Leclerc disagrees with Russell about 2026 tyres

Mar.5 (GMM) Charles Leclerc is not siding with George Russell in criticising Pirelli’s proposed narrower 2026 tyres.

Max Verstappen refused to give his own opinion about the performance of the smaller and lighter tyres recently, cheekily only revealing that they are “round”.

Mercedes, however, is rumoured to be pushing for the narrower dimensions to be scrapped, with lead team driver Russell declaring: “They’re clearly worse overall, there’s no doubt about that.”

But Ferrari’s Leclerc has tried the development 2026 tyres too, and he has a different opinion.

“When you test new, smaller tyres, you expect a big difference,” he said. “But for me it felt fine – I didn’t really notice a big difference.

“I was pleasantly surprised.”

McLaren driver Lando Norris agreed, revealing that the 2026 Pirellis “worked well”.

In 2025, Pirelli is introducing an all-new ‘super soft’ compound called C6, which the Italian marque’s F1 boss Mario Isola says will make several appearances this year.

“We want to be a bit more aggressive with the choice of compounds and offer the combination C4, C5 and C6 on several weekends,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.

Previously, C5 was the softest compound.

“We want to bring the C6 to four or five races, not just Monaco,” Isola continued. “Everyone always talks about Monaco, but we will not solve the problems in Monaco with the C6. The Formula 1 Commission has already decided that we will try two compulsory stops there.”

He said the C6 will make its grand prix debut prior to Monaco.

“I think we will confirm the first use of the C6 for Imola. Then in Montreal,” Isola added. “Then we’ll see how it went. Both are representative tracks.

“If everything goes well, we’ll probably see the C6 in Singapore and Las Vegas as well. Together with Monaco, that would be five races.”