Still a lot of work to do for Ferrari, admits Leclerc

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It was a solid showing for Charles Leclerc in today's Belgian Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc was the first to admit that it highlighted just how much work Ferrari still had to do to be back in contention for wins and titles.

Leclerc started today's race from pole position, but that was only because Max Verstappen had been demoted to sixth on the grid by a penalty for taking an additional gearbox this weekend.

In qualifying itself the Red Bull had a thumping 0.820s margin over Leclerc and the rest of the field in the final round. And that superiority was reflected by Verstappen's winning margin in the race as well.

Verstappen was 22s in front of team mate Sergio Perez, who had started on the front row alongside Leclerc and promptly overtook the Ferrari on the first lap.

Perez immediately pulled away, and by the end of the race Leclerc was ten seconds further behind the runner-up in third place - a sobering reflection of just how much quicker the RB19 was compared to the SF-23 this weekend.

"When you look at the Red Bull, we still have a lot of work to do, especially on race pace," conceded Leclerc. "Because with degradation, they are still quite far ahead.

Read also: Smooth win for cocky Verstappen in shower-hit Belgium GP

But Leclerc was happy to have seen off the challenge from Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton in the second half of the race.

Asked if he was confident that he would be able to retain the podium in the post-race interviews conducted by Sky Sports f1 commentator Martin Brundle in parc ferme, Perez replied: "Yes, until I was told to do some fuel saving.

"This was quite big at the end of the race," he said. "There I was struggling a bit more. But the pace was there to keep him behind. Then I knew he was going to pit {for fresh tyres to try for the bonus point] for the fastest lap, which made my life a little bit easier.

"We have had quite a positive weekend on our side in terms of pace," Leclerc insisted. "The race went good on my side, but a shame for Carlos because we had a concluded pace."

Sainz was involved in a collision at the first corner of the race with McLaren's Oscar Piastri, with the damage resulting in both cars subsequently having to retire from the race.

Ferrari finished the weekend with a haul of 24 points from both the sprint and Grand prix races - the same as Mercedes. But it does mean that the scuderia has closed to within five points of Aston Martin who are ahead of them in third place in the constructors standings.

Leclerc himself is now fifth in the drivers championship, just ahead of George Russell and Carlos Sainz. But all three are a long way back from Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, let alone Verstappen and Perez romping away at the top.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.