Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari’s best chance to challenge Max Verstappen for victory at the Singapore Grand Prix did not disappear at the start, but during the following laps when the Red Bull driver was struggling with power-unit energy deployment. After missing pole position on Saturday, Ferrari needed to surprise Max Verstappen in a race where Red Bull ultimately showed superior long-run pace, and the opening phase provided a brief opportunity that Charles Leclerc later felt could have been exploited more aggressively.
Pole position and victory in the Sprint, followed by pole and another win in Sunday’s Grand Prix. The verdict from the track at Singapore ultimately became quite clear, particularly during the opening stint, when Max Verstappen began setting an unreachable pace and delivered Red Bull its second victory of the season at a circuit particularly well suited to the strengths of the RB22.
In terms of outright pace, the Max Verstappen-Red Bull combination genuinely had something more than everyone else. However, it was not a Grand Prix completely free of regrets for their rivals, because there were moments when they might have done more to put Red Bull under pressure. George Russell wasted perhaps the clearest opportunity on Saturday with his accident at the end of the opening lap after taking the lead.
Realistically, Lewis Hamilton had the pace required to fight for pole position on Saturday, confirming that Ferrari had a genuine opportunity to beat its rivals over a single lap. That underlined the potential available to the Maranello team, particularly without the braking problem suffered by Charles Leclerc. Ferrari appeared to have placed significant emphasis on qualifying in an attempt to secure pole position, an entirely understandable approach at a street circuit such as Marina Bay, where track position is crucial. Ferrari’s wider SF-26 Singapore Grand Prix analysis also highlighted how important car balance and rear-end management became over the course of the weekend.
Charles Leclerc sees missed Ferrari opportunity after the start
Pole position did not materialise, however, and that inevitably changed the nature of the race. Instead of controlling the Grand Prix from the front, Ferrari was forced onto the attack. Charles Leclerc felt that he left something on the table during the first stint, although not particularly at the start itself.
When the lights went out, there was very little the Monegasque could realistically have done differently. Max Verstappen defended the position perfectly, leaving Charles Leclerc with no clear opportunity for an attack.
Max Verstappen did more than simply close the door and reduce the available space. He also blocked Charles Leclerc’s visual references on the right-hand side under braking, making a move almost impossible without accepting a significant risk of contact. The Ferrari driver’s regret therefore concerned what happened shortly afterwards, during the first few laps when Max Verstappen began suffering deployment problems that made him particularly vulnerable.
“There were some opportunities in the first few laps, when Max had that deployment problem. But I always thought it was an isolated incident, so I wasn’t really using my battery, and maybe that was a mistake,” Charles Leclerc explained after the race.
“When I realised that at the end of the straight he didn’t have power, there was nothing I could do anymore. It was too late to use my electrical energy.”
Passing Max Verstappen during those opening laps could have changed the shape of the Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver still appeared to have greater outright race pace, meaning Charles Leclerc would probably have been forced into a defensive race from that point onwards, but gaining track position could nevertheless have created a very different scenario.
Why track position could have changed Ferrari’s race
A similar situation was visible during the first stint with Lewis Hamilton. Despite a fairly clear pace deficit, defending position remained possible. Max Verstappen himself had acknowledged before the start that losing first place at Turn 1 would have made his race considerably more complicated.
That becomes even more relevant because the Red Bull problem appeared during the opening laps. If Charles Leclerc had moved ahead, Ferrari might also have been able to manage the rear of the SF-26 differently in a race where it experienced more pronounced degradation than Red Bull, continuing a pattern seen on other rear-limited circuits. Ferrari’s Singapore runner-up finish nevertheless provided encouragement ahead of its next development step.
Max Verstappen’s deployment problem created a 23 km/h difference
So what exactly happened to Max Verstappen, and how close did Charles Leclerc really come to attempting the pass? Closer than it may initially have appeared.
Max Verstappen began experiencing energy-management difficulties as early as the second lap. Following instructions from the Red Bull pit wall, he changed engine mappings, as drivers often do once the opening lap has been completed.
The first lap is naturally driven more aggressively because of the need to defend position, but the shortage of electrical energy soon became obvious. For comparison, approaching the braking zone for Turn 7 on lap two, Charles Leclerc arrived with a speed advantage of no less than 23 km/h. Max Verstappen’s power unit cut its deployment relatively early, while Charles Leclerc reacted by attempting to use additional boost, but did so too late to commit to an attack under braking.
The difference between the two cars through the lap can be examined in greater detail using the ScuderiaFans F1 qualifying telemetry and corner comparison, which provides speed, throttle, braking, gear, RPM and corner-by-corner data for available sessions.
By the end of lap two, after recognising the lack of energy on the straights, Red Bull’s engineers changed the mappings again in an attempt to compensate. The team sacrificed performance through certain corners in order to recover more top speed on the sections where an attack from Ferrari was more realistic.
It was therefore no surprise that Max Verstappen subsequently regained some of the missing speed. He nevertheless remained vulnerable for a period and attempted to build enough of a margin through the final sector to prevent the Ferrari from gaining access to Overtake Mode.
Ferrari’s best chance disappeared once Red Bull recovered
That was arguably Ferrari’s clearest opportunity to change the outcome. Once Max Verstappen had brought the situation back under control and began opening a gap, the speed difference on the straights was not as large as it had been in qualifying, when more aggressive power mappings are used.
One notable exception came on the exit of Turn 13, where Charles Leclerc struggled throughout the weekend both on entry and acceleration away from the corner.
Part of Ferrari’s deficit was therefore generated through the corners, particularly during the direction changes in the first and third sectors. Charles Leclerc was also realistic about how difficult it would have been to keep Max Verstappen behind for the entire race even if the Ferrari had managed to take the lead.
“I don’t know how much it would have changed things. It would have helped in the first stint, but I think in the end they simply had too much pace for us,” Charles Leclerc said.
Speaking afterwards to Sky Italia, he added: “With ifs and buts… With hindsight, you can always do better.”
Ferrari turns attention to upgrades after recent pace loss
Ferrari’s hope now is that the competitive order, which has demonstrated before and after the summer break just how quickly it can change, will shift again as new developments arrive over the coming rounds.
Charles Leclerc has been pushing for the improvement required to close the gap after Ferrari lost ground over the previous three or four races, a period during which its rivals gradually moved closer. The next important response is expected through the team’s planned SF-26 upgrades for Austin, which will provide another indication of whether Ferrari can recover some of that performance.
The Singapore result still offered encouragement. Charles Leclerc finished second and demonstrated that Ferrari could challenge near the front, but the brief deployment issue suffered by Max Verstappen underlined how small opportunities can become decisive when outright race pace belongs to a rival.
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