Leclerc adopts Hamilton's brake setup for Barcelona after Monaco mechanical nightmare

Charles Leclerc will switch to the brake configuration used by Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, following a mechanical failure that ended his Monaco race in the barriers while running third.

Leclerc crashed out of his home race with 14 laps remaining after losing braking performance at the final corner. He was unsparing in his assessment afterwards, making clear the fault lay with the car rather than his driving.

“I’m not even going to take the blame,” Leclerc said. “Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working. So in a Formula 1 car, it’s never a good thing. The front left was working well, the front right was half working, and the two rear brakes were not working at all. And when I say at all, it’s that on data, there’s no deceleration at all. It’s like the calipers were not even in the car.”

The Monégasque driver later described the experience as a “nightmare”, but Ferrari had already identified a potential remedy. Hamilton has been running Carbon Industrie brake discs and pads on his SF-26, while Leclerc has persisted with the Brembo configuration — a setup he has struggled with for some time.

For Barcelona, Leclerc will test the Carbon Industrie package during the first free practice session before deciding whether to continue with it for the remainder of the weekend. Ferrari stress the choice is purely a matter of driver preference rather than an outright performance advantage, with different drivers across the grid favouring each supplier.

The timing matters beyond the technical. Leclerc has not stood on the podium since the Japanese Grand Prix in March, a run of results that has dropped him to fourth in the drivers’ championship. Hamilton, meanwhile, has posted back-to-back runner-up finishes in a resurgent 2026 campaign and now sits ahead of his team-mate in the standings. Whether the brake change translates into a competitive upturn in Spain will be one of the weekend’s more intriguing subplots.