Vasseur takes positives from Spa weekend as he insists Ferrari are ‘pushing like hell’ to fix costly issue

Frederic Vasseur declared himself “quite happy” about Ferrari’s performance across the Belgian Grand Prix weekend after the Scuderia departed Spa-Francorchamps with a pole position and podium finish under their belt – ending a tricky run of races.

Ferrari enjoyed a strong start to the 2024 season by putting at least one driver on the podium at seven of the opening eight events, while winning two of them via Carlos Sainz in Australia and Charles Leclerc on his home soil in Monaco.

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However, an upgrade package introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix – specifically changes to the floor – brought back the unwanted side effect of bouncing at high speed, forcing the team to rethink their plans and carry out various tests.

After Sainz’s podium finish in Austria, inherited when Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris clashed late on, Ferrari failed to make the top three at Silverstone or the Hungaroring, where interim solutions were applied.

As the paddock rolled on to Belgium for the final race before the summer break, Ferrari took a step in the right direction, with Leclerc qualifying second in the wet – which became pole when Verstappen served a grid penalty – and converting it into a solid P4 finish.

That became third after the chequered flag, though, thanks to the Mercedes of George Russell getting disqualified for being underweight, with Sainz ultimately taking sixth to contribute to Ferrari’s best Grand Prix points tally since Monte Carlo.

Reflecting on the weekend, and Ferrari’s recent progress, team boss Vasseur said: “The bouncing went well – under control. The performance of the car... I would say that if you finish less than 10 seconds behind the winner in Spa after [44] laps, you can imagine that the pace is decent.

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“I’m quite happy with the overall performance, a bit disappointed with the position, I would say, because the target was not to finish P4 and P7. Overall, I think the pace was okay.

“At the end of the day it’s so tight that we are speaking about one or two tenths per lap, or 10 seconds over [44] laps. It means that if you are able to fix a small issue or to make a small step in terms of set-up or whatever, it’s making a huge difference at the end in terms of classification.

“It’s already the good side of the championship today that you have four teams who race, you have six drivers within 10 seconds at the end. This is, for me, mega in Spa.”

But despite the bouncing being “under control” last weekend, Vasseur admits there is more to be done and that further refinements will be coming over the second half of the season – also pointing to a run of tracks where he feels the SF-24 will be back to its best.

“To fix the bouncing is a step in performance,” he added. “For sure, we are pushing like hell to bring something and we will do it as soon as possible. We have also I think a good sequence of tracks for us with Monza, Baku, Singapore… I think these are good tracks for the characteristics of the car.

“I think that the most important is to score points and it was the target coming to Spa, to not lose points on McLaren and Red Bull, and we did it. It will be the same target in Zandvoort because I’m convinced that the next three or four races after these two will be much better for us.

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“I think today is a very good example for everybody, because Mercedes was really struggling on Friday, fixing the issues… When we say struggling, it’s not that they are going at the back of the pack, but [lacking] two tenths.

“As soon as you fix something or do a small step, you can recover from P7, P8 to P1, P2. We are pushing on the fact that we have to pay attention to every single detail.”

Ferrari sit third in the constructors’ standings after 14 of this year’s 24 scheduled races, holding 345 points to McLaren’s 366 and leaders Red Bull’s 408, while Mercedes are fourth on 266.