Lewis Hamilton finished fourth at the United States Grand Prix and attributed the deficit to his own car set-up rather than his driving. Charles Leclerc, his Ferrari team-mate, finished second behind race winner Kimi Antonelli in Austin. Hamilton now sits one point behind second-placed George Russell in the Drivers' Championship.
The Hamilton Ferrari setup gap to Leclerc
Hamilton was outqualified by Leclerc at the Circuit of the Americas and could not match his team-mate's race pace on Sunday. The pattern has repeated across recent weekends: in Singapore he looked strong until Q3, and in Austin he topped final practice before qualifying fifth.
"I lost a lot of points in the last five races or so," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. "I think it has come from set-up, not perfect, the set-up. That's something I really have to get on top of. That's where I have lost out."
He separated the machinery from the driver. "Performance-wise I feel like I've been driving well and the last [race] stint [in Austin] was good. The first two stints there was nothing I could do about that." He added that the team had done well to bring an upgrade and that Leclerc's second place showed the car's underlying performance.
Ferrari's Cornering Strength and Straight-Line Cost
Ferrari remained the benchmark through most corners at COTA but gave away speed on the straights to Mercedes and Red Bull. The trade-off is not new: the sliding-skirt ground-effect cars of the late 1970s bought cornering grip with drag and paid for it on the straights, and the same accounting shows up in Ferrari's sector times now.
Hamilton's complaint was specific and stint-shaped. "I couldn't turn the car in the low-speed particularly — Turn 1, Turn 11, Turn 12, Turn 13, 14, 15. Massive understeer so the [other] cars pulled away when I was adjusting my settings."
The balance he wanted arrived only in the final stint, by which point the podium fight had gone. "By the time we got to the last stint, we got closer to the balance but we should have started with that balance at the beginning," he said, crediting the team's pit stops and strategy.
Leclerc's Two-Stop Charge and the Missed Q3 Laps
Leclerc qualified fourth but took Isack Hadjar and Max Verstappen in the first sector, only for Verstappen to retake the place at the end of lap one. Ferrari ran him on a two-stop strategy, and he passed Verstappen and one-stopping Lando Norris in the closing stages.
He finished 13 seconds behind Antonelli. "In Q3, it was extremely difficult to bring the tyres up to temperature, and we probably lost a shot at the victory there," Leclerc said. "But Kimi was very strong, so, as a whole weekend, I think we're just not robust enough."
Team principal Frederic Vasseur located the loss in the same place. "If we missed something it was the last two laps in Q3. That was the most important laps of the weekend and that's where we had the issue." He added that without the VSC it would have been a double podium, and set a better qualifying and a win as the Mexico target.
Mexico City Altitude Test for the SF-26
Five rounds remain in the 2026 season, beginning with the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2,200m above sea level. Thin air changes cooling and downforce behaviour, so how the Ferrari power unit copes at altitude will shape whether the team can challenge for victory.
The circuit's twisty infield should suit the SF-26, which has been strongest in slower corners. Leclerc is encouraged. "The feeling with the car is getting better and better," he said. "Over the last two or three races, I've unlocked something again in terms of driving, and particularly setup with my driving."
"I hope that this will result in a win soon. Whether it's in Singapore or in Austin, we were quite close, so I'm confident that we'll have a shot to win a race before the end of the season."
This report draws on Sky Sports F1's coverage of the United States Grand Prix weekend, originally published by skysports.com.
