Ferrari ruled Austin practice, then lost qualifying, and their drivers disagree on why
Ferrari topped every practice session in Austin but qualified fourth and fifth, and Hamilton and Leclerc give different reasons for it.
Ferrari topped every practice session at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, then lost qualifying to Mercedes and Red Bull. Charles Leclerc led both Friday sessions and Lewis Hamilton led FP3, after Leclerc's best lap in that session was deleted. Ferrari had been pegged as the team to beat, so this wasn't one good lap.
Then the final shootout came and they couldn't find enough in Q3. Leclerc qualified fourth and Hamilton fifth, 0.044s behind his team mate.
Hamilton says the car isn't the problem
Hamilton isn't blaming the car. "Car felt good as I said, so it was a clean lap, no issues at all, really," he said. He rates it "at least as good, if not maybe slightly better, maybe than the others."
For him, the time goes on the straight. "We know through the weekend we look at the straight, like just up to Turn 1, when we cut power, they just keep pulling," he said. "That's similar in other places, like going into Turn 11." He thinks the straight is "the only place we lose".
He also believes the rivals have caught up elsewhere. "You've seen the Red Bull closed up on their downforce. Mercedes took a three-tenth step of upgrade at least a couple of races ago," he said, adding that they're "now matching us through the corners." Asked about the Red Bull Ford power unit, he admitted he hadn't seen the actual numbers this weekend, but reckoned the gain was "three to five tenths" in some places.
Leclerc points at a cold out lap
Leclerc sees it differently. He conceded he didn't have an optimum out lap, so his tyres weren't quite in the window when it mattered. "The car also includes tyres," he said. "And in Q3, unfortunately, we were not in the right place, and it was like one or two degrees less in Q3, and for me it was a huge difference." He described "sliding quite a lot already from the out lap".
It's not the first time in 2026 that Ferrari's practice pace hasn't survived qualifying, and Leclerc knows it. "There are some other weekends where we've been strong in free practices, but then coming quali, it's very clear that the others are just having a lot more in the straights," he said.
Why Hamilton's version is the worry
Honestly, it's Hamilton's explanation that bothers us. A tyre a degree or two down is a Saturday problem, and it gets fixed by next weekend. Losing on the straight doesn't go away that quickly. And if Mercedes and Red Bull are level through the corners now, Ferrari have to find the time somewhere else.
Even Leclerc, for all his talk of tyres, names the straights as the pattern on other weekends. Watch the run down to Turn 1 at the start. If Mercedes and Red Bull pull away there again, a cold out lap won't explain it.
