Ferrari may have a serious tyre problem to solve. A comparison of four races from the 2026 Formula 1 season suggests a recurring pattern: when track temperatures are extremely high and the SF-26 has to rely heavily on Pirelli’s C3 compound, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc appear to encounter significantly greater difficulties.
The contrast is particularly interesting because Ferrari’s two most difficult races from a performance perspective came in Austria and at the Hungarian Grand Prix. In both cases, the C3 was nominated as the Hard tyre and became a major part of Ferrari’s race strategy. By comparison, at Barcelona and Silverstone, where Ferrari won, the team was able to limit its reliance on the same compound.
Our theory is relatively simple in principle, although the technical reasons behind it could be considerably more complex. Whenever asphalt temperatures rise above roughly 45°C and Ferrari has to depend heavily on the C3, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc appear to struggle. Looking back at four 2026 Grands Prix helps illustrate the pattern.
Barcelona-Catalunya GP: Lewis Hamilton P1, Charles Leclerc DNF
The Barcelona-Catalunya weekend delivered Lewis Hamilton’s first Grand Prix victory as a Ferrari driver, an important result that was naturally greeted with huge enthusiasm. Track temperatures reached 52°C during the weekend, and Lewis Hamilton did use the C3 during one of his race stints.
However, Ferrari kept that stint relatively short. Lewis Hamilton completed barely 14 laps on the C3, only slightly more than the 11 laps he covered during his opening stint on the Soft tyre. The strategy was instead largely built around the C2, which proved the more suitable compound in those extremely hot conditions.
In other words, despite the heat, Ferrari did not need to make the C3 the foundation of Lewis Hamilton’s race. The team could use other compounds to structure the strategy and still extract strong performance from the SF-26.
British GP: Charles Leclerc P1, Lewis Hamilton P3
Silverstone was a dream result for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc winning and Lewis Hamilton joining him on the podium in third place. The British circuit is traditionally demanding on tyres, yet Pirelli had selected the C1 as the Hard, C2 as the Medium and C3 as the Soft for the 2026 race weekend.
Despite asphalt temperatures reaching 41°C, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton based the bulk of their strategies on the Hard and Medium compounds. Ferrari therefore relied primarily on the C1 and C2 rather than the C3.
The C3 only appeared at the end of the race because of the Safety Car. Ferrari used it for approximately four and a half laps, meaning the compound played only a very limited role in a weekend that ended with Charles Leclerc winning and Lewis Hamilton finishing third.
Austrian GP: Lewis Hamilton P5, Charles Leclerc P8
The more problematic examples begin with Austria. At the Red Bull Ring, track temperatures reached 49°C, but Pirelli had selected its softest trio of compounds, making the C3 the Hard tyre.
That nomination effectively forced Ferrari to rely much more heavily on the C3. Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc used the compound for two of their three race stints, and the SF-26 found itself in considerably greater difficulty than it had during the victorious Barcelona and Silverstone weekends.
The final result reflected those struggles: Lewis Hamilton finished fifth and Charles Leclerc eighth. The Austrian weekend therefore provides the first clear example behind the theory that Ferrari’s difficulties become more pronounced when extreme track temperatures coincide with a strategy built around the C3 Hard.
Hungarian GP: Charles Leclerc P4, Lewis Hamilton P5
The same pattern appeared again at the Hungaroring. Track temperatures reached 52°C, while Pirelli once more nominated the C3 as the Hard compound. Ferrari used the C3 during two of the four race stints completed by both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
Those two middle stints on the white-walled C3 were also the phases in which Ferrari had enormous difficulty matching the pace of its main rivals. Charles Leclerc eventually finished fourth and Lewis Hamilton fifth, leaving Ferrari outside the podium despite having shown considerably more promising performance earlier in the weekend.
The result also fits into the broader concerns identified in our Ferrari SF-26 technical analysis from Hungary, where tyre behaviour emerged as a more significant limitation than a simple lack of aerodynamic load.
Ferrari’s C3 tyre problem theory
All of this leads to one possible conclusion: Ferrari appears to have considerable difficulty racing on the C3 in a very specific set of circumstances. This does not mean the SF-26 struggles with the compound under normal conditions. The problem seems to emerge when the C3 becomes the Hard tyre at the same time as track temperatures are extremely high.
Ferrari’s fluctuating performance has already become an important subject during the first half of the season, with Frédéric Vasseur assessing Ferrari’s 2026 progress after the opening 11 races. If the C3 pattern is genuine, it represents another area the Maranello engineers will need to understand as they try to close the remaining performance gap.
The C3 cannot simply be ignored. It sits in the middle section of Pirelli’s Formula 1 tyre range and is nominated at a large number of circuits, meaning Ferrari will inevitably encounter it repeatedly throughout the season.
When temperatures are very high but teams have the C1, C2 and C3 available, or alternatively the C2, C3 and C4, the situation is easier to manage. That was the case at the two Grands Prix Ferrari won. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could minimise their reliance on the C3 and build their races primarily around other compounds.
Why the problem becomes harder when C3 is the Hard tyre
The situation becomes considerably more complicated when temperatures are high and the C3 is nominated as the Hard. Rival teams can use it to extend their stints, and Ferrari naturally attempts to do the same. Austria and Hungary suggest that the SF-26 has not been able to reproduce that performance as effectively.
That is an issue Ferrari cannot afford to leave unresolved. The team needs to find a way to make the C3 work effectively even in extreme heat, particularly on circuits where lateral tyre loads are not exceptionally high.
Simply avoiding the compound is not a realistic strategy. In conditions similar to those experienced in Austria or Hungary, refusing to use the C3 could potentially force Ferrari into an additional pit stop compared with its rivals, creating an obvious strategic disadvantage.
Ferrari therefore needs to understand the underlying behaviour rather than design strategies around avoiding it. That challenge becomes even more important as Charles Leclerc pushes Ferrari to remain aggressive in the 2026 development race.
The Maranello team has already chosen a race-by-race SF-26 development approach, and solving weaknesses that appear only under particular combinations of temperature, compound and circuit characteristics will be essential. If Ferrari wants to establish itself fully as Mercedes’ main challenger, extracting competitive performance from the C3 in these demanding conditions could prove to be one of the details that makes the difference.
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