Charles Leclerc believes that Ferrari can challenge Mercedes in the 2026 Formula 1 season, exploiting one of its main current weapons. The Monegasque driver stated that strong starts could be the best way to pressure the German team in the opening laps of the races.
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Even with Mercedes dominating qualifying sessions, start performance has been a vulnerable point for the German team. So far, George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have secured the front row in all GPs and also in the Sprint race in China, but neither has managed to lead the first lap after difficulties at the starts.
Ferrari took advantage of these opportunities in the early stages of the season. In Australia, Leclerc took the lead right after the start, while in the two starts in China (Sprint and GP), Lewis Hamilton, the Monegasque’s teammate, also got ahead before Mercedes reacted with its superior race pace and secured comfortable victories.
In Japan, Leclerc once again demonstrated competitiveness after the safety car restart caused by the heavy crash of Haas’s Oliver Bearman. The Ferrari driver managed to overtake Russell in the battle for third position and kept the Mercedes rival behind, reinforcing the importance of the opening laps.
Leclerc believes this could be the way to challenge the German team when the season resumes at the Miami GP: “I don’t think it’s as close as people imagine. Obviously, in the first few races we saw a lot of battles between the cars, which is cool, but as soon as you are not ideal with these cars, you lose a lot of lap time,” he stated.
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The Monegasque explained that Ferrari needs to exploit this scenario to try to stay close: “Our only chance to stay with them is to bother them in the first laps, but as soon as they get clean air, they show the real pace. We saw that in the last race, and there are still those four or five tenths that appeared in the first two stages,” he said.
Despite the performance gap, Leclerc ensured he remains confident and highlighted that the team is working on improvements: “It is still a significant advantage. But that doesn’t discourage me, as we have some things in development,” he added.
Finally, Leclerc reinforced the importance of staying focused on their own work: “We need to focus on ourselves, without overdoing it, because that is never good in these situations. Then we will see where that takes us,” he concluded.
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