Charles Leclerc believes that while there is still performance to unlock, Ferrari has taken a step forward after following up his Silverstone victory with P2 at the 2026 F1 Belgian GP.
The Ferrari driver had a mixed start to his Spa-Francorchamps weekend after taking P3 in FP1 and then finishing P11 in FP2 and P6 in FP3. Later, a strong and surprising Qualifying performance saw him claim P4 for Sunday’s race.
Leclerc ran a bold strategy during the race, making his way up to P2 on the opening lap and remaining near the front before taking the lead as Kimi Antonelli pitted. Ferrari’s decision to stay out eventually paid off, with a Virtual Safety Car allowing Leclerc to pit and retain the lead. Despite coming out ahead of Antonelli, the Italian soon caught up with Leclerc, retaking the lead on lap 34 and finishing 1.952s ahead of Leclerc.
Leclerc on taking P2 at the 2026 Belgian GP
Reflecting on his race during the 2026 F1 Belgian GP post-race press conference, Leclerc shared that he is surprised that Ferrari was able to keep up with Mercedes’ pace.
“Well again, on Thursday, I think we kind of expected to be very far back, maybe to the extent of four tenths, five tenths. And in Qualifying, that was true, but in the race we were a bit closer than what we thought.”
Leclerc continued by expressing how pleased he is with Ferrari’s recent improvement, having claimed her first victory of the season in Silverstone, and now a podium in Spa.
“So, no, it’s been positive. I think on two tracks which, on paper, were very quite bad for us, we won and we finished second, with a little bit of luck, but still, I think it was a good effort for the team. On two tracks that didn’t fit our car particularly well to be scoring good points,” he said.
The results have allowed Leclerc to close in on George Russell, as now just 28 points separate the two in the Drivers’ Standings.
A step in the right direction
Asked how much confidence he will take from Silverstone and Spa, and whether the SF-26 is finally where he wants it to be in terms of speed, Leclerc shared:
“I’m confident to say that I did a step forward. Whether it’s just I’m at the level where I want to perform, not yet, no.
“There are still things in the car that I need to drive around, that I cannot drive completely naturally, and that is slowing me down in some parts of the race. So, there are still things that I’ve got to work on in order to be better. But surely it was a step forward, and for that I’m happy.”
He continued by highlighting the unpredictability of the new cars: “But I’ll continue with the one race at a time approach because, with these cars, it’s very difficult to be confident that if one race weekend goes well, the other one will, because it relies on such small details and what you do with driving it’s never a given that you get the same deployment from one lap to the other and that’s the frustrating bit maybe of these cars.”
Leclerc on his contact with Piastri
Leclerc had several good wheel-to-wheel battles, particularly at the start, where he managed to make his way past Verstappen for P2 and at the end, where he had a tight battle with Antonelli. However, another notable moment came on lap 8 when Leclerc made slight contact with the side of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren at Les Combes.
Describing what the 2026 F1 Belgian GP incident looked like from his perspective, Leclerc briefly said:
“Well, I would prefer to speak about lap one, to be honest, but lap eight was too close. But luckily, it didn’t have any incidents on either my race or his race, so that’s good.”
Deployment issues at Spa-Francorchamps
The Monegasque driver also addressed the deployment issues that clouded George Russell‘s weekend. Russell struggled with straight-line speed and energy deployment in every session, ultimately retiring in the race after contact with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc explained that these issues can often occur with the new power units, even when drivers are doing everything correctly. On Friday, Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vassuer also explained that the circuit’s long straights and high energy demands make deployment particularly complex.
“Well, I don’t know what was the issue of George obviously, but the only thing I can say is that it happens. These power units are so complex that there are some days where you scratch your head on understanding why are you losing so much in the straights,” said Leclerc.
“And that was a bit the case for me on Friday and in FP3, and then in qualifying things went well again by slightly fine-tuning things. It’s just very difficult, but also very frustrating sometimes for a driver because, even when you are doing your best, there are things in the background that changes constantly, and that’s not so nice.”
