Charles Leclerc admits that the build-up to the Canadian Grand Prix has so far been the “worst weekend of my career”, with the Ferrari driver set to start Sunday’s race from P8.
Leclerc has struggled to match team mate Lewis Hamilton in Montreal, starting behind the seven-time World Champion in Saturday’s Sprint and only moving ahead to finish P5 after Hamilton lost momentum in the final chicane having been passed by Oscar Piastri.
The Monegasque driver’s performance dropped even further away during Qualifying, as he struggled to challenge the front runners and finished P8, four tenths behind polesitter, George Russell.”Honestly, it’s one, if not the worst weekend of my career,” said Leclerc post-Qualifying. “Since FP1, I haven’t had one lap where I could feel the car.
“I just felt like I was going to put it into the wall in every single corner I do just because the tyres were completely out of the window today. The brakes yesterday that were not in the window as well. There was never, at any time, something that was just clicking and everything was right.
“But surely Lewis managed to do that throughout Qualifying and I didn’t. I’ll analyse on what I can do to be better in these kinds of conditions to just switch those tyres on, because it’s been really a nightmare so far.”Leclerc currently sits third in the Drivers’ Championship standings this season having taken two podiums from four Grands Prix, with his lowest result coming last time out in Miami after he finished P8.
Leclerc was at a loss to explain why he was struggling in comparison to Hamilton in Canada, who is enjoying one of his strongest weekends so far in 2026.
“It’s strange but it’s the situation I find myself in at the moment and I’ve got to work on that,” added Leclerc.
“We’ll look into everything. Honestly, for now, I just have a very strange feeling with the car so we’ll look into everything. Surely I can do better things, but it just felt very off.”
