Charles Leclerc Urges Ferrari to ‘Bring Upgrades’ After Admitting They Were ‘Quite Far Off’ in Baku

• Charles Leclerc says Ferrari were “quite far off” Mercedes and Red Bull’s pace at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and wants new upgrades to close the gap.
• Leclerc lost second place on the opening lap and finished fourth after starting alongside pole sitter George Russell.
• Teammate Lewis Hamilton also struggled, telling reporters he could not get his tyres working all weekend.

Ferrari’s Warning Signs After Baku

Charles Leclerc has urged Ferrari to “bring upgrades in order to close the gap” to Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren after a frustrating Azerbaijan Grand Prix left him concerned about the SF-26’s pace.

Leclerc’s qualifying lap was eight tenths adrift of George Russell’s pole position, but it was still good enough for a place on the front row. Ferrari sent him out on soft tyres for the race with the aim of taking an early lead.

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A Promising Grid Slot, a Difficult Race

Over the course of the first stint, Leclerc lost out to Oscar Piastri and both Red Bull drivers as he struggled to match their pace. He eventually settled for fourth after Piastri dropped out of the points late in the race.

“They were very strong,” Leclerc reflected. “McLaren were also strong – not maybe as strong as Red Bull, but Red Bull were particularly strong. We know they have a very strong power unit so this is a good race for them, but still.”

“It’s Important That We React”

Leclerc did not hold back when assessing the scale of the deficit. “We were quite far off Mercedes, far off Red Bull, a bit behind McLaren – these are our competitors and it’s not new,” he said. “It’s quite a few races now that we’re losing a little bit of track to them, so it’s important that we react to that and that we bring upgrades in order to close the gap again.”

No New Parts in Baku

Ferrari chose not to introduce any updates in Baku, matching Mercedes’ approach, while McLaren and Red Bull both made changes to their cars for the street circuit. That left Leclerc questioning whether Ferrari can make a big enough step in development to hold onto second place in the constructors’ championship.

“We’ve got things in the pipeline, but I don’t know what the others have in the pipeline,” he said. “We are going to improve the car – whether it’s going to be enough to outrace them in the development programme, I don’t know what they have in store.”

Hamilton’s Lonely Afternoon

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton had a difficult race of his own. He failed to move forward from his starting position of sixth, with a hard-fought overtake on Lando Norris his main highlight before he was passed later by Kimi Antonelli.

Asked whether he was surprised not to have fought the cars further up the order, Hamilton said: “Not really. I was just surprised all weekend – I couldn’t get the tyres working at all.”

“Even through the whole race the tyres were just switching on, switching off, switching on, switching off, and so one minute the grip picks up for a second and then it drops away,” he said. “We were seconds a lap slower than the cars right at the front, so there was nothing I could do.”

Hamilton added that the problem appeared specific to Baku’s street circuit. “It’s different at every track. The last track I think we were okay, but for some reason this weekend we couldn’t get it working the whole weekend.”

A Development Race With Eight Rounds Left

Ferrari’s grip on second place in the constructors’ championship is no longer the formality it once looked. With Red Bull’s power unit advantage clear on Baku’s long straights and McLaren also closing in, Leclerc’s message to his own team is unambiguous: new parts need to arrive, and they need to work, if Ferrari are to hold their position through the rest of the season.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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