Leclerc highlights 'main talking point' in Sepang as he evaluates Ferrari's performance

Charles Leclerc has highlighted what will be the “main talking point” in Sepang as he namechecked Red Bull and Mercedes as standouts in the competitive order.

Ferrari looked to enjoy a positive day of running during the first two sessions of on-track action at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, with the Monegasque finishing fourth in FP1 before going on to top the timesheets in FP2. Team mate Lewis Hamilton was also in the upper echelons of the order with a P6 and P5 in first and second practice respectively.

However, when quizzed on how his Friday had gone, Leclerc insisted the Scuderia were not the most competitive before going on to highlight the performance shown from both Red Bull and Mercedes.

“I mean it's been a very, very difficult day overall,” said Leclerc. “The track conditions were very tricky – the track was quite dirty actually and very slippery – so I think things will change and evolve a lot from today to tomorrow.

“We've got to be on the good side of things, anticipating that in the best possible way, but today hasn't been a bad day. I felt quite good with the car, but I still feel like the Red Bull, for example, is standing out this weekend so far.

"Isack [Hadjar], I think, did some mistakes in the last part of the lap, and Max didn't do the lap on the soft tyres, so I don't think we are the most competitive, and also the Mercedes is a bit difficult to understand.”

While Mercedes have been the class leaders so far in 2026, and brought a significant upgrade package to the Sepang International Circuit this weekend, a question mark remains over their performance after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished seventh and eight respectively in the day’s second practice session.

However, both drivers were unable to set a clean lap on the softs during the session and Leclerc believes it won’t take long for the Silver Arrows to figure things out.

“They don't often get it wrong, so I wouldn't underestimate them,” he said. “I mean, I'm sure that once they all put everything together, they'll be very strong.

“They've been the favourite since the beginning, since the first race, and normally when they put something on the car it works very well. So yeah, let's see how it goes but the best thing we can do anyway is to focus on ourselves and maximise what we have.”

One of the key challenges facing the drivers this weekend – in addition to the hot weather and chance of rain – is the tyre degradation on track, with Leclerc calling it “insane” over the radio during FP1. With Sunday’s Grand Prix on the horizon, the Ferrari man believes the degradation will be the main talking point when all is said and done.

“The degradation is going to be the main talking point of the weekend, so yeah, that will make the race very interesting and we need to be on top of that,” he assessed. “Today, we've seen a lot of degradation. I think we have normally quite a good race car but there's a lot work to be done and a small difference in some corners can make a huge difference in degradation.

“But we had a good day today. I think we did a lot of work, we learned a lot of things, but there is still plenty to work on before Sunday.”

Speaking after Friday’s action, Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur concurred with Leclerc’s sentiments, acknowledging that the track condititions would be tough to get to grips with.

“Over the last five or six weekends [this is] the first one we are more focused on degradation than something else,” he said. “Conditions are a bit extreme and, for everybody, it's almost a new track.

“It means that we have a lot to do and a lot to improve. Also, the track was quite poor in terms of grip today – it will probably improve tomorrow. It means that we need to anticipate everything to be ready for tomorrow.”