The fourth place obtained by Charles Leclerc, which then became a podium after the stewards decision regarding George Russell’s car being found underweight during checks, has left an opposite atmosphere in the Ferrari camp.
On one hand, Charles Leclerc said he was disappointed because he expected at least to have the pace to fight with the Mercedes cars, while on the other hand, Frederic Vasseur is optimistic about the result today, even though on the track they did not even reach the podium despite starting from pole. The most disappointing aspect is that among the top three finishers, there was only one potentially faster car, Oscar Piastri’s: while it is true that George Russell surprised everyone with his one-stop strategy, the fact that they could not compete with Lewis Hamilton is the aspect that weighed the most in a race from which Charles Leclerc himself expected more.
On Friday, Ferrari seemed in the running for the podium, but the changes made by Mercedes overnight from Friday to Saturday paid off, helping the drivers achieve a win within reach with both of its drivers. Indeed, beyond Russell’s surprise, Hamilton led the race after taking the lead in the early laps, always managing to maintain a safety margin.
However, Fred Vasseur is satisfied with the pace shown, especially in the first two stints, during which Leclerc contended for the victory longer, staying within three seconds of the gap. A gap that would have clearly made it difficult to come up with something in the last stint without a pace advantage, but still not so large after more than half the race. The fact is that throughout the Grand Prix, those tenths were missing to keep the first position gained on Saturday.
“Maximum result I don’t know, but in terms of performance, it was a good race. We were all surprised by the very low degradation of the hard tires and the very high consumption of the mediums. I think Russell did the perfect strategy, I don’t know if it was intentional, but in the end, we all finished within ten seconds,” commented the Team Principal of Ferrari at the end of the race to Sky Italia.
“Everyone had huge degradation on the mediums, except for the first laps because we were managing, but when we had to push on the mediums, like Perez in the second stint, we pushed and came back to the pits. At the beginning of the race, everyone manages a bit more, and the situation seems better than reality.” = the French manager pointed out.
Only in the last part of the race did the gap increase significantly, rising to almost eight seconds at the end, but this was also weighed down by two other factors, namely the overtaking by Oscar Piastri and having to defend at the end from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris: “It is more a question of how you push and manage the stint. The degradation probably surprised us a bit, then you focus on defending from your opponents, perhaps using the energy differently. But the pace was consistent throughout the stint. Maybe you lose a few tenths due to ongoing battles, but it wasn’t so much due to degradation,” added Fred Vasseur.
Beyond the final result, which sees Mercedes achieve the victory, Frederic Vasseur repeats that he is satisfied with Charles Leclerc’s performance: “I would have preferred us to make the double rather than finish fourth, but in terms of performance, we found a good pace. Now it’s a matter of a couple of tenths, we have to put everything together from the next race.”
On this last point, Frederic Vasseur reviewed the first part of the 2024 Formula 1 season with what should be the goals for the second part of the championship. The bouncing problem has been somewhat contained compared to what was seen in the Spain-Austria-Great Britain trio, a sign that the updates brought to Budapest have somehow helped to reduce the problem, even if it has not been completely eliminated. Ferrari’s hope is that the new updates coming in the second part of the championship will allow them to make a small but crucial step forward to put the SF-24 in the fight to seize opportunities like today.
“For now, if we make a comparison with twelve months ago, we have made a good step forward. Moreover, we have four teams now fighting for podiums and victories, which is positive for the championship. Everything is open for the second part of the season because even making a small leap forward of one or two tenths can make a big difference,” said the Team Principal at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix at the 7.004-kilometre Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
