Ferrari reveals where it is ‘paying the price’ in recent F1 weekends

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc believes the team “paid the price” at the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix for its qualifying form, which has been a consistent issue in 2026.

The Scuderia looked like it would be a front-row threat at Madrid throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

But come qualifying, it could do no better than fourth and fifth with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc led for much of the race after extending his stint on hard tyres, but ultimately finished a distant fourth.

Ferrari hasn’t had a front row start since Hungary, and has gone without a podium finish since Belgium.

“Our car is weaker in qualifying”

Leclerc noted after the Spanish Grand Prix that Ferrari’s qualifying pace isn’t worse than its rivals, but struggles attacking kerbs in time attack.

“I really don't think we are worse than the others,” he said.

“I just think that, generally, our car is just a little bit weaker in qualifying than it is in the race with lower fuel.

“When you've got to really attack the kerbs, particularly yesterday, McLaren was very, very strong, and we were a bit on the wrong side of things on that.

“So, we paid the price this weekend, probably because of this. But as a whole, I always feel like we are a bit on the back foot in quali.”

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur added that the car seems to struggle with evolving its pace through the various qualifying segments.

“If you take Zandvoort and this one, the final outcome is a bit the same for us, that we had we had a decent pace in quali, but we didn't put everything together on the last attempt and race pace is OK,” Vasseur explained.

“I mean that if I have to put the focus on the team on something today, it will be the evolution of the pace during the quali more than the pace in quali, the evolution that the step that you can do through the session.”

He added: “If you have a look on the quali, it's true that if you have a look on the four stints in quali, one time it's Max, one time it's Lewis, one time it’s Kimi, one time it's Lewis, Q1 and the four stints, and we finished the most important in P4.

“This, we need to improve. We need to improve because I think when you have a look at the pace during the race, the pace is there.”