Ferrari disappointed by the first F1 2026 qualifying
That Mercedes was the car to beat was already expected after the pre-season tests in Bahrain, but few would have even imagined an eight-tenth advantage over the first of the pursuers, at least on a single qualifying lap and on a circuit like Melbourne. The look and body language of Charles Leclerc at the end of qualifying therefore do not hide how much the result of the first Q3 of the new technical era is a cold shower for Ferrari. Interviewed by Mara Sangiorgio for Sky, the 28-year-old Monegasque admitted to having experienced the same sensations on track already felt at the end of Friday, at the end of which he had with some surprise admitted the gap from George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
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All the bitterness of Charles Leclerc
“Unfortunately, I already had this feeling yesterday which was quite clear to me – explains Charles Leclerc after qualifying which sees him fourth on the grid behind Isack Hadjar – and even though I hoped I was wrong, I had predicted an advantage between five and six tenths for Mercedes. In the end, it was eight tenths… Unfortunately, on my last lap we had some minor problems, but with these cars as soon as the battery cuts a bit of power in a corner then you can lose even two and a half tenths, and maybe we paid for this at the end. But it is also the beginning of this technical era, so I don’t think there was anyone who did the perfect qualifying today. Today we could have hoped for third place and we missed it by only two hundredths but in the race we will try to fight for it”.
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The Ferrari Monegasque does not point the finger at the small technical problems that made energy management complicated during the laps in Q2 and Q3: “I don’t want to point the finger at that, with these cars unfortunately it can happen and it’s not just our problem, but a more generalized thing. It is very complicated for us to go into detail and explain everything in detail to the people and fans who are watching us, but having said that there is certainly optimization to be done”. “I think that’s the case for everyone but, apart from all this I must say that I am disappointed, because certainly a gap of eight tenths is a very important gap, which we must try to close as soon as possible”, concluded Charles Leclerc.
