Scuderia Ferrari led the way in the first on-track F1 outings at the 2026 Monaco GP with both drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. It was a very successful day for the Italian team, starting from the beginning of the first session during which Leclerc and Hamilton set the benchmark in rapid succession, ultimately leaving the native Monegasque on top as the only driver going below the 1:14s.
Later on during FP2, the roles were inverted, as the seven times World Champion topped the standings ahead of Leclerc, with the session cut short because of Sergio Pérez’s brakes catching fire in the later stages of the session.
Not a smooth day for Leclerc at the F1 Monaco GP
However, Ferrari’s Leclerc was not as positive as it could be expected following his first track action day at the F1 Monaco GP. In fact, he went into further details about a braking issue which has been affecting his track running throughout the past racing weekends
“Unfortunately, it’s been two weekends that I’m facing some issues on the brakes and I’m just struggling on my side with the brakes at the moment. We are trying to find a solution, we haven’t found so far a solution.”
As him and his team alike are evaluating the situation and anticipating how to handle it in the challenging and narrow street circuit, FP2 had shown Leclerc’s limits and lack of feeling with the SF-26 in this area.
“We’ll keep working on that and trying to make sure that for tomorrow we do a step forward on that. In FP2, I just lost a little bit of confidence for that, but we are working on that.“
As a consequence of his braking issues, Leclerc had gone straight at Mirabeau twice in opening practice, struggling to keep following the track as he should have.
“It’s just a very tricky situation, so it’s a number of things and Monaco is obviously tricky, but surely on brakes I’m not super confident, so that’s why I do a bit more mistakes since two weekends, at least on braking, with lock-ups and it’s just been a lot trickier.“
Qualifying challenges anticipated for tomorrow
The eight-time F1 race winner then discussed his expectations for the upcoming Qualifying session, set to take place tomorrow. Arguably the most important on-track time of the weekend for the significance it holds in paving the way for the race ahead, Leclerc mentioned his worry for the rather close proximity of their immediate rivals, with Red Bull’s Verstappen right behind the Prancing Horse duo and dominant championship leader Mercedes another team to watch.
“Red Bull and Max especially were very close to us in FP2, so I expect them to be very strong, I expect Mercedes as well to, once they put everything together in qualifying, they will be very close. So I think it’s going to be a tight quali and more than what people expect.”
Asked whether he plans on doing multiple lap attempts on the same tyre like the Dutchman had done in today’s sessions, he denied unsurely, as in his opinion the newer Red Bull challenger could facilitate his rival’s tyre management.
“I don’t know, they seem to be keeping the tyres for longer than we do, so I don’t think it’s the way we will go.“
Vasseur stresses the importance of track position
Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur shared his doubts ahead of the F1 Monaco GP as well. Although FP1 had been very impressive, the Frenchman admits that there are more challenges in the 2026 iteration of the race at the Principality compared to the past years, also due to the increased amount of contenders per track time.
“In Monaco, the challenge is always to anticipate the next session, the evolution of the grip for the drivers and for the team, and you have always to adjust a little bit everything. Now, I think the second session was not bad.
“It was difficult to put it up together for everybody. We have to keep in mind that it was mega challenging for the traffic in Monaco. Now with 10% more cars on track It’s more than 10% more difficult, and with these tyres, we have exactly the same story as last year. We know that we have a kind of convergence of, not performance, but a kind of convergence of understanding of the car.”
The former ART GP man further cited reasons behind the lack of Ferrari dominance in the second on-track F1 session of the Monaco GP, adding that compared to the earlier five rounds of the 2026, overall knowledge of the new generation of challengers has increased.
“Tyres are becoming again prominent into the performance, and with so many cars on track, it’s difficult to do a proper outlap. Sometimes you are pushing, you have to slow down, and so. I think it will be the key for tomorrow, to be able to do a proper outlap, to arrive in the right window and to do a clean lap later on. But it will be a challenge and I was not expecting that it will be an easy life.”
Red Bull a close second according to Vasseur and Leclerc alike
Asked whether Ferrari was prevented by the engine of their own SF-2026 to attempt a similar performance to Verstappen setting multiple fast attempts in succession on the same tyre, Vasseur denied, stressing other factors he believes will be further more important during the grid setting session.
“No, not at all, it’s more where you are on track, who are the cars around you, what they are doing. It’s also a preparation for tomorrow. We need to understand what we want to do tomorrow, and to go in this direction.”
Additionally, Vasseur denied the importance of specific types of tyres for increasing feeling with the Principality asphalt, underlining once again the significance of track position as well as out lap timing, even more so during the tight schedule of the later Qualifying segments.
“No, I think it’s more the execution, we will see tomorrow. If you have a look on last year in Monaco, you have a kind of convergence of performance over the session. You can’t expect to be four tenths faster than everybody all the weekend. It means that we have to make some steps, perhaps in the approach of the grip and the evaluation of the grip for the next session, anticipation, and it will be the key for tomorrow.”
