Leclerc "positively surprised" by "more strategic" racing with 2026 cars

Charles Leclerc enjoyed the “more strategic” early battle with George Russell in Australia, but warns "overtaking might be quite a bit more difficult" as the 2026 Formula 1 season progresses.

In Melbourne, Charles Leclerc grabbed the lead at the start before swapping the lead several times with George Russell as they deployed and then ran short of energy at different points on the track.

But the racing was criticised by some drivers and fans on social media for being too artificial.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Leclerc spoke of his enjoyment of the battle, but cautioned that as teams and drivers learn more about how to operate the new cars and power units, the racing might not quite be so entertaining.

“I think that this first race we did quite a good job, actually, on our side,” he said. “However, probably the other teams will optimise a little bit more the way they managed those first few laps.

“I think whenever George was actually overtaking me, he was ending up with very low battery levels. And so I would overtake back.

“Going forward in the season, I expect it to be quite a bit better, and then it will be important to also see what the situation is like once this happens, because overtaking might be quite a bit more difficult once everybody optimises that.

“But if it stays like that, I'm quite happy as well, because I thought it was quite enjoyable. I was actually quite positively surprised by the first few laps with George, because I enjoyed that battle.

“It's a bit more strategic than what it used to be in the past, where it was more who was braking later kind of battles. Now it was a little bit less that – more strategic. But I enjoyed it more than what I what I thought.”

Asked to expand on what it was like in the cockpit he confirmed that when using energy he had to think ahead about what the result might be further around the lap.

"Well, it's all about anticipating much more than what it was in the past. In the past, you could take quite a lot of risk and make an overtake work. Now, there's always, ‘If I have this action now, what will happen in the next straight or in two straights time?’

“Because if you use the energy, then you have, you are paying a lot the price in one or two straight's time. And it's not a straight loss at that time, but it's later on.

“And these are all things that are always in your mind, and you need to always weigh while driving, whether the overtake that you will do now will penalise you more, whether you will be able to keep that position later on.

"So without going too much into the detail, that's what we think of.”

Drivers still optimising race strategies with new power units

Leclerc also noted that drivers are still learning about what they need to know from the teams in order to optimise those strategic calls during races.

“I think also drivers have very different information inside the car at the moment, because we are all experiencing a little bit what we want as drivers.

"And I think the more time will go on, the more we will have clear ideas on what we need and want in the car in order to take the best the best decisions.

“But at the moment, there's a lot of space for intuition, which creates scenarios like we've seen at the beginning of the race, where it's quite a big yo-yo effect.”

Looking ahead to this weekend's first sprint weekend of the campaign, Leclerc anticipates that Mercedes will still have the advantage over the rest of the field.

“I think the picture will stay relatively the same in qualifying,” he said. “I don't expect us to be at their level just yet.

“For sure, we'll be closer, because in Melbourne, we did many things that we haven't optimised, and there was quite a bit of lap time in that. But we are definitely not on their level. In the race I think it will be closer.”