Charles Leclerc says he’s ‘finding the fun in a different way’ with Formula 1’s 2026-spec machinery.
The world championship has introduced new chassis and engine regulations for the upcoming season, which has drastically changed the required driving style – as racers turn to lift-and-coast as well as downshifting in order to harvest and save energy – and increased the mental workload behind the wheel.
F1’s new cars have received a mixed reception at best, with Max Verstappen branding them “anti-racing” and “a bit more like Formula E on steroids”. Leclerc can’t help but admit it: “It’s not the funniest car.
“I mean, it’s not the most fun I’ve had driving a car, but it’s the way it is. And I find the fun in a different way.
“I think the challenge of really developing this whole new system is, in itself, something that I’ve enjoyed, and something that I find very interesting. In that, I kind of find some fun into just experiencing different things, and things that might have not worked in the past.
“But now that it’s all different, it’s cool to be able to think a bit outside the box, and to try and find other ways in trying to maximise the performance of the car. But the actual pleasure of driving the car is different.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Ferrari
Pleasure-wise, the Ferrari driver has praised the lighter, nimbler cars, which better suit his preferred “oversteery” driving style; the reduced weight is the aspect he has been enjoying the most.
“The weight, you can definitely feel it,” Leclerc pointed out. “The car is a little bit more alive, and the balance, you can play with the car a lot more and you can have a very snappy rear. Last year, I remember, with the weight it was a little bit more difficult to manage that. I’ve always liked oversteery cars, but with these cars, I feel like you can go a bit more extreme with them.”
But this will be overshadowed by the substantial amount of required energy management, which prompted the aforementioned comments from Verstappen – and more from other drivers.
“There’s a little bit less of attack, which is what I loved with previous F1 cars,” Leclerc acknowledged.
“As F1 drivers in general, you always have to adapt and to change your driving style. This year is more of a change than we’ve been used to in the past. The percentage of driving is a little bit less. Now it’s more about thinking about everything else that you’ve got to think of when you are in the car to maximise all the systems around you. So you’ve just got to think actively a lot more compared to in the past.
“We are all fighting to try and put the load more on the system rather than the driver. It’s different across the paddock for sure, and we’ve all had different approaches in… what I need as a driver and what I would prefer not to have my head on because it’s just too difficult to optimise as a human being, not having all the senses that the car might have. So it’s a balance, but it’s interesting because it’s a process we are definitely quite involved in.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
As far as overtaking is concerned, Leclerc has joined the overall consensus that it might be trickier, as the power unit’s Overtake Mode replaces DRS – but as Pierre Gasly pointed out, what used to be “seven tenths for free” will now come at a cost energy-wise.
Asked by Motorsport if he had a chance to find out more on overtaking during testing, Leclerc replied: “We’ve checked it and I kind of share what my colleagues have said. I find it, at the moment, extremely difficult to get any overtakes, but it might improve with time in how we manage this kind of situations – but it always comes with a price whenever you’ve got to overtake, and the price is a lot more costly than it was in the past. That’s why I think it’s very difficult to make an overtake and then pull away like it was the case last year. That’s tricky.”
All in all, Leclerc is openly expecting havoc to be wrought – especially at the start of the race, as the removal of the MGU-H on the new power units makes it trickier for drivers to find the right operational window at lights out.
“Yes, I expect some chaos,” he admitted. “As we were just saying, overtaking is going to be a big challenge. I think there are still many question marks. Yes, we try to simulate as many situations as possible, but nothing will simulate just the unpredictability that you find yourself in when there’s a race start. You are not anymore in control of your line, of the way you drive, of your speed traces, because you are a bit in your enemy’s hands, but it’s the same for everybody.
“Again, there are lots of question marks, and I think the start is one of those as well. We are working a lot on that, just like everybody is, but it’s one of those very critical moments of a race, and there might be some surprising things in the first start of the season.”
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