Charles Leclerc has revealed his mindset heading into the second half of the season after his long victory drought ended at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
eclerc ended a 38-race long victory drought at Silverstone, with a comfortable win from George Russell’s Mercedes in second.
A popular win throughout the paddock, it marks a return to form for the Monegasque after a difficult few races that has seen self-induced retirements and mechanical gremlins impact his campaign.
The win itself was Leclerc’s ninth career victory, drawing him level with Rubens Barrichello in eighth place on Ferrari’s all-time winners’ list, and fittingly arrived at the same Silverstone circuit where the Scuderia claimed its first-ever grand prix win back in 1951
It also marked the team’s 250th victory in Formula 1 history. Leclerc’s drought stretched back to his last win in Austin at the end of 2024, and the manner of Sunday’s victory, controlled from the front for long spells before a late Safety Car sealed it, will have done plenty for a confidence that had visibly dipped in recent races.
But Leclerc’s issues also originate with the driving style required by the 2026 cars, revealing the narrow operating windows for setup confidence.
“These cars are very specific, are very different to the way we’ve been driving since we started racing, and so it takes a bit more time to get used to it,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I was very strong for the first part of the season, then I lost a bit of feeling with the car.”
Charles Leclerc aware of tightrope setup for SF-26
Leclerc then revealed why parts of his 2026 campaign have been so inconsistent, with setup very much to blame.
“We changed quite a few things with the car, and it took a bit more time than I had wished to get back to the level I wanted, and on top of that, we’ve had some issues on the Sunday that cost me quite a lot of points,” he said.
“So altogether, it wasn’t a nice situation to be in, but I’m very happy to get out of this situation in this way. However, as I said, it’s still the beginning. It’s only one race, and I must not get carried away thinking that the war is over.
“I mean, the battle with this car has been quite a lot recently, and I cannot take it for granted that now it’s behind me. So, I’ll keep working and try to get that feeling more often going forward.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur echoed that sense of cautious relief afterwards, praising the wider factory effort that had gone into closing the gap to the front-runners after what he described as a tougher-than-expected weekend on paper.
With the sport heading to Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix in a fortnight, Leclerc will be keen to prove Silverstone was the start of a run rather than an isolated high point, particularly with the SF-26’s setup window still proving unforgiving compared to its rivals.
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