Charles Leclerc has shared his thoughts on the energy management requirements at the most power-hungry circuit on the F1 calendar, whether the Ferrari drivers are willing to tow each other, whether Monza would bring back ‘yo-yo racing’, what their secret to success at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps was, and what their focus should be heading into the 2026 Italian GP weekend.
With the Maranello-based squad introducing their second upgraded engine under the ADUO system at Monza, the Monégasque will certainly hope to go toe to toe with the Mercedes and McLaren drivers and secure his third victory on the team’s home turf.
As it stands, Leclerc sits fifth in the Drivers’ standings, 4 and 28 points behind Lando Norris and teammate Lewis Hamilton, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Scuderia currently trail championship leaders Mercedes by 87 points.
How much the energy demands will change at Monza
Speaking in a print media session ahead of the 2026 Italian GP, Charles Leclerc reflected on the energy deployment issues F1 drivers expect to face at Monza due to its uniquely high-speed layout and the presence of very few heavy braking zones.
Stating that the way they drive to harvest and deploy energy will undergo a massive change at Monza, the 28-year-old, nonetheless, referred to the races at Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone and hoped that the 2026 cars would fare better than anticipated in Italy as well.
“The change will be big. I mean it will be very big, seeing the traces, having tried it on the simulator.
“It’s true that if I look at Spa and Silverstone, these were two tracks where the traces and the simulator also made me start the weekend a little bit sceptical about the feeling in the car on those tracks. And it was much better than what I anticipated once on track. So, I hope it will be the same here.”
Leclerc comments on what will impact driving the most at the 2026 Italian GP
Charles Leclerc also noted how the 2026 F1 regulations have cut downforce significantly and pointed out that the teams haven’t resorted to introducing ultra-skinny wings at the Italian GP this season to minimise aerodynamic drag.
Suggesting that the prevalence of active aerodynamics and straight mode have prompted them to use a configuration that’s quite similar to what they brought to the previous rounds, the nine-time race winner surmised that the difference in downforce levels will considerably alter how the cars behave around the 5.793 km circuit.
“On paper, it looks like a very different track to what it was before. There is obviously power in it, that is obvious.
“But what I think will eventually be the biggest difference is that as drivers we have been used with the previous generations of cars to arrive to Monza and to lose 100 points of downforce, because you would obviously take any wings you possibly could on the car. This year we arrived with a very similar car configuration to the rest of the year.
“So, I think that will be probably the biggest difference on a track like this, other than the obvious one, which is the pilot.”
Whether the Ferrari drivers are willing to give each other tows
With regard to a slipstream being extremely beneficial over a flying lap at Monza and how hard it will be to manage the demands of both Ferrari drivers at the 2026 Italian GP, Charles Leclerc stated that they receive priority on a rotating basis.
Although he reckoned that neither driver would compromise their laps in the final segment of qualifying, the Monte Carlo native added that he is open to helping his teammate if he can get a tow from a different driver and optimise his own lap.
“For the slipstream, I think we’ve always had kind of the same philosophy over the years, where one time Lewis [Hamilton] has the priority to kind of choose where he wants to start, and one weekend it’s on me.
“This weekend, Lewis will have the priority, so I guess we’ll go for a slipstream.
“Whether we are going to compromise one qualifying rather than the other, I don’t think that will happen.
“But of course if we can help each other, trying to start the lap at the optimum distance between each other, that will be done. And I will try to find another slipstream off someone else, hoping to put myself in the best possible place.”
Leclerc weighs in on the expected return of ‘yo-yo racing’ at the 2026 Italian GP
Asked whether the Autodromo Nazionale Monza would exacerbate the ‘yo-yo racing’ and drop more drivers into a pack during an ongoing battle, Charles Leclerc admitted that he is unsure how easy the overtakes will be in Sunday’s race.
Mentioning that it’s really tough to make a move stick when several of them are going back and forth constantly, the Ferrari driver, nevertheless, insisted that he would spare no effort to battle through the pack if he found himself in such a situation.
“For the race, that is a very valid point. I think we’ve started to look at it now since quite a few days and trying to understand.
“It’s also very, very difficult to predict because the thing is that once you are in the car, it always looks nice from outside. But the difference is sometimes that much that it’s very difficult to then react to the car in front.
“So, it’s not that you can avoid yo-yo racing if you end up in a situation like this, but we will try to do the best possible job. And yeah, I am trying to do better.”
Secret to success at Silverstone and Spa
In terms of Ferrari faring well at tracks that don’t necessarily suit them on paper and whether the SF-26 simply performs better when there’s an abundance of high-speed corners, Charles Leclerc responded, “No, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
The 28-year-old claimed that the swings in performance depend on how well they manage to optimise their complex 2026 F1 challenger each race weekend. Noting how the new power unit and deployment algorithms have made executing the perfect lap in qualifying trickier than before, he attributed their success in Britain and Belgium to better overall execution.
“I think [with] these cars, there is so much performance in just putting everything in the right place. It’s always been the case in Formula 1; you always want to put things in the right place.
“Let’s say if you had some engine parameters not exactly optimal last year in qualifying, you would lose a few thousandths, maybe one hundredth [of a second]. Now if you don’t have the perfect engine settings for qualifying or for the race, then you could lose 3, 4, 5 tenths.
“And that goes the same with also driving. If we do something slightly different with driving, we struggle.
“And I think that in Silverstone and Spa, we just did a really good job in trying to put those parameters as optimum as possible. And by doing that we ended up winning Silverstone and having a great weekend in Spa.”
Leclerc on what Ferrari’s focus should be for the 2026 Italian GP weekend
Despite appearing cautiously optimistic that the new upgrades would bring them closer to the frontrunners at Monza, Charles Leclerc admitted that tackling the needs of the energy-starved circuit and maximising their race weekend would be pretty challenging to achieve.
“That’s what we will target here, but it is a very difficult task to do. It is also true that we have new parts in the car, which I hope will help us close the gap a little bit to the teams we expect to have the upper hand this weekend.”
With respect to whether the FIA reducing the harvesting limit to 5 MJ per lap would allow drivers to exploit certain loopholes in the corners and mitigate the super clipping issues to a certain extent, the 27-time polesitter maintained that the solution is not straightforward.
While he acknowledged the SF-26’s strengths in the corners, Leclerc also drew attention to how harvesting energy will be more difficult during the 2026 Italian GP weekend since Monza doesn’t have many heavy braking zones.
Nonetheless, the Monégasque proclaimed that Ferrari can secure yet another victory on their home turf as long as they focus on their own performance and execute the race weekend flawlessly.
“There are less corners. We know our car is pretty strong in corners. So, surely there is a bit less margin or freedom to kind of recover what we lose in the straights in corners.
“On paper, it definitely looks like it is going to be a bit more difficult. But at the same time, with this Formula 1 I think everything is possible.
“And if we focus on ourselves and do everything perfectly, I still believe we can come out on top coming Sunday. So that’s really where we should focus.”
