Ferrari's star racer Charles Leclerc is quite positive about his side's future in the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1. Seeing all the work in the background, the recent contract expansion of team principal Fred Vasseur, Leclerc believes things are going in the 'right direction' within the team.
2026 will mark the start of a new era in Formula 1, where cars will be very different as compared to the ongoing ground-effect era. There will be an increased use of battery power, along with an even split between internal combustion engine and electric power. Moreover, the cars will run on 100% sustainable fuels.
In line with what lies ahead for Ferrari and the other 10 teams in 2026, Charles Leclerc, through an interaction with Racingnews365, said:
"Fred is definitely part of it, but the biggest part is to see how the team works. I'm sure we are working in the right direction. Next year will be a big turning point for us as it will be a new era of cars. Whenever you start a new era, if you are not starting it on the right foot, it's always more difficult to come back because other teams are also pushing for upgrades."
"To close the gap is very difficult. We'll have to start that on the right foot and then we'll see. For now, I'm fully dedicated to try and make Ferrari great again and to win races again."
The ongoing season has not gone in Ferrari's favor as of 14 races; Leclerc and co. are yet to amass their first victory.
Charles Leclerc's thoughts after Hungarian Grand Prix
After the Hungarian grand Prix, Charles Leclerc opened up on the technical difficulty. Speaking on the race in the post-race interaction, the Ferrari racer said:
"Unfortunately we had an issue on the chassis, so I don’t have much to add on that. It’s just extremely frustrating when you are fighting for a win and when we had the pace that we had at the beginning of the race, and we lose absolutely everything later on, it’s very frustrating.
"Very disappointed. I don’t take any positives from this weekend when we ended the weekend like that. When we have one opportunity in a year to win a race, we need to take it and today we didn’t. Now we will analyse what are the reasons why we had this problem. I don’t think it’s anything that we had in our control, but we’ll check."
Charles Leclerc is in P5 in the driver's standings with 151 points after 14 races and three sprints. On the other hand, his teammate Lewis Hamilton, is in P6 with 109 points. Ferrari is in P2 in the Constructors' championship with 260 points.