Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has revealed how he dealt with the wave of negativity surrounding his team, and why he decided to completely stay away from social media during the most difficult stages of the ongoing 2026 Formula 1 season.
Ferrari has always been accustomed to intense media attention, which usually puts additional pressure on the team and its drivers, especially when results don’t match expectations.
Ferrari received a huge wave of criticism last year, coinciding with the arrival of superstar Lewis Hamilton, before performance improved significantly from the start of the 2026 season.
But team-mate Leclerc has endured a less positive run, especially as the season progressed, as he arrived at his home race in Monaco with high hopes of delivering a good result on a circuit that theoretically appeared well-suited to the red car. Those hopes were shattered by a late-race accident.
The Monegasque’s problems did not stop there, as he endured a disastrous round in Barcelona, where team-mate Hamilton claimed his first victory with Ferrari. Leclerc pointed to hydraulic problems, gearbox issues and brake problems, before also admitting that his poor qualifying result didn’t help.
Appearing on the Beyond The Grid podcast, Leclerc candidly admitted that negative noise hinders the ability to deliver the required performance. He pointed to the negative impact of social media, having decided to avoid it and delete all the applications from his phone so that he could focus entirely on pure performance, away from any distractions.
“It was a very important one because it came into a moment of the season where there were lots of negativity around,” Leclerc said. “And when it's like this, it's always more difficult to perform. I think many drivers are trying to hide or deny the fact that you are not affected or that you are completely isolated from the noise around.
“But you cannot be. In those very difficult moments, I had no social media on my phone. I didn't want to hear about anything. The only thing I wanted to care about was the performance in the car, my feeling in the car, trying to improve that. We've had some issues on the car, which we were trying to solve, which we did then.
“But in that difficult moment, there's a lot of doubts. There are lots of questions raised and you cannot stay completely isolated from it – for the good reason that when you go on Thursday and you do media day, the questions are not always the positive and nice ones that you want to hear. There's, of course, negativity and it's right that it's that way. People question and want to understand why there are struggles. But as a driver, that's the last thing you want to speak of.
“It was tricky to be working in that environment, but I think we did an incredible job because it started in Canada, where it's a track where I always struggle. I've been struggling for the weekend and then you get to Monaco, but I had the hope that Monaco has always been a special track for me. Of course, I'm from there, but it's always been a track where I've been very competitive. And there, the feeling was not good at all from FP1 until the race. Then we have this issue in the race, which costs us a DNF.”
A second consecutive non-score followed at Barcelona, where he crashed in qualifying and had a terminal issue in the race. “So this was like three very, very difficult weekends,” Leclerc said.
“And I feel that when I've had good moments in my career, things are escalating very quickly towards winning the title. And everything is exponentially positive and too positive. But when things go wrong, it goes the same the other way. And so everything was negative around me, around the team. And again, to be working in this environment is difficult.”
But Leclerc’s fortunes changed at Silverstone, a circuit he loves, but one where he was unsure what to expect before putting Ferrari on the top step of the podium.
“On paper, actually, there was a lot of negativities because Silverstone and Spa were going to be the two most difficult race weekends of the first part of the season,” he continued. “So I was like, ‘OK, my God, this is not a great timing for me’. And then we go in FP1 and the feeling is as good as it was in Barcelona in free practice. And then things just unfolded quite naturally.
“And then we won the race.”
Leclerc confirmed that the victory boosted his morale and confidence behind the wheel, as well as his belief in the team’s capabilities, after many disappointments.
He continued: “It was surprising for the negativity around me, but also for the negativity around the team for that particular track layout. And I would say it couldn't come at a better time. It felt extremely good because when you've been working for so long to try and turn a situation around, I mean, we're speaking about three races, but between races there are gaps and at the end it's a month.
“And a month of struggling is something that is not a good feeling!”
