Lewis Hamilton wanted to start the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang on intermediate tyres, but Ferrari ultimately put both him and Charles Leclerc on soft slicks in conditions that immediately proved too wet. Former Ferrari driver Ivan Capelli believes the decision raises a wider question about how much influence the team’s drivers are allowed to have over calls capable of defining their races.
Hamilton started second but quickly lost ground to rivals who had selected intermediates. Although a later Safety Car helped rescue his afternoon and he eventually recovered to third place, the seven-time world champion had already feared the race was slipping away when he saw other cars preparing to start on wet-weather rubber.
Ferrari chose the same slick tyre strategy for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
The unusual sequence began before the race itself. Formula 1 had returned to Malaysia for the first time since 2017 after Sepang agreed to stage the Bahrain Grand Prix because of the situation in the Middle East, and heavy rain created the first substantial wet-weather running of the 2026 season.
Hamilton was also affected by an FIA software problem on the formation lap, with his SF-26 suffering an unintended loss of power amid several unforeseen factors. Once teams received revised engine software from the FIA, attention shifted to the tyre choice for the start.
Parts of the Sepang circuit appeared dry enough for slicks from some camera angles, while other sections remained wet enough to favour intermediates. Ferrari eventually selected the C4 soft slick for both cars.
That choice proved costly almost immediately. Charles Leclerc stopped on Lap 3 for intermediates and, within a matter of laps, caught and passed his team-mate, who remained on the soft compound. The sequence added another chapter to the Ferrari discussions that followed the failed Sepang tyre strategy.
Ivan Capelli questions how much freedom Ferrari gives its drivers
Ivan Capelli believes Ferrari may have chosen the same starting tyre for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc partly to avoid creating internal conflict if one driver had been placed on intermediates and the other on slicks.
The former Ferrari driver found it unusual that neither driver appeared able to insist on a different strategy. Reflecting on his own racing career, Capelli explained that drivers once had greater scope to make these decisions themselves. In modern Formula 1, by contrast, the enormous amount of data and the constant dialogue with engineers can leave a driver with less ability to impose a preferred choice.
The episode is particularly significant because Hamilton had, in fact, argued in favour of intermediates. He later explained that there had been extensive discussion before the start and that the amount of spray on the laps to the grid convinced him the circuit remained wet.
The Briton also checked the pit lane surface and continued to believe conditions favoured the intermediate tyre. Ferrari’s assessment was that the lengthy delay could allow the track to dry rapidly and that the crossover point towards slicks might already have arrived.
Lewis Hamilton feared his race was compromised before the start
Ferrari eventually committed to the soft tyre. Hamilton then saw rival cars around him remove their blankets to reveal wet-weather tyres, at which point he felt the team was in serious difficulty and feared his race had effectively been compromised before it began.
The consequences were immediate. Despite starting P2, Lewis Hamilton lost roughly the equivalent of a full pit stop to Max Verstappen and Mercedes drivers Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell within a lap, with all three having started on intermediates.
The scale of the strategic swing underlined how decisive the crossover between slick and intermediate tyres had become. The different choices and stint patterns can also be explored through the ScuderiaFans F1 Tyre & Stint Analysis.
Safety Cars allow Lewis Hamilton to recover to the podium
Without the full Safety Car deployed to recover Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac on Lap 9 of 55, Hamilton could even have fallen a lap behind the leaders. By the time racing resumed, however, conditions had improved sufficiently for slick tyres, allowing him to remain on the same soft set with which he had started.
From there, the Ferrari driver began working his way through the midfield. He did not make his first pit stop until Lap 31 and stopped again on Lap 43 during another Safety Car period, this time triggered by Alex Albon’s Williams.
Those circumstances helped turn an initially disastrous strategic position into a podium finish, with Hamilton ultimately taking third place. Ferrari’s recovery therefore softened the sporting consequences of the opening tyre decision, but it did not remove the wider question raised by Ivan Capelli over how strategy calls are reached when a driver’s assessment differs from the team’s.
The race also provided another example of how pit timing and strategic intervention can transform Ferrari’s position, an area tracked throughout the season in the Ferrari pit-stop and strategy data.
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