Charles Leclerc says consistency is now the secret to a good performance in Formula 1 qualifying, as “crazy laps” are no longer possible with 2026 cars.
Charles Leclerc also insisted that he’s not reading too much into a closer time gap between Ferrari and Mercedes in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix compared to the last race in Australia.
In Melbourne, the margin between the quickest cars of each team was 0.809s, and over the longer Shanghai lap, it was 0.581s in sprint qualifying, and then 0.351s in the main session.
However, Leclerc suspects that today was not fully representative, as he believes that Mercedes didn’t show its true potential after a troubled session for George Russell saw the world championship leader lose out to Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“I don’t know how Kimi’s lap was,” he said when asked by Crash.net about the smaller gap.
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
“I know George also had problems. So maybe they didn’t optimise everything on a qualifying like this. But I also think that it’s a lot down to understanding these new cars.”
Leclerc conceded that he’s had to change his approach: “They are very strange in qualifying, because I felt like in the past one of my strengths coming into Q3, I was just taking massive risks to get something out more.
“And, now when you do that, which I did yesterday, you start confusing the engine side of things, and you start losing a lot more than what you gain.
“So consistency pays off more, and today I felt like I just found my rhythm from Q1 to Q3, which is a bit less exciting for Q3 when you are in the car, because you can’t push like you want.
“At the end of the day it paid off because I’m closer to the guys in front. But it was not a crazy lap, unfortunately, but you cannot really achieve that anymore, I think.”
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
Although Leclerc was pipped to third place by team-mate Lewis Hamilton, he was adamant that he could not have done a better lap because he is “struggling so much on this track”.
“It’s very rare for me to be happy when I’m P4,” he said. “I’m just struggling so much on this track. I don’t know why. I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried different set-ups, I’ve tried different driving.
“So at the end of the day, I’m happy with my lap. Yes, P4 is not great, but I don’t think there was much in it either. I’m the most satisfied I can be with a P4 as I can be.”
George Russell, Charles Leclerc, 2026 Chinese GP
© XPB Images
Leclerc confident of another strong Mercedes fight in Chinese GP
In Saturday morning’s sprint, Ferrari again took the fight to Mercedes in the early laps, Leclerc is hopeful that he and Hamilton can again do that in Sunday’s main event.
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT
“I mean, they are very strong for sure. They have this pace advantage at the moment, which is about three, four-tenths in the high fuel.
“But I think that whenever, especially at the start of the race, we seem to be a bit more flexible with where we want to deploy and they seem to struggle a little bit. And also when you start a fight, you lose so much with battery, it’s kind of a snowball effect.
“And we manage to slow them down and stay in the fight. Hopefully that is the case tomorrow, because it makes the race more exciting outside of the cockpit, but also inside the cockpit it’s quite nice.”
Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter