(Motorsport-Total.com) – While Lewis Hamilton’s “resurrection” is currently being celebrated at Ferrari, Charles Leclerc is sinking deeper and deeper into crisis. In Barcelona, the Monegasque remained without points for the second race in a row. This last happened to him in the summer of 2024, two years ago.
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Although a defect on the Ferrari caused his retirement on Sunday in Barcelona, Leclerc was only in an unspectacular sixth place until then, while teammate Hamilton led the race and ultimately celebrated his first victory for Ferrari.
“Charles needs to be careful now. He’s being shown up a bit by Lewis right now,” warns Ralf Schumacher in the podcast Backstage Boxengasse by Sky. In Barcelona, Leclerc crashed in qualifying, and he also didn’t see the checkered flag after an accident at his home race in Monaco before that.
Schumacher suspects that Saturday’s crash in Barcelona is related to the pressure Hamilton is currently exerting with his good results. That’s why Leclerc simply overdid it in qualifying, according to the six-time Grand Prix winner.
He explains that as a driver, you often consciously hold back in certain corners until qualifying. “Where you say: Okay, I can suddenly gain another tenth or two in qualifying and then be faster than my teammate,” says Schumacher.
“And I think Charles had that in mind. He wanted to do that,” the expert suspects. But instead, the Ferrari driver “drove into the corner much too fast” and ultimately went off with “almost ten km/h” too much speed.
Schumacher: Leclerc must not “panic”
He must now “stop” doing such things, says Schumacher, explaining: “He simply has to take a step back. Call up what he can do.” Because in terms of pure speed, Leclerc is “still better” than teammate Hamilton, he emphasizes.
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“He just has to row back a bit now and not overdrive the car,” says Schumacher, explaining that Leclerc must “not panic that Lewis Hamilton is now close.” His impression is that Leclerc wants to dominate Hamilton as he did last year.
But that no longer works in 2026 against a resurgent Hamilton. “Even if he’s only a tenth faster than a seven-time world champion, that’s still enough,” Schumacher reminds.
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Leclerc must “internalize that he no longer has these three to five or six tenths [advantage],” he explains. In Hamilton’s first Ferrari season in 2025, the record world champion regularly finished significantly behind Leclerc.
In the championship, the Monegasque clearly prevailed at the end of the year with 242:156 points. He also stood on the podium seven times during the season, while Hamilton did not make it onto the podium a single time.
In 2026, this ratio has shifted. Leclerc has only been on the podium twice so far, while Hamilton has celebrated on the podium four times and also secured Ferrari’s first victory since 2024 last weekend in Barcelona.
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According to Schumacher, Leclerc must accept this new reality as quickly as possible.