Charles Leclerc angers Ferrari engineers with blunt Singapore comments – report

Charles Leclerc gave an alarming assessment of Ferrari and where they stand versus rivals after a challenging Singapore Grand Prix.

Leclerc’s outlook for Ferrari was not a positive one, with a report since emerging from Italy that Leclerc’s comments did not go down well with a section of the Ferrari crew. Leclerc had given little hope for an improvement in Ferrari’s fortunes following Singapore.

Charles Leclerc Singapore comments irk Ferrari?

As the Formula 1 grid increasingly readies itself for the huge 2026 regulatory reset, Ferrari still has F1 2025 business to attend to – the battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship continues to intensify.

It is a battle which Ferrari is fighting to keep pace in. Mercedes has moved into second – boosted by George Russell’s win in Singapore – opening a gap of 27 points over Ferrari.

On the plus side, Lewis Hamilton is back on the pace of teammate Charles Leclerc, but on the reverse, Ferrari has gone five grands prix without a podium.

Leclerc’s disappointment at the situation became clear as he faced the media after the Singapore Grand Prix. According to respected Italian publication Corriere dello Sport, some of the Ferrari engineers have been left far from impressed with Leclerc’s comments.

The report states: ‘Among the engineers themselves, there are those who are angry with Leclerc for his uncompromising criticism of the car and how it is managed.’

Leclerc had suggested that Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren has converged at the front of the grid, leaving Ferrari behind and with little hope of doing much better than their sixth and eighth in Singapore.

The result arguably can be taken with a pinch of salt, as Leclerc battled braking issues for much of the race. Hamilton ran into similar problems in the closing stages, dropping him back into the clutches of Fernando Alonso. A five-second penalty for repeated track limit breaches demoted Hamilton to P8 behind Alonso.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the race car to fight with the guys in front,” said Leclerc after the race in Singapore.

“McLaren always had the same gap on us compared to the beginning of the year. Red Bull did a step from Monza and are the same level of McLaren. Mercedes now is at the same level of McLaren and Red Bull. And then there’s us.

“It’s not easy, obviously, because you want to fight for better positions. But at the moment, it just feels like we are passengers to the car and we cannot extract much more.”

He added: “The picture we’ve seen this weekend is going to be what the rest of the season looks like for us.”

La Gazzetta dello Sport state that Leclerc’s comment ‘paint a discouraging picture of the entire Maranello environment’, and that ‘relations between the various departments of the team are strained.’

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While Leclerc does not believe Ferrari now has the pace to fight that leading trio, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur hinted otherwise.

Asked if he felt there would be the chance in a coming race to fight with Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren, Vasseur said: “What is mega frustrating is that the last two weekends, we came in Baku and then Singapore, and at the beginning of the weekend, the pace is there, and we didn’t extract the pace from the car.”

Vasseur added that it is “mega frustrating” for the whole team to be “struggling like hell all the race on the back foot”, due to the braking issues in Singapore.

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