A podium is not enough
Third at the finish line, first among the non-Mercedes, and also capable of battling for the entire first stint with George Russell for the lead of the race. The ingredients to imagine a Charles Leclerc satisfied at the end of the Australian GP, the opening race of the 2026 Formula 1 season, everyone would be there. The Ferrari driver instead, at the microphones of Sky Sports F1appeared anything but happy despite showing off a smile in front of the cameras.
“I’m not happy at all – began Leclerc – but there is a smile anyway, because it is the first race of a year that will be very long. But I’m not happy for several reasons. In my opinion we have many things to optimize after a race like this and this is normal, it is normal for everyone. We’ve all had problems – analyzed Ferrari’s #16 – indeed, we were perhaps on the good side. We’ve seen that the first lap was a bit of a disaster because we had to deal with so many problems. In these moments we find ourselves alone, because the engineers don’t talk to us since obviously it would be too difficult to manage the guys who talk to us on the radio while we battle in the first lap. So you find yourself with a lot of things to manage, but I think we did a good job of managing it in the best way.”.
Step to improve. And the departures…
So what was it that Leclerc didn’t like about this race? “The thing I’m not happy with is the pace – declared the Monegasque – I have to do better and today I wasn’t at my best. The strategy was definitely a bit difficult though I didn’t have a constructive weekendof those in which from FP1 to FP3 you drive an increasingly constant car. I’ve gone a little left and right with the setup and that’s never good. Indeed today I wasn’t in the right window and I struggled a lot to finish this race in third place. I think Lewis was a little bit faster than me towards the end. But it was still a good start. Yesterday the eight tenths of delay hurt me, while today it seems that we are much closer in the race. I hope this is the case for the rest of the year and we hope to close this gap in qualifying.”.
It was interesting then the analysis that Leclerc made to the microphones of Sky of departurealso highlighting significant problems for the red car, despite the evidently better starting point compared to the competition: “We all had many problems, and even big ones, during this departure. The Mercedes’ batteries, having spoken to them, were at zero. Ours was a little above zero, but not much. I realized there was a problem at the start of the lap, so I tried to manage this situation as best I could. I think we were the best in a situation that was complex for everyone. I don’t understand why we all had the same problem – this is the thing we need to analyze. For the rest, the battle with George was good. I was happy to find myself in first position, as long as that was the case“.
