Why Ferrari are being touted as Monaco Grand Prix favorites by F1 rivals Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc in the eye glory | F1 News

Mercedes head into this weekend’s showpiece Monaco Grand Prix looking to extend their winning run to six races at the start of F1’s new era, but could the sport’s most famous event usher in the first significant change in narrative for early 2026?

The winner of the last four of those races, Kimi Antonelli, certainly doesn’t believe the championship leaders will start as reigning favourites.

“I think Ferrari are going to be the team to beat in Monaco,” Antonelli said Sky Sports F1 After winning last time out in Montreal.

On a run of 33 races without a Grand Prix victory, and with just two Monaco wins to show for the past 24 years, can the Scuderia and their SF-26 car form the combination to beat the legendary street circuit this time around?

Why Ferrari are being tipped as Monaco favourites

Antonelli’s feeling that Ferrari would prove best suited to Monaco’s unique challenge is based on a standout feature of the Italian team’s car so far this season – slow cornering performance, of which there is an abundance.

“It’s going to be very interesting how we do there but for sure, Ferrari are favourites,” added Antonelli.

“Also the winglets on the back (of the cars) give them a lot of downforce at low speeds.”

It’s a scene shared by last year’s race winner McLaren.

World champion Lando Norris, who claimed McLaren’s first Monaco victory for 17 years in 2026, predicted: “To be honest, I think Ferrari will be on pole in Monaco.

“Their low-speed performance is much better than everyone else’s.”

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, not discounting the possibility of his own team repeating their pole-winning double from 12 months ago, at a track that will suit their own 2026 car alongside, inevitably, Mercedes, said: “When we look at the overlay based on GPS speed, we see that the return speed is lower.

“The first sector in Canada, they’ve always been very competitive. It’s not only a low-speed sector, it’s also a sector with curbing. Usually these characteristics, they tend to be rewarded at a track like Monaco.

“In addition to that, we see, for example, in Canada, Ferrari lost time in the Straits, but in Monaco you don’t have much.

“I think Ferrari is quite right to see the car probably the favorite for a pole position at Landau Monaco.”

Not that pole position, it should be noted, has been anywhere easy for Ferrari recently

Leclerc’s pole in Hungary last year (a relatively slow venue) was their only since the Mexico City Grand Prix in October 2024, which was also the scene of their most recent race win.

But can Monaco finally bring the Prancing Horse back to the front of the grid?

Speaking on the F1 Show podcast, Sky Sports F1 Commentator David Croft said: “I think this is Ferrari’s Monaco this year. The lack of power won’t be so obvious there.

“They were mega in the slow corner in Montreal… I think it could be a Ferrari dominance.

“It will be about qualifying as always in Monaco. If Charles can get on pole, Lewis can get on pole, if they can get on the front row, it’s Ferrari’s weekend to lose.”

Will Hamilton’s Montreal form transfer to Monaco?

If Ferrari prove to be the team to beat, the battle between Monaco’s own Charles Leclerc and a resurgent Lewis Hamilton should be interesting to watch.

Hamilton certainly heads into Monaco in high spirits after the best result of his Ferrari career to finish second to Canada’s Antonelli.

It marked the 41-year-old’s second podium finish in the first five races, after none in red in his debut campaign, and took him to within three points of Leclerc in the drivers’ championship after Monegasque endured what he described as his “toughest weekend” in F1 en route to a flattering fourth place.

So what of Monaco for Hamilton, a track that hasn’t always proved the seven-time world champion’s most rewarding – especially recently.

Three of Hamilton’s record 105 wins in F1 have come in 18 visits to the principality.

It’s still an impressive record by most standards and a number that puts him in the top eight for most wins by a driver in the history of the prestigious event. But judged against the rarefied standards of Hamilton’s record-breaking career, Monaco is his joint-14th successful streak for race wins and joint-16th successful streak for pole.

Since the most recent of his three Monaco wins – from just one of the two main pole positions – in 2019, Hamilton’s finishing record has been seventh, eighth, fourth, seventh and fifth.

But the Brit left Montreal feeling optimistic about his own form and the potential road ahead for Ferrari’s SF-26 car.

“It’s a track where power is not king. I think it’s definitely the performance of the car. I think our car can be really strong there,” Hamilton said.

“I’m really going to focus on making sure I arrive with the same power as this weekend, study really hard with the engineers to make sure the car is in the right place from practice one.

“And, yes, if you eliminate the power shortage, we’re in a fight with these guys.”

But can Hamilton beat Monaco expert Leclerc?

Despite his team-mate’s struggles at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, overtaking Leclerc in Monaco would still prove no mean feat for Hamilton, regardless of Ferrari’s competitiveness compared to Mercedes and the rest.

If Montreal is one of Leclerc’s weakest tracks, Monaco is arguably his best.

The home favorite has finished in the top three in qualifying in each of the last five attempts at a race headlined by pole position in 2021, 2022 and 2024 (although dropped from third to sixth on the 2023 grid due to penalties) and has a further front-row start alongside last year’s pole-sitting Norris.

Additionally, Leclerc has only been outfielded by a teammate once in seven home-race appearances. It came in unfortunate circumstances during his first year driving for Ferrari in 2019 when, after topping final practice, he crashed out in Q1 following a tactical error from the team.

He still only won his home race once, in an emotional scene in 2024 after a masterful weekend, although he could have won twice more had his car not suffered a technical failure before the start of 2021 and then Ferrari messed up his strategy in a wet-dry race a year later.

So if Leclerc is going to return to top form anywhere, it may be around the streets of Monaco, making this weekend a good litmus test of the balance of power between the teammates at Ferrari this season.

Hamilton qualified 0.3s behind Leclerc last year and so any improvement in a like-for-like comparison would underline the progress the Briton has made with the team and the car in 2026.

With Hamilton chasing his first Grand Prix win since July 2024 while still a Mercedes driver, and Leclerc aiming for his first win since October 2024, Ferrari will hope their car lives up to its slow-corner billing as they bid for Mercedes’ unbeaten start to 2026.

Next up is Formula 1’s European summer swing, with the Monaco Grand Prix the first of six races in eight weeks. Watch live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime