Vasseur: I believe we can have a competitive weekend in Belgium

Wednesday, 24 July 2024 at 16:00

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After victories in Melbourne and Monaco, the Formula 1 world was buzzing with "Ferrari are back" excitement as they took the fight to Max Verstappen and Red Bull, but since that famous day in Charles Leclerc's hometown, it has been miserable for the Reds.

Fred Vasseur's team has scored 70 points in five race weekends have seen Ferrari slip to P3 in the 2024 F1 Constructors' Standings.

McLaren (who scored 184 points in those same five arces) bumped them down one, as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri picked up the baton and started winning races. The one-two in Hungary a big haul for Zak Brown's team.

Ferrari's updates in Hungary did not change much in terms of the pecking order, the Italian team are probably fourth after Budapest. But expectations are there is more to come from the upgrade package at Spa. Meanwhile, Mercedes also found a race-winning vein of form. Which makes the margins, at the front between the four leading teams, ultra-tight.

Vasseur: Spa-Francorchamps will allow us to verify if we have done a good job

Nevertheless, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is upbeat about the Scuderia's prospects heading to Round 14: "The Belgian Grand Prix will round off what has been a particularly busy July for the team at the track and everyone back in the factory in Maranello.

"The Spa-Francorchamps circuit will allow us to verify if we have done a good job over the past few weeks to mitigate the side effects in high-speed corners of the update package we introduced recently. The porpoising effect was very low at the Hungaroring, thanks to the evolution of the floor we introduced in Budapest and now we will see if we have fixed it at high-speed tracks too.

"Charles and Carlos have always gone well at Spa, Charles taking his very first F1 win here in 2019 and it’s a circuit where driver skill can really make a difference.

"If we provide them with an SF-24 that they can comfortably push to the limit, I believe we can have a competitive weekend and bring home plenty of points," concluded Vasseur, in the Ferrari media preview of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.