Qualifying 2026: Leclerc no longer goes to the limit
Throwing your heart over the obstacle no longer pays off in Formula 1 qualifying: the new regulations are transforming the way drivers drive. He didn’t hide it Charles Leclerccommenting on Canal+ his Saturday: “These cars in qualifying are special, you have to get used to them a bit. The thing that seems to pay off the most is regularity, rather than looking for something different. So today I did that. Yesterday in SQ3 I took corners faster than in SQ2 and this didn’t pay off in terms of the engine. It’s not easy to explain. Today, however, I was constant between Q1, Q2 and Q3. This makes qualifying a bit strange.”
The Monegasque from Ferrari has opened the doors to changes: “We will have to look into whether we can improve this. We already have some ideas at the regulation level”. Again Leclerc: “It pays to be within the limitand always do the same thing. I’m a little sorry because it was certainly one of my strong points in the past. Q3 is less exciting, because you can’t push as hard as you’d like. Unfortunately you can no longer do a crazy lap in qualifying“.
Bearman and Stella agree with Leclerc
Haas’ Oliver Bearman also made similar comments: “In Q3 I went faster in all the corners, but I lost on the straight. Which really hurts, because you see the gap widen.”
Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, when asked on the topic, explained his interesting point of view: “In qualifying there are some aspects of driving that are counterintuitive for the drivers. For example sometimes it happens that they make a mistake, but in reality they are saving energy to go faster in a next sector. The energy saved by delaying acceleration due to a problem then becomes a gain at the end of the straight. The discussion goes further: do we want to be faithful to the DNA of racing or do we accept these counterintuitive situations? This is a philosophical question, it is up to F1 and the FIA to gather everyone’s opinions and evaluate the picture of the situation.”
The issue could therefore be addressed by the Federation in the coming weeks, to understand how to make qualifying more faithful to the history of Formula 1.
