{"id":1706,"date":"2026-09-05T15:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2026-09-05T15:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T18:00:38","slug":"leclerc-says-ferrari-needs-to-be-smart-to-beat-mercedes-and-alpine-at-monza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/leclerc-says-ferrari-needs-to-be-smart-to-beat-mercedes-and-alpine-at-monza\/","title":{"rendered":"Leclerc says Ferrari &#8216;needs to be smart&#8217; to beat Mercedes and Alpine at Monza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Charles Leclerc expects Ferrari to struggle against Mercedes and Alpine on the straights<\/strong> at the Italian GP after qualifying fourth fastest at Monza.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Leclerc believes Ferrari&#8217;s strength through the corners could offset some of its straight-line deficit, with energy management potentially creating overtaking opportunities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Ferrari driver will start <strong>third<\/strong> after Oscar Piastri&#8217;s three-place grid penalty, with Pierre Gasly on pole ahead of George Russell.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Charles Leclerc admitted Ferrari faces a difficult task against <strong>Mercedes and Alpine<\/strong> in Sunday&#8217;s Italian GP, with the SF-26 still vulnerable on Monza&#8217;s long straights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc qualified fourth fastest on Saturday with a 1:22.004, 0.218s behind pole-sitter Pierre Gasly. However, Oscar Piastri&#8217;s three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson promoted the Ferrari driver to <strong>third on the starting grid<\/strong>, alongside Mercedes&#8217; George Russell on the front row and Gasly on pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result capped a qualifying session in which both Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton came close to elimination in Q2, despite Ferrari showing strong pace during Friday&#8217;s running. Leclerc had led FP1 before finishing second behind Russell in FP2, highlighting the narrow margins between Ferrari and Mercedes around Monza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I suffered quite a lot, especially when we got to Q2, where we almost got eliminated with both cars. But to be honest, we had a lot of problems behind the scenes that we had to deal with,&#8221; Leclerc told <em>Sky Sports<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;m sure that if we speak around the paddock, everyone had some kind of issue, because this is one of the most difficult circuits to optimize the power units, but that&#8217;s not an excuse.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Leclerc praises Gasly but admits Ferrari left performance on the table<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc also credited Gasly and Alpine for executing a near-perfect qualifying session. Gasly delivered a surprise maiden pole with a 1:21.786, beating Russell by just 0.060s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Pierre and Alpine did everything perfectly, and I think they surprised everybody in the paddock by doing a perfect job. I&#8217;m very happy for Pierre, by the way, but now it&#8217;s our job to try and recover what we lost by ourselves today,&#8221; Leclerc said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I don&#8217;t think pole position was possible, but we probably could have got one position more, and we need to have the objective of maximizing everything. Today we didn&#8217;t do that, so let&#8217;s see what tomorrow will be like.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result leaves Ferrari with a strong starting position for its home race, but Leclerc expects the characteristics of Monza to make the fight considerably more complicated than the qualifying order might suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ferrari had already identified straight-line performance as an area of concern before the weekend, while the team has looked stronger through the high-speed corners. <strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO&#8217;s analysis of Friday at Monza<\/strong> highlighted the same contrast, with Ferrari&#8217;s updated package showing progress but Mercedes retaining an advantage in areas where power and energy deployment matter most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ferrari must find a way to use its energy advantage<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked whether Ferrari can attack Russell and Gasly for the victory, Leclerc pointed to the different strengths of the cars \u2014 particularly their power-unit energy management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s the same question that we&#8217;re asking ourselves. They are very, very strong on the straights, whereas we are very strong in the corners. But here there are a lot of straights and therefore we will be very exposed on them,&#8221; Leclerc explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Attacking is going to be difficult, but it&#8217;s also true that energy usage can make a huge difference one way or the other and give us the opportunity to overtake at some point. So we&#8217;ll have to be smart and see where we end up.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That energy-management factor could prove particularly important during the race. The 2026 regulations have changed the way electrical energy is deployed around the lap, making Monza&#8217;s long straights an especially important strategic battleground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gasly had already warned before qualifying that the new regulations could change the character of the Italian circuit, with race pace expected to differ significantly from qualifying performance because of the need to manage electrical energy. <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f1\/gasly-warns-monza-will-lose-some-of-its-charm-under-f1s-2026-rules\/\">Gasly&#8217;s assessment of Monza under the 2026 regulations<\/a> explored the same issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc therefore enters Sunday&#8217;s race with a Ferrari capable of challenging at the front but aware that qualifying pace does not necessarily translate directly into race performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Starting third, the Monegasque will have an immediate opportunity to attack Russell and Gasly at the start. But with Mercedes-powered Alpine also demonstrating exceptional straight-line efficiency through Gasly&#8217;s pole lap, Ferrari may need to rely on <strong>cornering performance, energy deployment and race strategy<\/strong> to make progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After Ferrari&#8217;s strong Friday and a front-row-adjacent starting position for its home race, Leclerc knows the ingredients for a victory are there \u2014 but the team will need to execute perfectly to turn them into a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> follows all the action from the <strong>Italian GP<\/strong>, the 13th round of the 2026 Formula 1 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FAQ<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where will Charles Leclerc start the 2026 Italian GP?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc will start <strong>third<\/strong> at Monza. He originally qualified fourth with a 1:22.004, but moved up one position after Oscar Piastri received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why does Leclerc expect Ferrari to struggle on the straights?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc says Ferrari is particularly strong through the corners but lacks some of the straight-line performance of Mercedes-powered rivals. Monza features long straights, leaving the SF-26 more exposed in those sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can Ferrari still fight for victory at Monza?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leclerc believes Ferrari can create opportunities through <strong>energy management<\/strong>, cornering performance and strategy. However, he expects overtaking Mercedes and Alpine to be difficult because of their strong straight-line performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ferrari driver expects straight-line speed to make overtaking difficult but believes energy management could give the SF-26 opportunities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020313635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Leclerc explains how Ferrari can fight Gasly and Russell for Italian GP victory","42wp_featured_image_credits":"Ferrari","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_ai_content_disclaimer":"","42wp_is_ai_content":false,"42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":"","42wp_hide_from_automatic":false,"42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[28,325,56,294],"42wp_author":[58],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f1","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1-2026","tag-ferrari","tag-italian-gp","42wp_author-vicente-soella"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020313635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}