McLaren CEO admits Leclerc 'faster than us' at Monaco

May 24 (GMM) Ferrari is stunning the Monaco paddock with its sudden contention for victory in Monaco.

Last year, local hero Charles Leclerc broke through to win his first Monaco GP – and this year his 2025 car is equipped once again with the same special high-downforce rear wing.

“The big wing seems to be working well again,” smiled RTBF correspondent Gaetan Vigneron.

And yet, Leclerc and Ferrari sounded pessimistic about their chances before the track action began. “Why? Because our weakness since the beginning of the year has been slow corners,” team boss Frederic Vasseur told RMC.

“But hey, it seems to be going pretty well so far,” the Frenchman laughed. “We could hardly have done better, even if I think McLaren was hiding its game a bit.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown surmised that the pecking order at present is “Ferrari-McLaren-Red Bull,” adding that the red cars in particularly are “honestly fast”.

“Ferrari are faster than us,” he added. “At the moment, I don’t see how we can beat Leclerc.”

As for Red Bull, advisor Dr Helmut Marko sounded as optimistic in Monaco as he did a week ago at Imola, declaring after initial practice: “We’re at the top of our game here.

“We haven’t been this good in Monte Carlo for a long time,” he said. However, after the second session, he acknowledged that Verstappen’s dreaded understeer “came back”.

Some believe McLaren’s chief rivals have suddenly caught up because, behind the scenes, the FIA may have tapped them on the shoulder to stamp out a dubious brake and tyre cooling system.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, however, defended the Woking based team.

“You’ve got to take it on the chin if somebody has done some good engineering,” he said. “We have no doubt there is a millimetre of being not in a legal place.”