Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has tempered Charles Leclerc’s concerns that Ferrari’s struggles in wet conditions will remain with the brand-new Formula 1 cars in 2026.
Ferrari’s hold on second place in the Constructors’ Championship has crumbled over the past two rounds, beginning with a double DNF at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Heading into the race weekend at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, though, the iconic Italian marque would have hoped to make amends given its solid record at the track.
That said, come Friday night, with a rain-soaked Vegas tarmac on offer during qualifying, Ferrari laboured, with Lewis Hamilton eliminated in Q1 with the slowest lap.
But while his team-mate advanced to the top-10 shootout, Leclerc couldn’t do better than ninth, leading him to bemoan a chronic issue that has long plagued Ferrari.
“Unfortunately, since I’m in Ferrari we are struggling massively in the wet, we don’t quite find the solution,” he addressed.
“It’s not a fault that we are not trying because we’ve been trying like crazy, but it just doesn’t work.
“It’s very, very frustrating because it’s been probably my biggest strength in the junior categories coming up and we are just struggling like crazy whenever it’s wet.
“The tyres don’t switch on and we just have a very, very poor grip.”
Leclerc isn’t too optimistic about the team addressing that weakness, given that it failed to do so when the sport transitioned into the ground effects era in 2022.
“Well, yeah, that’s [2026] what we need to look at, because I feel like with the previous generations of cars, it was very, very similar,” he explained.
“So, yeah, we’ve just been struggling and being poor on the wet since I joined the team.”
Vasseur downplays Leclerc’s F1 2026 concerns
Leclerc’s comments have raised some question marks over the team’s prospects heading into 2026, where the cars will be built to new chassis and engine rules.
However, Vasseur, who has been at the helm since 2023, was quick to repudiate that Ferrari suffered from an inherent deficiency that impedes its pace in the wet.
“I won’t give you details, but it was not always true,” he told media including Motorsport Week. “It’s more a matter of grip.
“If you have a look on the first part of the FP3 with the Wet [tyre] we were P1 with Lewis.
“It’s not that the car is not fitting with the Wet tyre or the Inter[mediate] tyre, it’s that on some conditions of grip we are struggling more.”
Vasseur insisted that Leclerc’s words had been taken out of context, citing that Ferrari’s next car will not carry forward a single element from its predecessor.
“You have to read again the note, but I’m sure that he didn’t say that you will have a correlation between 2026 and 2025,” he asserted.
“We won’t carry over a single part of the car in 2026, and it will be a completely different project for everybody.
“But it’s true that we are not at the level that we would like [in the wet], but we always want to do more.”
READ MORE – Why Ferrari has no issue with defeatist Lewis Hamilton remarks after F1 Las Vegas GP
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