While Leclerc was locked in an epic battle with teammate Lewis Hamilton for the final podium place in Shanghai, Mercedes secured their second one-two victory of the season, as winner Kimi Antonelli finished 28 seconds ahead of the Monegasque in P4.

Following the race in China, Leclerc also revealed that Ferrari have upgrades “in the pipeline,” but was unsure of how much difference they will make against Mercedes’ dominance.

Speaking to media, including GPblog, after the Chinese GP, Leclerc said he felt Mercedes’ performance was now more in line with what he had observed during pre-season testing.

Leclerc said: “I’m not going to say I was waiting for that, because I was hoping that this pace, we will never see.

​​”But I feel like, after testing, there were things that were just not stacking up. In the race, I didn’t understand why we were so close in Australia, why we were so close in the Sprint. I guess now it’s a little bit more in line.

On Ferrari’s potential upgrades, Leclerc confirmed: “There are things in the pipeline.

Following his battle with Leclerc, Hamilton has admitted that he is still learning about the "challenging" aspects of the new battery power and deployment used in 2026.

The seven-time world champion revealed why drivers are tasked with “much more study” than ever before.

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