Ferrari’s podium drought has now stretched to four consecutive Formula 1 races after Charles Leclerc finished fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid. The result was not enough to change a run that began after the Monegasque driver’s second place at Spa, leaving the Scuderia without a top-three finish through Hungary, Zandvoort, Monza and Madrid.
The statistic is particularly frustrating because several of those weekends appeared to offer the SF-26 a realistic opportunity to perform strongly. Hungary, Zandvoort and Madrid all seemed capable of playing more naturally to the Ferrari’s characteristics, yet none produced a podium.
Ferrari podium drought reaches four races
The sequence began after Charles Leclerc’s second-place finish at Spa. Since then, Ferrari has failed to place either driver inside the top three in four consecutive Grands Prix, turning what initially looked like a temporary dip into a more significant trend.
The missed opportunities make the run harder to dismiss. Hungary and Zandvoort both passed without a podium before the particularly difficult Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where Charles Leclerc retired and Lewis Hamilton could manage only sixth place. That weekend also reinforced concerns about how much Ferrari was leaving on the table during a crucial phase of the season.
The broader pattern between grid position and final race results can also be explored through the Ferrari Qualifying & Race Performance Statistics, which tracks how effectively the Scuderia converts its starting positions into Sunday results.
Madrid delivers another missed Ferrari opportunity
Spain again offered better expectations than the final classification suggested. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc started fourth and fifth respectively, giving Ferrari two cars within reach of the leading positions, but Sunday ultimately produced only fourth place for the Monegasque driver.
Lewis Hamilton was forced to retire with a brake problem, ending his race early and removing half of Ferrari’s challenge. The circumstances of the retirement are covered in more detail in the report on Lewis Hamilton’s Spanish GP brake problem.
Charles Leclerc remained in contention and eventually finished fourth, but even that was not enough to end the podium drought. A full account of how Ferrari’s Madrid race developed, including the different strategies for its two drivers, is available in the Spanish Grand Prix race review.
At the front, Andrea Kimi Antonelli took victory ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, leaving Ferrari outside the top three once again.
Four races without a podium is becoming difficult to ignore
Four consecutive Grands Prix without a podium are beginning to look like more than a simple temporary setback. That is especially significant for a Ferrari team that had taken Charles Leclerc all the way to second place at Spa immediately before the current sequence began.
The Madrid weekend also highlighted how difficult it has become for the Scuderia to translate promising potential into the final result. Charles Leclerc has already pointed to the difference between Ferrari’s race pace and its qualifying performance, a problem that again influenced what was possible in Spain. His assessment of the SF-26’s Saturday weakness can be explored in the analysis of why Ferrari’s qualifying performance keeps compromising Sundays.
After the podium at Spa, Hungary, Zandvoort and Madrid all represented weekends from which Ferrari might have hoped for more, while Monza became the lowest point of the run. The result is now a four-race stretch without either Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton reaching the top three — a trend that is becoming increasingly difficult for Ferrari to ignore.
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