Leclerc shed light on how his "aggressive driving style" compromised his performance in recent races

Amid his recent uncertainty behind the wheel of his SF26, Charles Leclerc delivered one of his strongest qualifying performances of the 2026 Formula 1 season at Silverstone, securing second place on the grid for the British Grand Prix after producing an impressive final lap in Q3.

The Ferrari driver found a significant amount of lap time between his first and second runs in the final qualifying segment, ultimately splitting pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes youngster Andrea Kimi Antonelli. More importantly for Leclerc, however, the session marked a return of the confidence he has been searching for after a difficult spell of races.

Speaking after qualifying, Leclerc admitted that the improvement came simply from extracting more from the car.

"Just by pushing a bit more everywhere. But honestly, I mean, result aside, I'm actually quite happy with exactly what you said, because that normally means that I know where the limit of the car is."

The Monegasque explained that finding extra performance on the final run in Q3 had previously been one of his biggest strengths, but that feeling had disappeared in recent races.

"And then for the second run in Q3, it's always been my strength in the past, where I get to Q3 and I find something extra for the second run in Q3. And I had a bit lost that feeling recently. I've been working very hard to try and get back that feeling."

Saturday's performance gave him confidence that the hard work is beginning to pay off.

"It feels like today this feeling was back, but where I'm focused now is to keep that feeling, because I know how much it relies on fine-tuning and small details. But I feel like today we've done a step forward."

Leclerc also shed light on the difficulties he has experienced throughout the past few weekends, explaining that his naturally aggressive driving style had become much harder to execute with the SF-26.

"I mean, my driving style is quite aggressive, which seemed to work quite well at the beginning of the year. But recently, for one reason or another, it was just incredibly difficult to put things together."

He also revealed that Ferrari had encountered additional car-related issues during several recent events.

"It's true also that we've had two, three races where I was struggling with also some particulars on the car, but even since then it was just very difficult. It wasn't coming as easy is not the word, because it's never easy, but as natural as it should in qualifying."

Ferrari responded by making several setup changes following Friday's Sprint Qualifying and Saturday's Sprint race, changes that immediately helped Leclerc feel more comfortable behind the wheel.

"But today we did quite a few changes from yesterday's Sprint Qualifying and Sprint race, and I felt more at ease."

Despite the encouraging qualifying result, Leclerc stressed that the job is far from over, with the focus now shifting to Sunday's 52-lap Grand Prix.

"But yeah, it's only a small part of the job. Tomorrow we've got a very long race ahead and I'm looking forward to show the progress as well in the race."

Starting alongside Hamilton on the front row, Leclerc knows victory will not come easily, particularly with Antonelli demonstrating impressive pace during the Sprint earlier in the day.

Nevertheless, the Ferrari driver made it clear that fighting for the win is the objective: "I don't know, but I'll do my best. This is definitely the target."

He added: "So then whether we'll manage to do so, I don't know. But surely, I mean, Kimi had incredible pace this morning. So yeah, we'll try and make his life as hard as possible. And if there's the opportunity to win, I hope I can take it."