Charles Leclerc changes tone over F1 2026 worries

Charles Leclerc has backtracked on his initial criticism of the 2026 F1 cars after working with Ferrari engineers ahead of the sport's new era.

Earlier this year, Leclerc had his first experience inside the sim at the Maranello factory, which gave him his first taste of what to expect for next year when fresh technical regulations come into play.

The Monegasque driver stated that he was “not a big fan of it for now”, as the new car is set to create a much different way of extracting speed.

This is largely believed to stem from the boost in electric power, which will now be a 50/50 split with the combustion engine.

But having voiced his initial concerns with the car, Leclerc stated he is looking forward to the challenge the new machines will bring.

“I enjoy the challenge of thinking differently,” he told media including RacingNews365.

“From what was a very strange first session on the sim, from that moment it sparked a lot of questions in everybody’s mind at the factory.

“The process of really thinking as a group in what clever ways we can find in order to tackle some issues that we’ll have with next year’s car has been a very interesting process.

“As a driver, it’s also been very interesting because it’s also a lot about our feelings as well, and what are the tools that we need to manage different kinds of situations. 

“But the fighting will be quite critical as well with other cars during the race and all these kinds of things have been a very interesting thinking process.”

The cars will hit the track for the first time at a behind-closed-doors test from Barcelona at the end of January.

Leclerc asserted that he will reserve judgment over their satisfaction to drive for when he is actually behind the wheel.

“For the enjoyable part of driving in itself, I’ll have to wait and drive the real car before saying anything,” he said.

“At the sim, it’s difficult to actually get those feelings. But for sure, there will be a lot more thinking when driving and especially during the race to manage that energy that we’ll have next year.”