– Charles Leclerc was able to send an important signal in the team duel against Lewis Hamilton with his victory at the British Grand Prix. For the Monegasque, Friday in Silverstone was already a decisive turning point.
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“There was a moment on Friday evening in Silverstone when I noticed a detail,” he explained in the official press conference for the Belgian Grand Prix. “I thought to myself: ‘Okay, this is hard to quantify, but if I change this here and adjust it to suit me more, then my [feeling for the car] will be significantly better.'”
Leclerc does not explain exactly what he is referring to, but his previous problems with the 2026 Formula 1 car are no secret. While teammate Hamilton was able to adapt very quickly to the SF-26, Leclerc lacked the legendary “feeling” in the car weekend after weekend.
“After we were able to change that on Saturday afternoon, it was much better,” said Leclerc in the press conference. In the Silverstone sprint, Leclerc finished fifth, while after the Saturday race in qualifying for Sunday he promptly secured second place on the grid. For the first time in weeks, Leclerc was thus ahead of Hamilton.
At the start, Leclerc was able to overtake polesitter Kimi Antonelli and control the race. However, a spectacular finale between “Il Predestinato” and the championship leader did not materialize, as the Mercedes driver fell far back due to a technical defect. Ultimately, Leclerc was able to win his first Grand Prix of 2026.
In Belgium, the Ferrari driver emphasizes that the SF-26 per se was not the root of all evil. “I think it is more about this generation of cars,” explains the 28-year-old. “I have a fairly aggressive driving style.”
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“I think,” said Leclerc, “that has always been a strength in my career. But in these cars, you really have to be careful that it doesn’t turn into the opposite. Because the drop [in energy] is very large and if you don’t act efficiently, you can lose a lot of performance.”
“If you don’t press the accelerator pedal cleanly, if you don’t repeat things consistently, always the same things, then it becomes difficult at some point,” is the assessment of the Ferrari driver. “Then the speed for the next corner suddenly changes, which changes your braking point, and you constantly have to adjust your references.”
Photo gallery: Silverstone: The driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team
The hybrid engines of the 2026 season have been a topic of discussion since the tests in Barcelona. Drivers often have to subordinate themselves to the efficiency of their battery and often cannot drive instinctively. Depending on how the energy use per lap is timed, small mistakes or lapses in attention can negatively affect the engine’s performance for the rest of the lap.
“That makes it very, very difficult,” Leclerc emphasizes at the end of his explanation. “That was certainly part [of the problem].”
Although Leclerc appears optimistic after the win in Silverstone, the Monegasque remains cautious in the same breath and emphasizes: “That was only one track and I want to reproduce that on other tracks.”
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