Charles: “Confident we can continue down this path”

Charles Leclerc was on the panel at the FIA press conference this afternoon, giving his views on this Silverstone track and what Scuderia Ferrari HP’s expectations are for the British Grand Prix. “I think Austria demonstrated that we have made progress as a team, especially in qualifying and we want to continue the positive trend we have seen over the past three or four races,” said the Monegasque. “In recent years we have been pretty competitive at this track and the upgrades introduced in Spielberg could also help here and we hope we can be in the fight for a good result.”

The first half. Charles was asked to sum up how he feels the first half of the season has gone, as Silverstone plays host to the 12th of the 24 rounds this year. “There’s no point denying that, given how we ended the 2024 season, we expected to be more competitive at the start of the year,” he admitted. “However, I believe we have reacted and I hope that the next updates we will introduce on the car will allow us to close the gaps to McLaren and Max Verstappen even more.”

Looking to 2026. Leclerc then moved on to talk about next year’s car. “When I said I didn’t enjoy driving it on the simulator, I wasn’t referring to our car,” he explained. “It was more of a generic remark aimed at the regulations that will come into force. “The 2026 cars will be completely different and for now I’m happy driving these. But if in 2026, I’d be in the running to win the title with the Ferrari then you can be sure I’d love it…”