Charles Leclerc says he was calm at onset of last lap in the 2026 F1 Miami GP, but disappointed with himself for the spin.
It was another solid start from Ferrari’s Leclerc in the 2026 F1 Miami GP, when he took the lead from Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. He also survived the spinning Dutchman beside him, to head the comfortably until the fightback from Antonelli.
He had Antonelli and McLaren’s Lando Norris on his tail soon. After a brief squabble, he dropped out of lead to fall in the clutches of Mercedes’ George Russell and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, post the pit stop. While the Brit dropped back, the final spot on the podium was open between two cars.
Last lap fall for Leclerc in F1 Miami GP
The latter stages had Leclerc defending from Piastri. The Monegasque held firm but lost out on the penultimate lap. In a bid to get back on the Australian, the Ferrari driver hustled at Turn 3 but lost control and hit the barrier, which damaged left side of his car.
He limped to the chequered flag to finish sixth, after he was passed by both Russell and Verstappen. Post-race, Leclerc was handed a drive-through penalty for leaving the track and gaining advantage at multiple corners. It dropped him to eighth, but he retains third place in F1 2026 drivers’ standings with 59 points.
Leclerc takes blame for mistake
Leclerc took the blame on himself for the late mistake. “The damage was significant,” he said in the print media after the 2026 F1 Miami GP. “To tell you exactly what the damage was, I am not sure, but I am pretty sure there was a puncture, and there was probably some suspension damage, as I couldn’t really turn to the right anymore.
“I’m very disappointed in myself, it is all on me, it is a mistake and I obviously need to have a look because with these cars, you always have a bit of a question mark of how much it deploys, and considering it was the last lap, maybe there was a bit more out of the corner as you need to finish the lap with that amount of energy.
“But that’s not an excuse in any way. It is all on me, and it is not acceptable. So, I need to look at that,” summed up Leclerc, who noted that he was very calm to let Piastri through on the penultimate lap. His idea was to get back on him on the final lap, especially at Turn 3.
Leclerc let Piastri through
“I was very calm, and I wanted Oscar to get the overtake so I could overtake him on the last lap, hence why I did not make his life too difficult on the last corner for him to overtake me,” continued Leclerc. “I was relatively calm in the car, and then of course I pushed like an animal in Turn 3, and most of the time this year, it went through.
“I’ve had quite a few battles this year, but this time, it didn’t, and I am quite disappointed with myself,” summed up Leclerc, who didn’t wish to blame the strategy for the loss of podium. On the radio, the Monegasque was not happy with the call taken by Ferrari without his advice.
Doesn’t blame strategy at 2026 F1 Miami GP
The predicted rain never arrived and Ferrari pitted Leclerc just after Russell, which relegated him to fight for third than put himself in the lead battle. He blamed his mistake more than the Ferrari strategy for the loss of podium. He thought the medium tyres degraded more than expected.
“I think that without the mistake I could have done a podium more than the strategy,” said Leclerc. “I think it’s easy to blame it on the strategy afterward. Even with the best strategy, with that mistake in the last lap, I probably wouldn’t have been on the podium.
“So first I’ll look at myself and then surely I’ll speak with the team to try and improve whatever we haven’t optimised yet. Medium, we weren’t strong, we were degrading a massive amount. On the hard, it wasn’t great at the beginning, then it picked up and then it was a little bit better, but it was never at the level of yesterday.
“We need to look at it, we’ve lost a lot of performance compared to yesterday and I would like to understand exactly what happened then,” summed up Leclerc. Looking back at the start, even though the Monegasque made a good start, he felt it was not as easy to pass like in previous races.
Didn’t feel anything against Verstappen at start
He found resistance from both Antonelli and Verstappen. “Yeah, I mean it was nice,” recalled Leclerc. “I think we are still quite strong in the start, which was good. They are getting there and it’s not like we passed them straight away. We were a bit more side-by-side this time.
“But yeah, I was happy to get the lead but unfortunately it didn’t help us massively to stay there for long,” summed up Leclerc, who did not see what happened with Verstappen just beside him at the start. After seeing the gap, he could sense that something happened, but he didn’t feel anything.
“No, I just saw the mirrors and I saw there was a big gap and on the virtual mirror there was not the stopping anymore,” said Leclerc. “So I kind of understood that Max had a mistake. I don’t really know. I mean as soon as I hit the first corner and I saw that Max was not on my left side anymore, I looked ahead and tried to pull away as much as possible. But yeah, I didn’t really see or felt anything.”
