could once again be definitive<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/01\/16\/fred-vasseur-not-worried-about-leclerc-and-hamilton-competition\/\" target=\"_self\">Fred Vasseur<\/a> stressed throughout the winter break that having two strong drivers was a major strength, regardless of any potential inter-team rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton is already showing glimpses of why Ferrari went for their all-star duo. The challenge now is to perform at a consistently high level and begin putting pressure, where possible, on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/03\/14\/mclaren-favourites-after-australia-race-simulations\/\" target=\"_self\">McLaren<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis Hamilton silenced critics with a statement lap to put himself in Pole Position for the China Sprint Race. The 7-time Champion had the edge over Charles Leclerc, who concedes he is still chasing lap-time. Concerns began to emerge about Ferrari&#8217;s pace after the first round in Australia &#8211; in terms of absolute performance and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":31815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[445,2452,84],"class_list":["post-31814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31817,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31814\/revisions\/31817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}