Charles Leclerc: Ferrari’s data on 2025 F1 car after shakedown “a good first sign”

Charles Leclerc has revealed that the initial data and numbers from the shakedown of Ferrari’s 2025 F1 car were as “expected”, declaring it a “good first sign”.

Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton drove the SF-25 for the first time on Wednesday as part of a shakedown.

The first outing went smoothly, with both drivers getting to test the new car ahead of pre-season testing later this week.

Ferrari will be hopeful that their new challenger takes them to title glory in 2025, having narrowly missed out on the F1 constructors’ title last year.

McLaren beat Ferrari to the title by just 14 points as both teams emerged as F1’s top two in front of Red Bull by the end of the campaign.

In an interview with F1, Leclerc spoke about the early “feeling” of the new car and how initial impressions through the team’s data is promising.

“Feeling-wise. It’s a bit more difficult to feel anything because the cars have evolved so much since the track has been created,” Leclerc said. “The track [Fiorano] is quite narrow.

“It feels a bit like a city track - it’s particular. To actually have the first feeling out of the car we will wait until Bahrain. The first numbers we’ve seen are not different to what we were expecting those numbers to be which is a good first sign. But we don’t know.

“Maybe McLaren or Red Bull or Mercedes have found something magic but we will only know in Bahrain.”

Will Ferrari’s title drought end in 2025?

Ferrari’s F1 title drought stretches back to 2008 when they won the constructors’ title with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen is still their last drivers’ champion from 2007.

Since then, Massa, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel have all had near-misses in terms of the driver’s title.

With Hamilton’s arrival, the hype around Ferrari has only been heightened.

Ferrari will be able to confirm whether they will start the season with a race-winning car following the Bahrain test this week.

They will then head to Australia for the first race on March 16.

Ferrari have won four of the last six races at Albert Park, including a 1-2 finish last year.