Ferrari has received a reprimand after Charles Leclerc exceeded the required delta time during Spanish Grand Prix qualifying in Madrid, with the stewards determining that the team was exclusively responsible for the infringement. The investigation found that Charles Leclerc had followed the delta displayed on his dashboard, but Ferrari had supplied him with an incorrect time profile because of a calculation error.
The decision is particularly significant because the stewards explicitly cleared Charles Leclerc of making a mistake. Although car number 16 failed to comply with the Race Director’s required time limit between the Safety Car lines after his final Q3 lap, the Ferrari driver had acted according to the information provided to him by the team.
Ferrari reprimanded after Charles Leclerc receives wrong qualifying delta
The incident occurred at 17:01 during qualifying for the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix. The Moneagsque returned to the pits after completing his final timed lap in Q3 and exceeded the prescribed time limit between the Safety Car lines.
That resulted in a breach of Article B1.8.6 of the FIA Formula 1 Regulations and Article 12.2.1.i of the International Sporting Code, relating to non-compliance with the Race Director’s Competition Notes.
Following a report from the Race Director, Charles Leclerc and a Ferrari representative were summoned to the stewards. The panel reviewed video, timing information, telemetry and in-car footage before reaching its decision.
Crucially, Ferrari acknowledged during the hearing that the driver had been given the wrong delta-time profile because of a miscalculation. Charles Leclerc therefore complied with the delta presented on his dashboard, but because that reference itself was incorrect, he inadvertently failed to meet the required time limit.
Stewards say Charles Leclerc made no mistake
The stewards concluded that Ferrari was “exclusively at fault” and that Charles Leclerc had not committed an error of his own. As a result, the sanction was applied to the competitor rather than the driver, with Ferrari receiving a reprimand.
The decision also noted that there were no other cars interfering with the 28-year-old as he returned to the pits. However, the stewards took into account that the incorrect delta supplied by the team did not provide a performance advantage to car number 16 and had no performance impact on any other car.
That distinction prevented what could initially have looked like a driver-related qualifying offence from developing into a penalty against Charles Leclerc himself. The Ferrari driver had simply followed the information available in the cockpit, while the underlying mistake originated from the team’s calculation.
Ferrari error does not change Charles Leclerc’s qualifying position
The reprimand therefore leaves Charles Leclerc’s qualifying result unaffected. The Monegasque driver had already completed his final Q3 lap when the infringement occurred and the stewards found no sporting benefit arising from the incorrect delta.
For Ferrari, however, the decision represents an avoidable procedural error on a weekend in which margins in qualifying were already extremely small. The team’s mistake did not alter the competitive order, but it did result in formal action from the stewards after Charles Leclerc was initially summoned for failing to comply with the Race Director’s instructions.
The ruling ultimately makes the responsibility unusually clear: Charles Leclerc followed the dashboard information he had been given, while Ferrari’s miscalculation created the breach and led directly to the reprimand.
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