F1 News: Lewis Hamilton's Hopes Dashed at Belgian GP - 'Bunch Of Balance Issues'

Alex Harrington | Jul 26, 2024

2024 Belgian Grand Prix, Friday / LAT Images

At Spa-Francorchamps, a circuit that famously tests the mettle of both man and machine, Lewis Hamilton struggled during the first day of the long race weekend of the Belgian Grand Prix. Following a string of robust performances—including three podiums in his last four races and a triumphant win at Silverstone—Hamilton's momentum hit a snag as his Mercedes lagged behind the leaders, notably McLaren, during FP1 and FP2.

Hamilton, who managed a fifth-place finish in the first practice session, experienced a significant drop, finishing 10th in FP2. This marked a downturn over a full second behind the session's pace-setters, McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Post-session, Hamilton expressed a mixture of frustration and confusion over the day's outcomes.

"It was a pretty bad day, I don’t know what to say. Obviously, it’s been feeling great in the past couple of races, but it just felt completely different today." Hamilton added, "The first session was not great. We worked on it and in the second session we made some changes."

Despite efforts to rectify issues identified during FP1, Hamilton faced persistent struggles with the car's behavior on soft tires:

“It started off great, but then when I got to the soft tire and I just couldn’t improve. And there’s a bunch of balance issues we have through that.”

The disparity in performance was not just a product of mechanical discrepancies but also improved outputs from rivals:

"It was better in the session, but everyone else went even better. To be 1.2s behind [McLaren] is not great,” lamented the seven-time world champion. "If it rains then, that opens it up a little bit and hopefully we can do a better job. I think the car should be better in the wet than it is in the dry."

Mercedes' trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, echoed Hamilton’s concerns about the vehicle’s balance and grip.

"We've struggled with the car today so we will be working hard overnight as to how to improve for tomorrow. We're losing time across the full speed range, rather than in specific corners, and the long run isn't where we need it to be either," Shovlin explained, outlining plans for an intensive examination of setup options through the team's simulator back in Brackley.

Hamilton's teammate, George Russell, offered his perspective on the team's current standing:

"I think McLaren are definitely a step ahead of us at the moment and Red Bull, so just need to keep on assessing and go from there.

"I’m sure we can find a bit more tonight, but we’ve often had very good Fridays and the others have caught up on Saturdays. Hopefully, that will be us this weekend."