Charles Leclerc: “I don’t expect us to be competitive. Silverstone and Spa don’t suit us”. Charles Leclerc explains why Silverstone could be another tough test for Ferrari.

Charles Leclerc has tempered expectations ahead of the British Grand Prix, admitting that Ferrari is unlikely to be among the most competitive teams at Silverstone. The Monegasque believes the characteristics of both Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps are not ideally suited to the SF-26, with the car’s lack of straight-line speed expected to remain a major handicap.

Charles Leclerc not optimistic about Silverstone

Charles Leclerc arrives at Silverstone determined to bounce back after a frustrating weekend in Austria. While his qualifying performance at the Red Bull Ring was encouraging, he acknowledged that it had been helped by Max Verstappen’s incident at the end of Q3. During the race, however, the Ferrari driver struggled throughout, unable to find either the pace or the confidence under braking needed to fight at the front.

If Ferrari has managed to reduce some of the braking issues that affected the Austrian Grand Prix, the British circuit could instead expose what remains the SF-26’s biggest weakness: its lack of top speed. Like his teammate Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc is approaching not only Silverstone but also Spa-Francorchamps with limited optimism, believing that both tracks are likely to highlight the car’s current limitations.

Charles Leclerc’s comments

“It’s not a weekend where we expect to be particularly competitive, for the same reasons as Austria. There are many more straights here and not many corners where we can recover energy, so I’m expecting a difficult weekend for us. Unfortunately, on paper, the next two race weekends are not very favourable for our car, but we’ll do our best,” commented the Ferrari driver.

“Saturday in Austria was much better, but on Sunday in the race we weren’t as competitive, and I also struggled with certain aspects myself. So I just keep working, keep my head down, and hopefully better days will come.”

Speaking about his recent struggles, Charles Leclerc added: “This is definitely not the level of performance I’m aiming for. I arrived at the track very early this morning because, over the last few days, I’ve basically done nothing but study the data. I’m not satisfied.

“That said, I don’t think it’s right to generalise the situation because of the new regulations, since I wasn’t struggling at the beginning of the season. The reality is that we haven’t had the stability that’s needed to build momentum throughout the year. We’ve made some fairly significant changes to the car, and now I need to adapt to them as quickly as possible.”