2026 Scuderia Ferrari HP F1 Team

[woocasz]

It’s almost certain that Leclerc will take an engine penalty and start from the back in Madrid.

Good luck mounting a recovery drive on that tight circuit. The goal will be to bring the car home in one piece.

Because of his error crashing into the barriers at Parabolica?
Are you sure the brand new engine is gone?
I wonder if they have to put him on an old specification?

Leclerc's engine is almost certainly toast. I saw a video of the crash filmed from the grandstands where you can hear the engine still running after the accident and after Leclerc had gotten out of the car. It didn't stop until the marshal hit the kill switch.

Apparently, a decision on this will be made tomorrow.

mate, relax.
bad news for you:
Charles' PU is good after going through checks at the factory! The gearbox, on the other hand, will be replaced, but this will not result in any penalty.

On this track, it’ll be hard to overtake, so it’d be better if Hamilton finally managed to qualify ahead of Charles

[Darth-Piekus]

Half of the times he qualified ahead so I dont see where's the fun.

[edu2703]

On this track, it’ll be hard to overtake, so it’d be better if Hamilton finally managed to qualify ahead of Charles

I'm not sure what you meant by "finally." Qualifying is Leclerc 7 - 6 Hamilton. If you include sprint qualifying, it's Leclerc 9 - 9 Hamilton. It's nowhere near the advantage you're making it out to be.

I wouldn't say it's a good result for the supposedly best qualifier on the grid and one of Leclerc's main strengths. This season I've barely seen him do his traditional magical laps in Q3 and unexpectedly appear in the Top 3.

[PlatinumZealot]

Half of the times he qualified ahead so I dont see where's the fun.

Miniscule gaps too for a seasoned Ferrari man versus a middle-aged inucmbent. When the later comes within a tenth of the former it feels like a win to me. Leclerc is widely agreed to be the fastest qualifier in Formula 1. I don't know why the highlights on the qualifying head to head when and old man Lewis is matching him.

[FW17]

Ferrari have deliberately moved away from the fastest concept to help the slower driver just as they did in the beginning of 2022. Leclerc is not political and nieve, always gets taken advantage of well meaning team bosses and cut throat team mates.

[Chuckjr]

It is truly amazing to see my predictions for this team the day after Lewis signed are all coming true. Unbelievable.
The rest of the year and all next are going to be absolutely epic.

[Darth-Piekus]

Miniscule gaps too for a seasoned Ferrari man versus a middle-aged inucmbent. When the later comes within a tenth of the former it feels like a win to me. Leclerc is widely agreed to be the fastest qualifier in Formula 1. I don't know why the highlights on the qualifying head to head when and old man Lewis is matching him.

Remember how Schumacher turned the tables compared to Rosberg in his third year (talking in terms of qualifying). He was behind the first year, almost equal the second year and in front the third year. Without these crashes with various midfield drivers he could be leading the title by Monaco in 2012 and be a lot of points in front of Rosberg. If Leclerc is having trouble this year what is gonna happen next year when the car goes more of the Hamilton way?

[Badger]

These cars do not reward hero laps, they punish them, that is why Leclerc doesn't have his usual quali edge. As time goes on and he adapts, and as the power split shifts slightly towards ICE, I expect he will recover some of his edge. Hamilton's experience and patient driving style has really favoured him with these energy limited cars. Leclerc needs to incorporate some of that into his own driving to regain his edge. The raw speed still favours him it just needs to be channeled correctly.

[woocasz]

Miniscule gaps too for a seasoned Ferrari man versus a middle-aged inucmbent. When the later comes within a tenth of the former it feels like a win to me. Leclerc is widely agreed to be the fastest qualifier in Formula 1. I don't know why the highlights on the qualifying head to head when and old man Lewis is matching him.

Remember how Schumacher turned the tables compared to Rosberg in his third year (talking in terms of qualifying). He was behind the first year, almost equal the second year and in front the third year. Without these crashes with various midfield drivers he could be leading the title by Monaco in 2012 and be a lot of points in front of Rosberg. If Leclerc is having trouble this year what is gonna happen next year when the car goes more of the Hamilton way?

How many times is this topic going to be brought up? It’s been explained loads of times.
Until we get rid of this software assisted driving, most skilled drivers wont make a difference (especially in quali) and that is exactly the case with Charles.

If Leclerc is having trouble this year what is gonna happen next year when the car goes more of the Hamilton way?

