Charles Leclerc: Madrid qualifying to be "one of the most challenging" in F1 2026

The Madring is making its debut this weekend as host of the Spanish GP

Charles Leclerc reckons qualifying at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will be “one of the most challenging” of the 2026 Formula 1 season as drivers adapt to the new Madrid circuit.

The Madring has replaced Barcelona as the host of the Spanish Grand Prix and it is a high-commitment street circuit featuring 22 corners, including the 13.5-degree banked La Monumental curve.

Several drivers have spoken positively about the track after Friday practice, but the paddock is eagerly awaiting qualifying with George Russell labelling it as a “very high risk circuit”.

Leclerc, meanwhile, said: “The track is very exciting. It's very exciting, it's very challenging, and it's a street track as well.

“So these are the tracks that I normally quite enjoy, and there's no exception to that. It was really nice to be driving on this new track.

“There's still a lot of work to be done, and I expect it to be one of the most challenging qualifying sessions of the year, being such a commitment track.”

What happens on Saturday is therefore expected to be of more importance than many other circuits due to Madrid’s tight nature and combined brake-and-turn corners.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Madring

“Qualifying is for sure going to be the key moment of the weekend,” Leclerc added, “because particularly in FP2, I tried to overtake, but even with the large pace delta, it was extremely difficult or impossible to overtake.

“So most of the performance this weekend will be based on the qualifying.”

It remains to be seen how Leclerc will fare though after he respectively finished third and second in FP1 and FP2, 0.459s and 0.113s off Mercedes pacesetters Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

“The feeling was pretty good, but it's true that Mercedes seems to be strong,” said the Ferrari driver.

“However, we don't really focus on what P1 says today [Friday], because we don't know what the others are doing with their run plan for us.

“It was all about trying to maximise laps on the new track, to try and make sure that we have as many data as we want, and for us to be also at ease with the track coming tomorrow in qualifying.

“But I think we did a good work today, and we'll see tomorrow in qualifying.”