Head-to-head · season 2026

CharlesLeclercFerrari vs GeorgeRussellMercedes

LEC leads the grade duel 8–5 — across the 13 rounds both were rated in, the car stripped out of the equation.

#3The Index · 9.37

P2DI championship · 130 pts

2best-of-race

P5official · 127 pts

#13The Index · 7.60

P15DI championship · 28 pts

0best-of-race

P3official · 167 pts

Charles Leclerc vs George Russell: who is driving better in 2026?

the verdict, from the numbers

Charles Leclerc drives for Ferrari, George Russell for Mercedes, so the raw results are not comparable — everything below has car performance taken out of it. Charles Leclerc leads on The Index, 9.37 to 7.60 — P3 against P13, a gap of 1.77 of a grade point. Round by round, Charles Leclerc has out-driven the other in 8 of 13 races where both were graded. Charles Leclerc's clearest advantage is Race Start — 9.68 against 6.86. George Russell takes Cleanliness back the other way, 9.65 to 8.44. In the DriverIndex Championship — the same season paid on the official points scale, but on driver merit — Charles Leclerc sits P2 on 130 points to George Russell's P15 on 28. Officially they stand P5 and P3.

Round by round

the race grade decides each round · click a round for the full analysis

MEL 9.7 7.8 SHA 8.3 8.8 SUZ 9.4 7.5 MIA 7.3 7.4 CAN 8.5 7.9 MON 9.5 7.2 ESP 8.0 8.1 AUT 7.5 8.3 GBR 9.6 7.8 SPA 8.9 7.9 HUN 7.8 7.7 NED 9.0 8.3 ITA 6.3 8.3

The nine dimensions

season averages, mirrored — the longer bar wins the metric

9.05 A Expected Position 6.29

9.63 B Race Pace 8.23

8.63 C Consistency 8.30

7.52 D Attack & Defence 8.26

8.09 E Tyre Management 6.78

8.18 F Qualifying 7.27

9.68 G Race Start 6.86

6.61 H Pit Stop Execution 7.80

8.44 I Cleanliness 9.65

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Race grade, round by round

gaps = not classified