Charles Leclerc doesn’t blame Ferrari for missing out on strategy call that could have helped him win Formula 1‘s 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
Leclerc made a storming start to the 58-lap race at the Albert Park Circuit, propelling him to race leader ahead of George Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton after Lap 1.
What ensued was a lap-by-lap trading of blows between Russell and Leclerc before, at the fourth time of asking, the Mercedes driver finally took the outright lead of the race.
Yet, the Monegasque was always within touching distance of Russell, keeping himself and Hamilton in contention for the eventual race win.
That said, Isack Hadjar’s failing RBPT-Ford engine, on Lap 12, turned out to be a pivotal moment for Ferrari’s race.
Mercedes double-stacked under VSC conditions, while Ferrari opted to keep its drivers out suspecting the Silver Arrows to be defaulted onto a two-stop strategy, only to realise mid-race that Mercedes, too, were on a one-stopper.
Hamilton did complain on his team’s airwaves, but Leclerc, who eventually finished P3 behind the Mercedes duo says he has no regrets with the strategy decision the team took.
“I mean, I don’t regret it,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“It was a wanted and conscious choice. Looking at from FP1 to now, there’s been at every session a car that was stopped, at least one car.
“We knew that there were very high chances that this was not going to be the only VSC of the race, and so we thought that it was better for us to maybe wait for another one, and that’s always a gamble.”
A second VSC did come in the shape of Valtteri Bottas’ stranded Cadillac, but as it was wheeled back into the pitlane by the Marshals, the pitlane was closed by the FIA, hence, forcing Ferrari’s hand into staying out.
“Of course, we didn’t know that this would happen. Reality is we’ve had other VSC after, and one which was particularly well placed, but unfortunately for this one, for us, the pit entry was closed and we couldn’t take it,” he explained.
“So, we were a little bit unlucky on that side, but it was a conscious choice again, and I don’t really regret it.”
Charles Leclerc pinpoints SF-26 aspect that still needs work
Leclerc was able to keep pace with the Mercedes for almost the entirety of the race, only undone by bad luck, as he put it.
But, even if the team had decided to call him into the pits on Lap 12, Leclerc suspects he would not have been able to beat the W17 on pure performance.
Instead, the Ferrari driver believes Mercedes, and the other teams on the grid as well, missed a trick in terms of calibrating their PU mappings – something his team did too, but not as badly as the rest.
This was most apparent at the start. Despite leapfrogging into P1, Leclerc explained it was not the perfect get-away by any means.
“It looked from outside, but I think we all had the same problem for some reason,” he replied when asked about his stellar lift off the line.
“This is something we’ve got to review because also my battery was very, very low for some reason, probably a bit higher than them, which helped me to get in the front, but very suboptimal anyway.
Ferrari are rumored to have nailed its start procedures, with a smaller turbo, but Leclerc isn’t convinced.
“I thought I would end up P8, P9, but then I started and I saw everybody had issues and I had the one with the least issues, which at the end is what counts, but there’s a lot of margin to improve those starts.
“It was very suboptimal, I think, for everybody.
“We kind of expected a messy start, and then I think on top of that as well, we are such on a fine line before getting everything right on the PUIs and the lights off very, very, very quick. I think it surprised on top of that everybody and made it even more critical, so it was kind of crazy.”
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