Leclerc urges Ferrari to stay aggressive in 2026 upgrade war
Leclerc demands more from Ferrari’s development push
Charles Leclerc has urged Ferrari to remain “aggressive” in Formula 1’s 2026 upgrade battle after a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix exposed the SF-26’s lack of consistency.
Ferrari arrived at the new technical era with more room to find performance. After four seasons of ground-effects regulations, teams had begun to plateau by the end of 2025 as upgrades delivered smaller gains. The 2026 overhaul changed both the chassis and the way downforce is generated, with wings playing a stronger role than they did under the previous floor-focused regulations.
That relative immaturity has created a wider development window. Teams can introduce larger packages more frequently, and Ferrari has been among the most aggressive. The Scuderia brought major upgrades to Miami and Barcelona, followed by a new engine in Austria.
However, the scale of those gains also raises the importance of getting each development step to work consistently. Ferrari’s Hungarian result underlined that challenge, as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could manage only fourth and fifth despite pre-event expectations that the team could fight for victory. The disappointment was consistent with Leclerc’s earlier assessment of Ferrari’s Hungarian GP pace, in which he highlighted the gap between expectations and the final result.
A car that remains difficult to read
Leclerc said Ferrari paid a price for its start in Hungary, but insisted that the problem extended beyond the opening phase. The Monegasque described a race in which the car delivered flashes of competitiveness without maintaining a stable performance level.
“We paid the price [in the Hungarian GP], with the start; however, we weren’t particularly stellar at any point in the race,” Leclerc told media. “The first stint on hards wasn’t too bad, the last stint on the soft was pretty good, but there were too many ups and downs, and that is where we need to work: to try and find that consistency with this car.”
He added that the SF-26 felt “strange” across different stints, with some phases proving difficult for Hamilton and others for himself. For Leclerc, the issue was that the car’s behaviour appeared insufficiently correlated from one run to the next.
“Upgrades are so much more significant than in the past, because it allows us to make such big steps forward, so it is going to be important that we stay on top of it, and keep being aggressive as we have been with the development programme,” he said.
Ferrari enters the summer break 72 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. Hamilton is second in the drivers’ standings, 59 points behind Kimi Antonelli, leaving the team with both a deficit to close and a clear instruction from Leclerc: development must continue, but consistency must improve.
Simone Scanu
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.