Charles Leclerc paying the price of his aggressive driving style with 2026 Formula 1 cars

Leclerc basically owned Hamilton in their first season together as Ferrari teammates in 2025, but the situation changed in 2026 with the seven-time Formula 1 Champion coming back rejuvenated and swinging, taking a maiden win in Red in Barcelona.

Leclerc, on the other hand, has had a tough time in 2026, crashing several times while struggling with breaks, and while Hamilton's resurgence may have rattled the Monegasque, there is another reason behind the struggles.

Hamilton famously did not enjoy the previous ground effect cars, and it seems Leclerc is not enjoying the 2026 Formula 1 machines with their horrendously power-starved power units.

Discussing his troubles, Leclerc said: "I don't think it's with the Ferrari itself. I think it's more with this generation of cars.

"I've got quite an aggressive driving style in general," he pointed out. "I think that has been a strength during my career. But then with these cars, sometimes you've got to be careful not going the other side because then the dip is quite big.

"You can start losing quite a lot of performance power unit-wise if you are not efficient, if you don't go on the throttle in a clean way, if you just don't do things constantly.

"Then it starts becoming a bit tricky because you get into very different issues where your speed into the next corner is different, and that changes your braking point, and you are always re-adapting your references, and it makes it very, very difficult. So, I think there was a little bit of that," he explained.

Leclerc revealed that he made some changes that helped him win the British Grand Prix. He said: "There were just a few things that I just changed in Silverstone to try and fit this generation of cars and to try and help my driving with it. That made it quite a bit, I mean, quite a lot better.

"But as I said in Silverstone, this is something I want to prove on multiple racetracks. I'm very happy with the race win, but it's not only with one race win that now everything is fine and I'm relaxed, so there's a lot of work in order to try and keep that form and keep that feeling, most of all.

"If the feeling is there, then it's always been the case that when I feel good with a car, normally the lap times and the performance comes," Leclerc concluded. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier from Spa-Francorchamps)