Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc has opened up about how much confidence boost his recent F1 win has given him, what had contributed to his struggles before the Silverstone breakthrough, the changes he made, whether there was a specific turning point, why Spa-Francorchamps holds special significance for him, and the pecking order heading into the 2026 Belgian GP weekend.
After finishing fifth in the Sprint, the Monégasque driver managed to rediscover his rhythm and put his SF-26 on the front row in qualifying for the British GP.
Leclerc made a swift start on Sunday, getting ahead of Kimi Antonelli off the line. In a chaotic race where the championship leader dropped backwards due to a car issue and Max Verstappen’s crash triggered a late Safety Car, he maintained control throughout the 52-lap event and eventually went on to claim his first victory of the 2026 F1 season.
Leclerc on his confidence level coming to the 2026 Belgian GP
Speaking in the pre-Belgian GP F1 Press Conference on Thursday, Charles Leclerc commented on how much self-assurance his triumph at Silverstone has given him as he gears up for the tenth round of the 2026 campaign at Spa-Francorchamps.
Admitting that he was delighted to see his hard work pay off—given his recent struggles with the car and his lack of feeling in it—the 28-year-old issued caution against complacency and stated that he aims to replicate his British GP result on other tracks on the F1 calendar.
Leclerc also asserted that he can extract performance from his Ferrari as long as he feels confident behind the wheel of the car. Furthermore, he revealed that they have been poring over the data to understand why they had fared better than anticipated at Silverstone and apply that knowledge to other circuits going forward.
“It feels good, and this I cannot hide. Obviously, after the previous races where I was struggling with the car and trying to find a feeling with the car, it feels good to see that the work pays off.
“At the same time, as I said, it was only on one track, and now I want to reproduce that on different tracks.
“So, yes, it felt good. But in terms of confidence, I’m always confident that if I do a good job inside the car, then the results come. If I feel confident with the car and just at ease with the car, the results will follow.
“For that, I need to work, so it’s what I’ve been trying to do in the past few days: to try and understand, first, why we were much better than what we expected at Silverstone, in order to try and reproduce that more often in the future.”
Ferrari yet to understand why they exceeded expectations at Silverstone
In terms of what his realisation has been after the work he has put in on the Ferrari simulator ahead of the Belgian GP, Charles Leclerc disclosed that he had already identified the specific changes that restored his feeling in the SF-26 and resulted in his first win of the 2026 F1 season at Silverstone.
At the same time, the nine-time race winner added that the Italian team would have to dig deeper and clock up more laps to comprehend why they had performed significantly better than expected in the previous round.
“On my side, why I felt more comfortable, I already knew at Silverstone what I had changed and what made me feel more comfortable.
“In terms of overall performance, there are still, I think, some things that we need to dig into more. I think for us to understand them fully, we need a few more laps to try some things. But, yeah, it was still quite a surprising result for us at Silverstone.”
Leclerc on what specifically contributed to his struggles before British GP breakthrough
Asked if his struggles prior to the Silverstone breakthrough had to do with the SF-26 itself or the 2026 technical regulations, Charles Leclerc clarified that his difficulties were somewhat linked to the brand-new generation of cars.
Highlighting how his specific driving style has served him well so far in his F1 career, the Monégasque claimed that the current single-seaters are prone to punishing aggressiveness. Moreover, he touched on the quirks of the new regulations and described how a slight change in throttle input and cornering method can alter the energy deployment going into the next corner.
Leclerc surmised that the necessity to adjust to new reference points constantly had made it quite challenging for him to extract the full potential of the Ferrari in the previous couple of rounds.
“No, I don’t think it’s with the Ferrari itself. I think it’s more with this generation of cars.
“I’ve got quite an aggressive driving style in general. I think that has been a strength during my career, but with these cars, sometimes you’ve got to be careful not to go to the other side because then the dip is quite big and you can start losing quite a lot of performance.
“PU-wise, if you are not efficient, if you don’t go on the throttle in a clean way, if you just don’t do things consistently, always the same, then it starts becoming a bit tricky because you get into very different issues where your speed into the next corner is different.
“That changes your braking point, and you are always readapting your references. It makes it very, very difficult. So, I think there was a little bit of that.”
The changes made
Charles Leclerc further explained that he had only made a few tweaks at Silverstone to ensure his driving style gelled better with the F1 cars in 2026. At the same time, he reiterated that he refuses to rest on his laurels and seeks to corroborate the efficacy of his solution at other tracks as well.
