In 2024, Ferrari fought for the Constructors’ Championship until the last race – Charles Leclerc reflects on the Scuderia’s learning process and the lessons for 2025
The 2024 season marked a remarkable year for Ferrari in Formula One. After 12 years without a real chance of winning the Constructors’ Championship, the Scuderia managed to stay in the title race against McLaren until the last race.
Even though the ultimate triumph was denied by a final deficit of 14 points, the team showed a form that inspires hope for the future.
Charles Leclerc reflects on the significance of this intense season: “We’ve had two years where we were basically fighting for the championship. One of them was 2022, but unfortunately we weren’t in the fight long enough.”
A team in transition and learning process
In retrospect, however, Leclerc analyzes, Ferrari has grown enormously as a result. “We have developed a lot in the process. I have grown as a driver, and I think we have also grown as a team,” the Monegasque notes.
“Of course, a lot of people on the team have also changed. For some, it was also the first time that they were fighting at the front with Ferrari again. It’s an important process.”
The return to the top after years of struggle presented challenges for Ferrari, but also offered important lessons. Since 2020, the team has made continuous progress, according to Leclerc. Together with his teammate Carlos Sainz, Ferrari was deliberately put in a stronger position.
“With Carlos, we have steered the team in a very good direction. We are now in a strong position. We lacked only a little for the big goal this year, but the experience from the last few years helps us to draw the right conclusions.”
Learning from the past
Because there is no guarantee that finishing strongly will automatically mean a strong start next season, Leclerc knows. That’s why the Ferrari driver also emphasizes the importance of a successful winter program, which has not always gone optimally for the Scuderia in recent years.
“We have seen examples where we have finished a year strongly and then had problems at the beginning of the next year,” he reflects, adding a warning for 2025: ”So we really need to keep at it.”
“At least we managed to figure out what went wrong in the winter break, what we did wrong, even if we had to pay the price for it at the beginning of the next season. That’s probably the experience that will be most helpful in getting off to an optimal start next year,” Leclerc emphasizes.
