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Apr 26, 2026 — Lewis Hamilton has blamed an imperfect Ferrari set-up for losing ground to Charles Leclerc in recent F1 races, and making sure the car matches his driving is now his main aim for the Mexico City Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion felt he drove well at the United States Grand Prix, but he could not match Leclerc when it mattered. He finished fourth while Leclerc took second behind Kimi Antonelli.
Hamilton's frustration is not about raw speed. In practice at Austin, he looked every bit as quick as Leclerc, but the balance of the car did not stay with him through qualifying and the race. He told Sky Sports F1 that he had lost points over the previous five rounds because the set-up was not perfect. In his view, it was a problem of confidence rather than one of lap time: when a driver cannot trust the car's front end, every corner becomes a negotiation. That sums up his weekend in Texas.
This was not a one-off issue. In Singapore, Hamilton was quick right up until Q3, only to be beaten by Leclerc. Then in Austin, he topped final practice, yet ended up fifth on the grid while Leclerc qualified fourth. That one-place gap may look small, but at a track like the Circuit of the Americas, it forced Hamilton to race from behind. He had to follow the cars ahead through the opening corners, and with his set-up already uncomfortable, any lost time in the first sector was hard to recover.
Leclerc, by contrast, was able to use track position to his advantage. He qualified fourth and made a fast start, squeezing past Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen in the first sector. Verstappen fought back at the end of the opening lap, but Leclerc's race was proactive. Hamilton was left to work through traffic and spend his energy trying to make the car turn.
Hamilton's biggest complaint was clear. He cited a long list of slow corners — Turn 1, Turns 11 through 15 — where the car refused to rotate. The understeer was so severe that he had to change settings in the cockpit mid-corner. Those adjustments cost time, and they also destroyed his rhythm. On several laps, the cars around him simply drove away while he was trying to balance his way through the corner.
The strange part was that the car improved in the final stint. Hamilton admitted that by the time the team made adjustments, the balance was closer to where it should have been from the start. But by then, the podium fight was lost. He praised Ferrari's pit stops and strategy, but he was direct about the core problem: the starting set-up was not where it needed to be.
Leclerc understood why the weekend had produced another missed chance. He said Ferrari was strong from the first practice session to the final race lap, and that the strategy he ran was aggressive because overtaking was always going to be required. He also believed the chance of victory disappeared in Q3, when he could not get the tires into the right temperature window. On a single lap, that cost him the front row, and once the traffic settled in the race, Antonelli was simply too quick.
What Leclerc said about the team deserved attention: "I think we're just not robust enough." That is a measured way of admitting the performance was there, but the practical details were not. The car was quick enough to win in terms of raw pace, yet small setbacks in qualifying, tire preparation and track position added up to a result that felt like a loss even though Leclerc finished second.
Frederic Vasseur took the constructive side after the race. The Ferrari team principal pointed out that the car was competitive from the opening free practice until the final lap, and that the strategy was not conservative. His main regret was the last two laps in Q3. If the team had used those laps better, the final result could have been different. Without the VSC period, he said, a double podium would have been achievable.
That is an important piece of context. Ferrari did not leave Austin with a bad car or a bad strategy. It left Austin with a small, repeated execution gap. For Hamilton, however, the execution gap was personal. His set-up problems were not the same as Leclerc's Q3 tire issue, and no amount of race strategy could have fixed a car that did not turn when he wanted it to.
There is a technical reason this set-up issue is so damaging for Hamilton. Modern ground-effect cars are sensitive to ride height and mechanical platform. Small changes in front spring rate, roll stiffness or camber can alter the way the tires are loaded in slow corners. If the car's balance is closer to Leclerc's preferred set-up, Hamilton has to adapt his technique, but he is used to a very pointy front end. That explains why he can be quick in practice, when track conditions and tire states vary, and then struggle in the race when the car moves through different phases of fuel load and tire degradation.
It also explains why the last stint in Austin was better. By that point, the tires were older, the fuel load was lighter, and the car's balance shifted toward the front. Hamilton could drive more aggressively because the car was finally responding. Had the car been set up in that direction from the start, he believes the race would have been different.
The Mexico City Grand Prix is a new chance for Ferrari. The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez sits about 2,200m above sea level, so the thin air reduces downforce significantly. Teams use higher-downforce wings to compensate, meaning mechanical grip plays a bigger role. Ferrari's car has tended to work well in those conditions, and its power unit has been strong at altitude. If there is a track on the remaining calendar where Hamilton can reset his set-up confidence, Mexico could be it.
The key is finding the balance early. Practice in Mexico runs at unusual times and the track evolves quickly, so a driver cannot wait until Sunday to understand the car. Hamilton and his engineer will need to be close after the first session. That is easier said than done against a teammate who has now built a clear set-up rhythm.
Hamilton is only one point behind George Russell in the Drivers' Championship, and he is all too aware that recent races have cost him. The last five rounds have featured strong qualifying fights, good race swings and missed opportunities. A single lost position here and there is enough to turn a potential lead into a small deficit. Hamilton said he has lost points because of his set-up, and that is not a sustainable pattern with only five rounds left in F1's 2026 campaign.
Leclerc, meanwhile, has found a comfortable path. He said he has unlocked something in his driving and set-up work over the past two or three races. That confidence was visible in Austin, even if the result could have been better. For Hamilton, the task is to find that same link between set-up and driving style. Leclerc may now be the reference driver at Ferrari, but Hamilton is not ready to accept that role. Mexico is his first chance to prove the problem is behind him.
