Charles Leclerc finished P4 as the first Qualifying session of the season got underway at the 2026 F1 Australian GP.
While it provided some chaos, the Ferrari man kept his head down and stayed focused. With a lap time of 1:19.327, the gap to polesitter George Russell was 0.809s — a significant margin that would have been difficult to challenge.
Leclerc: The gap to Mercedes is bigger than expected at 2026 F1 Australian GP
Speaking after the 2026 F1 Australian GP qualifying session, Charles Leclerc didn’t expect to the gap to Mercedes be this big, 0.809s was the gap in Q3. Leading into Qualifying, he was impressed by the speed they displayed, particularly in FP3.
He joked that he couldn’t believe what he saw when he saw Russell’s lap time and had to check twice. The Brit was 0.6s clear of the field.
“I think yesterday, I think when we speak, I said half a second. Now it’s eight, so it’s bigger than what I expected for sure. But it was a very significant gap yesterday already. I was very, very impressed this morning with the FP3 power that they’ve shown, it was just crazy. In the last lap of George especially, I looked at the data for the first time and I had to re-upload it, because I thought there was a problem on the things I was seeing, but apparently not. So it’s very, very impressive.”
Easier starts for Ferrari
Ahead of the Australian GP, the starting procedure was a challenging issue for many teams. Which is why race starts in F1 will be different in 2026.
Leclerc believes that the Ferrari is a bit easier to have a good start in. From P4 on the grid, getting in front of Isack Hadjar is a strong possibility.
“I think there is a wrong expectation about the starts, for the starting line. I think our engine is a bit easier to have a good start, but I think that if Mercedes does everything optimised, there won’t be that much of a difference.”
“It surely will be a little bit trickier for [Mercedes] to get in the right window.”
Issues in Qualifying
Although he was P1 in Testing and in FP1 at Albert Park, Charles Leclerc is not surprised to be in the same ballpark as McLaren or Red Bull Racing as they felt that way post-Bahrain Testing.
“No, I expected to be in the same kind of place of the McLaren and Red Bull. So it wasn’t a big surprise,” he points out.
“We’ve had some issues during our qualifying, so I think there’s more pace for us.“
He explains that the team had issues in Q2 with deployment on both cars.
“In Q2 we’ve had issues with the deployment on both cars. In Q3 we had to kind of catch up the Q2 that we had missed, and with these cars every lap you lose is a big disadvantage.”
Compared to Q2, the driver of car #16 only found 0.030s, while Hadjar found 0.3s to steal P3 away.
“For sure we weren’t optimised for Q3,” Leclerc states, “But at the end they [the cars ahead] did a better job.”
Unsure expectations about the 2026 F1 Australian GP for Leclerc
Charles Leclerc does not know how it will play out going into the race at the Australian GP tomorrow.
Should a driver near the front get energy management wrong on the first lap, the 28-year-old suspects that half the pack come could through and put them outside the top 10.
“There are lots of unknowns for sure. I don’t really know how it’s going to go.
“You can easily pass cars on the first lap. You can very easily then get passed by half a grid on the next lap if you go stupid,” he makes clear. “I don’t know if it will end up everybody not doing anything or seeing some crazy things, but I guess we’ll wait and see tomorrow.”
Nevertheless, he underlines once more that the new cars are not the most fun to drive, but that the team is hoping to close the gap.
”I’ve known more fun. I’ve said it in the past, I don’t want to repeat myself too much. Surely it’s not the most fun cars to drive, but with some work hopefully we can close that gap a little bit.”
Newfound optimism for 2026 F1 season after last year
Leclerc jokingly describes his newfounded optimism with still being fresh and recharged from the break and that the Australian GP is the first race of the 2026 F1 season. He hopes that closing the gap to the front will let him keep his optimism.
“I think it’s the first race, so I’m recharged from holidays. So that’s probably why, but I hope that very soon we are back a little bit closer to the guys in front.”
According to him it will take a relatively long time with a gap this huge. In fact, it might not even be impossible such is the pace advantage Mercedes hold.
“It’s a huge gap, so it will take a relatively long time.”
