As of 23 September 2026, Charles Leclerc’s fourth-place finish at the Spanish Grand Prix is still the main talking point from Madring, and for good reason. The Ferrari driver has kept defending the team’s strategy in the days since, standing firmly behind his side of the garage even as he pushes them to fix a separate problem with Saturday qualifying.
Spanish Grand Prix situation update
Leclerc crossed the line fourth around the new Madring street circuit, despite leading 32 of the race’s 57 laps. It was a result that felt like a missed opportunity given how much of the grand prix he had spent out front.
Lewis Hamilton’s afternoon ended early. He retired on Lap 7 with a brake problem, denying Ferrari a second car in the fight and removing any chance of splitting the strategies between team-mates.
Leclerc defends strategy despite missing out on podium finish
Ferrari kept Leclerc out on his opening set of hard tyres well beyond the usual window, gambling on a late safety car that would have let him convert track position into a cheap pit stop. When George Russell threatened an undercut, Ferrari reacted by bringing Leclerc in on Lap 48 to cover the move rather than risk losing the position outright.
Speaking to Formula1.com afterwards, Leclerc left no doubt about where he stood on the decision.
I think we did the right thing honestly. If I had to do the race again I would re-do exactly the same thing in terms of strategy.
It’s a clear statement from a driver who led more than half the race distance and still finished off the podium. Rather than pointing fingers at the pit wall, he backed the thinking behind it fully.
Saturday qualifying struggles continue to hamper Sunday performance
The bigger issue, in Leclerc’s eyes, happened a day earlier. He qualified fifth, with Hamilton fourth, both within two tenths of pole-sitter Lando Norris. That gap left Ferrari starting further back than their raw pace over a race stint suggested they deserved.
Leclerc was direct about where he wants Ferrari’s focus to shift.
I feel like we are losing the results we want on the Sunday because of a lack of performance on the Saturday. This is where we should focus.
It’s a familiar complaint for Ferrari followers this season: strong race pace undone by a shortfall over a single lap when it matters most.
Why Leclerc defended Ferrari’s Spanish GP strategy
Leclerc defended Ferrari’s Spanish GP strategy because covering Russell’s undercut on Lap 48 protected the position he had earned by leading 32 laps, and because the extended stint on hards had genuinely given him a shot at a safety car that never fully arrived. In his view, the pit wall made the correct call with the information available at the time.
That distinction matters. Leclerc isn’t asking Ferrari to change how they read a race; he’s asking them to give him a better grid slot to work from in the first place. The strategy calls on Sunday were sound. The one-lap pace on Saturday, he says, is what needs work.
What happens next
Ferrari’s task now is turning Leclerc’s Saturday complaint into results, and it fits a pattern the team has wrestled with all year, one we touched on in our earlier motorsport talking points. Closing that qualifying gap to Norris and Red Bull is now the clear priority heading into the next rounds.
There’s a wider engineering story here too. Small single-lap gains often start with the same development work behind the transfer of motorsport technology to road cars that grand prix teams chase every season. For the full breakdown of how Ferrari’s Spanish weekend unfolded, our original report on Ferrari’s pace covers the race in detail.
