Charles Leclerc has been given his best car since 2022, one he hopes can provide a platform for a championship battle. Ferrari have started the season as the second-best car behind Mercedes and led both of the season’s opening races. Charles currently sits on 49 points, compared to his 28 points at the same point last season, with 2 podiums.
This should give Charles Leclerc confidence that this era of F1 can be more rewarding for him and the team.
He has proven he has the speed to be a World Champion and has cut out the mistakes that derailed his 2022 title challenge. He is a much more mature driver and now has the experience to lead from the front.
There is a path to the championship for Charles, but it won’t be easy, and there are questions that need to be answered. Let’s dive into this title contender and see what needs to happen for him to win the championship:
Beat Your Teammate
The first task of any driver who wants to win in F1 is to beat their teammate. Charles Leclerc just happens to be partnered up with a rejuvenated 7-time World Champion in Lewis Hamilton. While this sounds like it will make his job harder, I beg to differ. Who better to learn how to put a title challenge together than a joint record winner? Hamilton provides a championship pedigree they haven’t had since Sebastian Vettel, and gives Leclerc the perfect yardstick to compare against.
Charles beat Hamilton comfortably last season, but with this newfound confidence from the Brit, they are much more evenly matched. This can only be good for Charles as they continue to push each other on.
So, where does Charles have the advantage at this early stage?
The Ferrari pair are very closely matched in Qualifying, being separated by an average of 1.5 tenths over the 4 sessions so far. But Charles has shown slightly more during the races.
The second half of the Japanese Grand Prix may have indicated where Charles’ key advantage lies. His side of the garage’s continuity and understanding of the regulations. A mysterious lack of power meant Hamilton went backwards during the race, and it’s been suggested that his engineers aren’t gauging the regulations as well as Charles’. In a season where more is taken out of the driver’s control when it comes to lap time, this could be crucial.
On top of that, Hamilton’s race engineer is about to change again. With Cedric Michel-Grosjean replacing interim Carlos Santi. Hamilton hasn’t had the best of luck with race engineers at Ferrari, and having to develop a new relationship mid-season will be tricky. They may hit the ground running, but they may not. The continuity on Charles’ side means they can develop with these new regulations, building an understanding and further pace advantage.
Keep the Lead
So how can Charles beat his rivals? Ferrari has given its drivers a great advantage with their starting procedure. Having predicted issues getting the cars off the line with the increased reliance on the turbo, Ferrari adapted well. Their smaller turbo takes less power to fully charge, giving them rocket starts. Both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have taken the lead from the second row in 2026 so far. What they now need to do is work out how to stay there.
The Scuderia seem to have the best car through the corners, while Mercedes has the advantage on the straights. They can deploy electrical energy for longer in both qualifying and the race. Luckily, qualifying doesn’t matter as much this year. Mercedes hasn’t held the lead into the first corner once so far.
If Ferrari can develop this engine to match Mercedes’ power output in the race, this would put them in a fantastic position to challenge for victory consistently. They aren’t far off, and with the development regulations as they are, Ferrari should get more time to develop their power unit as the season goes on.
Ferrari Operations
The key to Charles’ long-term success lies here. Ferrari need to prove that they can: a) develop a car over a season to give their drivers a fair shot and: b) show consistent race strategy decisions to put their drivers in the best place to win on Sundays.
The problem is, they haven’t done both in a VERY long time.
They had the best car to begin the ground effect era, but were out-developed by Verstappen and Red Bull to fall away quite badly. We saw them develop beautifully in 2024, winning 3 of the last 8 races and ending the season with arguably the best car.
They continue to make strange strategy decisions. As recently as Australia 2026, they left both cars out during the first virtual safety car when data indicated they should have at least pitted one to gain the 10-second advantage. Only to follow up that decision by not reacting fast enough to the second virtual safety car that fed perfectly into their strategy. This cost them a chance at victory that day, which isn’t the first time this has happened.
This is the largest factor in Charles Leclerc’s chances of winning the championship – is Ferrari ready to win?
In a roundabout way, we come back to the first point. Having Lewis Hamilton in the team gives Charles a better chance of winning, as he has a proven Champion to look to when his team may be struggling with the pressure.