United States Grand Prix · News
Charles Leclerc rejects Hadjar’s claim that Ferrari had fastest car
Charles Leclerc dismisses Isack Hadjar’s view that Ferrari had the quickest car in Singapore, arguing the margins between teams are too small for certainty.
Isack Hadjar has questioned whether Red Bull had the fastest car in Singapore, but Charles Leclerc has dismissed the suggestion that Ferrari held the advantage at the Marina Bay circuit.
Hadjar argued that the Ferrari SF-26 was the quickest car at the Singapore Grand Prix and said Max Verstappen would have won by an even bigger margin had he been driving it. Verstappen beat Leclerc by 7.335 seconds as he secured his second consecutive victory, following his win at Sepang.
Hadjar backs Ferrari over Red Bull
Hadjar said he did not consider Red Bull’s RB22 the fastest car in Singapore, describing it as difficult to drive. While he acknowledged the team had been dominant in Malaysia, he believed the Ferrari had the edge at Marina Bay.
The Frenchman also suggested Verstappen would have produced a larger winning margin in the Ferrari. Hadjar himself could not match his team-mate’s Singapore form after taking a grid penalty for a new engine.
The claim came after Verstappen controlled the race following the opening phase. Leclerc backed away from trying to pass the Red Bull at the start and then found himself contesting second as Verstappen pulled clear. Hadjar’s wider Red Bull story is covered in our report on his 2026 Azerbaijan Grand Prix return.
Leclerc says the comparison is too close to call
Leclerc pushed back sharply, calling Hadjar’s assessment “nonsense” and arguing that the Red Bull driver could not know how Ferrari’s car behaved — just as Ferrari could not fully assess Red Bull’s machinery from the outside.
The Monegasque said the field was so tightly packed that small differences in how teams optimise their cars could have a major effect on performance. In his view, that makes firm claims about which team has the fastest package difficult to justify.
Leclerc also pointed to Mercedes as a team that had surprised Ferrari. He said Ferrari had expected Mercedes to be further ahead in recent races, while adding that the team could move well clear if it extracted the performance Leclerc believed its car was capable of delivering. Otherwise, he said, the competition remained close.
The exchange puts the focus on how differently drivers can interpret the same competitive picture. Leclerc has also spoken publicly about criticism in a separate account of his response to negativity.