Ferrari vow to deliver Hamilton and Leclerc upgrades ASAP after Baku beatdown

Hamilton, Leclerc, socials — Photo: © IMAGO

Ferrari F1

Ferrari vow to deliver Hamilton and Leclerc upgrades ASAP after Baku beatdown

Hope for the Scuderia

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson F1 Editor

Motorsport journalist covering F1 since 2024

Wednesday 30 September 2026 09:45

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Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been promised upgrades to their Ferrari cars 'as soon as possible' after another poor showing at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

After Mercedes showed they are light years ahead in terms of pace in qualifying on Friday, Saturday's race also proved disappointing for the two Ferrari stars in Baku.

Having started second on the grid, Leclerc was unable to keep up with the Red Bull duo of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, who demoted him to P4, while Hamilton finished P6, behind Kimi Antonelli despite the Italian having started down in P16.

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Ferrari's lack of performance even led to Leclerc calling on the team to get their act together when it comes to getting the SF-26 up to the speed of its rivals.

“We were quite far off Mercedes, far off Red Bull, a bit behind McLaren - these are our competitors and it’s not new," he said.

"It's quite a few races now that we’re losing a little bit of track to them, so it's important that we react to that and that we bring upgrades in order to close the gap again.”

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Ferrari boss promises upgrades 'soon'

Leclerc's comments came despite Ferrari having delivered aerodynamic updates to the SF-26 at Zandvoort last month, and a new spec engine under the ADUO benchmarking system at Monza in early September.

More are on the way, though, says team principal Fred Vasseur. The Scuderia boss is under massive scrutiny right now after the team's recent performance and those Christian Horner comments, but has promised upgrades are coming 'soon'.

“I won’t give you the date, but soon,” the Ferrari team prinicipal explained.

“Now it’s like this that we are all bringing upgrades at different places.

"I think McLaren did something this weekend, and Merc it will probably be next weekend, with Malaysia and [their sponsor] Petronas."

“We will do it as soon as possible," Vasseur vowed.

"For sure, sometimes you do steps, but it’s not always paying off, because sometimes you have to fine-tune."

Fred Vasseur has promised Ferrari upgrades are on their way

The Ferrari boss also suggested the team has one eye on next year, with the likes of McLaren and Red Bull having also admitted that 2027 is now their focus in terms of car development.

"Now I think everybody is switching to the next year’s programme, because even if it’s into the continuity, we have some changes on the regulations, and we have to anticipate this," the Ferrari chief concluded.

It's Malaysia up next for Hamilton and Leclerc, where all eyes will once again be on the team in red as Fred Vasseur's leadership comes under increasing scrutiny.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Charles Leclerc