Charles Leclerc was unflinching in his self-assessment after the Miami Grand Prix, admitting that a final-lap lunge on Oscar Piastri threw away what he believes would have been a podium and dropping Ferrari into a fresh pace puzzle the team cannot yet explain.
The Monegasque had run third for much of the race in Florida, only for a Turn 3 attempt at his battery boost overtake to end with a left-front impact on the wall, contact with George Russell at the penultimate corner, and a 20-second post-race penalty for cutting corners. He crossed the line sixth and was demoted to eighth in the final classification.
Leclerc did not look for excuses.
"It's all on me. I don't have much to add other than that. Very disappointed with my mistake," he said.
"It was a very poor decision, and in the space of four corners I put a very strong race in the bin."
The Ferrari driver was as honest about his self-belief as he was about the error, framing the lunge as a Turn 3 move he has consistently made stick this season.
"I pushed like an animal in Turn 3, and most of the time this year it went through," he said. "This time it didn't, and I'm disappointed in myself."
His verdict on the lost result was unambiguous.
"I think that without the mistake, I could have done a podium," he said. "I am very frustrated about that."
The more serious concern, though, sits with the team. Ferrari brought a substantial 11-piece upgrade package to Miami and started the weekend looking like a genuine threat. By Sunday, that pace had vanished, with both medium and hard compound stints dropping off in a way the team did not expect.
Leclerc admitted the gap between the sprint and the grand prix is the part that troubles him most.
"On the medium [tyres] we weren't strong. We were degrading a massive amount," he said.
"On the hard, it wasn't great at the beginning, then it picked up, and then it was a little bit better, but it was never at the level of yesterday [the Sprint]."
The call from inside the cockpit is now for an immediate post-mortem.
"We need to look at it. We've lost a lot of performance compared to yesterday, and I would like to understand exactly what happened there," Leclerc said.
He is, however, not prepared to label the drop a structural Ferrari problem just yet.
"I don't think it's a pattern, but let's wait a few more races and understand if it is. But I don't have that feeling," he said.
The penalty itself - a 20-second post-race addition for cutting two chicanes while nursing the damaged car back to the pits - has reshaped the constructors' picture and removed Ferrari from a podium position they had genuinely earned at points during the race. Leclerc accepted the sporting verdict without protest.
For Lewis Hamilton, the other side of Ferrari's Miami garage, the result was already compromised by a Turn 1 collision with Franco Colapinto that cost him 20 points of downforce and left his floor damaged. Together, the two stories paint Ferrari's Miami trip as one of the most expensive weekends of the year - a podium-shaped lap on Saturday turning into a points-light Sunday with two unhappy drivers and an upgrade package that has only delivered half the answer.
Canada is up next, and Leclerc's message in Miami was that the on-track mistake is his to own, but the missing race pace is the team's to find.
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*Originally published on [Formula One News](https://newsformula.one/article/leclerc-put-race-in-bin-miami-ferrari-pace-disappeared-2026). Visit for full coverage.*