Vasseur pinpoints Ferrari optimism despite Spa ‘disappointment’

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has stated he was pleased with his team's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix despite being left “disappointed” with the result.

The Maranello-based outfit has been enduring a tough run of form of late, having commenced the campaign in strong fashion.

Charles Leclerc took a surprise pole position at Spa-Francorchamps last weekend as he was promoted to the front when Max Verstappen took a grid penalty.

Leclerc benefitted from a penalty once again in the race as George Russell's disqualification lifted him onto the podium.

Vasseur hailed Ferrari's strong pace throughout the weekend despite being dispirited by its on-track result.

“The performance of the car, if you finish less than 10 seconds behind the winner at Spa, you can imagine it means the pace is decent,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

“I am quite pleased with the overall performance but a bit disappointed with the position. The target was not to finish P4 and P7 [P3 and P6 after Russell's penalty], but overall the pace was OK.”

Vasseur highlights close running order

The Belgian GP was won by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton inheriting the win after team-mate Russell was disqualified.

With Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes all winning multiple races this year, Vasseur highlighted the close nature of the current pecking order.

“If you look at the picture from Friday morning, everybody was thinking that Max will fly and win the race even with the penalty and Mercedes was struggling like hell,” he said.

“They are back. At the end of the day, it’s so tight because we are talking about one or two-tenths per lap. It means if you

“If you are able to fix a small problem or make small steps forward with the setup, it makes a huge difference. 

“It is probably a good side of the championship today, you have four teams in the race, six drivers within 10 seconds at the end. This is mega at Spa.”