Excerpts from 2026 F1 Belgian GP Post-Race Conference:
Q: Very well done today. Thank you for that. Charles, let’s come to you now. We’ve just had Kimi’s analysis of Ferrari’s pace. Just how close did you think you were to him today?
🆑: Again, on Thursday, I think we kind of expected to be very far back, maybe to the extent of four or five tenths. In qualifying, that was true, but in the race we were a bit closer than we thought. So, it’s been positive. I think on two tracks which, on paper, were quite bad for us, we won and we finished second, with a little bit of luck, but still, I think it was a good effort from the team. On two tracks that didn’t fit our car particularly well, we’ve scored good points.
Q: How much confidence do you take from these last two races? You said after the win at Silverstone, “I’m taking it one race at a time.” Given what’s happened here at Spa, do you think you’ve cracked it? Do you think you’ve now got the car where you want it and can be quick everywhere?
🆑: I’m confident in saying that I made a step forward. Whether I’m at the level where I want to perform, not yet. There are still things in the car that I need to drive around. I cannot drive completely naturally, and that is slowing me down in some parts of the race. So, there are still things that I’ve got to work on in order to be better. But surely it was a step forward, and for that I’m happy. I’ll continue with the one-race-at-a-time approach because, with these cars, it’s very difficult to be confident that if one race weekend goes well, the other one will, because it relies on such small details. With what you do with your driving, it’s never a given that you get the same deployment from one lap to the other, and that’s maybe the frustrating bit about these cars.
Q: There was a lot of good wheel-to-wheel racing today. Kimi talked about lap one. Can I ask you about lap eight? It got pretty close between you and Oscar Piastri. Just your version, please.
🆑: Well, I would prefer to speak about lap one, to be honest, but lap eight was too close. Luckily, it didn’t have any consequences for either my race or his race, so that’s good.
Q: A lot of people think Ferrari could be very strong in Hungary. What’s your take?
🆑: We could be, but we could also not be, and we’ll never know until we go there. I think it’s very difficult to predict the level of performance of every team. I recall very well what the overall feeling was before Monaco, and we arrived in Monaco and were underperforming compared to what everybody thought we would. So, I think we need to be cautious. We just need to do our homework, just like we do at every different track. I think what we did particularly well over these last two weekends was to really make sure that we maximised our package, and that’s the mentality we should keep for Budapest, without thinking about expectations.
Q: (Valentin Khorounzhiy – The Race) Congratulations to all three. A question to all three, but primarily to Kimi. Kimi, George and Toto have been speaking this weekend about a loss of deployment in various parts of the track that they can’t explain through his driving, battery wear or anything like that. It may just be something that happens somewhere in the algorithm. The question to everybody is: have you had that this season? Charles, I think you just referenced doing the same thing every lap and getting a completely different result in terms of deployment. Is that a similar type of thing?
KA: Yeah, it can happen. Being honest, with George this weekend there was a slight loss, and sometimes you just don’t understand. I had the same in Australia, for example. It can be a little bit down to driving, but sometimes the system just does something a little bit different. It’s very complicated, and for the team, you have to appreciate the work, because the system is very complicated. Of course, they’re trying to make things a bit easier, but sometimes it’s hard to get it perfect. Also, with the driving, sometimes, especially on tracks like this that are very energy-demanding, if you start driving differently, then for the system it’s a bit crazy. So, it is tricky. But I have to agree that this weekend, for George, there was a slight issue. I’m sure it will be fixed for Budapest.
🆑: I don’t know what George’s issue was, obviously, but the only thing I can say is that it happens. These power units are so complex that there are some days when you scratch your head trying to understand why you are losing so much on the straights. That was a bit the case for me on Friday and in FP3. Then, in qualifying, things went well again by slightly fine-tuning things. It’s just very difficult, but also very frustrating sometimes for a driver because, even when you are doing your best, there are things in the background that change constantly, and that’s not so nice.
MV: Yeah, I mean, welcome to F1 2026. Sometimes it can be a jungle.
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