Charles Leclerc, after the Sprint Race of the Belgian Grand Prix where he finished fourth with his Ferrari SF-25, expressed his frustration and disappointment with the performance of the car. Despite pushing the car to the absolute maximum, the Monegasque driver acknowledged that the team remains far from the pace of the leading competitors, highlighting that there is still a significant amount of work to be done to improve the car’s competitiveness.
The Sprint Race at the Belgian Grand Prix left a bitter taste for Charles Leclerc, who commented on the Ferrari SF-25’s performance with a clear but concerned tone. Even with the best effort and full commitment from both driver and team, the challenges faced by the Ferrari Formula 1 car compared to its direct rivals remain evident.
The Monegasque driver explained after the race, “Even if I had tried to keep Lando Norris behind me, not much would have changed. The situation between me and Lando Norris would have stayed pretty much the same. The mindset for approaching the race on Sunday should probably be a bit different.” Here, Charles Leclerc referred specifically to his duel with Lando Norris and stressed the need to adopt a different strategy and mentality for the main race day.
Ferrari and Charles Leclerc remain distant from the front runners, even when pushing to the absolute limit. The statement that sums up the current technical and competitive struggles came shortly afterwards: “There is a lot of work to do. I pushed the car to the absolute limit, but we are really struggling with the machine. Even when we push to the maximum, we are still far from the other teams and we are not able to fight with them. This means we need to improve a lot more.”
Charles Leclerc’s words lay bare the current reality faced by Scuderia Ferrari: the team’s performance is still insufficient to consistently compete with McLaren and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing. The Ferrari SF-25 is struggling not only with race pace but also with extracting maximum performance in mixed conditions such as those experienced at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Moreover, even the introduction of the new suspension system has not yet managed to reverse the negative trend.
The Maranello-based team is now required to undertake a thorough and detailed analysis of all the data collected during the weekend in preparation for the longer Grand Prix race on Sunday. Spa-Francorchamps remains one of the most unpredictable circuits on the Formula 1 calendar, and if the weather or track conditions change, this could open up new opportunities for Ferrari to capitalize on. However, as Charles Leclerc confirmed, it will be necessary to change the current approach and work meticulously to maximize every single detail to extract the best possible performance.
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