Leclerc wary of ‘very, very strong’ Mercedes as he assesses Ferrari’s start to 2026 season

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari are “on the back foot” heading into the first weekend of the 2026 F1 campaign, with the “very, very strong” Mercedes appearing to be “a bit more in front than what I would have wanted”.

Leclerc led a 1-2 for the Scuderia over team mate Lewis Hamilton during Friday’s opening practice session at Melbourne’s Albert Park, while the pair remained in the top-five positions across the second hour of running.

However, speaking to the media at the end of the day, Leclerc shared mixed feelings about Ferrari’s start, arguing that rival teams – in particular the Silver Arrows – are starting to show their hands.

“FP1 looked positive, but then FP2 I think the teams are showing little by little a bit more,” he said. “Unfortunately, we seem to be on the back foot, especially compared to Mercedes, who seem to be very, very strong.

“I don’t think they showed everything in low fuel, but on high fuel it was very impressive. That’s a bit of a… It’s the first time probably that we see how much [of a gap] there is to them, and it’s a bit more than I would have liked. It’s the way it is.

“On the other side, it’s been quite a positive start to the weekend, and we’ll keep working very hard in order to try and maximise everything for tomorrow.”

He added: “There are quite a few priorities and things that… I just need to put the car back to where it should be. I tried something in FP2 and it felt really, really strange and quite bad.

“It’s okay. We are still in the learning process of this car. I think we had very good testing, so we know more or less where to put it. For FP2 I went a bit too aggressive in one direction and it didn’t pay off, but it was a good test.

“Then for the rest of the weekend, it’s all about putting everything together. In Qualifying I have the feeling that it can be quite close, in the race it seems that Mercedes has quite a bit of performance coming, but we’ll see.”

Asked how confident he is of being in the mix over the weekend, should he get the SF-26 in a better window, Leclerc again pointed to Mercedes’ early showing.

“I wouldn’t say confident, because I don’t know,” he commented. “I don’t know much margin Mercedes still has, so it’s a bit early to say. But I would say they are a bit more in front than what I would have wanted for now.

“We’ll work hard during the night. Again, I think this year is going to be about development throughout the year, so wherever we start on Sunday and wherever we finish on Sunday, it’s only a starting point, we’ll have to build on that to try and catch up. If we win on Sunday, then amazing!”