Charles Leclerc will start the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the front row for the first time since Hungary, but the Ferrari driver admitted there was little more he could have extracted from qualifying despite finishing more than eight tenths behind pole-sitter George Russell. The size of that deficit is particularly concerning because Leclerc believes his decisive Q3 laps were already close to the maximum available from the SF-26.
At Budapest, Charles Leclerc had moved onto the front row after team-mate Lewis Hamilton was demoted on the grid. This time, the Monegasque earned second place on track, beating McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by just one thousandth of a second. Even so, the enormous margin to Russell remained the defining number from a session in which the full Baku qualifying result highlighted Mercedes’ clear advantage.
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari maximised its Baku qualifying lap
Speaking to Sky Sport F1 after qualifying, Charles Leclerc admitted that he did not have many regrets about his fastest Q3 performance.
“Unfortunately, I think we maximised everything,” Leclerc admitted. “I say unfortunately because when there is an eight-tenth gap, I would rather come here and say, ‘I made a mistake here or there and we left something on the table.’ Instead, I think the two laps I did were quite good.”
The Ferrari driver explained that confidence remained one of the main limitations throughout the weekend. Baku normally rewards drivers who are willing to place the car extremely close to the barriers, but the unpredictable behaviour of the SF-26 prevented Leclerc from using every centimetre of the circuit.
“Usually on this track I don’t leave much margin to the walls, but this weekend I’m lacking the confidence to get closer to them,” he continued. “Unfortunately, over these days we have had a lot of problems with the car being unpredictable, and so those five or ten centimetres you leave everywhere end up costing a lot on a track like this.”
Those difficulties had already emerged during Ferrari’s final Baku practice analysis, when the team improved the SF-26 setup and hybrid deployment but continued to struggle with confidence and the car’s fundamental limitations.
Leclerc cannot explain Ferrari’s full eight-tenth deficit
Leclerc acknowledged that some additional lap time remained in the confidence he was unable to carry near the walls, but he did not believe that alone could explain the massive gap to Russell.
“So there is definitely a little performance in that aspect,” Leclerc added. “But we struggled. To say that I know where the eight tenths to George come from would be a lie, and that’s why we need to work, because the lap, and especially my second sector, was good. But even there I lost four tenths.”
The comment underlines the size of Ferrari’s challenge. Leclerc managed to secure P2 despite an SF-26 that had already shown clear weaknesses through Baku’s technical sections, yet even a strong second sector was not enough to prevent Mercedes from opening a substantial advantage.
Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari to fight for the Baku podium
Looking ahead to the Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc knows that one Mercedes will start from the back after Kimi Antonelli’s qualifying problems. Even with that opportunity, however, the Ferrari driver finds it difficult to expect much more than a fight for the podium given the pace Russell demonstrated.
“Dreaming costs nothing, but on our side I don’t think too much about the result and more about what we need to do to be as ready as possible for the start, so the work will begin as soon as I get back to the garage with the team,” Leclerc explained.
The Monegasque believes Ferrari has at least completed enough preparation for the longer-distance challenge after carrying out race simulations in FP1 and FP2.
“We have already done enough race simulations during FP1 and FP2, so I feel quite ready, but it’s true that Mercedes has a lot of margin,” he added. “We usually get closer on Sunday, but today the gap was eight tenths, so we will have to try to close it by a lot.”
Charles Leclerc therefore heads into the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from an excellent grid position but with realistic expectations about the task ahead. Ferrari has earned a front-row start, yet the performance gap shown in qualifying leaves the Scuderia needing a significant step forward if it wants to challenge Mercedes rather than simply defend a podium opportunity.
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