Jeddah, Apr 18 (PTI) Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc feels the modern F1 machinery offers enough flexibility for drivers to mould the car around their unique styles, pushing back against the notion that driving style alone dictates performance.

Amid the constant debate on the contentious subject, Leclerc offered a balanced take ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

“I see lots of things around that most of the time, that driving style is super important,” Leclerc told reporters.

“I feel like you have more than enough freedom in the car setup to adapt a car to someone’s driving style, so that doesn’t change a lot,” he asserted.

The Monegasque added that he was surprised to find that he and his new teammate, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, approached corners in a similar fashion, particularly on entry.

“With Lewis I was very surprised how similar we would approach the corners in corner entry, I don’t want to do comparison with other drivers, but when Lewis came I did not expect that.

“We are both quite aggressive in corner entry, and that means that we require the same things out of the car for sure.” Despite being the sport’s most successful and historic team, Ferrari haven’t enjoyed the strongest start to the 2025 season.

With four races done, neither Leclerc nor Hamilton, aside from the Briton’s sprint win in China, have stood on the podium.

Ferrari lie fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, while Leclerc sits at fifth, 45 points behind current leader Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings.

Ferrari are expected to bring a suite of upgrades to Jeddah, and Leclerc is cautiously optimistic.

“I think for the layout of the track, I think we should be going a step forward than we did in Bahrain, which is positive.

“But we obviously still have to confirm that, but I think the numbers that we were expecting from this upgrade in Bahrain were the ones that we saw and considering that is the case, I think we will benefit a bit more on a track like this.” When asked whether it would be a missed opportunity if Ferrari failed to catch up to their rivals this season and shifted focus to 2026, Leclerc responded bluntly.

“For it to be a missed opportunity, there needs to be an opportunity at one point. But for now we haven’t been at the level where we wanted to be from the beginning of the season. It’s still a long season and we shouldn’t give up for sure. We are going to push until the very end.” Leclerc also downplayed the idea of abandoning the current season entirely in favour of long-term development.

“I think one can go with the other as well. We very often say, ‘oh, but let’s switch to next year’s car straight away’.

“I think these kinds of things are more and more with the new structures in Formula 1, can go parallel to one another. So I don’t think that you can be extreme in one way or the other,” he added. PTI BS APA AM APA AM AM