SILVERSTONE, UK — George Russell hesitated as he walked into the news conference after the British Grand Prix.“Am I on the left or the right?” he asked the MC, pointing at the sofa which has designated positions for the top three finishers.In the middle was a satisfied Charles Leclerc, legs outstretched and shoulders leaning back. He’d just won the British Grand Prix.“I don’t have to think about it!” the Ferrari driver said with a grin, the faux smugness in his voice eliciting a laugh from the room. Center spot is always reserved for the race winner.“It’s been a long time, mate, longer than you!” Leclerc chuckled to Russell, as the Mercedes driver sat to his right. Not since October 2024 had Leclerc won a grand prix. That was the United States GP 624 days ago, as many journalists in the TV pen in the paddock had reminded him.But, at last, he was back on top, winning in style at Silverstone to tear up the script of a season that had recently delivered some unpleasant plot twists to the Monegasque driver.“When things get tough, and that’s the situation I’ve been in the last few races, there’s a lot of negativity around me in general. With narratives being created, it’s never a nice environment to work in,” Leclerc explained.Negative narratives? Around someone upon whom Ferrari, the sport’s most famous and successful team, has invested so much of its hope on future championship glory and recently handed a new contract to? The man whose nickname in Italy, “Il Predestinato,” translates as “the chosen one”?Yes. Because as Lewis Hamilton recovered from his miserable first year in red in 2025 to finally grab a breakthrough win in Barcelona and thrust himself into the championship conversation, Leclerc had struggled.He had not stood on the podium since Japan at the end of March, and failed to finish two of the last three races.There’d been struggles with his brakes, most notably in Monaco, that prompted him to change brake materials from Barcelona, where he then crashed in qualifying before he suffered a hydraulic problem in the race.In Austria, last Sunday, he’d faded from starting second on the grid to finish a distant eighth at the flag.It all cut a stark contrast to Leclerc’s story last year, where his impressive form regularly provided bright spots in an otherwise winless, difficult season for the team.Charles Leclerc celebrates after winning the British GP. (Sona Maleterova / Getty Images)These themes were ever present as the Silverstone weekend started.Hamilton looked the more likely Ferrari driver to trouble world championship leader Kimi Antonelli at the front, taking the sprint pole on Friday evening and then finishing second in the 17-lap race on Saturday, three places ahead of Leclerc.Even then, things still weren’t clicking for Leclerc as he openly admitted he wasn’t maximizing the SF-26’s pace. The confidence that once flowed so naturally simply wasn’t there. He lacked feeling, and needed answers to find it again.On Friday night after sprint qualifying, Leclerc pored over the data from the session with his engineers. He noticed several elements that didn’t seem to fit with his driving style. Translating telemetry traces and lines on a screen into physical changes within the cockpit and setup tweaks on the car is no easy task.“You just don’t look at data and say this is what we need to change,” Leclerc said. “It’s intuition mixed with feeling. We went for it, and it was actually a very successful direction for me.”This change sparked Leclerc into grabbing second on the grid for Sunday’s race behind Antonelli, before he nailed the start to instantly take the lead. With Hamilton, who was penalized five seconds due to a false start that did not even register on Ferrari’s sensors, as his rear gunner, he was able to create a buffer to Antonelli through the opening stint.Leclerc’s hopes of victory were rising, but Mercedes was nevertheless the quicker car, especially once Antonelli had passed Hamilton.Both leaders were executing one-stop strategies, but Antonelli stayed out 10 laps longer than Leclerc, giving him a bigger tire performance offset for the final stint that then allowed him to quickly bear down on the Ferrari driver as the laps ticked down.Without the wheel shield issue that halted Antonelli’s charge, Ferrari calculated Leclerc would’ve been overhauled just a few laps from the finish.“We’ve been a little bit lucky on that,” said Leclerc. “But we also need that sometimes.”Charles Leclerc leads Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli in the early stages of the British GP. (Andrej Isakovic / AFP / Getty Images)Unlike the 2021 British GP, where Leclerc was denied the win by a charging Hamilton in the closing stages of the race, leaving him crestfallen, there’d be no sting in the tail this time around.The late safety car period due to Max Verstappen’s crash at the Stowe turn set up a potential last-lap shootout, but the safety car ended up leading the field home after notice of its withdrawal turned out to have been issued in error, according to the FIA.Leclerc deserved the win. His performance was dominant, as he ran more than 20 seconds ahead of Hamilton before the safety car bunched the field. It was the perfect response to the recent criticism he said had been impossible to avoid.“Whenever there’s so much negativity around, it’s not something nice to see,” Leclerc said. “I try to not look at my phone and focus on what is relevant, and also to have the right picture of the situation.“Because things are said, and you go from hero to zero, to zero to hero in like two days in this sport. It can influence the way you see a situation.”But among Leclerc’s many qualities that make him stand out as one of the best drivers of his generation, his response to adversity has long been admired within the paddock.“I remember being in front of him for a few races, beating him for three or four weekends in a row, he would always recover and fight back,” said Carlos Sainz, Leclerc’s former teammate at Ferrari.“It’s a very good (characteristic) — that he’s capable of finding solutions.”Leclerc’s team principal, Fred Vasseur, said post-race he was never too concerned about his driver’s form, saying the data showed he was “always there” with his performance, even if that did not show in terms of points.But Vasseur acknowledged the victory could do a lot for the rest of Leclerc’s season. “Today’s result is the best boost of confidence that he can have,” Vasseur said.There’d been the technical adjustments required, syncing Leclerc’s driving habits and preferences with the performance upgrades Ferrari had brought to its car, as well as the change in brake materials. It all added up, Vasseur said.“It was not a matter of performance, (the) performance was there,” said Vasseur. “I think it was more a matter of confidence.”The Ferrari team celebrates its 250th race victory after the British GP. (Clive Rose / Getty Images)Silverstone was a big win not just for Leclerc, but also for Ferrari.Not only was it a second defeat of Mercedes this year — especially on a track where engine performance, thought to be Ferrari’s main deficit, is key — but it was also the team’s 250th F1 victory.And it surely rekindles thoughts of a title tilt that, after the bleak showing in Austria last weekend, had seemed fanciful.But Leclerc didn’t want to get carried away, stressing the result was simply a “first step.” He now needs to prove he can put in this kind of drive on other track layouts with the new style of car.“It’s still at the beginning,” he said. “It’s only one race, and I must not get carried away thinking that the war is over. The battle with this car has been quite a lot recently. I cannot take it for granted that now it’s behind me.”Vasseur was on the same page, pointing out to the reporters in Ferrari’s hospitality unit there had been a swing from Ferrari supposedly being back in the title hunt after Barcelona to being “nowhere” after Austria.“I’m just focused on doing more, and to do it better,” said Vasseur. “It’s true for me, it’s true for everybody at the factory. It’s your job (as journalists) to speak about championship and so on, but I never did.”Leclerc may want to wait until the next race at Spa in Belgium on July 19 to know if he has cracked the code of this year’s car. But as he celebrated with the team in the pit lane after the race and was greeted by Ferrari’s chairman, John Elkann, with a big hug, there was also a sense of relief.Be it on the top step of the podium with a trophy in his grasp or sitting in the middle spot on the news conference sofa, Leclerc has got back to where he wanted.“Il Predestinato” has still got it.