Charles Leclerc leaves Barcelona with a smile: “Everything went according to plan”. Charles Leclerc reflects positively after completing Ferrari’s Barcelona tests.

Charles Leclerc has brought his Barcelona testing programme to a close. The Ferrari driver set the fastest time in the morning session, completing around 53 laps. He is now waiting for the end of the session, with Lewis Hamilton currently out on track, after which all the data collected over the course of the test will be analysed. While waiting, the Monegasque driver shared his first reflections on the work completed.

The words of Charles Leclerc

“We completed the entire programme we had planned. We pushed a bit more to test the limits of the car. We are satisfied. It was a good shakedown for us, despite the weather conditions and the new aspects of these cars. We have already gained experience in the rain, and that helps if we end up having wet weekends.

“Now Lewis is trying the final items on the agenda and we are fully focused on Bahrain. There is a lot of enthusiasm, not only within Ferrari, but across the whole paddock, to see how drivers and teams will adapt to these new regulations and how they will maximise what is now a completely new package.”

Looking ahead to Sakhir, there will still be work to do, but the overall feeling remains very positive: “Especially from an electrical point of view, which will require much greater management compared to previous years. Before Bahrain, we will analyse all the data we have collected and return to the simulator. It will be important to understand the correlation between the track and the simulator, and whether reality has matched what we saw in simulation,” he concluded.

Charles Leclerc’s successful final session in Barcelona provides a strong morale boost for the Scuderia as they transition from initial systems validation to the search for ultimate performance. By completing his run plan with competitive times and high reliability, the Monegasque has laid a solid foundation for Lewis Hamilton to finalize the week’s work. The focus now shifts to the critical data analysis phase in Maranello, where the team will work to refine the SF-26’s sophisticated energy management systems before the official pre-season tests in Bahrain.