A season with too many mistakes
The terrible crash involving Charles Leclerc at the Alboreto corner during the second lap of the Italian GP in Monza reignited the debate among fans about a certain predisposition of the Monegasque to off-track excursions. In 2026 in particular, the #16 Ferrari is having a particularly negative year from this point of view, especially compared to his teammate Lewis Hamilton: while the Englishman is the only driver on the grid to have completed all the laps scheduled so far in the championship, Leclerc has already suffered three retirements, two of which were due to accidents in Monaco and, indeed, in Monza.
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To these must be added the mistake made on the last lap of the Miami race which cost him a possible podium and – compounded by a penalty received for cutting corners on that occasion due to the damaged left front suspension – dropped him down to eighth place. Not to mention also the accidents that occurred in qualifying in Monaco and Barcelona, which did not directly cost him championship points but inevitably negatively affected those race weekends.
The cost of accidents
This sequence of crashes, in addition to weighing on the morale of the 1997-born driver, is starting to be felt also on the Ferrari wallet. According to some estimates, the damage bill caused by Leclerc in 2026 alone would be 1.88 million dollars. This is the highest figure on the entire F1 grid: all money that the Scuderia had to spend on repairs and that must be deducted from the 215 million dollar budget cap that teams have available for the entire championship. This means that Leclerc’s accidents alone have taken away from Ferrari just under two million dollars that could potentially have been allocated to the development of the SF-26.
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A negative figure that should make one think, considering that there are still 9-10 races left in the World Championship (depending on decisions to be made regarding the Qatar and Abu Dhabi GPs) and that some particularly ‘dangerous’ tracks remain on the calendar in terms of accidents, such as Baku and Las Vegas. For the Monegasque, it is therefore necessary to accelerate the turnaround, also to avoid weighing too much on Maranello’s budget.
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