FORMULA 1 F1 CALENDAR 2026 LEWIS HAMILTON MOTOGP RUMOURS

Leclerc warns race starts can't save Ferrari after Mercedes pace shocks rivals

Photo: Race Pictures

13:40, 07 Mar

byHenry Eccles

Charles Leclerc has tempered expectations around Ferrari's race starts, previously tipped to be a major advantage for the Scuderia, after Mercedes blew rivals away in the first qualifying round of the season in Melbourne.

Leclerc qualified in fourth at Albert Park, with teammate Lewis Hamilton just over a tenth behind but in P7, and while that is a disappointing result given the hype around Ferrari after pre-season, it comes with the caveat that the Italian team suffered from energy deployment gremlins in Q2.

At the Bahrain winter test, a reported smaller turbo gave Ferrari a rocket-like launch off the line, as Hamilton breezed past front-running cars from a P9 grid position during one particular practice start, but Leclerc has claimed the Scuderia's advantage is not as big as previously thought.

'Wrong expectation about the starts,' says Leclerc

Photo: Race Pictures

Speaking to media, including GPblog, Leclerc explained that while it may be "trickier" for Mercedes to get their W17 in the right window for race starts, "there won't be that much of a difference" if the Silver Arrows get it right.

Leclerc said: “I think there is a wrong expectation about the starts.

“I think our engine is a bit easier to have a good start. But I think that if Mercedes does everything optimised, there won’t be that much of a difference.

“But it surely will be a little bit trickier for them to get in the right window.”

Leclerc added that getting ahead in Lap One may not be enough, with Mercedes' one-lap advantage to the rest of the grid even clearer now.

“There are lots of unknowns, I don’t really know how it’s going to go. You can easily pass cars on the first lap, you can very easily then get passed by half the grid on the next lap if you go so stupid."

After qualifying, Leclerc also revealed he was shocked with Mercedes' pace in final practice, adding that he even had to re-upload data out of disbelief with what he was seeing.

"Yeah I think yesterday I think when we speak I said half a second, now it's eight [tenths] so it's bigger than what I expected for sure but it was a very significant gap yesterday already.

"So I was very, very impressed this morning with the FP3 power that they've shown. It was just crazy in the last lap of George, I looked at the data for the first time and I had to re-upload it because I thought there was a problem on the things I was seeing, but apparently not. So it's very, very impressive."

Hamilton worries 'disappointing' scenario could be caused by FIA's leniency

Also commenting on Mercedes' pace was Lewis Hamilton, who instead raised suspicions around the Silver Arrows' compression ratio saga, and said he would be "disappointed" if the FIA have allowed his former team to compete with an advantage over the rest of the grid.

Read here to find out what else Hamilton said.