Charles Leclerc returned to victory with Ferrari at the British Grand Prix, but did the Monegasque driver switch back to Brembo brakes on the SF-26? The truth behind the latest Ferrari brake mystery has now emerged.
Ferrari chose to use Carbon Industrie brake discs from the Japanese Grand Prix with Lewis Hamilton, moving away from Brembo solutions at least in some components. After the Monaco Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc also decided to change direction. Now, following his victory at Silverstone, the question is whether the Monegasque driver went back to the old brake components and whether that was the reason behind his regained pace.
The brake issue has been one of the most discussed Ferrari topics over the last month. Since Barcelona, Charles Leclerc has started an adaptation process that could have taken much longer. In Austria, in particular, there were quite significant difficulties in the braking phase. At Silverstone, however, Charles Leclerc finally found the right balance by changing several crucial aspects that restored the feeling he had previously lost.
So what really happened? Did Charles Leclerc return to using Brembo discs, and were they the reason behind his renewed performance?
Leclerc: “Small details that suit my driving style a little better”
“When I talk about a philosophical change, I am mainly referring to small details that suit my driving style a little better in a specific phase of the corner. I don’t want to go too much into detail. But these are just some things I noticed in the data on Friday evening and I said to myself: ‘Ok, these could be aspects that simply don’t suit my driving style. We changed those few things between the sprint race and qualifying, and the result was definitely much better.’”
According to what was reported by the editorial team of the Italian website AutoRacer.it during a live broadcast, contrary to what some had claimed, Charles Leclerc did not switch back to Brembo. Instead, he continued to use Carbon Industrie brake discs at Silverstone, therefore running the same configuration used in Spain and Austria.
What Charles Leclerc needed was a period of adaptation, and at Silverstone he finally found it, making an important step forward. The Ferrari driver explained in detail, without revealing the true key element, which changes helped him regain confidence.
“I was very proud of the work we did to achieve this result, because I don’t think this kind of change is that obvious. It’s not enough to look at the data and say: ‘My God, ok, this is what we need to change.’ It is a mix of intuition and feeling. Then we tried it, and it was actually a very successful direction for me. I was very happy about it.”
In the end, Charles Leclerc’s Silverstone breakthrough was not the result of a return to Brembo brake discs, but rather of a better understanding of the Carbon Industrie setup and the small setup details that allowed him to reconnect with the Ferrari SF-26. After weeks of doubts, the British Grand Prix gave Ferrari and Charles Leclerc an important answer: the performance was still there, but it needed the right direction to be unlocked.
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