The Belgian Grand Prix was another event that didn’t quite go the way of Scuderia Ferrari. Oracle Red Bull Racing have extended their lead in the Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship with an impressive one-two finish at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, while the Italian outfit were only able to finish third and sixth.
Ferrari went into the weekend knowing a good result wouldn’t be easy, as Charles Leclerc had a grid drop as a result of changing some components on his power unit; however, Max Verstappen would also take a penalty for the same reason, somewhat balancing the two teams out. Carlos Sainz Jr was promoted to pole position after Verstappen’s grid drop was applied after qualifying, but was eventually caught up to and passed by both Red Bull cars as a result of having less pace on Sunday afternoon.
Leclerc would suffer from bad luck when a tear-off visor strip would get caught in his brakes in the opening laps of the race, forcing an early pitstop. The Monégasque worked his way back up to fifth place, before pitting on the penultimate lap in an attempt to take the fastest lap.
The plan; however, failed as Leclerc was passed by Fernando Alonso on lap forty-three, before re-overtaking the BWT Alpine F1 Team driver on lap forty-four, costing him the fastest lap. Leclerc also received a five-second penalty at the end of the race for speeding in the pit-lane, demoting him to sixth place overall.
Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, says the team need to “roll up [their] sleeves” if they want to catch up to the huge points deficit between themselves and Red Bull.
“Today’s race did not live up to our expectations. Red Bull has done a great job and the performance difference between them and us this weekend, in terms of pace and also tyre degradation was clear to see.
“Carlos drove a good race. Charles was unlucky in the very early stages and from then on he had even more of a job on his hands. As a team, we just have to roll up our sleeves and continue to improve the performance of our car.
“The next race at Zandvoort features a track with completely different characteristics and we are ready to give it our best shot as always, aiming for the win.”
Ferrari are now one-hundred and eighteen points behind their Milton Keynes-based rivals, and will be looking for victories in the upcoming races to close that gap.
