Scuderia Ferrari pushed Red Bull Racing to the absolute limit under the Marina Bay floodlights, but Charles Leclerc ultimately had to settle for second place at the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix.
After launching off the front row alongside polesitter Max Verstappen, Leclerc applied relentless pressure throughout the opening stint. However, high tyre degradation and an aggressive, divergent pit strategy under a mid-race safety car ultimately saw the Monegasque driver run out of rubber in the closing laps, crossing the line just behind his Red Bull rival while keeping Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli at bay in third.
The aggressive safety car gamble
Speaking with Jenson Button immediately after stepping out of the cockpit, Leclerc broke down how a promising opening phase unravelled into severe tyre management.
"Yeah, we were quite strong at the beginning of the race, then we started degrading a little bit more in the first stint, but then we did a slightly different strategy to Max with the safety car," Leclerc explained.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Rather than settling into a rhythm behind Verstappen during the restart, Leclerc threw caution to the wind by attacking immediately, hoping track position or an early undercut delta would force the Red Bull into a mistake.
"I believed in it until the very end, but I pushed a lot at the beginning of that last stint and then degraded a bit more than the others," Leclerc conceded. "But yeah, I gave it all, and I don't regret anything. I don't think there was much more to do today, apart from maybe a bit more aggressive at the start. That's the way it is."
Ferrari still chasing Red Bull’s benchmark
Finishing comfortably ahead of both Mercedes and McLaren provided a massive points haul for Ferrari in the Constructors' standings, but Leclerc was quick to temper expectations. When Button asked if the close finish in Singapore proved Maranello had eliminated the performance deficit to Red Bull, the Monegasque offered a candid reality check.
"Yeah, I still feel that way," Leclerc stated regarding Ferrari's pace disadvantage. "However, it's true that we brought some small new parts to the car, which maybe helped us to do another step forward, but it's not an awful push until the end, and we still got to bring some new things to the car to be at that level. But I think today we had a good pace overall."
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
With six rounds remaining in the 2026 campaign and the Circuit of the Americas up next, Ferrari's minor aerodynamic tweaks proved they can challenge on low-speed street layouts. However, as Leclerc made abundantly clear, Maranello will need a much larger development package if they hope to beat Verstappen on high-speed, front-limited circuits.