I think for charles right now there's a lot of frustration, which is perfectly understandable, because a lot of points (around 30 I'd say? it's always hard to calculate with DNFs) were lost. even if most of that loss had an external cause (mechanical issues), the bad races are piling up while the other side of the garage is having a pretty good season so far so the comparison makes it even worse.

what's funny here, is taking 2021 as a point of comparison for his struggles in 2026. his choice for taking that year as a reference (when one could argue very easily that 2020 was worse since the car was even shittier that year) further demonstrates why I think those two years are similar but for reasons that may not be obvious precisely because of the narrative built around 2021 - a narrative which may or may not have influenced charles' own perception of that season. that similarity for me is not charles finding himself behind his teammates at the end of the season's wdc ranking exactly though but rather the optics of appearing to be beaten and the narrative that comes with it. indeed, why did charles choose 2021? probably because that's the only year he finished behind his teammate, that's what's painful aside from the fact that the car wasn't great. however, looking at the wdc rankings at the end of the season is actually not reflective of the way the season went AT ALL. If you look at everything BUT the wdc ranking charles’ season actually looks better - and even then if you actually look at the points there’s only a 5.5 gap and some context sheds a different light on that rankings. indeed, charles was ahead of both norris and sainz before the last race AND before the team took the (wrong) decision to pit him during the VSC in abu dhabi charles was on his way to finish P5 (ahead of sainz and norris) in the standings. his season as a whole was affected by a lot of external circumstances : typical ferrari clownery (turkey, russia, abu dhabi), car failures (silverstone with engine cuts and power issues, monaco with the driveshaft failure, qatar with the broken chassis). despite all of that, somehow 2021 was only described as an "unlucky season" - and that was only when ppl were somewhat gracious enough to acknowledge the fact that the h2h wasn't all that clear cut between sainz and charles.

basically, if you look at any other H2H statistics from that year (see above) you'll quickly understand that charles was not at all 'beaten" by his teammate but yet that's all everyone remembers because it's an 'interesting' narrative for the so-called predestined one to be replaced in his own team by the new driver. simply put, it makes for a good story. charles struggled that year because of the car yes but he mostly suffered from the noise from the media claiming he was overrated and basically a fraud and I see this happening in some ways again this year. it's a bit different but people are still claiming he is being replaced in his own team despite the rankings reflecting more the external issues he's had to face than his own failures.

so like I've said, for me, 2021 and 2026 are similar mostly because of optics (the infamous teammates battle narrative) but of course there's also the usual charles bad luck, the bad strategies and the bad car (the SF21 basically belonged to the midfield) - three important elements that can be found affecting charles as well this year (bad luck in the forms of untimely safety cars ; bad strategies with those double stacks for instance ; the wonder that is the SF26 with those fucking brake discs, the struggles in quali and the insufficient engine). imo, if we're only talking about charles struggling and if we really want to make a comparison (although it's not necessarily relevant - especially since the situation this year is so very specific with the new regs and that whole brake saga), I would rather tend to talk about mid-2023 (take barcelona 2023 for instance) than 2021. one common thing about the SF21 and the SF26 though is that charles hates them both I think and that surely doesn't help his confidence: these cars prevent him from truly showing off his talent and abilities (this year, that whole brake saga is very largely to blame).

regarding charles' assessment that this year is worse because he's struggling with his pace - putting aside the fact that for one it's too early to make such comparisons because there's time to comeback from it and that for two he also suffers from recency bias (the first three races of the year actually went quite well for him) - I would tend to agree with him for now but I would add some much needed nuance. like I've said, as much as 2021 was bad, charles' own pace was never in question or at least not if you actually watched the races because otherwise yeah his performances went completely under the radar and remained quite underrated.

aside from the first three races, it's been a very difficult season so far and yes there may a problem with pace, quali has been challenging and there's the inconsistent pace in austria which is still confusing tbh BUT most of all, yet again, there have been a LOT of external issues affecting his results compared to his teammate. without mentioning the questionable strategies charles has been on (canada, monaco, austria), the whole brake saga has been a nightmare, especially in monaco where the podium turned into a dnf, and of course there's also the dnf in barcelona due to hydraulics issues.

while it is obvious that charles has been struggling, in terms of race pace, charles and lewis have been pretty much on par this season, even in austria where the deficit is almost insignificant. overall, charles is off by less than 0.050 which goes to show that a charles on a bad day is barely off his teammate who is supposedly on his best form. charles is harsh with himself because he's not confident, because the car is not doing what he likes and because the bad results are piling up but he's not as far off as he says. he's gained back some confidence in quali, now he needs to work on the race pace but I have no doubt he'll comeback.

In an interview from April, Andrea Algeri of Brembo said this:

"And then obviously, we are already starting some optimization for the next year. Especially the rear axel is very, very less stressed compared to the expectations. Just because the way they manage the energy recovery with the power unit is far more important compared to expectation, so this is the evolution. On the other side obviously as Brembo, we are not taking too much risk just because we know that as usual during the first season, the evolution- the learning curve is quite steep and the evolution of the car will be dramatically faster and probably at the end of this season, we will speak about something different compared to what we have here after the first three races. And so we don't want to go too far away and be forced to recover later on just because the performance will increase later on. So we are keeping, let's say, a bit of- try to be calm, let's say, not to overreact." (x)

Do we think Ferrari have been trying to get Brembo to work on new material since early on in the season and they have been wanting to wait and see, or is that crazy?

This was Charles' quote after Monaco:

"Out of the four brakes, I had three brakes not working, so in a Formula 1 car it's never a good thing. The front left was working well, the front right was half working, and the two rear brakes were not working at all. On the data there's no deceleration at all. It's like, the callipers were not even in the car, so it's a little bit of an issue." (x)

In the same interview from above, Algeri gives some additional insight into the 2026 braking systems.

"The driver hits the brakes and the car decides how much comes from the disc and how much comes from the electric motor." "It's quite difficult for us to get a constant performance across different temperature ranges, mainly on the rear axel. And this is, lets say, something that has been managed with the dimension of the parts. Because smaller pads can get you temperature quite quickly compared to a bigger dimension, but there is always a limit to the carbon material."

I don't have enough technical knowledge to make any real assumptions here, but I do have a few theories !

Ferrari was one of the teams that went with very small brake discs in the rear, which "will be very clever solutions if they are right. Otherwise, they will have to redo the braking system after a few tests or a few races!" - The reasoning here being that small brake discs are prone to large temperature swings because they both heat up and cool down quickly. (AN: this one, I think is maybe unlikely because I'm not sure these characteristics align exactly with the apparent inability to get the temperature at all in some cases?

Ferrari were conservative and went with larger brake discs, which are tougher to get up to working temperature, especially with the regenerative braking. They also could still bleed temps over the course of a race distance when the regenerative braking system is working a lot (this could be where the carbon industries discs are "better"? They hold temperatures better when not in use? - but then they cook the tires!)

It's not necessarily the braking material at all, and the software that controls the hand-off between regenerative braking, engine braking and mechanical brakes is somehow misaligned and completely throwing off the feel. (AN: I think this could also tie in with either of the previous points, with an update to the amount of harvesting throwing the mechanical brake operation into even more disarray?)