Having been crushed by his teammate Charles Leclerc during his inaugural season as a Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton has come out fighting this year. He sits in third place in the Drivers’ Title race, just six points behind George Russell but a massive forty-six points ahead of his Monegasque teammate.
Matters were pretty even between the Ferrari pair up until round six in the Principality of Monaco, with Leclerc on 75 points and Hamilton on 72 following the Canadian Grand Prix. Yet since then, it seems to have gone all wrong for Charles.
The Turning Point in Monte Carlo
At his home race in Monte Carlo, Leclerc held third place for much of the Grand Prix. Then, following a Safety Car restart due to Lance Stroll hitting the wall at the final corner, Leclerc mirrored the Aston Martin driver’s accident as the cars charged to restart the race.
He revealed he had been battling with the brakes on his SF-26 all race long.
“It’s not that it’s difficult, it’s that in this particular moment it’s just impossible,” explained the Monegasque.
Hamilton took advantage of his teammate’s misfortune, and with George Russell ahead serving a drive-through penalty, the seven-time champion leapt into second place, putting him comfortably ahead of his teammate in the standings.
Disaster in Barcelona and Austria
In Barcelona, Hamilton was inspired. He won the race by the largest margin this season, whilst once again with a handful of laps remaining, Leclerc suffered a mechanical failure. He lost the car at Turn 2, taking to the gravel before crawling back to the pits to retire.
“It’s not only power steering; in general, I had no brakes, no power steering, no shifts, so I guess it’s something with the hydraulics there. I don’t know yet exactly what happened,” said Leclerc afterwards.
That meant 25 more points went to Hamilton in the Ferrari intra-team battle.
Last time out in Austria, expectations were high for Ferrari following Hamilton’s win in Catalunya. Yet they were off their pace all weekend. Lewis managed just P5 in the race, adding another 6 points to his lead over Leclerc, who finished down in P8.
In terms of qualifying, there’s very little between the Ferrari drivers. Hamilton has an average starting position of 4.38, and his teammate is marginally behind at 4.88. However, Lewis has completed all 507 laps this year, while Leclerc has just 425 to his name.
The Overdriving Narrative
As we can see, much of Leclerc’s loss to his teammate has come due to what he describes as mechanical issues in Monaco and Barcelona, yet behind the scenes, another narrative is growing.
As ex-F1 driver Jolyon Palmer observes:
“Charles is a generational talent. Ever since the junior formulas, I’ve seen him do unbelievable things in a car, racing on pure feel and instinct, but his flamboyance has always come with occasional errors. Right now, he seems to be in the toughest moment of his career,” he told F1.com.
Palmer goes on to suggest that Leclerc at times overdrives the car he is given, which results in the occasional mistake. By way of contrast, Lewis Hamilton has the experience of putting together seven successful championship campaigns and maximising results along the way. This is piling the pressure on Leclerc, says Palmer.
“Leclerc has always driven on the limit, but this year the Ferrari car is snappy,” he said. “Its great strength seems to be in having a front end working well with the rear end dancing behind it. Typically, I’d have said that would favour Charles over Lewis, but it seems Charles’ natural aggressive style is provoking the car into snappiness a lot more than Lewis, whose calmer style seems better suited.”
Debating the Snappy Rear End
Unfortunately, this appears to be a tenuous piece of analysis given Lewis Hamilton spent his last three seasons at Mercedes complaining about the rear end of his cars too. He, also, needs a predictable rear end to attack the corners, as is his signature driving style.
It may not be the case that Hamilton is in fact dominating his teammate, just that he has improved relatively and prefers the new style of F1 cars the all-new regulations have brought about. Leclerc enjoyed the “heavy downforce” era of the ground-effect cars from 2022–2025, driving the car on a knife-edge with a hyper-responsive, “pointy” front end and a loose, floating rear axle.
Hamilton, by way of comparison, grew up in an era when mechanical grip was his friend, rather than having massive amounts of aerodynamic downforce. Hamilton famously detested the unpredictable rear-end instability of the early ground-effect era. But now, the 2026 F1 cars rely on more conventional suspension geometry, and a predictable aerodynamic balance plays directly into Lewis’s historic strengths—allowing him to trust the rear of the car implicitly when leaning on it in high-speed corners.
Smooth Modulation vs. Aggressive Throttle
So it’s not just about the rear end of the current Ferrari being prone to snapping; Leclerc’s struggles—if we can call them that—lie a little bit deeper. The Monegasque driver has an aggressive approach to the throttle, forcing the car to rotate earlier in the corner. With the 2026 cars having narrower rear tyres, this aggressive style frequently triggers sudden wheelspin, overheating the rear rubber and hurting his race stints.
By way of contrast, Lewis possesses a more progressive throttle modulation technique, allowing him to manage the massive amount of electrical torque through a corner exit without lighting up the rear tyres. This gives him a strategic advantage when racing, allowing him to go further into a stint than his teammate.
Managing the 2026 Energy Harvesting
When analysing Hamilton’s battery levels compared to Leclerc’s, the British driver often appears to open a straight with more charge than his teammate. This is presumably due to his harvesting technique, as he utilizes lift-and-coast on and off the brakes into the corner, generating more kinetic energy.
The Active Aero Variable
Finally, there’s one more feature of the 2026 cars which may be hurting Charles Leclerc’s ability to enjoy a natural feel when driving: active aerodynamics, where the wings switch their angle of attack between Z-Mode for cornering and X-Mode along the straights.
There is a distinct switch in the sensation of the aerodynamic balance of the car as the driver switches between these modes, which changes the handling dynamics several times across a single lap. Leclerc often speaks of the car feeling “disconnected” early in the weekend, which could be related to getting a feel for the ever-changing aero balance.
Lewis Hamilton spent years wrestling with tricky, non-linear aerodynamic characteristics at Mercedes, making him highly adaptable to a car that constantly morphs its aero profile through the corners and down the straightaways.
Looking Ahead to Silverstone
All of this may be true, and it explains the reason Hamilton is not way behind his teammate as he was in 2025. Yet the harsh reality of the points deficit between the two Ferrari drivers to date comes down to the costly DNFs suffered by Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton hype can get big, and the analytical approach to Leclerc’s every move can sometimes border on navel-gazing. Their relative qualifying positions tell the tale – there’s not much in it. Lewis will undoubtedly be strong at one of his favourite circuits this weekend in Silverstone where he has a record nine wins, but expect Leclerc to push him hard—so long as his SF-26 holds together.
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The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
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