Charles Leclerc singles out 'highlight of the season' for Ferrari as he hails 'good job'

Charles Leclerc believes that Ferrari’s execution of race weekends has been the highlight of their 2024 season, with the Monegasque “very proud” of the job that the team have done and how this enabled them to battle for the constructors’ title until the final race.

After ending the first half of the campaign with two wins under their belt – which came ahead of a slightly tough spell in the middle of the season – the Scuderia displayed good progress in the second portion of the year, leading to them leapfrogging Red Bull and becoming McLaren’s main rivals in the fight for the constructors’ crown.

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This was a duel that went right down to the wire in Abu Dhabi and, while McLaren ultimately won by 14 points, Leclerc spoke positively in terms of how the team had performed and developed during 2024.

“I'm very happy because I think the first part of the season wasn't easy,” the 27-year-old reflected. “We were definitely not the fastest car. We were actually struggling for performance.

“The second part of the season, we've done an incredible job, mostly for improving the car in terms of pace. We've picked up a lot of pace. We were a lot closer to the guys in front, and actually on some races we were probably the fastest car.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 08: Charles Leclerc of Monaco driving the (16) Ferrari — Leclerc is proud of how Ferrari executed their race weekends in 2024, despite ultimately missing out on the constructors' title

“This is thanks to the team in Maranello, thanks to Carlos [Sainz], thanks to me and the team back at the track as well to have done such a great job with the new upgrades.

“But I think the highlight of this season has definitely been the execution. Because to be fighting for the constructors’ at the end of the year until the very last race, if you look at the performance we've had in the first part of the year, that's where I think we've done a particularly good job. So on that, I'm very proud.”

Pushed on how important this factor will be when it comes to how quickly the squad can hit the ground running in 2025, Leclerc warned that Ferrari cannot rely solely on momentum going forward.

“I think we've had two seasons where we're basically fighting for the championship,” he explained. “Obviously, one was not for long enough, which was in 2022. And I think with that, we've grown a lot.

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 07: Carlos Sainz of Spain and Ferrari and Charles — Leclerc believes that he and departing team mate Sainz have helped to push Ferrari in the right direction

“I’ve grown a lot as a driver and I think we've grown a lot also as a team, because when it's been such a long time, obviously, the people in the team, most of them have changed, and so for many people, it was also the first time fighting again with Ferrari at the top.

“So I think it's an important process. But yeah, I think in the last four years, we've taken steps by going in the right direction. With Carlos, we've pushed the team into a very good direction, and I think we are in a very good place now.

“Obviously, we just came short of the ultimate goal this year. But I kind of agree with Lando [Norris] that momentum is not really a thing. There's been quite a lot of examples on our side where we finished a year strong and then the beginning of the year after we've been struggling, so we really need to stay on it.

“We've had quite a few examples, and we managed to pinpoint what went wrong in that winter break, that we didn't do quite right, and that we paid the price at the beginning of the season after, and this is probably the experience that is the most helpful in order to start next year in the best possible way.”