Leclerc urged Ferrari to study Red Bull strategy after Bahrain tire gamble
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 7, 2026
Ferrari strategy
Max Verstappen won the wet Bahrain Grand Prix after Ferrari’s opening tire gamble fell apart and left Lewis Hamilton third and Charles Leclerc fourth. Ferrari started Hamilton and Leclerc on soft tires, while Red Bull sent Verstappen and Isack Hadjar out on intermediates, and that split told the story as rain kept the track slick. The conditions made grip hard to find, and the team slid backward as the race unfolded. Leclerc went to the pits at the end of the opening lap, a first sign that Ferrari’s plan needed repair almost immediately. He clipped Nico Hulkenberg’s Audi, needed a new front wing and switched to intermediate tires. Hamilton faced the same difficult opening call, and Ferrari spent the race trying to recover from a choice that never matched the weather. The early strategy left both cars sliding backward in the race.
Verstappen victory
Verstappen made the better tire call count and converted pole position into victory. Red Bull’s decision to start on intermediates gave Verstappen the stronger opening strategy. Once the field settled into the wet conditions, the contrast between the two teams was clear. Red Bull had the more stable opening plan, and Ferrari had to spend its time fixing the damage from its own first move. George Russell’s retirement with a Mercedes power unit failure helped Ferrari recover to third and fourth. That late development helped Hamilton and Leclerc recover to the top four, but it did not change the outcome at the front. Verstappen still won, turning a strong start into a race win. Hamilton ended up third. Leclerc followed in fourth after the opening-lap pit stop, the front-wing change and the switch to intermediates.
Leclerc reaction
Leclerc pointed directly at strategy when he assessed how Ferrari lost ground. He said Ferrari had agreed on the tire decision, but the team underestimated how much water sat on the track surface. That mistake left the drivers on the wrong tire at the wrong time and turned the opening phase into damage control. Leclerc also said Ferrari needed to understand what Red Bull did better. In his view, Red Bull gets its calls right most of the time with both cars, and that edge matters when the weather forces teams to react fast. The Bahrain race gave Ferrari a clear example. The team had a chance to make a strong early call in difficult conditions and missed it, then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to recover what it had lost. Leclerc’s comments showed that he sees the problem as more than one wet-race decision. He framed it as a race-day strength Ferrari has to catch if it wants to match Red Bull when conditions shift.
