Charles Leclerc believes that Mercedes is ‘one step ahead’ of the competition after Friday’s free practice for the Australian GP, the first round of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
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The Ferrari driver highlighted that, although Mercedes did not lead the timesheets in either session, their race pace performance at the Albert Park circuit showed they are the team to beat.
Leclerc spoke to the press: “FP1 was good, FP2… Mercedes is slowly showing a bit of what they have, and we are starting to see where we are behind them. They are clearly very strong, especially in terms of race pace. I don’t know what margin they still have in qualifying pace, but in race pace, they look very strong compared to us,” he stated.
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The Monegasque also commented on the performance of the McLaren drivers, noting that Oscar Piastri recorded an impressive lap, while Lando Norris was further back: “Oscar did a very impressive lap, but I don’t know what they are doing between the cars. Maybe they are testing different things, because Lando was quite far behind,” he added.
He believes that Saturday’s qualifying session will be the first real indication of the F1 hierarchy at the start of this season, but already points to Mercedes as the leader, followed by Red Bull Racing, McLaren and Ferrari: “It’s the first GP of a completely new car, so there are many question marks. I hope I’m wrong and we are faster tomorrow, but at the moment, it seems that Mercedes is one step ahead, and then Red Bull, McLaren and us next,” Leclerc concluded.
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