Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has opened up about how his tough race unfolded, the impact of the recent misfortunes on his understanding of the SF-26, his set-up direction, the unpredictable pecking order in the 2026 F1 season, the car’s tricky balance, and his strategy following his eighth-place finish at the Austrian GP on Sunday.
After qualifying on the front row, Leclerc started the race on the medium compound. However, suboptimal deployment and lack of pace meant he dropped down to fourth by the end of the second tour around the Red Bull Ring.
The eight-time race winner headed into the pits for the first time on Lap 14. Upon experiencing high tyre degradation, his race, which was initially a two-stopper, turned into a three-stopper with only eleven laps to go. Unfortunately, staying out on the worn-out hard tyres for too long resulted in multiple drivers on fresher rubber overtaking the Monte Carlo native during his third stint.
Leclerc ultimately took the chequered flag in eighth place and now finds himself sixth in the Drivers’ Championship standings.
How recent misfortunes have hampered Leclerc’s understanding of the car
Speaking in the print media pen after the F1 race, Charles Leclerc reflected on how tough the 2026 Austrian GP was for him. Emphasising the lack of overall grip and his struggles to get the tyres into the optimal working window, he admitted that they still have a lot of work to do before he regains his confidence on the track.
Referring to the brake issues he had encountered in Montreal and Monte Carlo, him switching to Carbon Industrie brake discs in Barcelona, his crash in Q3, and the severe hydraulic failure that prompted him to retire from the seventh Grand Prix of the 2026 F1 season, Leclerc also maintained that he is sparing no effort to get on top of his misfortunes.
Furthermore, the 28-year-old surmised that the recent string of mishaps has made it rather difficult for him to determine what he wants from the upgraded SF-26 and that he needs to dig deeper to comprehend his needs.
“Yeah, it was just an incredibly difficult race. Very, very low grip overall, just struggled to have the car and the tyres especially in the right window, especially the rears, just missing a lot of rear grip.
“But yeah, I mean still a lot of work to be done. I think I’ve been working very hard in the past weeks because there was always one reason or another that made me struggle on the Sunday or on the Saturday.
“But at the moment there’s always a reason why there’s a struggle and that probably means that I don’t really have a clear picture of what I want from this car and yeah, I’ve got to find that.”
Leclerc reveals whether car balance impacted their performance at the 2026 Austrian GP
With regard to why he had fared significantly better in qualifying than in the race during the 2026 Austrian GP weekend, Charles Leclerc stated that the set-up choice he felt happy with on Saturday turned out to be the inapt direction for the 71-lap race.
“I might have, now that I’ve done the race, in hindsight of course.
“But yeah, it’s always a bit of a bet, but feeling wise, I thought that was the right direction. Yesterday, I was quite happy with the car, but it wasn’t the right direction today.”
In terms of whether it’s only a matter of oversteer and understeer influencing the swing in performance from qualifying to the race, Leclerc concurred that the balance of the car had a significant impact on how the Ferrari drivers fared on Sunday. At the same time, he reckoned that car characteristics play a bigger role under the new regulations.
Noting how they were quite competitive over a single lap in Spielberg but less so in the race and as a whole, the Monte Carlo native inferred that there were multiple factors that contributed to their struggles on Sunday, including the balance of the SF-26.
“Right, there’s a lot down to that. I think also car characteristics swings a lot the performance this year as well, because this weekend we see we’ve been a lot more on the back foot.
“I mean especially in the race, because in quali we weren’t too bad. But we’ve been less competitive as a whole.
“So yeah, a bit of everything, but probably car balance.”
Leclerc on his set-up direction for the 2026 Austrian GP and performance gap to Hamilton
Asked if his performance in Sunday’s Austrian GP had felt like taking a step back after a big step forward in qualifying, Charles Leclerc agreed with Sky Sports F1’s observation.
The Monégasque revealed that he opted for a set-up choice that had worked really well in last year’s race, where he climbed onto the podium. At the same time, he clarified that this particular set-up was not suitable for this year’s event, which saw his rear tyres overheat and slide around a lot.
“Yes, it’s fair to say that. It was pretty bad today.
“I went into a set-up direction yesterday that was a bit more similar to where I felt good last year, but then this year it was never working. The rear was never there, I was just sliding around, overheating a lot the rear tyres. So, it was very tricky.”
With respect to whether he is now closer to teammate Lewis Hamilton, Leclerc responded that he is not quite there yet.
Stating that the Brit’s solid start and improved track position might’ve assisted him in the early laps, the eight-time race winner pointed out that his teammate was somewhat faster even in clean air.
“That’s a long shot, I think. I mean I have struggled quite a lot today.
“Lewis [Hamilton] got a good start and then got track position which maybe helped a little bit at the beginning, but even when we were in free air I think he had a bit more pace than I did.”
The fluctuations in the pecking order and whether their latest upgrades impacted the set-up
Charles Leclerc also commented on how the pecking order remains unpredictable this season, with teams experiencing extreme swings in momentum from one race weekend to the next.
Adding that these fluctuations in hierarchy have been a trend in recent times in comparison to the past, the 28-year-old cited Ferrari as an example and called attention to how much they had struggled in Spielberg after securing the win in Barcelona.
“No, as a whole, I think it’s difficult to understand the pecking order this year.
“I mean it goes from one extreme to the other, and when there’s a team that seems to be struggling massively in one weekend, the weekend after they seem to be very strong.
“And it’s been a little bit the case recently, in recent years more than in the past, where it was easier to understand the hierarchy. Now it’s very tricky and at the moment, I mean if you compare Barcelona to here, there’s been a big swing of performance for us for sure.”
With regard to whether the latest upgrade package had tripped Ferrari up at the 2026 Austrian GP, Leclerc dismissed the suggestion. He claimed that their upgrades were pretty standard and that they had no effect on the set-up philosophy of the SF-26.
“I don’t think so, because the upgrades we brought were quite straightforward and we knew what to do with it. It’s not the kind of upgrades where you’ve got to change the philosophy of the way you set up the car. So, I don’t think so.”
Leclerc discusses the SF-26’s tricky balance and the strategy for his race in Austria
After a particularly difficult Friday for the Scuderia, the team’s fortunes appeared to have improved on Saturday when Leclerc and Hamilton secured P2 and P3 on the grid. However, the Styrian hills found the Italian outfit on the back foot once again on Sunday as they struggled with tyre degradation in the hot conditions.
Asked how he accounts for the shift in performance through the race weekend when the conditions stayed relatively consistent, Charles Leclerc admitted that Ferrari are also finding it difficult to understand the reason behind their 2026 Austrian GP setback.
Noting that the car’s strong front end was easily manageable for him on low fuel over a single lap, the Monégasque highlighted how weak the rear of the SF-26 had felt in the race and that striking the right balance is quite challenging.
“It’s difficult for us to understand as well.
“I mean Saturday, I think, with low fuel the car was quite nice; the front end was quite strong and I like this. But in the race today the front end stayed strong, but the rear had no rear.
“So, it’s a balance that you have got to find that on this car it’s particularly difficult.”
In terms of whether opting for a slightly different strategy could’ve improved his race, Leclerc remarked that tweaking the duration of his stints wouldn’t have compensated for the lack of pace Ferrari had on Sunday.
“You can always do slightly better with hindsight, but I think whenever the pace is not good whatever strategy you do doesn’t look great.”
