Leclerc reveals why he has visited Ferrari’s factory more often this year than in previous seasons
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has admitted that he has visited the Scuderia’s factory on a more regular basis than in previous seasons, claiming that the technical overhaul for the 2026 season has prompted him to assist to the development work in person.
Ferrari suffered a tough weekend at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix two weeks ago. The Scuderia put in a dominant performance on the opening day of the Baku weekend, with Lewis Hamilton having set the benchmark on Friday ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
However, conditions changed massively for Saturday and so changed Ferrari’s form. Hamilton was not even able to progress into the final qualifying segment after a strategic error from Ferrari while Leclerc suffered a crash on his first hot lap in Q3.
The Monegasque and the Briton had a great start, moving up the order by a few places, but they were unable to climb any higher than P8 and P9 on a track which usually favoured Ferrari’s cars in recent seasons.
Ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix, Leclerc has admitted that he has visited the Scuderia’s factory this year on a more regular basis than in previous seasons, claiming that the technical overhaul for the 2026 season has prompted him to assist to the development work in person.
„Drivers are always pushing back! For sure it increased, and it gets to a point where you have to think at one point it has to affect performance because, at the end of the day, we are athletes. Recovery is important.
„We’ve got more and more races. We’ve got more things to do at the factory, especially on a year like this. I think that’s the year where we feel it the most because you’ve got the new regulations coming with so many new things.
„We are requested at the factory a lot more, plus the sponsorship events, which makes it quite tricky to manage it all. It’s a balance to find. We cannot do what we do as a team without the support of the sponsors, and in those cases you’ve got to give back. So it’s a balance to find, but for sure, on a season like this, it’s tougher than other seasons”
Asked to comment on ’sponsor obligations’, Williams driver Alexander Albon said that the situation might be different between various teams and sponsors.
„Charles answered it really well. Different teams have different obligations, and some sponsors are more demanding than others, depending, up and down the grid. Some teams have different cultures as well towards the approach of performance over the commercial side of the sport.
„As Charles said, as drivers, we always fight for the free time. Our free time is now more and more valuable to us as drivers as well, so we do always try our best to reduce the days. I think that’s fair to say for everyone,” added Albon.
