Ferrari left Madrid disappointed again, with the SF-26’s familiar weaknesses resurfacing despite flashes of genuine potential. Charles Leclerc finished fourth after leading for a long period on an alternative strategy, while Lewis Hamilton retired with a rare brake-system problem just when he believed a podium challenge was possible.
Ferrari’s races this season have become rather like a bruise: the colour may change, but touching the subject still hurts. At the heart of the problem is the SF-26 itself, a car containing some original ideas and evidence of creativity and a willingness to take risks, including the highly visible rear-wing concept used around the Madrid weekend. Yet Ferrari continues to encounter two significant limitations: insufficient efficiency in qualifying and a lack of power from the engine during races.
Ferrari did what it could with Charles Leclerc’s Madrid strategy
Knowing those limitations, Ferrari largely did what was possible with Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque was correctly kept on track when the Virtual Safety Car appeared because he had started on the hard tyres. Pitting at that stage would have committed him to a second stop later in the race.
The gamble was ultimately not rewarded because the Grand Prix developed without the additional interruption Ferrari needed. Charles Leclerc remained out on the hard compound for an exceptionally long stint, waiting for another neutralisation that could have transformed his strategy and opened a path towards the podium or even victory.
The tyre sequence became one of the most unusual parts of Ferrari’s race. Charles Leclerc completed 48 laps on the hard compound after starting with a full fuel load, giving the other teams an unusually long reference stint to study. The broader compound and stint patterns can be compared through the F1 Tyre & Stint Analysis.
Lewis Hamilton’s rare Ferrari reliability problem ends promising race
Lewis Hamilton had made an excellent start. At the opening corner he bounced over the first kerb and landed back towards Max Verstappen, who avoided a collision between the pair by taking to the chicane.
Hamilton was running fourth when, within the space of only a few laps, he began to feel the brakes disappearing — hardly an ideal situation when racing between the close barriers of Madring. It represented a genuinely rare reliability issue for the SF-26, which until Madrid had generally proved robust even if its overall performance remained imperfect.
“I’m demoralised for myself and for everyone who works in the team, at the track and at the factory,” Lewis Hamilton said. “The car was great and I felt I could fight for the podium, if not even the top two positions.”
That optimism was quickly extinguished by the failure. “I had to retire very early because of the brakes. Now we have to focus on the remaining chances to fight for something important.” Lewis Hamilton did not elaborate on exactly what he meant by that final objective.
Ferrari repeatedly referred to the failure as a problem with the “braking system”, rather than simply the brakes. That leaves open the possibility that the issue was electronic or related to the brake-by-wire system. The demanding nature of Madring had already placed particular emphasis on braking performance and energy recovery around the Madrid circuit.
Charles Leclerc waits for a miracle on the hard tyres
With Lewis Hamilton out, Charles Leclerc became Ferrari’s main protagonist in the inaugural Madring Grand Prix. He also carried the relative disadvantage of using the non-upgraded ADUO1 power unit, with the other engine still being monitored following his Monza accident. Ferrari had already chosen not to use Charles Leclerc’s newer ADUO2 engine in Madrid.
“I stayed out for a long time on the hard tyres waiting for a miracle,” Charles Leclerc explained, sounding more composed after moving on from the frustration of Monza. “We hoped for another VSC or a Safety Car, which unfortunately didn’t come.”
The extended hard-tyre run attracted attention throughout the paddock because of its unusual length and the fact that Charles Leclerc completed it while managing the car from a heavy-fuel starting condition.
Charles Leclerc reveals mysterious late-race problem
Charles Leclerc also admitted that the physical demands of Madring and the characteristics of the SF-26 made the race particularly difficult.
“It was an extremely tough race physically. The SF-26 is difficult to drive, especially on a track like this, and you can feel it,” Charles Leclerc said.
Curiously, the Ferrari driver was extremely quick on the hard tyres but less competitive over the final eight laps after switching to a fresh set of softs that Ferrari had saved during Q1.
“The first long stint was good, while at the end I didn’t have the pace for a specific reason that I don’t want to reveal. It wasn’t a tyre issue or a balance issue, but something else that has nothing to do with performance. I know that next time it will be fine.”
Nothing in Charles Leclerc’s comments suggested anything alarming, although the precise cause of that late-race limitation remains unexplained.
Fred Vasseur says Ferrari needed another Safety Car
Fred Vasseur ultimately focused on the element Ferrari could not control: luck. The team had built its strategy around the expectation that the first race at the new Madrid circuit would produce more neutralisations.
“We all expected at least two Safety Cars, but things turned out differently,” Fred Vasseur explained. “If there had been a second one, we would have fought for first place. Charles was excellent anyway: we gave him a pace to maintain and he respected it, pushing like mad and without even one mistake.”
Madrid therefore left Ferrari with another difficult result to assess. Lewis Hamilton’s rare brake-system failure removed one car from a potentially strong position, while Charles Leclerc extracted almost everything possible from an unconventional strategy but never received the race interruption required to make it pay off. The SF-26 again showed encouraging qualities, yet Ferrari’s recurring limitations continue to prevent those strengths from consistently becoming podium results.
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