Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified third for the 2026 Miami GP, one place up from fourth in Friday’s Sprint qualifying, but admitted he’s “not really” pleased with the car’s performance.
Throughout the Miami race weekend Ferrari—Leclerc in particular—have been consistently in the mix, but have yet to challenge the front-runners. Across the Sprint sessions Ferrari trailed McLaren, while in qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix, Leclerc fell short of both Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen’s times. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, will start even lower down the order in sixth.
Speaking in a post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc admitted that he’s still not fully satisfied with the performance of the car, stating that the feeling inexplicably changed.
“No, not really [pleased],” he said.
“I think we struggled quite a bit more today than we did yesterday in terms of pace and feeling with the car as well. So, we’ve got to look at that. It’s a little bit strange. Not much has changed on the car, but the feeling was not the same for sure. So, we’ll look into it.”
Changing conditions were “a factor” in qualifying
Leclerc pointed to changing conditions and track evolution as a factor, but stated that Ferrari was not the only team affected by the gusty Miami wind, so the answer to the lack of performance may lie “somewhere else”.
He explained: “The wind is definitely a factor. I think track temperature wasn’t that different, so I don’t think that is a reason. But the wind has for sure changed a little bit. Whether it will affect our car more than others, I don’t believe in that.
“So, I think it’s somewhere else the answer. Maybe it is the track evolution and we didn’t anticipate that well, and maybe by just pushing a little bit more today in qualifying the weaknesses of the car were a little bit more apparent. But I obviously didn’t have a close look at the data just yet as I just got out the car. So we’ll have to look at the details and try to understand where we lost most time.”
Leclerc responds to rivals’ Miami GP pace
Leclerc also acknowledged the standout performances from both Antonelli and Verstappen, the latter having missed out on Miami GP pole by just 0.166s after a troubled start to the 2026 season.
“Well, I don’t think it’s a surprise for Kimi because they’ve been the fastest car since the beginning of the year and Kimi has done an incredible job in the last three races.
“I mean, Max and Red Bull is a bit more of a surprise, but they brought a significant upgrade, and they are a great team. They’ve shown it over the past years, so it’s not that we can rely on them staying where they were for the first three races.
“So we expected a reaction, but it’s a very impressive reaction to be back on the front row after being so far off in the first races. It’s special. But yeah, our job is to do just the same and to finish in front of those guys. That’s where my focus is at the moment.”
