Charles Leclerc makes Ferrari demand that puts Lewis Hamilton's F1 dream at risk
For Lewis Hamilton, the 2026 season looks set to be the one that decides whether or not he will win an eighth Formula 1 title. But team-mate Charles Leclerc remains keen for their Ferrari team to not lose sight of the task at hand.
Ferrari have virtually no chance of winning either championship this season with McLaren dominating the grid. The Woking-based squad are 299 points ahead with 10 rounds to go, while the drivers' title race has turned into a two-horse race between their drivers, Lando Norris hunting down current leader Oscar Piastri.
The best Ferrari can hope for is second place, which is where they currently sit ahead of Mercedes and, a little further behind, Red Bull. Finishing the year as best of the rest would be desirable, as would be the extra prize money that would bring in.
But there is another factor in play. F1 rules dictate that the amount of wind tunnel testing time available to each team depends on their position in the championship, assessed on a bi-annual basis.
So finishing above Mercedes and Red Bull this year would see Ferrari afforded less time in the wind tunnel to develop their car in the first six months of 2026. That would put them at a disadvantage and could limit Hamilton's chances of having a machine that can compete over the full year.
But despite that potential outcome, Leclerc is adamant that he wants the team to continue to push for the runners-up spot this year. The Monegasque said: "I am pretty sure it's better to finish second than third.
"As you said, there is also the wind tunnel time [but] this is not something we think of too much. When we are on track, we just want to finish as high up as possible and then we will deal with whatever amount of hours in the wind tunnel we have. We want to target the highest possible.
"Second place in the constructors' is one of our targets, but the biggest target is to come back to winning races as soon as possible. Wherever we finish, we will work from there and see how many hours we have next year."
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Leclerc qualified on pole last time out in Hungary, but slipped to fourth as his Ferrari suffered an in-race issue. And he does not anticipate being able to challenge for victory again this year, adding: "I do not think there is one track at the moment where we think we are stronger than McLaren. Consistently, McLaren is going to be the strongest car this year.
"Red Bull is a little bit more up and down, a bit like us and Mercedes, but there is one constant and that is McLaren. For now, I do not think there are any tracks where I go to and think we will be the favourite, but I hope I will be surprised."
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