Leclerc: Not much we can take from Monaco in Barcelona

Leclerc did the same at his home Monaco Grand Prix, where he insisted Ferrari wouldn't be competitive only for him to top all practice sessions and miss out on pole by the slightest of margins.

The Monegasque finished on the podium in second place behind McLaren's Lando Norris but is now pushing the same narrative as he and Ferrari gear up for the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, the final race in Formula 1's triple header since its return to Europe.

Asked how much confidence he had in his team's performance this weekend, Leclerc said: "Not a lot. It was good, and in a difficult season like this, you want to take as much positivity whenever it is possible.

"Monaco was definitely a positive weekend for us, but you also need to be realistic and set the right expectations going forward, and, unfortunately for here, the picture is most likely going to be very different.

"There is not much we can take from Monaco here," the Ferrari driver went on, "but it was a good weekend, good points, and that for sure will help us.

"It is also a very interesting weekend here in Barcelona with a change of regulation that we hope that we can close a little bit the gap to the guys in front.

"It is very important as a team that we reset our expectations because, unfortunately, on a more normal track, we probably expect it to be a bit more difficult and not to be as positive as Monaco.

"I’m still full of positivity, and we will try our best, but it might be a bit more difficult," the 27-year-old maintained.

Ferrari showed their car could deal with the streets of Monaco quite well with its superior mechanical grip, but Leclerc insisted that strong performance was track specific.

He was quizzed on whether Ferrari now have a better understanding of their SF-25; he said: "I think we understand, and we understand more after Monaco.

"Monaco is a very bumpy track, and I think our car is pretty good on bumps. Unfortunately, that only applies in Monaco, and it is a very specific thing to Monaco, and I think we were better off than what we thought on bumps.

"But you can never really know until you are in Monaco. So that was definitely a surprise, at least for me—I did not expect to have such a good weekend in Monaco.

"For the rest of the tracks, we have had pretty good predictions of where we will stand, and that means that I think we understand this car pretty well.

"There is still quite a lot to understand, and you always push to try to understand things that you didn’t already, but let’s say that it will most likely be as expected, which means pretty difficult," Leclerc concluded.

Leclerc is currently fifth in the F1 drivers' standings. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier)