Charles Leclerc says coming back to Spa-Francorchamps brings him mixed emotions, with the venue the site of his maiden FIA Formula 1 World Championship race victory there in 2019, the same weekend where his friend Anthoine Hubert was killed in a crash in the supporting FIA Formula 2 race.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver was in dominant form that day, claiming his first win ahead of Lewis Hamilton on a weekend tinged with tragedy, and Leclerc dedicated his victory to Hubert that day.
Now three years later, Leclerc still has memories of that weekend – both good and bad – but he is eager to turn around his fortunes this weekend in a bid to regain some kind of momentum as he battles Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship in 2022.
And the twenty-four-year-old believes Ferrari have the pace and potential to do well at every venue, so is not yet giving up the battle for the title.
“I’ve got great memories from here, because you never forget the place where you got your first win,” said Leclerc, who sits eighty points behind Verstappen heading to Spa-Francorchamps. “But there’s also a very strange feeling, shaken by the tragedy of what happened to Anthoine (Hubert).
“We will tackle it one race at a time, because we have a lot of catching up to do, but I know we have the potential to do well in every race. There are nine to go and we have everything in place to do well.”
“We have prepared for this race down to the last detail” – Carlos Sainz Jr.
Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. says he has found a good feeling behind the wheel of the F1-75 after a difficult start to his campaign, but he knows the car is the best one he has driven during his career to date.
The Spaniard, who won his maiden Formula 1 race in the British Grand Prix earlier this season, says it took a few races for him to get settled in Ferrari’s 2022 challenger, but now he feels confident he can get the maximum out of the car at every event.
Sainz believes Ferrari have done everything they can to prepare for this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, and he expects them to be there or thereabouts at the front of the field come Sunday afternoon.
“There are corners here that are part of the legend of motorsport and I can’t wait to get out on this amazing track in the F1-75, which is the best car I’ve ever driven,” said Sainz. “In the first part of the season, it took me a few races to get fully tuned in to the car, but now I’ve got a good feeling with it and I’m confident that, in the coming nine races I’ll be able to aim to do even more.
“We have prepared for this race down to the last detail and I expect we will be competitive here as well, as has always been the case this season. In terms of set-up, we will have to find a good compromise between pure speed which you need in the first and third sectors and aerodynamic downforce which helps in the second.
“We will also have to deal with the weather which is always unpredictable here.”
Carlos Sainz Jr. says the F1-75 is the best car he has ever driven – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd