While Lewis Hamilton celebrated his milestone 106th career victory and his very first at the wheel of a Ferrari in Barcelona, Charles Leclerc endured yet another weekend to forget on the heels of his Monaco disappointment. The Scuderia’s number 16 driver crashed out during qualifying due to a rare unforced error. Things went from bad to worse during Sunday’s Grand Prix; after being severely compromised by the timing of the Virtual Safety Car, he was ultimately forced to retire from the race altogether when a technical glitch brought his SF-26 to a halt.
Echoes of a difficult 2020 season
As Hamilton accumulated a spectacular second-place finish and a victory over the last two rounds, Charles Leclerc instead walked away with two consecutive zeros in the standings. Throughout his lengthy career with Ferrari, the Monegasque driver has only experienced a back-to-back points drought in one other championship campaign. That was back in 2020—statistically Ferrari’s most disastrous season in 45 years—when Charles Leclerc closed out the year at the Sakhir and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix with a retirement and a lowly 13th-place finish. Earlier that same year, he had actually gone three consecutive races without a single point across the Barcelona, Spa, and Monza rounds.
Technically, Charles Leclerc also suffered two consecutive finishes outside the top ten during the 2024 season at the Austrian and British Grands Prix. However, his seventh-place finish in the Sprint race at the Red Bull Ring during that double-header saved him from leaving the weekend completely empty-handed. These latest statistics highlight just how complicated this current period has become for Charles Leclerc at Maranello, especially since the 1997-born driver has rarely found himself trailing so significantly in a direct comparison with his teammate. With the Austrian Grand Prix up next, the upcoming weekend is already shaping up to be a definitive, last-chance saloon for his championship aspirations.
In summary, the statistical slump currently affecting the team’s long-term star underlines the brutal and unpredictable nature of modern Formula 1. While his garage counterpart rides a wave of momentum, reversing this negative trend will require flawless execution from both the driver and the Maranello technical staff. How the Maranello team responds to these reliability woes and operational setbacks over the coming European rounds will dictate whether Charles Leclerc can salvage his campaign or if the season will slip entirely out of reach.
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