Charles Leclerc’s race pace has placed him much closer to Lewis Hamilton than Ferrari’s headline results might suggest during the first half of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Although the seven-time world champion holds the overall advantage in the most important statistics, a detailed comparison reveals a remarkably balanced contest between the two Ferrari drivers.
Numbers do not always provide a complete measure of pure performance in Formula 1. Ultimately, victories and points in the championship standings are what count, but a qualitative analysis of the data can offer a clearer understanding of both a driver’s performance level and the competitiveness of the car beneath them. Ferrari’s broader progress has also been reflected in Frédéric Vasseur’s 2026 mid-season assessment.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton’s contrasting Ferrari seasons
Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed something of a renaissance at Ferrari, producing a first half of the season that has taken him back towards the level he displayed before the controversial night in Abu Dhabi in 2021. His performances have been a world away from the diminished version of the British champion seen during Formula 1’s ground-effect era.
Charles Leclerc, by contrast, has encountered far more difficulties than his team-mate, even though the SF-26 has proved to be a predictable car capable of accommodating the different driving styles of both Ferrari drivers. The Monegasque has always acknowledged those difficulties openly. The car’s underlying behaviour was also examined in a recent technical analysis of the Ferrari SF-26 in Hungary.
How the Charles Leclerc race pace comparison was calculated
Race pace is one of the most useful methods for assessing a driver’s performance. Unlike outright speed over a single qualifying lap, it measures the ability to reproduce a competitive level across a substantial number of laps.
Consistency during a race can also reveal a great deal about the quality of the car. It reflects how competitive the machinery remains across different weather conditions, circuit characteristics and tyre compounds. To refine the comparison between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and prevent abnormal laps from distorting the results, the analysis applied the following criteria:
- The average was calculated from the best 30 laps completed by each driver.
- Lap times more than eight seconds slower than the relevant average were excluded.
- This removed laps affected by pit stops, technical problems, Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car periods and standing restarts.
Under those assumptions, the race-pace contest between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton appears considerably less one-sided than might have been expected.
Ferrari data reveals a much closer contest
The Canadian and Barcelona Grands Prix were the two races in which Charles Leclerc genuinely struggled, recording a substantial deficit to Lewis Hamilton’s race pace. The figures from Austria and Hungary are particularly interesting, however. In both rounds, the Monegasque delivered the stronger race pace despite finishing behind his team-mate once penalties are set aside.
That Hungary comparison adds another layer to a weekend in which Ferrari ultimately finished outside the podium positions, as detailed in the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix recap.
Charles Leclerc also recorded the faster race lap of the two Ferrari drivers on six occasions, compared with five for Lewis Hamilton. Therefore, despite the seven-time world champion’s overall superiority in the statistics that ultimately matter most, the contest between Ferrari’s two drivers has remained balanced.
Considering the difficulties Charles Leclerc has experienced, that is a surprising conclusion. If the Monegasque can overcome those problems, the performance gap between the two Ferrari team-mates could narrow even further during the second half of the season.
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