Hamilton Hoping For Rain After 'Pretty Bad Day' Ahead Of Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying
F1
Lewis Hamilton suggested Mercedes wasn't doing too well during the Friday ahead of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix as the team lacked too much pace on Red Bulls and McLarens.
Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished the first two practice sessions at Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps in P5 and P4 (FP1) and P10 and P6 (FP2).
The seven-time World Champion was a bit slower than his teammate in both sessions. However, that wasn't his primary worry when speaking to the media on Friday evening.
Mercedes was much closer to the top two teams in the Championship during the last five races. In some, the Silver Arrows even had the fastest car.
But this doesn't seem to be the case in Belgium despite the new floor that the German team introduced to their cars. Hamilton told the media:
"It was a pretty bad day. I don't really know what to say! Obviously, it's been feeling great in the past couple of races, but it just felt completely different today."
"We worked on it. The first session was not great, but then, in the second session, we made some changes, and it started off great. Then, when I got to the soft tire, I just couldn't improve, and there were a bunch of balance issues we had throughout the lap."
Like all the other teams, Mercedes still had some time to make changes to their cars ahead of FP3 and before going into qualifying. Nevertheless, Hamilton suggested that the only thing that could help his team to challenge the top places was the rain.
Rain tends to hide deficiencies of cars, and when the track is wet, it tends to be much more about drivers' skill, putting the power down carefully, searching for the dry lines, not running wide, etc. The 39-year-old added:
"If it's dry, then, at the moment, we're not going to be in the greatest of places. But overnight, we can make some changes for sure."
"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."
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