2024 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix Highlights

 

Scuderia Ferrari

 

In the final race before the summer break, at the 2024 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari HP picked up 18 points courtesy of a fourth place for Charles Leclerc and a seventh for Carlos Sainz. It was a very close race, with the first six crossing the line in under 10 seconds, even with all 44 laps run under green flag conditions, with no Safety Cars. The numbers prove just how competitive Formula 1 is at the moment on a day when the team has closed the gap to the Constructors’ championship leaders to 64 points. Charles and the team are still third in their respective standings, while Carlos is fifth. 

The race. On the Medium tyre, Charles kept the lead off the line, but on lap 3, he had to give his best to Lewis Hamilton. On the Hard tyre, Carlos passed Lando Norris to move up to sixth. After around ten laps or so, all the Medium runners made their first pit stops, with Charles now on Hards behind Hamilton, while Carlos stayed out until lap 20 to switch to Mediums. Leclerc’s situation remained the same even after the second stop when once again he found himself behind Hamilton, but now he was third because out in front was George Russell in the other Mercedes, who had switched to a one-stop race. Carlos could see he wasn’t quick enough on the Medium, so he came in again for another set of Hard tyres and set off in pursuit of Sergio Perez in seventh place. He caught him without too much bother and passed him. Charles had a more exciting end to his race: he had to defend from Oscar Piastri, eventually relinquishing a podium place to the Australian on lap 36. Then he had to fend off Max Verstappen, who never really looked like passing the Ferrari so that Charles finished fourth.

Season so far. There’s one more week of work before the 14-day stoppage as set out in the regulations, so it’s the right moment to look at the season so far. The last few races have not been that satisfactory, but compared to this time last year, there are clear signs of progress. So far this season there have been two wins against zero from 2023, this year we have 10 podiums, against three last year, when the team was 312 points behind the leader as opposed to the current 64. Clearly, it’s not enough and the team must continue to work hard to make the SF-24 more competitive. That’s what the focus will be on so as to prepare as well as possible for the next part of the season starting with the Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.

Carlos Sainz #55

It was a difficult race. We decided to start using a strategy different from everyone around us. The start and the first stint were excellent, but unfortunately, we didn’t have enough pace to make it work to our advantage. It was a difficult race. We decided to start using a strategy different from everyone around us. The start and the first stint were perfect, but unfortunately, we didn’t have enough pace to make it work to our advantage. It’s been a challenging first half of the season for many different reasons, but I’m sure that after the summer break, we will come back stronger. Thank you, everyone, for your support. See you in Zandvoort.

Charles Leclerc #16

I cannot be too happy with today’s race, as we had expected to be on the same level as Mercedes. On the positive side, we managed to keep the two Red Bulls and one McLaren behind us. I cannot be too happy with today’s race, as we had expected to be on the same level as Mercedes. On the positive side, we managed to keep the two Red Bulls and one McLaren behind us. Regarding tyres and strategy, we had expected to see a lot more graining on the Hard, but they worked well, while we struggled more with the Medium. I thought we were stopping too early for the first stop, but with hindsight, the Hard was a perfect tyre, and as we saw with George (Russell), the one-stop might have worked better, but in the end, we did an excellent job to stay in front of Max (Verstappen). I had hoped for a better result going into the holidays, but that’s how it is, and at least I know I got everything I could out of the car.

Frédéric Vasseur – Team Principal

Overall, in terms of pure performance, this race was okay for us, even if we preferred to go into the summer break with a podium place. We were all surprised by the hard’s very low degradation and conv, easily the high deg on the Medium. This meant that George (Russell) had the best strategy, and everyone finished within ten seconds behind him, which was very good for the sport and the championship. Overall, in terms of pure performance, this race was okay for us, even if we preferred to go into the summer break with a podium place. We were all surprised by the hard’s very low degradation and conversely the high deg on the Medium. This meant that George (Russell) had the best strategy, and behind him, everyone finished within ten seconds, which was very good for the sport and the championship. Our overall pace was good, and today, we were able to finish ahead of the two Red Bulls and one McLaren, which in Spa-Francorchamps is pretty good. This weekend, we have found more performance on a potentially tricky track, but we still need one or two-tenths to fight for the wins again properly. We will focus on this right tomorrow and after the break to increase our competitiveness for the coming races.




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