Spa qualifying reflects Ferrari's current level

Considering the times posted by Ferrari in free practice, we were almost surprised to see the Ferraris escape from Q1. This shows to what extent the fall of Team in the world hierarchy accelerated on the slopes of the Toboggan des Ardennes.

Charles Leclerc still came very close to the penalty with the 15th time in the opening phase of qualifying, 87 thousandths ahead of theAlfa Romeo by Kimi Räikkönen. 

In the end, the Monegasque, pole-sitter and authoritative winner in Belgium 12 months earlier, had to settle for 13th place on the grid, one rank and 3 tenths ahead of his teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was not really surprised by the results recorded by the SF1000 after finishing last in Free Practice 3 on Saturday morning.

« This reflects what the car is capable of on this circuit, dropped the quadruple world champion at the end of the worst dry qualifying session for Ferrari since Australia 2012 (Fernando Alonso 12th, Felipe Massa 16th).

We tried everything we could, we made a lot of effort last night to try to rectify the situation. We succeeded a little. We obviously cannot be satisfied with such results but this is not the first weekend where we have experienced such a mishap. 

Finishing 13th or 14th doesn't give the same feeling as pole, naturally, but this morning we thought we weren't even going to make it into Q2 and we got there with both cars. There's nothing to brag about but it's the most we could do today ». 

His teammate Leclerc said to himself “ very happy » of his lap but the Monegasque was short of explanations to explain the shortcomings of this frankly failed SF1000. 

« You don't have the heart to celebrate when you sign a big lap and only finish 13th but that's the situation we are in for the moment, commented the 22-year-old pilot. We have to work hard, it’s disappointing for the whole team and for the fans at home.” 

And if the Maranello faithful were hoping for a Sunday miracle, Leclerc's comments regarding the racing pace of the SF1000 are not likely to fill them with optimism

« We were very bad in long runs during free practice, whispered the Monegasque as a concluding guide. We didn't do many laps but they were all very slow ». 

Amen.