Ferrari struggle to offer an explanation for performance drop in SQ3

Ferrari arrived in Miami with momentum, confidence and a heavily upgraded SF‑26 that had looked immediately competitive from the first laps of the sole ninty-minute practice session.

Charles Leclerc set the tone early, topping the sole practice session of the Sprint weekend and once again demonstrating his trademark precision on street circuits. The Monegasque appeared the quicker of the two Ferrari drivers throughout Friday, consistently extracting strong one‑lap performance from the medium compound.

But when the decisive moments of Sprint Qualifying arrived, Ferrari’s day took a more complicated turn. Both drivers had been “very competitive in the first two phases,” as Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur later summarised, but neither Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton managed to deliver a fully optimised lap in SQ3 on the soft tyre. Leclerc ended the session fourth, while Hamilton—delayed by a shifting issue—settled for seventh.

Leclerc’s assessment of the day was clear and consistent: Ferrari’s main limitation was tyre‑related, specifically the transition from the medium to the soft compound.

“Today, our main weakness was the tyres,” he explained. “The Mediums worked well, but the Softs weren’t as great, so we have to look into that. I think that we can try to do some fine-tuning ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying and find more performance.”

The Monegasque reiterated that the upgrades themselves were functioning as expected, but the competitive landscape had shifted as rivals also introduced new parts.

“The upgrades are fine, it’s just that everybody brought upgrades,” said Leclerc. “We kind of expected that situation where Mercedes is probably still the car to beat. McLaren did a very big step forward, but I felt like they didn’t optimise their first races of the season, so they were always there but they didn’t put everything together.”

Ferrari’s difficulty was most pronounced on the soft tyre, where Leclerc felt the car lose the precision and stability that had made him so competitive earlier in the day.

“On our side, today particularly we’ve struggled with tyres – medium were working very well, on the soft it wasn’t a nice feeling, so on that we’ve got to look at it. We know that in the race pace we are stronger, but in terms of Qualifying there is still some work to be done.”

Despite the setback, Leclerc remained optimistic about Ferrari’s prospects for both Saturday’s Sprint and the Grand Prix qualifying session that follows.

“I think in Qualifying tomorrow we can try and fine-tune a little bit and find a bit of performance, but I hope that in the race we can come back in the front,” he said. “We’ve got the pace to do that, let’s just see if we are able to overtake.”

Lewis Hamilton’s Friday followed a similar trajectory: steady improvement through FP1, SQ1 and SQ2, only for the final segment to unravel due to a mechanical issue.

The seven‑time World Champion had been edging closer to Leclerc’s pace throughout the day, but the shifting problem in SQ3 prevented him from mounting a proper challenge for the top positions.

“I’m disappointed with the final result of Sprint Qualifying,” Hamilton admitted, “but it’s early in the weekend and we’ll be working hard to have a good Sprint race tomorrow and Qualifying.”

Hamilton’s deficit on the soft tyre mirrored Leclerc’s experience, reinforcing the sense that Ferrari’s challenge is structural rather than driver‑specific. The team’s long‑run pace, however, remains a source of encouragement heading into the Sprint.

Team Principal Frédéric Vasseur offered a broader technical perspective on Ferrari’s SQ3 difficulties. While the SF‑26 had looked strong on mediums, the soft‑tyre performance deficit was compounded by straight‑line losses that cost the team valuable tenths.

“We were very competitive in the first two phases, but then we didn’t put together good laps in SQ3 and our best result was a P4,” Vasseur said.

“We have to analyse all the data and focus on what we need to improve. We were losing a couple of tenths in a straight line today, but that’s not just down to the engine or to the chassis, it’s down to the whole package. This is less evident in race mode so it might not be the case tomorrow in the Sprint.”

His final point is crucial: Ferrari’s race‑mode performance appears far less compromised, suggesting that the Sprint could offer an opportunity to recover positions and gather valuable data ahead of the main qualifying session.