Charles Leclerc confirms ‘no big problems’ after Ferrari shakedown footage goes viral

Charles Leclerc has confirmed that Ferrari found “no big problems” during the team’s shakedown with the SF-26 car on Friday.

It comes after footage of Leclerc and teammate Lewis Hamilton stopping on track briefly caused alarm on social media.

Charles Leclerc: ‘No big problems’ during Ferrari SF-26 shakedown

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Ferrari launched the SF-26 car on Friday before holding a demonstration run at the team’s Fiorano test track.

Hamilton collected the first miles with Ferrari’s 2026 machine before Leclerc took over driving duties.

Footage circulated widely on social media of both Hamilton and Leclerc stopping on track close to Ferrari’s garage at Fiorano, with the pair pushed into the garage by a group of mechanics.

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As a result, some fans were left convinced that Ferrari had been struck by reliability problems during the shakedown.

However, PlanetF1.com understands from sources close to the situation that Hamilton and Leclerc stopped intentionally as part of Ferrari’s run plan.

With cars limited to just 15 kilometres of running during demonstration events, having the mechanics push the cars back into the garage allowed Ferrari to maximise its available mileage.

Speaking after his first taste of the SF-25, Leclerc confirmed that there were “no big problems” with the car.

He told Formula 1: “I’m definitely looking forward to this day every year.

“However, it’s the kind of day where the main target is to check that everything is working properly and that there are no big problems, which was the case today, so that is a positive.

“But in terms of performance, in terms of feeling, it’s too early to say.

“The conditions weren’t that great either. There’s a lot of fog, a little bit of a wet track as well, so it’s not the best conditions to test a car for the first time.

But I was very excited because there’s been so much talk and so much work behind the scenes in order to get to that moment ready and so that the car could obviously go around the track normally and check for the first time the real sensors on the car to see whether it was doing the things that we expected.

“It’s been a very exciting moment, especially because being in Fiorano there’s a lot of Tifosi all around the track and that adds to that very special feeling.”

As reported by PlanetF1.com, Ferrari customer outfit Haas also held a shakedown at Fiorano on Saturday.

Teams will now travel to Barcelona for the first pre-season test of F1 2026, which begins on Monday.

Five days of testing will be held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya across January 26-30 with each team limited to a maximum of three days of running.

Ferrari and McLaren have already confirmed that they will not appear on the opening day of the test, with PlanetF1.com revealing on Friday that Aston Martin is also set to miss Monday’s running.

Williams confirmed on Friday that it will miss the entire Barcelona test, with the Grove-based team turning its focus to the remaining two tests in Bahrain next month.

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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