{"id":579266,"date":"2026-04-03T09:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579266\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:07:11","slug":"where-leclerc-thinks-ferrari-can-achieve-huge-gains-on-f1-2026-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579266\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Leclerc thinks Ferrari can achieve “huge gains” on F1 2026 car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Leclerc<\/a> believes \u201chuge gains\u201d are within reach in all compartments of Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s 2026 Formula 1 car \u2013 including its power unit, chassis, aerodynamics and tyre management.<\/p>\n

Ferrari has emerged as Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 main challenger so far this season, but failed to prevent the Silver Arrows from winning the opening three grands\u00a0prix following front-row lockouts.<\/p>\n

The Scuderia has made no secret of the fact it is down on power unit performance relative to the German brand \u2013 which likely is partly linked to Mercedes\u2019 astute interpretation of the rules regarding the engine\u2019s compression ratio, but that loophole will be closed after the fifth round of the season in Canada.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Still, Ferrari needs some powertrain upgrades \u2013 which the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) mechanism might provide opportunities for, with manufacturers between 2% and 4% down on the best engine\u2019s power allowed an additional upgrade, while those who are more than 4% down will get two. The process theoretically occurs after the sixth, 12th and 18th rounds of the season.<\/p>\n

But it would be wrong for the Maranello-based squad to focus solely on engine performance, Leclerc insists.<\/p>\n

\u201cSurely the Mercedes power units have a big advantage over us at the moment,\u201d Leclerc told Sky Sports F1 after losing two tenths per lap to Oscar Piastri<\/a> and George Russell<\/a> early in the Japanese Grand Prix, which made him feel \u201cdown\u201d on his rivals as he wasn\u2019t \u201cfeeling\u201d the power as much. Lewis Hamilton<\/a> complained of having \u2018even less\u2019 power than his team-mate during that race.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Lars Baron \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a focus,\u201d Leclerc continued, \u201cbut we must not forget that there are huge gains in developing also the chassis, the aerodynamics, putting the tyres in the right window, and all of this makes the difference. So surely the engine, we cannot change it for now anyway. But [by the time] we get there, we need to improve absolutely everything around the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

This assessment was shared by Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur, who pledged to keep working hard in order to cut the Scuderia\u2019s gap to Mercedes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we have a deficit of performance in the straight line and that we have to work on it, but it is like it is,\u201d the Frenchman commented.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, we have a lot of work like everybody into the paddock. It is the beginning of the homologation of the car, it means that we have tons of things to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we have good data after three races to understand the competitiveness of the car, where we are OK-ish and where we are not. It means that performance is coming from everywhere, but we have to do a step in every single area of the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure that it is true for us, but it will be true for everybody on the grid. It means it’s more a matter to do a better jump than the others, than to do a step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Leclerc believes \u201chuge gains\u201d are within reach in all compartments of Ferrari\u2019s 2026 Formula 1 car \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3025,578,930,576,577,215217,82,215218,221885],"class_list":["post-579266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-japanese-gp","tag-sports","tag-suzuka","tag-where-leclerc-thinks-ferrari-can-achieve-huge-gains-on-f1-2026-car"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}