Leclerc: Things weren’t “stacking up” with Ferrari pace against Mercedes

Charles Leclerc has revealed Ferrari’s early confusion after the Scuderia was unexpectedly able to challenge Mercedes in both the Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese sprint race.

As predicted by many within the paddock, Mercedes has proved to be the team to beat in the latest F1 era. But within Ferrari, there has been a level of surprise at the challenge they have been able to provide the Silver Arrows, especially in the opening phases of races.

However, while Lewis Hamilton was able to snatch the lead in the opening exchanges of the Chinese Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were able to quickly ease back into the top two positions, with the same happening after a Safety Car interruption.

Asked by Crash.net if Sunday was confirmation of Mercedes’ advantage of up to five-tenths in race trim, Leclerc said: “Yes. We were all; I’m not going to say I was waiting for that, because I was hoping that we would never see these days, but I feel like, after testing, there were things that were just not stacking up.

“In the race, I didn’t understand why we were so close in Australia, why we were so close in the sprint. I guess now, it’s a little bit more in line.

“But that doesn’t mean we cannot put them under pressure and into a difficult situation, because with the fighting of those cars, it can be quite interesting.”

There is now a week's break before the third round of the 2026 season in Suzuka, with a lengthy five-week gap to Miami following, after the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix due to the conflict in Iran.

On whether Ferrari has anything in the pipeline that could close the margin to Mercedes during this period, Leclerc added: “There are things in the pipeline. How much this is going to make a difference on the gap to Mercedes, I don’t know.”