Charles Leclerc plotting to use Ferrari weapon to 'annoy Mercedes'

Charles Leclerc believes Ferrari's best hope of challenging Mercedes in grands prix is to "annoy" them in the opening laps by utilising its strong F1 starts. 

Although Mercedes has locked out the front-row of every grand prix and the Chinese GP Sprint thus far in 2026, neither George Russell nor Kimi Antonelli has led the opening lap as both W17s have bogged down off the start.

In Australia, it was Leclerc who roared into the lead, whilst in both Chinese starts, it was team-mate Lewis Hamilton who led the opening tour before Mercedes used its superior race pace to pass and pull away for comfortable victories.

However, in Japan, after the safety car restart for Oliver Bearman's huge accident, Leclerc was able to get ahead of Russell in the battle for third place - and was able to hold off the Mercedes. 

If the Scuderia has a chance to "annoy" Mercedes and defeat it for grand prix victories when the season resumes, Leclerc believes it must capitalise on its fast starts and give Russell and Antonelli "dirty air" to disrupt their progress.

"I don’t think it’s as close as maybe people think," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365, before the Japanese GP. 

"Obviously, the first few races we see lots of fighting between the cars, which is actually quite nice, but as soon as you are a little bit suboptimal with these cars, you lose a lot of lap time. 

"So, our only chance to stay with them is to annoy them in the first few laps, but as soon as they get free air, then they’ve shown their real pace in the last race, and I think there are still these four or five tenths that we’ve seen throughout the first two races. 

"So, it’s still a significant advantage. But yes, that doesn’t discourage me, and again, we have some things in the pipeline. 

"We’ve got to focus on ourselves, not trying to overdo it because it’s never good in these situations, and then we’ll see where that brings us."