Lewis Hamilton admitted it was not the best of Fridays for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team at Spa-Francorchamps, with the pace of the W13 ‘a long way off’ compared to those at the front of the field.
The seven-time World Champion was only ninth fastest in the opening session in Belgium, and although he improved to sixth in the second, he was more than 1.3 seconds behind the fastest time of the day set by Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton admits the car does not feel as good as it did during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend prior to the summer break, but he hopes Mercedes can find some more pace and challenge at the front of the field on Saturday.
“We just weren’t very quick today and I’m not sure why – it could be tyre temps, wing levels, a multitude of things,” said Hamilton. “It doesn’t feel disastrous out there, we’re just a long way off.
“We’ve experienced that a few times this season on a Friday and then things improve on the Saturday, I hope that’s the case this weekend. We’ve just got to work hard tonight, analyse the data to try and figure out how we get this car in a better place.
“The car doesn’t feel the same as Budapest in terms of qualifying pace but it’s not far off how it felt on the Friday so that gives me hope.”
“Tyre temperature is something we’ve struggled with this season” – George Russell
Team-mate George Russell also struggled, particularly in the second session, with the former Williams Racing driver ending eighth fastest.
Russell was the surprise pole sitter in the Hungarian Grand Prix prior to the summer break, but the Briton admitted there is very little they can carry over from the Hungaroring that would prove useful this weekend in Belgium.
Despite not being on the pace, Russell, like Hamilton, hopes Mercedes can turn around their fortunes overnight and come back stronger in Qualifying on Saturday afternoon where conditions could be a little warmer and drier.
“Tyre temperature is something we’ve struggled with this season and I struggled quite a lot on every compound today,” said Russell. “In these conditions, it’s definitely something we need to work on.
“But we know that once you get temperatures in the right window, you can find a huge amount of performance, so there’s a little optimism there. We’re pretty used to having bad Fridays so let’s see if we can turn it around.
“I don’t think there’s any guarantee we can find the performance that we had in the last race but we’ll be working flat out tonight to try and get on top of it. Totally different day tomorrow, conditions will be very different, hopefully warmer and drier so let’s see what it brings.
“There’s not much to compare here to Budapest – a low downforce track, cold and wet conditions, not many comparable settings you can carry over – but that’s the unique thing about F1, every single time you go out you have different conditions and limitations to work around.”
