Charles Leclerc will take to the Barcelona pit lane tomorrow fitted with the same Carbon Industries brake discs Lewis Hamilton adopted three races ago — a significant departure that has sent tremors through Ferrari’s five-decade relationship with Brembo.
Sources close to TJ13 in the Barcelona paddock confirmed today that the No. 16 SF-26 had already been fitted with the Carbon Industries solution ahead of FP1, meaning the switch is no longer a question of if but when.
Should the Monegasque finds the feel he has been desperately chasing since Monaco, this could mark the beginning of the end of Brembo’s exclusive hold on Ferrari’s braking solution.
Monaco Was the Breaking Point — But the Decision Came Before It
The backdrop to this change is the crash that defined Leclerc’s home Grand Prix.
At Monaco, Leclerc told his team on the radio that he had effectively lost rear braking entirely, and had full braking power at only one corner of the car.
The subsequent slide into the barrier at Antony Noghès — right in front of his home crowd — was not simply a driver error. It was the consequence of a braking system that had failed to work for him throughout the afternoon.
That moment, while painful, was not the trigger for today’s change.
A test had already been in the pipeline before the barriers of Monte Carlo intervened.
Speaking after the race, Leclerc himself confirmed to the TV cameras and flagged what was coming and had been planned ahead: “Lewis made a different choice about the brakes three Grands Prix ago, and I’ll probably go in that direction.”
The plan to trial Carbon Industries discs had been arranged in advance, Leclerc had already acknowledged as much during his home weekend, admitting, “It’s already ready, but I didn’t want to do it here.”
Ferrari Back the Switch: Despite 50 Years of Brembo History
Sources close to this website within the Ferrari confirmed that the team is fully supportive of Leclerc’s push for the change despite the supplier relationship it puts under strain.
Brembo has supplied Ferrari for more than 50 years — a partnership that extends beyond discs and pads to AP Racing clutches and Öhlins dampers, all part of the same group.
That history makes Leclerc’s switch to a competitor’s discs, even while retaining Brembo calipers and master cylinders, a pointed statement.
Ferrari’s backing of the move signals that driver performance is now being prioritised over supplier loyalty, and that the brake issues are considered serious enough to justify the friction.
Carbon Industries, a subsidiary of aerospace landing gear manufacturer Safran Landing Systems, is the same supplier Hamilton quietly switched to at the Japanese Grand Prix. For reference, Hamilton had been using Carbon Industries brakes during his long tenure at Mercedes.
Hamilton has his own braking challenges, particularly managing overheating, but the CI discs appear to offer him a consistency his previous set-up could not provide.
The appeal is the inverse for Leclerc: he needs temperature generation, not temperature control. Montreal exposed exactly this as Hamilton ran comfortably warm while Leclerc could not get heat into the system in the cold.
That divergence in driver requirements, now being addressed by a shared material solution, underlines just how circuit-specific braking performance has become at the sharp end of the 2026 grid.
Brembo Push Back, so Ferrari Fitted the Rival Discs Anyway
Brembo, for their part, refused to stay quiet after Monaco.
The Italian manufacturer issued a formal statement that pulled few punches: “Brembo Group is really surprised by the statements made by Charles Leclerc after F1 Monaco Grand Prix,” it read, before stressing their benchmark status across the entire grid and declining to draw conclusions before telemetry had been reviewed.
The statement continued: “At present, the company does not know the causes of the issues experienced by Charles Leclerc and therefore considers it premature to draw definitive technical conclusions before the available data has been analysed.”
The tone was measured, but the message was not, Brembo pushed back publicly, and forcefully.
The fact that, within two weeks, Ferrari have fitted their second driver with a rival’s discs suggests that whatever the telemetry showed, it did not resolve the fundamental concern. The decision, once implemented in competitive conditions, will be very difficult to reverse without an admission that the experiment has failed.
As Brembo themselves declared: “Today, Brembo is a benchmark in Formula 1 and is present on every car on the grid through its braking technologies.”
That claim, if Leclerc’s switch holds, will require an increasingly creative definition of presence.
What Barcelona FP1 Will Tell Us
What happens in tomorrow’s session carries consequences well beyond a single practice run. If Leclerc reports improved feel and carries the Carbon Industries discs into qualifying and race trim, the calculus at Ferrari changes permanently.
The team would have both drivers running CI discs, Hamilton having done so since Japan, effectively making Carbon Industries the de facto disc supplier at Maranello, irrespective of what the official supply contracts say.
Brembo’s half-century relationship with Ferrari would persist on paper while being quietly hollowed out in practice.
The upgrade package Ferrari have brought to Barcelona, new front wing, revised floor, adds further complexity to reading FP1 data cleanly.
The brake switch and the aero changes will interact, making it harder to isolate the contribution of either. TJ13 will be watching closely from within the paddock for Leclerc’s radio tone in the early stages of the session; if he’s communicating confidence under braking, that will tell you more than the lap times will.
The definitive verdict on whether this choice sticks is unlikely to arrive until Saturday, but the direction of travel is already clear. Watch for Ferrari’s post-FP1 briefing, and watch for whether Brembo respond further.
Their next statement, if it comes, may be the most revealing of all.
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Craig.J. Alderson is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Craig oversees newsroom operations and coordinates editorial output across the site. With a background in online sports reporting and motorsport magazine editing, he plays a key role in maintaining consistency, speed, and accuracy in TJ13’s coverage.
During race weekends, Craig acts as desk lead, directing contributors, prioritising breaking stories, and ensuring timely publication across a fast-moving news cycle.
Craig’s work focuses heavily on real-time developments in the paddock, including team updates, regulatory decisions, and emerging controversies. This role requires a detailed understanding of Formula 1’s operational flow, from practice sessions through to race-day strategy and post-race fallout.
With experience managing editorial teams, Craig ensures that TJ13 delivers structured, reliable coverage while maintaining the site’s distinctive voice.
Craig has a particular interest in how information moves within the paddock environment, and how rapidly developing stories can be accurately translated into clear, accessible reporting for readers.
