Charles Leclerc reflected on his Silverstone victory but urged that it’s not a guarantee of more wins to come in the 2026 F1 season.
Coming into the Belgian GP, the Monegasque is coming into Belgium on a high. Breaking a string of struggles since his last victory in 2024. However, despite the relief of victory hitting Leclerc, he’s still wary of the future.
“It feels good, and this I cannot hide.” He told the media, including Motorsport Week, “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.”
His warning came as quickly as his excitement. While Ferrari has taken victories in two of the last three races, it hasn’t been without challenge.
At Silverstone, Leclerc found himself under pressure from Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes in the final stages, only finding respite when Antonelli suffered a mechanical issue, which left him dropping through the order.
“At the same time, as I said, it was only on one track, and now I want to reproduce that on different tracks.
“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.”
Still work to be done
Leclerc recognised that he needed to continue working behind the scenes to make wins more consistent with the SF-26.
“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.”
Despite urging that it was ‘only one track’, the Monegasque told the media that he is feeling more comfortable. He looked at Silverstone, seeing the changes that had been made as a step in the right direction for the team.
“On my side, why I felt more comfortable, I already knew at Silverstone what I had changed and what made me feel more comfortable.”
However, there are still steps that Leclerc believed the prancing horses needed to take.
“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. It was still quite a surprising result for us at Silverstone.”
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