‘Snappy’ Ferrari leaves Charles Leclerc stuck in his toughest F1 spell yet

Charles Leclerc’s driving style is at odds with the characteristics of Ferrari’s “snappy” SF-26 with his overdriving compounding the problem, says Jolyon Palmer.

It’s also not helping that he has Lewis Hamilton on the other side of the garage, a seven-time world champion who has begun to ramp up the pressure on Leclerc.

Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari struggles explained by Jolyon Palmer

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Teaming up last season at Ferrari, Leclerc won the intra-team battle against Hamilton by a comfortable 86 points in the drivers’ standings.

However, the opening races of this season hinted that the Monegasque wouldn’t have it all his own way as Hamilton raced him wheel-to-wheel with a “kiss” or two.

Momentum, though, was still on Leclerc’s side.

But as Ferrari began its intense upgrade programme, Hamilton surged ahead of his teammate.

A three-race run of podium results from Canada to Barcelona that culminated in a victory for Hamilton at the Circuit de Catalunya not only saw Hamilton pass Leclerc in the standings, but he also emerged as Mercedes’ biggest threat in the title race.

As for Leclerc, he’s gone five race weekends without a podium finish.

In that period, he crashed out of the Monaco Grand Prix with a brake issue, crashed in qualifying for the Barcelona race, and then failed to reach the chequered flag with a hydraulics issue.

He’s also admitted that there is “always one reason or another that made me struggle” either in qualifying or in the races.

But while the driver cannot be blamed for his Ferrari’s reliability issues, former F1 driver Palmer believes Leclerc hasn’t done himself any favours by overdriving a “snappy” SF-26, which has exaggerated the problem.

“Charles is a generational talent,” Palmer explained to F1.com. “Ever since the junior formulae, 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.

“His overdriving has come a little too often, and this time on the other side of the garage is a man who knows how to put championship campaigns together, is maximising each result and piling more pressure on.

“It amplifies the struggles for Charles.

“Leclerc has always driven on the limit, but this year the Ferrari car is snappy. 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.”

The Briton is confident that Leclerc will get it right, but for now, it’s a difficult moment for the Ferrari stalwart.

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“I’ve no doubt that it won’t be long until we see the best of Charles once again,” he continued, “but at this moment it feels like he just needs to get his head down and strike some clean weekends on the board to rebuild his confidence and swagger.

“Austria was difficult for Ferrari and Silverstone might not be much easier with long straights, but if he can build some form once more, a circuit like Budapest on the horizon could provide a much better opportunity for us to see Charles back at his best – after all, he took pole there last year, and this year’s Ferrari is a much better package.”

Leclerc has dropped to sixth in the drivers’ standings with 79 points, 46 points behind Hamilton who is P3.

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