Ferrari find themselves in a fascinating position heading into the summer break. Lewis Hamilton sits second in the 2026 drivers’ championship on 169 points, 31 clear of teammate Charles Leclerc in fourth.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Yet neither is leading the championship; that honour belongs to Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, who holds a commanding 50-point advantage over Hamilton with 11 races still to run.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Hamilton has been the stronger of the two Scuderia drivers this season, consistently outscoring Leclerc across the opening 11 rounds.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Leclerc, meanwhile, has one victory and four podium finishes to his name but has struggled to match Hamilton’s level of consistency, falling behind George Russell into fourth overall.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The question, then, is whether Fred Vasseur should start pointing the team’s efforts in Hamilton’s direction.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Back in China, Vasseur was clear about his philosophy. “I don’t want to ask them to freeze the positions because I think it would have been unfair,” he told Sky Sports F1. “I think it’s also the best way to build up a team.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
That approach was defensible when the championship was young. But with a 50-point deficit to Antonelli and just over half the season remaining, every point matters. Having Hamilton and Leclerc race each other hard, as they have done all year, risks costing Ferrari positions that could prove decisive come December.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Still, 31 points is not an insurmountable gap, and Leclerc is far from out of the fight himself. Vasseur may well argue that imposing a hierarchy too early could damage team morale and Leclerc’s motivation, a gamble that might backfire if Hamilton’s challenge fades anyway.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Should Hamilton be prioritised? Have your say by voting in the poll below!\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ferrari find themselves in a fascinating position heading into the summer break. Lewis Hamilton sits second in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-855278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}