Charles Leclerc will start the Belgian Grand Prix from the seventh row on Sunday after the troubled Scuderia Ferrari team suffered with further poor performances during Saturday’s Qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Monegasque racer, a winner at Spa-Francorchamps twelve months ago in what was his first Formula 1 victory, admitted that both he and team-mate Sebastian Vettel are suffering in what he describes as ‘tough times’ for Ferrari, with the duo ending thirteenth and fourteenth respectively in Qualfiying.
Leclerc felt he did as much as he could in Qualifying and expects a tough race as well, although he hopes to be able to maximise his performance and break into the top ten for the first time this weekend.
“I think my final was ok and that P13 and P14 was the best we could do today,” said Leclerc. “We managed to improve the car balance since yesterday, but unfortunately we didn’t find the performance we were hoping for there.
“The race will be tough but I’m always optimistic. Hopefully, with a strong start, the right strategy, and good tyre management, we will be able to fight for some points.
“These are tough times for all of us, including everyone who is supporting us watching from home, and I will give my all to bring home the best possible result tomorrow for them. It’s important for everyone in our team to keep their heads up and stay motivated.
“Together we will work hard to find the cause of the issue we are having and address it.”
“I think today’s result reflects our real level on a track like this” – Sebastian Vettel
Team-mate Vettel was also eliminated in Q2 and will start fourteenth, and the German agreed with Leclerc that the car is roughly where they expected it to be this weekend.
Vettel ended the final practice session on Saturday morning slowest of all twenty drivers and it was feared that he was under threat of elimination in Q1, but he did enough to scrape through the session, although the straight-line speed deficit of the SF1000 ensured he went no further than Q2.
“We need to stay strong and keep doing what we are doing as we knew this would be a tough weekend for us,” said Vettel. “We lose quite a bit on the straights and this circuit has a lot of straights.
“We are also struggling to get the tyres working properly. However the race is long so you never know what might happen.
“In the end I think today’s result reflects our real level on a track like this. We are ready to do battle tomorrow, I don’t think the rain can change a lot but for sure we will be trying anything, also on strategy, to bring home some points.”
“Charles, Sebastian and the team did what they could” – Laurent Mekies
Laurent Mekies, the Sporting Director at Ferrari, said the team turned the setup ‘on its head’ during the weekend in a bid to find more speed from the SF1000, but it was not enough to get them close to getting into the top ten shootout.
Mekies revealed the team sacrificed some of their Qualifying potential to focus on a possible wet race, with changes made to the set-up to benefit them should the forecasted rain arrive. However, with Leclerc and Vettel sharing the seventh row, there will be plenty of work to do if they are to challenge for the points on Sunday whether it is wet or dry.
“A very difficult qualifying with neither driver making it to Q3,” said Mekies. “This follows on from an even more difficult Friday, when we never managed to get the tyres to work properly.
“With very little grip, Charles, Sebastian and the team did what they could, turning the setup on its head to try and at least to get back to the performance level we had seen in previous races.
“Thanks to a lot of hard work from everyone, today was better than yesterday, but it was not enough to fight with our usual competitors. We also went for an aero setup aimed at tomorrow’s race, when the rain could be a factor.
“Tomorrow we will do all we can and then work on finding out why we never managed to get our package working properly, right from the first free practice session.”
