Arthur Leclerc’s runner-up finish in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup marked a significant step forward in his GT3 career. Growing confidence in the Ferrari and a stronger relationship with his team helped bring him within five points of the title. Speaking to GT REPORT, Leclerc reflects on that progress and the race he’d dearly like to win.
While the Monégasque admits he would’ve preferred to clinch the title, he also takes pride in how far the team has come. Their improvement throughout the seasons gave him a lot of reasons to be encouraged about his future in championship.
“Sprint has been quite positive, even though I’m quite disappointed in the way it ended, obviously,” Leclerc says. “Five points from being champion, so it’s disheartening. But I have to say that we overall did a really big step up from last year,” he points out, rather focussing on the positives.
“Vice-champion is still something that you can be proud of.”
Finding his feet with Ferrari
It’s clear that Leclerc has found his home with AF Corse and Ferrari’s GT3 machinery after making the step from single-seater racing in 2024. He kicked off his first season in Italian GT (Campionato Italiano Gran Turismo) by winning the Endurance title alongside Tommaso Mosca and Giancarlo Fisichella. Asked when he began to feel at home in GT3, Leclerc points to the working relationship he developed with the people around him.
“I have to say, from this year, we are working better and better with the team,” he explains. “Obviously, we know each other well. This year we’ve been doing quite a good job, with the support of Ferrari as well. That is just incredible.”
Adapting to Ferrari’s Evo package was another part of the process. Although the changes were significant, testing before the opening round gave the team the time to understand the car. “Thanks to AF [Corse], we did two days of testing before the season started, so we could take our time and try to do really good job on that aspect.”
For Leclerc, the Sprint Cup results offered encouragement that the work was paying off. His appreciation for the team also makes the missed title particularly frustating. “Everyone is working really well together in the team, which is good to see,” he continues. “It was not enough to clinch the championship, but I really hope [it happens] soon, because they deserve it.
“With the amount of work that we are putting into GT3, I really hope that one day it will pay off for them.”
What Spa 24 Hours taught him
The Endurance Cup proved more difficult this year. Leclerc describes it as a campaign – in which he shared the car with Lilou Wadoux and Sean Galeal – in which finding the necessary pace was a greater challenge.
“It has been tricky,” he says. “We struggled a bit more with the pace and we didn’t secure a lot of points.” The biggest weekend of the season, the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, brought another opportunity to fight near the front.
Leclerc and his teammates have been near the podium for two years in a row, and in 2026 it wasn’t meant to be either. Unfortunately, damage early in the race meant a top-three finish was out of reach.
“It’s been a really eventful race,” Leclerc recalls. “The car was not really intact, let’s say, from the first part of the race onwards, so it has been really tricky. In the end, we all did a good job.
“In the last few hours, in terms of pace, I think we were the fastes car on track, but it was just not enough to clinch a podium,” he concludes. That experiences has shaped how he would approach another attempt.
“There are plently of things to learn for next year,” he says. “Maybe to try to have a bit more of a conservative approach for the first part of the race, to keep the car in as good a shape as possible for the last 12 hours, or last six hours. In the end that’s the most important part of the race.”
Asked which event he mosts want to win, Leclerc needs little time to consider his answer: “The Spa 24 Hours, I think, is the race that I want to win.”
