Charles Leclerc admitted his disappointment after taking third place in Singapore Sprint Qualifying, with the Ferrari driver finishing more than two tenths behind Max Verstappen. As Charles Leclerc had already suggested before the weekend began, he feels the SF-26 has lost ground to its rivals in recent races, although he hopes set-up changes on Saturday can bring Ferrari back into contention.
Over the past year, Ferrari has often experienced two very different moods between the first and second parts of a Sprint weekend. Depending on how the weekend develops, the outlook can shift from pessimism to renewed optimism. On several previous occasions, Ferrari has started poorly before recovering beyond expectations once parc fermé reopened and the team was able to modify the car’s set-up. That possibility will again be important during a Singapore Sprint weekend in which preparation time is particularly limited.
Charles Leclerc feels Ferrari has lost pure performance
For now, however, Charles Leclerc’s expression and comments after Sprint Qualifying were less positive than usual. There is a growing feeling that the SF-26 is now missing something in terms of outright pace required to fight directly with Ferrari’s rivals, an issue Charles Leclerc had already strongly hinted at in Baku.
The data suggests the fundamental problem originates on the straights, although Charles Leclerc’s assessment went beyond that specific weakness. At the beginning of the season, Ferrari held a clear advantage over McLaren and Red Bull through the corners. However, the substantial progress made by Ferrari’s rivals during the campaign has gradually reduced that margin. It is now no longer large enough to compensate for the time the SF-26 loses on the straights, even around Singapore, where those sections are relatively short.
Ferrari loses more than three tenths to Red Bull on the straights
At Marina Bay, the deficit can be quantified at more than three tenths of a second to the RB22 purely through those sections of the lap. The interesting element is that the problem does not necessarily appear only in terms of outright top speed, but more significantly during acceleration, particularly before the braking zone for Turn 7.
During that acceleration phase, Ferrari can be as much as 6 km/h slower. By the final part of the straight, however, the gap falls to around 2 km/h. The characteristics of the Marina Bay layout and its balance between traction and straight-line performance make that difference particularly relevant.
This indicates a different approach to energy use during acceleration. It is important to remember that, in Singapore, the FIA has approved different maps designed to contain speeds on the straights. MGU-K power begins to decrease much earlier than at other circuits for safety reasons, according to parameters established by the governing body. Recorded speed differences between the cars can also be explored through the F1 Top Speed Comparison.
Ferrari fails to match its rivals’ Q3 improvement
Charles Leclerc had finished Q2 at the top of the timesheets, with Lewis Hamilton immediately behind him, but Ferrari was unable to produce the same improvement as its rivals in Q3. Others found more performance when it mattered, including Red Bull, which had not used the soft tyre during FP1 and was itself somewhat surprised by the additional grip provided by the softer compound.
That represented a change from the encouraging picture earlier in the day, when Ferrari’s Singapore telemetry suggested an extremely close fight at the front of the field.
According to Charles Leclerc, Ferrari extracted the improvement it had expected from its own car. The problem is that, as he has stressed over several race weekends, the SF-26 simply lacks the outright performance required to compete with the others across an entire lap. The time Ferrari gains through the more technical second sector and the slower corners is not sufficient to compensate for what it loses elsewhere.
“We gained the time we should have gained. The others followed a slightly different plan. I think they did two laps to cool the tyre, while we only did one, but that must not be an excuse. In terms of our pace, over the last three or four races we have lost a bit of pure performance. We are not fast enough to fight with the others at the moment,” Charles Leclerc said.
Charles Leclerc was already close to the SF-26 limit
It is difficult to see where Charles Leclerc could have extracted significantly more from the Ferrari in Sprint Qualifying. The Monegasque was extremely close to the car’s limit, while Lewis Hamilton also finished some distance behind after producing a lap that was not entirely ideal.
There is nevertheless one positive element for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc believes the team has an opportunity to make progress once parc fermé reopens on Saturday, allowing the engineers to refine the SF-26 set-up before the main qualifying session and potentially bring Ferrari back into the battle for pole position.
The concern is that any improvement Ferrari finds through the more technical sections may still not be enough to transform the competitive picture if the straight-line deficit remains as large as it was during Sprint Qualifying. Ferrari may therefore need to make progress in more than one area if it is to close the gap.
“But I think there is potential in the car. Maybe tomorrow, with a few refinements, we can be there fighting for pole. We are not in such a bad position, but we are missing a little something. Third place is not a bad position to start the Sprint from, but on a track like this you want to start from pole. Overtaking here will be very difficult, but today is only the Sprint race. Tomorrow we will have to do better in qualifying.”
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