Charles Leclerc ended a long win drought at the British GP, but assured that he does not intend to draw hasty conclusions about his adaptation to the 2026 Formula 1 cars. The Ferrari driver stated that he still needs to improve and avoided believing that his problems are definitively behind him.
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The victory at Silverstone ended a streak of 38 races without winning, since the 2024 United States GP. The achievement came after a difficult period for the Monegasque, who struggled to find the ideal setup for the Ferrari, while his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, is going through a strong performance phase.
During the season, Leclerc commented several times about his lack of confidence in braking. In search of solutions, he started using the same setup as Hamilton, adopting Carbon Industrie discs with a Brembo set. At Silverstone, the adjustments took effect, allowing him to surpass the seven-time world champion in qualifying and also in the race.
With the result, Leclerc became the first teammate to defeat Hamilton at his home race since Nico Rosberg in 2013. Still, the driver believes that a single weekend is not enough to say that all difficulties have been overcome.
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“These cars are very specific and very different from the way we have been driving since the beginning of our career. That’s why it takes a little longer to adapt,” Leclerc said. He explained that he started the season well, but then lost confidence in the car’s behavior, precisely when Ferrari made several changes to its setup.
The Monegasque also recalled that he faced problems on Sundays’ races, a situation that cost him many points throughout the championship: “We changed many things on the car, and it took longer than I would have liked to get back to the level I was looking for. Besides that, we had some problems on Sundays that made me lose many points,” he added.
Despite the victory, Leclerc emphasized that he intends to keep his feet on the ground: “I’m very happy to have gotten out of this situation this way. But this is just the beginning. It was just one race, and I can’t let myself think that the war is over. My battle with this car has been intense recently, and I can’t consider it guaranteed that all of this is behind me. I will continue working to find this feeling more often from now on,” he concluded.
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