Leclerc dismisses Hadjar's claim Verstappen would have won Singapore by more in a Ferrari

Charles Leclerc has flatly rejected Isack Hadjar’s assertion that Max Verstappen would have won the Singapore Grand Prix by an even greater margin had he been driving a Ferrari, labelling the claim “nonsense” when asked about it ahead of the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

Verstappen dominated the Marina Bay Street Circuit weekend, taking pole for both the sprint and the grand prix before winning each race. His victory in the main event came by 7.3 seconds over Leclerc in second, but Hadjar — Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate — suggested the Dutchman would have extended that gap further in Maranello machinery.

Leclerc was having none of it. “First of all, I think it’s nonsense to start saying these kinds of things,” the Ferrari driver said. “Isack has no idea what kind of car we drive, and I have no idea what kind of car he drives.”

The Monégasque driver argued that the current field is too closely matched for anyone outside a team to make such judgements with confidence. “It’s such a tight field that it’s very, very difficult for us to predict,” he said. “Yes, of course, we have an idea of how we will be on this track, but when you are speaking about such fine margins, it relies really on optimising your package, and that has a much bigger influence than what we expect in terms of cars.”

Leclerc did single out Mercedes as the one team that has underperformed relative to expectations in recent rounds. “The only outlier in the last few races is maybe Mercedes, that we expected to be further ahead than they actually were. If they manage to finally unlock the performance that we had in mind for them, then they will be further ahead than any others. But otherwise, it’s going to be very tight.”

The remarks carry added weight given the championship picture heading into Austin. Kimi Antonelli leads the drivers’ standings on 340 points for Mercedes, with George Russell second on 238 and Lewis Hamilton third on 229. Leclerc sits fifth with 215 points, leaving him with ground to make up across the closing rounds of the 2026 season.