Following the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix, where Scuderia Ferrari achieved a solid podium finish with Charles Leclerc and witnessed a remarkable comeback by Lewis Hamilton who climbed up to seventh place after starting from the pit lane, Ferrari’s team principal Frédéric Vasseur delivered a cautiously optimistic yet encouraging assessment of the team’s overall performance throughout the weekend.
“Overall, it was a positive weekend for us,” Vasseur stated in his post-race comments. “If we compare where we were at the beginning of the weekend to now, the progress has been quite good. We introduced a new upgrade package, which still requires further optimisation, but we already saw strong improvements during the Sprint race. Today, we had a decent race pace on both sides of the garage, and that is crucial to collecting valuable championship points.”
Fred Vasseur praised Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive and strategic race, highlighting his impressive recovery through the field. Hamilton managed to gain eleven positions from his pit lane start. Fred Vasseur explained, “Lewis delivered a great race. He began with a higher downforce setup, which definitely helped him during the wet conditions in the early stages. He was very aggressive at the right moments but then got stuck behind Alexander Albon. We could have spent a lot of time trying to overtake without success. Starting from the pit lane, we chose a different strategy to try to recover positions as quickly as possible.”
The team principal also commented on the delayed race start, which was caused by challenging weather conditions. “There will always be half the grid wanting to wait and the other half wanting to start immediately. As a former driver myself, I understand what it means to have poor visibility at sections like the Kemmel Straight. Race control made the right call by prioritising safety. Visibility was extremely limited, and we do not want to see accidents like those that occurred recently in Formula 2 or at Silverstone.”
Looking ahead with confidence, Fred Vasseur expressed strong belief in Ferrari’s potential to challenge for race victories soon. “McLaren is incredibly fast, but today we were only about three tenths of a second behind on a long circuit like Spa. That represents significant progress, and I truly believe that a race win is within our reach in the near future. Now, we must focus on learning how to better utilise the updated package. Perhaps the next circuit will be more favourable to our car.”
When asked whether Ferrari can establish itself as the second strongest team on the grid, Fred Vasseur responded cautiously but optimistically: “Yesterday, we were just ahead of Red Bull by only three thousandths of a second. The competition is very tight. The battle with Red Bull and Max Verstappen will continue until the end of the season. I believe every race weekend presents us with an opportunity, just like in Monaco. We need to keep gaining those small margins we still lack and build our performance step by step.”
Frédéric Vasseur’s comments underline Ferrari’s steady growth and the team’s commitment to closing the gap to its main rivals, with the expectation that victories will soon follow as they continue to develop and optimise their 2025 Formula 1 package.
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