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Charles Leclerc has been sent a ‘critical’ warning following Lewis Hamilton’s recent upturn in form at Ferrari.
In recent weeks, Leclerc has struggled to get on top of the SF-26, as he endured tough weekends in Monaco and Barcelona.
The 28-year-old, who recently extended his Ferrari contract, crashed out of the Monaco Grand Prix before his Barcelona race was ended by a suspected hydraulic problem.
To make matters worse for Leclerc, Hamilton won the Barcelona Grand Prix, propelling him right into the title race.
As the 2026 Formula 1 season continues in Austria this weekend, Leclerc is in need of a much-improved weekend.
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Currently trailing Hamilton by 40 points, Leclerc has been warned that he faces a ‘critical’ task to take control of his season; otherwise, he risks losing Ferrari’s ‘internal team momentum’.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1, ex-racer turned analyst Karun Chandhok spoke about Leclerc’s mistakes in Monaco and Barcelona but hinted that he was ‘fast’ in both races.
Chandhok said: “Monaco was a massive disappointment for him; he was right there with Lewis, but complained about brake issues and had a crash.
“Then had this crash in qualifying in Barcelona, again his own mistake, turned into Turn 4 a bit shallower than previous runs.
“He was fast again in Barcelona, same in Monte Carlo, this is where Charles has got to try and just get a bit more control of his season now.
“We’re at a phase where we are counting down to the summer break, we’re here, we’re at Silverstone next weekend, and then Spa, these three weekends are critical for Charles not to lose the internal team momentum, I think.”
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Although Leclerc is having a tough time at the moment, it will be foolish to write him off so soon into the season.
The 28-year-old, although only an eight-time F1 Grand Prix winner, convincingly beat Hamilton last year, ending the season 86 points ahead of the seven-time world champion.
Leclerc will know that he has to make changes behind the scenes in order to catch up with Hamilton, having already taken on a similar brake set-up to the Brit following the Monaco Grand Prix.
Speaking this weekend, Leclerc rejected claims that the SF-26 favours Hamilton, and added that he is ‘not too stressed’ over his pace despite the gap between the two Ferrari stars.
As per Crash, Leclerc said: “I’m not too stressed about the pace in itself, I just want to put a weekend together now with the team, and be back to where we should be.
“The last few weekends have been quite busy for me, trying to put everything together, trying to, and we fixed quite a lot of things in those last weekends.”
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