Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Pre-Season Testing

Charles Leclerc warming to "super interesting" 2026 F1 cars

Having been puzzled by the new generation of Formula 1 cars on the Ferrari simulator, Leclerc is starting to appreciate them after testing the SF-26 in the flesh

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc says he is feeling more and more at ease in what he called a "super interesting" 2026 car.

After a first half-day in the Ferrari SF-26 in largely wet conditions on Tuesday, Leclerc got his first outing on a dry Barcelona track on Thursday afternoon and completed 89 laps. In the morning session, team-mate Lewis Hamilton had already completed 85 laps on what was an extremely productive day for the Scuderia.

In July, Leclerc voiced his concerns over how the all-new generation of cars, with a much bigger reliance on electric energy deployment, would have to be driven and managed. Those comments came after trialling an early developmental version of the SF-26 in the Ferrari simulator.

"Let's say it's not the most enjoyable race car I've driven so far, but we are still in a moment where the project is relatively new," the Ferrari driver said. "My hope relies in the fact that it will evolve quite a bit in the next few months, but I think it's no secret that I think the regulations for next year is going to be probably less enjoyable to drive. So yeah, I'm not a big fan of it for now."

But having now driven the real thing, Leclerc's hopes appear to have been justified as he says he has now enjoyed exploring the launch version of the new car, even if he admitted the learning curve is steep.

"It's super interesting," he said. "It's the first day for me in the car in normal conditions, so a lot to learn, a lot to discover and it's a very different car to what we've been driving since I arrived in Formula 1. I take that as a challenge and I actually quite like that everything is new and then there might be an opportunity for us drivers to think outside the box.

"I definitely feel more and more comfortable. It remains an F1 car as well in a way, it's not like I was completely lost when I got back into the car and I was at ease quite quickly. With these new systems and obviously with 50% of the power that comes from the electrical engine, it makes it quite a bit more challenging to manage that, so the learning curve is quite steep. But it's very interesting."

Charles Leclerc: "I actually quite like that that everything is new and then there might be an opportunity for us drivers to think outside the box."

Photo by: Ferrari

Ferrari is back out again on Friday's final day of the week-long shakedown in Spain, with the Monegasque driver saying the Scuderia's checklist is still "massive".

"In terms of performance, I have no idea where we are and it's just a huge question mark. There's nothing that tells me, 'okay, we are more or less here or here'," he said. "But in terms of checklists of the things we wanted to go through, we kind of are on time with our programme, so that's good.

"The checklist is massive, still, so there are still many, many things that we want to test and try differently, whether it's some set-up on the car, some different things or some approaches that we have with this new system."