Major F1 Driver Going Through Struggles Right Now

The 2026 Formula 1 season has not progressed as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had planned, which has led to several moments of frustration.

The most recent of these moments occurred last weekend in Austria. Leclerc qualified on the front row of the race, and he lined up ahead of Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Yet, he left the circuit with an eighth-place finish, a mere four points, and no closer to finding the source of his struggles.

As he told media members after the Grand Prix, he continues to seek rear grip in his Ferrari. This is an issue that has mostly kept him out of contention for the pole and for wins this season.

“I mean, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Leclerc said, per RacingNews365. “I think I’ve been working very hard in the past few weeks because there has always been one reason or another that’s made me struggle on Sunday or on Saturday.

“But at the moment, there’s always a reason why there’s a struggle, and that probably means I don’t really have a clear picture of what I want from this car. And, yeah, I’ve got to find that.”

The qualifying session in Austria had provided a glimmer of hope for Leclerc, who has not won a Grand Prix since a three-win campaign in 2024. It marked his best starting position of the season, and it put him in a position to gain track position early.

If he could maintain this position, he could be in line for a rebound after back-to-back DNFs in Monte Carlo and Barcelona. He could try to compete for his first podium finish since the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29.

Note: The war between the United States and Iran disrupted the F1 schedule to the point that no events took place in April.

“It’s true in the last two weekends that on Saturdays it was tough but we had the pace I would say,” Leclerc said after qualifying on the front row for the Austrian Grand Prix.

“But then, on the Sundays, we had mechanical problems. We didn’t score points and that kind of stays a bit in the head.

“I cannot lie, since then you have a bit of a mentality of just trying to do a clean lap and having a clean weekend — (to) start to score points again and getting into the rhythm again.

“I feel like I’m leaving a little bit of margin on the table in Qualifying, which is normal after the last few weekends. I just hope I get back to the level of confidence I had before to try and extract more from this car.”

Leclerc will continue to seek answers as the F1 teams head to Silverstone Circuit for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. This is an event in which he has finished on the podium three times in nine starts, but he has not done so since 2021.

These statistics are among the reasons why Polymarket traders are putting Leclerc lower on the list of contenders at Silverstone.

These traders give Leclerc only a 7% chance to win the pole for the Grand Prix. This puts him behind Kimi Antonelli at 39%, George Russell at 30%, Max Verstappen at 13%, and Hamilton at 11%.

The traders also put Leclerc lower on the list of potential race winners. He enters the British Grand Prix weekend with only a 5% chance to win at the Silverstone Circuit for the first time in his career.

For context, Antonelli tops the list at 35% while Russell is second at 27%. Hamilton, a nine-time British Grand Prix winner, enters the weekend at 16%.

The list of other potential winners continues with Verstappen at 14% and defending World Drivers’ Champion Lando Norris at 6%.

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