Charles Leclerc admits aggressive FP2 changes for Ferrari SF-26 didn’t pay off in Australia. Charles Leclerc led FP1 at the Australian GP but slipped to P5 in FP2 after trying aggressive setup changes.

A strong start to the 2026 season

The Australian Grand Prix weekend, and the 2026 F1 season, began in the best possible way for Charles Leclerc, who set the fastest time in FP1 ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton. In the second free practice session, the Ferrari driver matched his 1:20.2 from late morning but dropped to fifth overall, behind the other Ferrari, Oscar Piastri, and both Mercedes cars. Leclerc considers the Silver Arrows the most competitive cars, particularly when it comes to race pace.

Leclerc: “Mercedes a step ahead”

The SF-26 confirmed the positive impressions from winter testing, with Leclerc completing 63 laps working on car setup and running all three Pirelli compounds. Flow-vis was used to evaluate diffuser modifications, and the session ended with a standard race-pace simulation on the Hard tyres already used earlier in FP2.

Leclerc commented extensively on his rivals: “I think teams are showing a bit more, gradually, and unfortunately we seem to be at a disadvantage, especially compared to Mercedes, who look very, very strong. I don’t think they’ve shown all their low-fuel potential yet, but with heavy fuel, they were really impressive.”

This seems to confirm the hierarchy seen during winter testing. Charles Leclerc shared his personal ranking: “It’s probably the first time we’ve really seen what Mercedes can offer, and it’s a bit more than I would have hoped, but that’s how it goes. Oscar Piastri did an impressive lap too, but I don’t know what both McLarens did – maybe they were trying different things because Norris was quite far back (7th, a second behind). I hope I’m wrong and that tomorrow we’ll be much faster, but for now Mercedes seems to be a step ahead, with Red Bull, McLaren, and us following.”

Setup error explains FP2 drop

While Hamilton improved by seven-tenths between sessions, Charles Leclerc remained on his 1:20.2. He explained that this was due to a setup evolution mistake between FP1 and FP2: “There’s still work to do. There’s a lot to improve on our car. In FP2 I tried some aggressive changes, but they didn’t work. We tried a setup tweak that didn’t give the results we hoped for, but it was still a useful exercise to learn something. Tomorrow I’ll return to a more reasonable setup and we’ll see how it goes.”

Leclerc also noted the challenge of starting the season immediately on tracks where he has less natural feeling, even though he won in Australia in 2022: “Melbourne and Shanghai are probably the two hardest tracks for me this season; I always struggle a bit there. But yes, I shouldn’t make excuses. I’ll work very hard tomorrow to change things.”

Driving style for 2026 cars and Ferrari’s progress

Speaking to Sky Sport F1, Leclerc discussed how driving style has changed with the 2026 cars, particularly given the heavier electrical component of the power unit: “There’s always a driving style you can adopt to gain more recharge. There are certain corners where you might gain 0.2 seconds and feel happy, but only for 300 meters, after which the battery is drained and you lose five. So it’s always tricky to find the right balance. I imagine qualifying will be the hardest, because when chasing the last hundredth your mind tells you to brake 10 meters later, but then you have to take control and brake at the same point, or the battery behaves completely differently. So the approach is very different.”

Despite these challenges, Charles Leclerc’s opinion of the 2026 cars has softened compared to last year’s simulator impressions: “I was very harsh last year with my comments, and things have gone much better. Since then we’ve made huge progress, and development is going very fast, so many of these issues will be resolved. I’ve actually enjoyed the process of finding performance much more than I expected.”

“We’re especially happy with how we worked, but no one on the team says they’re satisfied because there’s still so much to do. Last year one of the negative points was pre-season testing, as it was hard to get usable results for the season. This year’s test was very good and we took home important learnings. I think we’re much more robust than others, which is normal given the directions we’ve taken. Regarding peak performance at the start, if everyone else does everything right, I don’t think there will be much difference, but maybe I’m wrong. I hope we’ll have an advantage because the start is a very important moment of the race, perhaps even the most important considering the overtaking difficulties seen in testing. It will be interesting, but I think we’re on the right side when it comes to the start.”