That doesn’t reflect well on Hamilton, given that Charles is struggling, yet he has been/is faster in many races.
As for next year, it will be quite the opposite: FIA is moving away from the 50-50 split (ICE-battery) towards a 60-40 split, which will allow Charles to return to his natural, aggressive and precise driving style.

There’s a pattern to be seen this year. Last year, Antonelli was slow, Piastri was still in the WDC race right up until Baku, Hamilton was destroyed by Leclerc, and Max is also struggling.
It’s impossible that Antonelli and Hamilton were able to improve their pace and Piastri Leclerc and Russell lost theirs so significantly during the winter break between seasons.

Once we do get rid of artificial energy management, right order will be restored

[Darth-Piekus]

Or simply the new rules favor the complete package and some drivers (Charles, Piastri, Russell) don't have what it takes if they can't adapt. How many times has Norris changed his driving style and adapted. He even said it on his interview. The new rules are different (bad maybe) but no matter the rules the best drivers will still shine. It's not the first time that happened and not the last time it will happen. By the way woocaz. The score so far is 8-5 in races (with half of them Hamilton having faced unfair penalties, hits from other drivers or Ferrari being incompetent), 5-4 in podiums, 0-4 in crashes. A cost of 30 to 40 points. Add those and the distance would be more than 60 to 70 points. Doesn't reflect well on Leclerc on the contrary being behind a 41 year old when he should be faster due to age.

And really mate? You are insinuating that Antonelli is fast due to the new rules when he gave a masterclass driving in just a few laps passing his teammate two times last Sunday? Even Max adapted after a few races.

Maybe the battery change (60-40) might change things again (I doubt it as you still need to save battery) but what are you going to say if the right order doesn't change and becomes even worse for Charles?

[Gillian]

These cars do not reward hero laps, they punish them, that is why Leclerc doesn't have his usual quali edge.

Yeah exactly, this year really sucks if you enjoy dissecting the driver side of this sport.

As time goes on and he adapts, and as the power split shifts slightly towards ICE, I expect he will recover some of his edge.

We'll see but I personally doubt it. Leclerc' qualifying speed is overrated and Hamilton's is underrated (imho). I know the latter likes to downplay his talent in this regard but there are not many drivers faster over one lap. Offcourse the man is getting old so taking all that into account i'm personally still not that surprised. I think (again personally) everyone expecting a one-sided battle where it would be like 20-4 or something over a year in qualifying was severly overrating or underrating a certain driver.

Hamilton's experience and patient driving style has really favoured him with these energy limited cars. Leclerc needs to incorporate some of that into his own driving to regain his edge. The raw speed still favours him it just needs to be channeled correctly.

Sure at this point in their careers I'd say Leclerc should be a bit faster. I was a bit surprised about race pace though because it seems Leclerc is a bit nicer on the tires over a race distance and you can see the gap between the two increasing over a full distance. I disagree on this Hamilton patient driving style thing, but I could be mistaken. My theory is Hamilton tends to overheat the tires and for some reason Leclerc does not. They attack the corners slightly different so could be that.

[Xyz22]

Leclerc is undeperforming this season compared to 2024 and especially 2025.
His usual super aggressive style is not rewarded as much as much previous years. This situation, on top of having to adapt new brakes, has caused him significant issues. Now he has found a decent level in terms of speed but his "cost - benefit analysis" is still terrible. He crashed in MOnza because he started the race thinking he could have won it, when the car was good enough for P5-P6 at best. Stupid approach.

Russell, Leclerc and Verstappen all suffered from this reg change. Even Max is making way more mistakes compared to previous years. Obviously, with mediocre teammates you don't notice it as much.

[Darth-Piekus]

Lando is still performing on a top level and he has an almost equal teammate. I don't see him struggling at all. In fact he has taken two wins and one sprint win with a car that shouldn't be a match for Mercedes or Ferrari performing even better than before.

[Xyz22]

Lando is still performing on a top level and he has an almost equal teammate. I don't see him struggling at all. In fact he has taken two wins and one sprint win with a car that shouldn't be a match for Mercedes or Ferrari performing even better than before.

What? McLaren was easily the best package in Hungary and Zandvoort (including qualifying and the race). But overall yes Lando, relatively to Piastri, has adapted much better now. It's last year that he underperformed massively.

[Darth-Piekus]

Eh its not just the car. The whole package of car and driver did the job as Lando said in his interview. In any case. I think its an excuse to blame the rules for some drivers not performing.