Leclerc calls for analysis after ‘six-tenths’ deficit prediction falls short for Ferrari

Charles Leclerc has downplayed talk of Ferrari winning at Spa, despite the Scuderia outperforming its own expectations at Silverstone.

Ferrari went into the British Grand Prix predicting that its deficit to Mercedes could double due to the high energy demands of the F1 2026 cars. Instead, Ferrari claimed a double podium with Leclerc taking his first win of the campaign.

Charles Leclerc downplays Ferrari’s Belgian Grand Prix expectations

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Although Ferrari’s SF-26 chassis has been billed as one, if not the best on the grid, with its traction through the slow and medium corners, the power unit has fallen short of the benchmark.

While the FIA’s ADUO [Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities] system has ruled that Red Bull’s internal combustion engine has set the standard in the new regulatory cycle, it is the Mercedes package – engine and chassis – that has topped the timesheet.

Mercedes won the first six Grands Prix before Lewis Hamilton was P1 in Barcelona but reclaimed the top spot in Austria. More of the same was expected at Silverstone, an energy-hungry circuit.

In fact, Hamilton predicted Ferrari’s deficit to Mercedes “could be twice as big” as the Scuderia’s engine was “power-limited” compared to the Mercedes PU.

Ferrari went on to claim its first double podium of the championship with Leclerc taking the win ahead of George Russell, and Hamilton third.

However, it could be argued that Leclerc’s victory was under threat as Kimi Antonelli was closing in on him before a broken wheel shield put paid to the Mercedes driver’s challenge.

With Formula 1 heading to Spa for its next stop, round 10 of the F1 2026 championship, Leclerc concedes Ferrari does not know whether it can build on its “surprise” British Grand Prix victory.

“I think it’s too early to say,” the Monegasque said after his Silverstone win. “I think this weekend was a particularly big surprise for the whole team. Not the win, just the overall performance.

“I mean, we were a lot faster than what we thought, and I think as much as we need to analyse when things are going a lot worse than expected, we also need to analyse when things go a lot better than expected.

“Coming into the weekend, I remember the meetings that we’d done on Thursday and we kind of thought we would be six-tenths, five-tenths off, minimum. Yeah, and we were much better than that, and we actually won.”

Charles Leclerc v Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari F1 2026 scores

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates

Leclerc’s victory, Ferrari’s second in three Grands Prix, saw the Scuderia close the gap to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship to 78 points.

Hamilton, meanwhile, is just 32 points behind Antonelli in the Drivers’ standings, with Leclerc a further 39 points off the pace from his teammate.

Leclerc, though, is not banking on a second successive win bringing him into the title fight.

“I don’t really focus on that,” he said. “I think where I’ll be focusing on is just to try and get that feeling again in the car.

“If I have that feeling in the car, I’m confident that I will extract the maximum out of this car. If I don’t, then it might be more tricky.

“But then the overall result, of course, we are pushing extremely hard as a team in order to fight and challenge Mercedes.

“We were expecting a very difficult weekend here in Silverstone. I think prior to this weekend, we were expecting even more of a difficult weekend in Spa. Considering we obviously won, maybe we are a bit closer than what we initially thought.

“But it’s still to be proven, and for that we also need to understand why was it an outstandingly good weekend compared to our expectations. So, we’ll focus on all that.

“But personally, I won’t be focusing on just winning because that will be the wrong approach. I’ll just focus on the process in order to get the best feeling and to maximise this car.”

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