​Charles Leclerc believes that the main challenge of 2026 has emerged in attempting to marry his “aggressive” driving style with the demands of the current Formula 1 machinery.The Monegasque said he made a few changes in his approach to the British Grand Prix weekend in order to get the most out of his Ferrari SF-26, which ultimately led to his first grand prix victory of the season – and his first since 2024.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWith both powertrain and chassis regulations having undergone vast changes for this season, the cars have presented the drivers with a very different experience. While the challenge of managing energy has perhaps been the most obvious, with energy deployment having become a significant part of driving this year’s cars, the lower levels of downforce have also necessitated a new approach.Although Leclerc has now matched team-mate Lewis Hamilton on one win apiece this season, he is fractionally behind his more experienced team-mate after the opening third of the 2026 season – and was keen to point out that it was the overall formula behind that, rather than the Ferrari naturally suiting Hamilton more.”I don’t think it’s with the Ferrari itself,” Leclerc said. I think it’s more with this generation of cars. I’ve got quite an aggressive driving style in general.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”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.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”And then there was 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, as I was saying earlier, then it’s always been the case that when I feel good with a car, normally the lap times and the performance comes.”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCharles Leclerc, FerrariLeclerc continued, explaining that there was not necessarily a single breakthrough moment in terms of noticing his struggles – but did spot a smoking gun in a lengthy spell trawling through his data after Silverstone’s spri