‘Am I worried? I am not’ – Leclerc backs Vasseur amid Ferrari budget cap questions

Charles Leclerc has confirmed that he has no concerns about Ferrari’s budget, after Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff had suggested the Scuderia might “run out” of spending room, with the Monegasque professing his complete faith in his team.

Wolff’s comments came after the Austrian Grand Prix, which saw Ferrari introduce a small power unit upgrade as part of their development to catch the Silver Arrows on track.

Every weekend, teams learn more about how to maximise the new generation of cars, resulting in updates – something that Wolff believes will impact Ferrari’s finances and lead to their rate of development slowing as the season continues.

Asked ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix for his feelings on the issue, Leclerc said: “On that, I trust Fred [Vasseur] more than anything.

“Of course, there's a lot of work from the team to try and push production, to try and push the creative minds behind the team that just push in order to have upgrades as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

“I'm sure Fred is on top of that, so am I worried? I am not, because I fully trust Fred and I know that he knows what he's doing.”

Ferrari Team Principal Vasseur previously explained that they will stick with their current approach, summarising: "If we can bring something at the beginning we do it, and it's better to have a couple of tenths for five races than just a couple of tenths for the last two.”

The Scuderia will look to extract the most from their current package in Spa – which earned Leclerc his first victory of the season last time out at Silverstone – and the 28-year-old is hopeful of enhancing his understanding of the SF-26.

“Definitely on my side, I already knew in Silverstone what I had changed and what made me feel more comfortable,” Leclerc explained. “In terms of overall performance there are still some things that we need to dig into more and I think for us to understand them fully we need a few more laps to try some things.

“My position is the same one as I had before Silverstone. For me, Silverstone and Spa are two tracks that will suit a lot better Mercedes.

“However, in Silverstone, it was honestly a surprise for us also to be strong, but we were also lucky on the Sunday because Kimi was probably as strong as what we expected. I think in Spa, Mercedes are still the favourites.”