Ferrari can leave the opening day of the Madrid Grand Prix with genuine reasons for satisfaction, with the data suggesting Mercedes was not the clear benchmark on Friday. Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli were separated by little more than a tenth on the official timing screens, but the ideal-lap figures tell an even closer story, with the two drivers effectively level once their best sectors are combined.
More importantly for Ferrari, the SF-26 showed a strong progression over the course of the day. The Maranello team completed plenty of running, improved consistently and appeared to build the weekend in the right direction. The outright performance was encouraging, although another step will still be required if Ferrari wants to fight for the very front. That progress will need to continue as the teams refine their set-ups with the help of simulator work before the next sessions.
The Madring remains a highly complex circuit with plenty still to learn, so significant changes in the competitive order would not be surprising. That uncertainty is one reason why the characteristics of the new venue were expected to give the Ferrari SF-26 a better opportunity than Monza.
Ferrari closes its Friday gap to Mercedes in Madrid
Ferrari made a clear step forward in FP2. During the opening practice session, the genuine performance deficit to Mercedes appeared to be around two tenths of a second, but that margin subsequently collapsed.
Between FP1 and FP2, the Ferrari drivers improved their lap times by approximately seven tenths. Kimi Antonelli followed a similar progression, finding more than six tenths, while George Russell improved by less than one tenth.
The scale of Ferrari’s gain suggests the team was able to extract significantly more from the SF-26 as the day progressed. That was also consistent with the wider technical work carried out on the car, including continued adjustments to the Ferrari aerodynamic configuration in Madrid.
Ferrari works on SF-26 balance for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
From a handling perspective, the Ferrari SF-26 appeared well balanced from the beginning of practice. Neither car showed a fundamental balance problem that seriously limited performance, although Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc experienced different tendencies.
Lewis Hamilton complained of understeer through the faster sections. Ferrari’s engineers attempted to address that by adding two to three clicks of front wing, giving the front axle more authority and helping the car rotate more effectively at higher speeds.
Charles Leclerc’s car, by contrast, appeared more rear-limited in certain situations. Even so, both Ferraris consistently managed to put the power-unit output onto the track effectively without obvious traction limitations.
Over the course of the day, Charles Leclerc repeatedly adjusted the brake balance, progressively moving it towards the front. That approach reduces the workload on the rear axle and can help stabilise the back of the car under braking. The Monegasque driver also focused on extracting more performance from the third sector, which remained an area Ferrari needed to improve.
Overall, the different feedback pointed to a distinction in balance between the two Ferrari cars, rather than one common handling weakness affecting both drivers.
Telemetry shows Ferrari strong in high-speed corners
Beyond the drivers’ subjective feedback, the telemetry offered a relatively clear picture. Ferrari again demonstrated very strong cornering performance, while Mercedes remained competitive by being faster through some of the lower-speed sections.
In general, however, the SF-26 appeared to hold a small advantage in high-speed corners. That characteristic fits well with the type of performance Ferrari had hoped to exploit at the Madring, where the combination of faster sequences and more technical sections provides a very different challenge from Monza.
The balance of the SF-26 will remain crucial as Ferrari searches for the final fractions of performance, with Madrid requiring compromises between front-end response, rear stability and tyre management across several different types of corner.
Energy deployment remains Ferrari’s biggest question
The main question heading into the following day concerned energy deployment. Ferrari was able to match Mercedes reasonably well in this area on Friday, but the German team appeared to be using a very conservative strategy.
Because Madring is a completely new circuit, Mercedes may simply have been slower to converge on the optimal way of using its available electrical energy around the lap. Saturday running would therefore provide a better indication of whether that apparent reserve could become a significant advantage.
Energy management is already one of the central technical themes of Ferrari’s Madrid weekend, particularly after the team’s recent experience with the SF-26 power unit. Charles Leclerc is also competing without the updated ADUO2 unit in Madrid, after Ferrari decided not to use the engine following his Monza accident.
Ideal lap data puts Charles Leclerc just 0.006s behind Kimi Antonelli
Overall, Ferrari had strong reasons to be satisfied with its Friday programme. The single-lap pace was particularly encouraging, and although Charles Leclerc finished a little more than one tenth behind Kimi Antonelli on the actual timesheet, the underlying data paints a different picture.
Using ideal lap times, calculated by combining each driver’s best sector times, Kimi Antonelli would have recorded a 1:33.472. Charles Leclerc’s theoretical best would have been a 1:33.478.
That leaves only six thousandths of a second between the two drivers. On that basis, Ferrari and Mercedes were effectively matched, with no clearly dominant team emerging from Friday practice.
George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were both around two tenths further back in the same comparison. The decisive factor will now be how much additional performance each driver and team can extract as the weekend progresses.
The biggest unknown is which car still has the greater margin for improvement. Mercedes appeared conservative with its energy deployment, while Ferrari had already made a substantial step between the two Friday sessions. McLaren must also be expected to re-enter the fight as the field continues to optimise its packages.
Friday therefore did not establish Mercedes as an undisputed first force in Madrid. Ferrari’s progression, its high-speed performance and the near-identical ideal laps of Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli suggest the fight at the front remains open, with Saturday set to reveal how much each team was still keeping in reserve.
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