Charles Leclerc wants to emerge from the fog after Belgium
The weekends come one after the other but they are not alike for Charles Leclerc. One race the Monegasque finishes on the podium, and the next one he has to fight just to finish in the points. The Ferrari driver reflected on his Belgian weekend and the work that his team must undertake during the summer break.
Starting in first position, Charles Leclerc didn’t have any illusions before the start. The Monegasque driver was fully aware of how he had obtained this pole position and of the gap that separated him from Max Verstappen at the end of qualifying. He knew that keeping the Red Bulls behind him would be an almost impossible mission. This realistic vision of things turned out to be accurate. In the first lap, Sergio Perez easily overtook him on the Kemmel straight. On the 9th lap, it was Verstappen who overtook the young prince of the Scuderia.
Unable to fight for victory, Leclerc had to manage his race calmly and bring his SF-23 back to the podium. An operation that was not guaranteed either. He hadn’t finished ahead of the two Mercedes since the Austrian Grand Prix. Setting a pace that prevented any offensive move from Lewis Hamilton, the British driver gave up any hope of finishing on the podium by stopping at the 43rd lap to go for the fastest lap of the race. And that’s where Ferrari can be proud. They managed to make Mercedes yield, a team that has constantly improved its car since the introduction of their W14 bis in Monaco.
It was important to finish on the podium and it brings a smile to my face. I’m sure it also brings joy to all the guys at the factory to approach the summer break this way. But I’m not completely satisfied because we are still far behind Red Bull.
The source of concern for Ferrari lies in the incomprehension of its car. Whether it is from one race to another or even within the same race. In Spain, Charles Leclerc complained that the same range of tires reacted very differently between two stints. The performance of the red car keeps fluctuating and proves to be quite unpredictable. A real headache for the engineers and drivers because it is almost impossible to pinpoint with certainty the strengths and weaknesses of this SF-23. Frederic Vasseur’s team is currently moving forward in the fog. A lack of visibility that Charles Leclerc wants to get rid of for the second part of the season.
« My confidence is not optimal because our performance can completely change from one weekend to another. When we arrived in Budapest, we thought that the track would suit us better than Spa-Francorchamps, but in the end, the opposite happened. That’s why we absolutely need to understand our car in order to optimize our settings for each race. I’m not worried, but I want to understand. »
Finishing on the podium, Charles Leclerc made a great move in the championship in Belgium. Indeed, this arrival in the top three allows him to take back the fifth position in the championship from George Russell. The Monegasque and the British driver are tied with 99 points each.