Underlining the hard work it will take to retain his British GP form and new-found confidence in the SF-26, the Ferrari driver proclaimed that he would spare no effort to deliver consistent results in the remaining race weekends of the ongoing campaign.
“Then there were just a few things that I changed at Silverstone to try and fit this generation of cars and to try and help my driving with it. That made it quite a lot better.
“But as I said at Silverstone, this is something I want to prove on multiple race tracks. It’s not only with one race win—and I’m very happy with the race win—but it’s not only with one race win that now everything is fine and I’m relaxed.
“There’s a lot of work in order to try and keep that form and keep that feeling, most of all, because if the feeling is there, as I was saying earlier, it has always been the case that when I feel good with a car, normally the lap times and the performance come.
“So, I’ll just try and work as hard as possible to try and keep that feeling for the rest of the season and on different track layouts.”
Leclerc reveals if there was a specific turning point during the 2026 British GP weekend
With regard to what the actual turning point was in his understanding of the SF-26, Charles Leclerc revealed that an in-depth analysis of data had led to a potential breakthrough on Friday night at Silverstone. While refusing to divulge any details, he underscored how his feeling in the car improved drastically on Saturday afternoon after testing the solution, which entailed changes that were minute but not straightforward.
“It’s very difficult to say because it’s not as easy as there being one moment where you realise everything you’ve done wrong. It’s a lot of work and trying to understand in the data what is making me less comfortable with these cars.
“But there was a moment on Friday night at Silverstone where I saw a detail and I was like, ‘okay, this is very difficult to quantify, but if I happen to change that and make it more to my liking, then my feeling will most likely be a lot better’.
“When I did that on Saturday afternoon, when we could change the car, things were a lot better. So, yeah, that’s a good thing.
“Unfortunately, I cannot give much more detail. I don’t know if it makes much sense to keep trying to explain it without giving the details, because there’s very little sense in what I say that way.
“Just to say that it relies on very fine details, and it’s not as black and white as it might seem. But it was cool to see that it paid off.”
Asked if his turnaround had something to do with braking, Leclerc responded:
“I can’t go into the detail of it. But no, it was a bit of everything, and it was in a particular part of the corner. It was not braking. And I feel better with it.”
Why the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps holds special significance for Leclerc
With respect to what Spa-Francorchamps means to him, Charles Leclerc mentioned that it’s a remarkable track that drivers across the grid enjoy racing at. Additionally, he elaborated that the memories of his maiden F1 win back in 2019 and friend Anthoine Hubert, who had tragically passed away in an F2 crash at the same track the day prior, evoke strong emotions whenever he returns to Belgium.
“It’s a very, very special track. I think it’s a track that we all enjoy as drivers, and surely, I always feel special coming back here, for two reasons.
“One, obviously, for my first win, which is a moment you never forget. But it’s also where I lost a friend of mine, Anthoine. So, whenever I come back here, he’s always somewhere in my mind. For these two reasons, there’s always a particular and special feeling coming here.”
Disclosing that the drivers were sceptical about how the 2026 F1 cars would fare at a power-hungry track like Silverstone, Leclerc conceded that he is still a bit doubtful about the energy management optics during the Belgian GP weekend.
Nonetheless, the 27-time polesitter hoped that the new generation of cars would elicit the familiar feeling of excitement when they hit Spa-Francorchamps—which has long been called a driver’s circuit—this weekend.
“But it’s a track I really enjoy. I’m looking forward to trying it.
“At Silverstone, obviously, with those new cars, we were all very sceptical about how it would feel. I kind of carry a little bit of that feeling on a track like this, hoping that it will be as exciting as it used to be.
“But it was much better than what I expected at Silverstone. So, I hope it will still remain an iconic track even with this new generation of cars.”
Leclerc on who the favourites are for the 2026 Belgian GP
With regard to the pecking order for the 2026 Belgian GP, Charles Leclerc maintained that Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps are two F1 circuits that complement the traits of the W17 pretty well.
Reiterating that Ferrari’s strong showing at Silverstone was a surprising outcome and that they were lucky to have Antonelli out of contention in the latter stages of the race, the Monte Carlo native reckoned that Mercedes are the favourites yet again for the upcoming race.
“No, my position is the same one as I had before Silverstone. For me, Silverstone and Spa are two tracks that will suit Mercedes a lot better.
“However, at Silverstone, it was honestly a surprise for us also to be strong. But we were also lucky on the Sunday because Kimi was probably as strong as what we expected. So, yeah, I think in Spa Mercedes is still the favourite.”
