Returning to Spa is always special for Charles Leclerc. Right here two memories are intertwined and will remain so forever. In 2019, Charles achieved his first victory in Formula 1 on the Belgian circuit. A bitter victory because on that same weekend, again in Spa, a dear friend of his, the F2 driver Antione Hubert, tragically lost his life. So, like every year for 4 years, Charles returned to Belgium remembering that tragic but also joyful weekend.
During the press conference in Belgium, which anticipates the last race weekend before the summer break, the Monegasque spoke about the situation at Ferrari, and the sensations for a weekend that promises to be rather unstable and with the rain that has been it arrived in the paddock on Thursday. The first news from the Rossa has already arrived. In fact, the name of his replacement has been announced Laurent mekies, which ended its relationship with Ferrari to move to AlphaTauri.
Leclerc: “We fare worse in mixed conditions”
The biggest concern for Charles Leclerc, who not even in Hungary found the same performance as in Austria, lies precisely in the weather and the unpredictability of these conditions. Furthermore, another Sprint race will be held in Spa, which will involve only one free practice over the weekend. We saw the last one in Austria, where the Monegasque achieved his second podium of the season.
“It looks like this weekend will be quite wet – says Leclerc in the press conference – so we hope to be competitive. I personally struggle more in mixed conditions, with a semi-wet or semi-dry track, but we worked a lot on it."
Not that this is the only problem with the Red which often proves to be inconsistent. In Belgium the team will not bring any updates, unlike Mercedes who have shown they can even finish on the flying lap. Leclerc himself underlined the great homogeneity of the teams in qualifying times. Despite the disappointing results, Leclerc's spirits still seem high or at least he doesn't seem demoralised. A clarification that he also admitted having to make to the microphones of Sky Sports in Hungary, given the great concern of the fans who fear they could lose the Monegasque.
“All the teams are extremely close at the moment, especially in qualifying. If you look at qualifying in Hungary we were all within 7-8 tenths. So it was a very close battle, beyond the top three. THEIn this case therefore small differences can have a big impact on the results and for the moment, due to the level we have as cars, as a team we need to focus on the track. Obviously we left a bit of performance here and there, which had a big consequence on the weekend. In the overall picture, we know that we are not fast enough but we are working hard to get back as quickly as possible."
