Can anyone beat 'untouchable' Ferrari? Their rivals weigh in

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For the second time this season, Ferrari took a 1-2-3 in qualifying for an FIA World Endurance Championship race. That's out of three races. They've locked out the front row at each of those races, and won them all.

Despite a big Balance of Performance adjustment for this race, that trend has continued at Spa, with #50's Antonio Fuoco taking pole with a magnificent 1:59.617, the fastest ever Hypercar lap around Spa. His teammates Robert Kubica and Antonio Giovinazzi filed in behind him to secure the top 3 spots on the grid for the Italian manufacturer.

Before we get to what their rivals think, let's hear from Ferrari's Mauro Barbieri, the performance and regulations manager about why he believes Ferrari are strong at Spa.

'I would say that medium high speed sections seem to be our strength compared to the main competitors,' he said in response to a question asked by Only Endurance.

'We tend to suffer more in the low speed corners, the tighter ones.

'And so I would say that's the main reason why our car is has always been good here. But as we said before, I think race after race we have improved, understood better our our car and the tyres.

'And I think this season we look quite strong, let's say everywhere or pretty much in everywhere, in every condition.'

Spa is well known as fast track that puts a lot of energy through the tyres, leading to high tyre degradation, which the teams must manage through the race if they want to stay competitive.

However, the middle sector in particular of the famous Belgian track is full of corners which, as Barbieri said, suit the 499P well — medium and high speed corners where minimum corner speed is of crucial importance.

The Italian manufacturer was on course to take victory at Spa last year, but the red flag with an hour and a bit to go fell at the wrong time and meant they couldn't capitalise on their race-long pace.

Beating Ferrari at Spa

So, what do Ferrari's rivals think about their chances of beating them in the race?

Peugeot's Stoffel Vandoorne, who qualified fourth, best of the rest behind the Ferraris, summed it up well.

'Obviously the Ferraris look very fast. They're a little bit untouchable at the moment,' he said with a chuckle.

'But we've also seen they make a lot of mistakes in the last couple of races and we're gonna try and keep it clean.

'We're gonna try and put the car in the best window possible. Push as hard as we can and try and make no mistakes. And that's the only thing we can do.'

'Different league' says BMW's Frijns

Meanwhile, Robin Frijns, who qualified his #20 BMW fifth, was even more blunt.

'No, I don't think so,' he said when asked by Only Endurance if beating the Ferraris was possible.

'Different league', he said, before adding, 'I think it's gonna be an exciting one. Because honestly on race trim, everybody is really struggling and and so are we just on grip level being a bit on the low side, the whole weekend long. Which was not the case of the test day a few weeks here ago here.

We see people doing mistakes as well are going off. So I definitely don't think it's going to be a boring race. Double stinting the tires will definitely be an issue.'

Milesi's 'four manufacturer fight'

Meanwhile, Alpine's Charles Milesi is also of the seemingly common belief that Ferrari are too fast to race with.

'I think they are too fast,' he told Only Endurance when asked whether battling with the Ferraris was possible in the race.

'On our side I think we can fight with Cadillac, BMW, Porsche for sure. Peugeot too looks to be strong.

'But I think there is a pack of like four manufacturers where it's quite easy to see that we are fighting.

'And then there is Ferrari, which is a bit in front. It's like the tendency at the beginning of the season, but yeah, I think they are doing a good job also.

'So I think we still still need to improve ourselves because there's still some things to improve and to catch them [Ferrari] back.

'I think we just need to do our race and make no mistakes, and we have a good chance to score good points,' concluded the Frenchman.

Milesi qualified his #35 Alpine in ninth, where his teammate Ferdinand Habsburg will start from in the race. But the sister #36 car, qualified in sixth by Mick Schumacher and will be started by Fred Makowiecki, is in the mix with Vandoorne and Frijns, setting up an exciting prospect in the race.

Feature image: Ferrari