After facing a series of disappointing Qualifying results, Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc seems to have found his rhythm in his SF-26 at the 2026 F1 British GP. The Monegasque driver placed P2 in Qualifying for a second consecutive weekend, once again outpacing teammate Lewis Hamilton, despite struggling to match the Briton’s pace in recent rounds.
The 28-year-old reflected on his strong performance in Qualifying and spoke about understanding his Ferrari at the 2026 F1 British GP. The Monegasque also shared how he adapted his driving style to the needs of his SF-26.
Leclerc pleased by strong outing in Qualifying at the 2026 F1 British GP
The 2026 F1 British GP has been an encouraging weekend for Leclerc thus far, with the Monegasque driver showing flashes of his normal raw pace throughout the weekend.
Leclerc set a lap time of 1:28.286 in his second run of Q3, missing out on pole by a mere 0.175 seconds against pole sitter Kimi Antonelli. He also improved by 0.334s compared to his first run of the session, where he set a lap time of 1:28:620.
When asked where he found the extra time between each run, the 28-year-old shared that he extracted the pace by pushing his SF-26 to its limit.
The eight-time race winner also spoke about how he regained his confidence and reconnected with his Ferrari during Q3. A feeling the Monegasque driver has not felt in recent races, as evident in his lack of pace and performance.
“Oh, just by pushing a bit more everywhere. But honestly, I mean, the result, I’m actually quite happy with exactly what you said, because that normally means that I know where the limit of the car is. And then for the second run in Q3, it’s always been my strength in the past, where I get to Q3, and I find something extra for the second run in Q3. And I had a bit lost that feeling recently. I’ve been working very, very hard to try and get back that feeling. It feels like today was when this feeling was back.”
Ahead of the 2026 F1 British GP, Leclerc hopes to be able to retain the positive momentum but is motivated by the improvement in pace.
“But where I’m focused now is to keep that because I know how much it relies on fine-tuning and small details. But I feel like today we’ve done a step forward.”
How his driving style clashed with the SF-26
Leclerc then shed light on his recent performance deficit and how he overcame it at the 2026 F1 British GP. According to the 28-year-old, his aggressive driving style was well-suited to the earlier iterations of the SF-26.
However, with subsequent upgrades, the car became a bit unstable and inconsistent for him, which clashed with his driving style. As a result, this left the Monegasque feeling uncomfortable in his Ferrari and prevented him from extracting the car’s full potential.
“I mean, my driving style is quite aggressive, which seemed to work quite well at the beginning of the year. But recently, for one reason or another, it was just incredibly difficult to put things together. It’s true also that we’ve had two or three races where I was struggling with also some particulars on the car. But even since then, it was just very difficult. It wasn’t coming as easy, is not the word, because it’s never easy, but as natural as it should in qualifying.”
Impactful set-up changes
Coming into the 2026 F1 British GP, Ferrari made several tweaks to Leclerc’s set-up as he targeted some areas where he could improve. This proved to be highly effective as the weekend progressed. The 28-year-old had initially qualified P4 for the Sprint and finished a place down in P5.
However, after the further set-up adjustments, Leclerc shared that he finally felt comfortable in his SF-26 again, as evident from his impressive performance in Qualifying.
“But today we did quite a few changes from yesterday’s sprint qualifying and sprint race, and I felt more at ease. But yeah, it’s only a small part of the job tomorrow. We’ve got a very long race ahead, and I’m looking forward to show the progress as well in the race. 52 laps tomorrow.”
When asked if he was confident in beating Antonelli starting in pole, Leclerc replied:“I don’t know, but I’ll do my best. This is definitely the target.
“Then whether I will manage to do so, I don’t know. But surely, I mean, Kimi had an incredible pace this morning. So yeah, we’ll try and make his life as hard as possible. And if there’s the opportunity to win, I hope I can take it.”
Ferrari has to remain focused on itself
Leclerc also emphasised that Ferrari’s primary focus during Sunday’s 2026 F1 British GP should be themselves. While he acknowledges that the team must establish clear marks and on-track rivals during the race to craft a successful strategy, the Monegasque laments the race shortcomings in Austria.
Regardless, he remains positive ahead of the 2026 F1 British GP but cautions the team to remain focused on themselves.
“Well, I think really we are very much focused on ourselves. And that is the most important thing we need to do. Then going into the race, of course, you have some kind of targets. And you’ve got to have a clear vision on who you are fighting in order to adapt your strategy around that. I think in Austria, maybe we didn’t do a great job doing that.
“But at the end, I’d rather have that optimistic mentality rather than the other way around. But it’s surely a fine-tuning that we need to do, but yeah. Most of all, I think we shall focus on ourselves, which is the most important.”
What Leclerc changed to regain his confidence in his Ferrari
While Leclerc was unwilling to share the exact changes he made prior to Qualifying at the 2026 F1 British GP, he did speak on the switch in approach regarding his SF-26.
The Monegasque shared that there were two possible approaches he could take to improve his performance. The first was to completely change his driving style to mirror his teammate’s. For the second option, it was to adapt his own aggressive driving style to work around the needs of his Ferrari.
The 28-year-old stuck to the second option and is motivated by the encouraging performance in Qualifying.
“What were those changes, you asked? Oh, I’m not going to say, but it’s honestly it’s not as big as what people think. And it’s just trying to, I had two approaches recently. There was either the one where I just changed my driving style completely and just, yeah, try and reproduce what Lewis is doing because clearly it’s working or keep pushing in my direction and trying to find a way around where the car just fits my driving a little bit better.
“And I went towards the second route, which was to stick with what I know worked in the past and try to find a way around with the car and with every tools that I have available inside the car. So that’s really what we did, and it definitely worked out.”
Leclerc stresses that one qualifying does not define the rest of the season
However, the eight-time race winner also stressed that it had only been one strong outing in Qualifying. While he produced a similar result at the Red Bull Ring, Leclerc revealed that he felt more confident at the 2026 F1 British GP and is encouraged by the results.
“But I still want to stress that it’s only one qualifying session. I mean, in Austria, it wasn’t a bad one either, but I don’t think I had quite a good feeling. This one is different, and it definitely feels better, but my focus now is to stay there and keep improving. And so, yeah, as I said, it’s only a first step.
“That doesn’t mean that from now on it’s going to change my season, but surely it feels good to at least have a qualifying where the feeling is good, where I know where the limit of the car is. I don’t think I had any moments throughout that qualifying because I knew exactly what to expect from the car. And that is a particularly good feeling after the struggles I’ve had recently.”
