Lewis Hamilton expects Mercedes and McLaren to perform strongly during the Belgian GP. The Ferrari driver saw during the first free practice sessions at Spa-Francorchamps that his former teams made an immediate strong impression, while Ferrari was still searching for extra speed. Especially in the fast corners, the Scuderia has to yield to the other top teams, Hamilton explained.
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Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli recorded the fastest time on Friday with a 1:45.944, leaving Lando Norris for McLaren and Max Verstappen nearly half a second behind. Hamilton himself finished as the fastest Ferrari driver in seventh place, over seven tenths behind the Mercedes. Especially the performances of Mercedes stood out to him in the Ardennes. “Mercedes is always the team to beat; they have been all year,” Hamilton said. “On a circuit with such long straights, that is to be expected. I think they will be very strong.”
“McLaren also looks good,” he noted. “They seem very strong in the corners, both at medium and high speed.” According to Hamilton, Ferrari’s biggest problem currently lies in the second sector of Spa-Francorchamps, where the fast corners have a big impact on lap time. Although the car feels good to him, Ferrari still lacks the necessary performance compared to the competition.
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Downforce or top speed
“I think FP1 looked a bit stronger than we expected, and in FP2 everyone took another step forward,” he analyzed. “Those results were probably more realistic. The car generally feels good, but we are a bit short in the middle sector, so we are trying to figure out why.” Hamilton thinks Ferrari especially needs to find the right balance between downforce and top speed. “We could opt for a setup with more downforce, but then you lose speed on the straights. So tonight we will dive deep into the corners to see how we can improve that middle sector – hopefully without losing top speed.”
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur warned that the standings during the free practice sessions do not immediately provide a reliable picture of qualifying. The Frenchman emphasized that teams work with different setups and fuel levels during the Friday sessions. “If you look at the past three or four Fridays, they have not always been representative of qualifying,” the Frenchman said. “We will see what tomorrow afternoon brings.”
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Read everything about the Belgian GP here
