“It’s not good enough”: Charles Leclerc shares an honest assessment of the 2026 F1 cars after Bahrain GP debacle
Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and a handful of other drivers faced the software glitch at last weekend’s Bahrain GP in Malaysia. The Monegasque has now come out and shared his honest assessment of the new regulations and cars after last weekend’s debacle.
During the formation lap at the Bahrain GP at the Sepang International Circuit, multiple cars got stuck at 20 kmph, and weren’t able to accelerate past it. This resulted in the field being split into three, and the FIA had to abandon the starting procedure.
The cars had to pit, and the FIA had to make software changes to all the ECUs to get rid of the bug. While the FIA did manage to get the race going within 30 mins of the issue happening, it wasn’t a good look for the racing series known as the pinnacle of motorsports.
Charles Leclerc was one of the drivers affected by this issue, and came out ahead of the 2026 Singapore GP, detailing his concerns with the current generation of cars.
“I think that’s a bit our worry with these cars is that, not to that extent of course this was a problem, but whatever you have when you get out of the corner sometimes you can have 100 horsepower more, 100 horsepower less. You are not completely in control of the power you are given. And then, with this kind of visibility like at the start of the race, you can have big shunts because of that,” said Charles Leclerc
“I don’t want to be so extreme with my words, but surely it’s not good enough. I mean, we’ve been raising those issues, and I hope that we fix them. But, unfortunately I don’t think there’s any short-term solutions to these problems. These problems are unfortunately the results of decisions made quite a long time ago and now to revert or to change that it’s going to take time,” added the Ferrari driver.
Lewis Hamilton had to shut off his Ferrari and restart it to get going again during the formation lap.
Charles Leclerc suggests win at Singapore GP will be difficult
Lewis Hamilton had the pace to challenge Max Verstappen for the win at the 2026 Bahrain GP. However, it was undone by the strategic decision to start on slicks on a damp track.
Going into the Singapore GP, Charles Leclerc is wary of the fact that Ferrari has done well at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, but claims that winning will be difficult.
“Historically we’ve been quite strong here, but we cannot really rely on the past. We’ve got to do everything we can in order to be in the best possible situation. It’s also true that the tendency lately has been that we’re losing a bit of performance compared to the guys in front, so to win will be very difficult,” said Leclerc
With the Singapore GP being a sprint weekend and the uncertainty of rain looming over, it’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top.
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