{"id":800918,"date":"2026-07-14T08:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800918\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T08:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:24:15","slug":"how-british-gp-win-might-help-charles-leclerc-massively-in-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800918\/","title":{"rendered":"How British GP win might help Charles Leclerc \u201cmassively\u201d in F1 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A crash in Monaco. A technical fault at Barcelona. A lowly eighth in Austria. Charles Leclerc<\/a> had never endured such a poor run of form since Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s tricky 2020 Formula 1 campaign \u2013 but he ended it in the best possible way at Silverstone.<\/p>\n

Leclerc took the lead at the start in Northamptonshire and dominated the race to claim his first grand prix victory since the 2024 Austin round, though championship leader Kimi Antonelli<\/a>\u2019s challenge was thwarted by a broken wheel shield.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

The contrast could hardly have been starker. Of course, it was even more manifest due to team-mate Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s upturn in form of late \u2013 which the seven-time world champion partly attributed to no longer using the simulator in Maranello \u2013 and Leclerc\u2019s own issues.<\/p>\n

In Monaco, the home hero blamed his crash from third on his brakes \u2013 even though supplier Brembo disagreed<\/a> \u2013 and he suffered another shunt of his own making in Barcelona qualifying before a hydraulics issue took him out of the race as he lay sixth.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At the Red Bull Ring, Leclerc qualified second, but Ferrari lacked race pace \u2013 so did the Monegasque relative to his team-mate \u2013 and he ended up a lowly eighth under the chequered flag.<\/p>\n

So, by the time F1 went to Silverstone, there was talk of Leclerc needing to bounce back \u2013 but team principal Fred Vasseur insists his driver\u2019s performance always looked decent on data and was simply hindered by circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means that you are not putting things together, and the others are scoring points, and you have the feeling that you are losing a little bit the path of this,\u201d Vasseur said after the race. \u201cBut in terms of performance, I was still optimistic with Charles, because we saw that on data that he was there, he was always there on the laps, and it’s paying off today \u2013 or this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key to Leclerc\u2019s improvement was set-up work and a switch to Hamilton\u2019s Carbone Industrie brake discs. Now, Vasseur believes the 28-year-old\u2019s return to victory will provide a substantial gain when it comes to his state of mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the result of today is the best boost of the confidence that he can have at first,\u201d the Frenchman said.<\/p>\n

\"Frederic <\/p>\n

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Sutton \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we are developing the car from the beginning of the season, we need to readjust the set-up each time. On top [of that], Charles had a change of brakes a couple of races ago. We [had] to reshape a little bit everything. But it was not just a matter of performance, performance was there. I think it was more a matter of confidence. And this will help him massively today.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe found the confidence that each step of set-up is not making a proper difference in terms of lap time, but sometimes it’s giving them confidence to push a bit more. And for race pace it’s crucial that today he was very consistent all over the race. If you have a look at the first 20 laps, he was [within] one or two tenths. And it was a key for us to win the fight with Antonelli.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Leclerc wouldn\u2019t delve into how exactly the set-up was fine-tuned, explaining it was \u201csmall details that just fit my driving a little bit better in a particular phase of the corner\u201d. Those specific tweaks were made after the Silverstone sprint race, where Leclerc finished fifth after losing three places on lap one, and gave him more confidence in the SF-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a lot better,\u201d he continued. \u201cI was very proud of the work we’ve done to see that because I think this kind of change is not really so black and white. You just don’t look at data and say, \u2018My God, OK, this is what we need to change\u2019. It’s intuition mixed with feeling. Then we went for it and it was actually a very successful direction for me. I was very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Not just happy, but relieved, after the previous few weeks cast doubt on his previously irrefutable status as Ferrari\u2019s best-performing driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cIt means a lot because when things get tough\u00a0\u2013 and that’s literally the situation I’ve been in the last few races\u00a0\u2013 obviously there’s a lot of negativity around me in general, with narratives being created, and it’s never a nice environment to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if that fuelled him to prove things wrong, however, he pondered: \u201cWell, I don’t know if it fuels me. Honestly, I think anybody that says that would lie. I think whenever there’s so much negativity around, it’s not something so nice to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no, I mean, you try to cancel the noise as much as possible. I try to not look at my phone and focus on what is relevant and in order to also have the right picture of the situation, because things are said and you go from hero to zero, from zero to hero, in like two days in this sport, and so it can influence then the way you see a situation.<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: James Sutton \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSo no, my job was really to just try and cancel that noise, to not look at anything, to not listen to anything. And I know that I didn’t become a bad driver from one day to the other. It was just a matter of finding that feeling with the car. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very strong for the first part of the season, then I lost a bit of feeling with the car. We changed quite a few things with the car and it took a bit more time than what I had wished to get back to the level I wanted. And on top of that, we’ve had some issues on Sundays that cost me quite a lot of points.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo altogether, it wasn’t a nice situation to be in, but I’m very happy to get out of this situation in this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, 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 ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spa-Francorchamps, where Leclerc took his maiden Formula 1 victory on a grim weekend in 2019, will be a first opportunity to confirm whether his return to form is genuine.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A crash in Monaco. A technical fault at Barcelona. A lowly eighth in Austria. Charles Leclerc had never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[3272,49,48,3025,578,930,576,577,281975,13813,82],"class_list":["post-800918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-belgian-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-how-british-gp-win-might-help-charles-leclerc-u201cmassivelyu201d-in-f1-2026","tag-spa-francorchamps","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}