Ferrari F1 star slams new regulations in qualifying rant: 'It's a f***ing joke!'

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc talks to the media at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Ferrari F1 star slams new regulations in qualifying rant: 'It's a f***ing joke!'

Leclerc will start Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix fourth on the grid

Chris Deeley

Saturday 28 March 2026 10:56

Qualifying specialist Charles Leclerc has hit out at F1's new regulations' impact on the Saturday shootout.

The Ferrari star could only put his car fourth on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, and jumped on the radio to complain about the way that various new energy management systems impact the session he's most famous for – with some pretty salty language thrown into the mix.

The Monegasque had calmed down somewhat by the time he faced the media, explaining to Sky Sports that he's always pushed the envelope in Q3 specifically...which requires the system to reoptimise for his new approach, and seems to result him going slower in a straight line.

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Or, as he'd put it minutes earlier on team radio, "I honestly can’t stand qualifying, it’s a f***ing joke! I go faster in corners, throttle earlier, for f***’s sake, I'm losing everything in the straight!"

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Leclerc: Ferrari more exposed to issue than Mercedes

A calmer Leclerc then explained to the TV cameras: "It's very frustrating, because come Q3, at least myself, and that's how I approach qualifying since forever, you go into that last lap, and you try things that are a little bit above whatever you've tried before.

"And when you do that, the system needs to reoptimise everything while you are driving, basically. And so that, for some reason, whenever I get to Q3, I start losing time on the straights. So I make time in the corners, I lose time on the straights.

"And this is very frustrating, because you never really put a lap together, because you're always compromising one thing for another, and that's a little bit frustrating, but it's the way it is for everybody.

"I feel that, for some reason, we are a little bit more exposed to that compared to maybe the Mercedes engine, which is something that we need to look at."

FIA looking to fix qualifying issues

He also confirmed that the FIA are looking at ways to minimise the issue – which he was keen to stress is not Ferrari specific – as soon as possible, saying: "I also know that the FIA is obviously trying to understand what other things we can do to fix those issues going forward, because it's still something that everybody has.

He added: "But yeah, apart from that, I was actually very happy with my lap.

"I had a moment at Turn 8, but actually, that didn't have any implications for whatever I had later on, like power unit-wise, it didn't have an influence."

F1 FIA Charles Leclerc