Lewis Hamilton said something about Spa errors that ‘has to be incorrect’ as worrying Mercedes trend continues

Follow us on Google Discover

Lewis Hamilton entered the Belgian Grand Prix weekend on a healthy streak of top-six finishes. In fact, only championship leader Oscar Piastri was on a longer run.

Stretching back to the Emilia Romagna GP, when he charged from 12th on the grid to fourth, Hamilton had been in the top six in the last 10 competitive sessions. He still hadn’t managed to end his podium drought, but he was finding consistency and stability.

But the streak rather fell apart at Spa-Francorchamps. Hamilton hasn’t been particularly fast in the Ferrari this season, but he’s rarely made mistakes.

Unfortunately, two highly uncharacteristic errors led to Q1 exits in both segments of the weekend – a spin on Friday afternoon, and a track limits breach on Saturday. He fought back to seventh in the race, but Leclerc’s podium showed the real potential of the car.

Gary Anderson refuses to believe Lewis Hamilton’s claim about Ferrari rear locking

Writing in his column for the The Telegraph, former F1 designer Gary Anderson accused Hamilton of refusing to take full responsibility for his failings. He also felt this was the case in his ‘final years at Mercedes’.

Hamilton was outperformed by teammate George Russell in two of his last three seasons with the Silver Arrows, a period where he only won two races. Anderson suspects he’s still ‘shell-shocked’ by his former team’s dramatic downturn in 2022.

While he called his Q1 eliminations ‘unacceptable’, Hamilton fuelled the debate over his Friday spin by suggesting that the rear locking was alien to him. That claim has now been met with heavy scepticism.

Anderson has called on Hamilton to change both his attitude and his driving style in the Ferrari.

“Hamilton at least called his mistakes in both qualifying sessions ‘unacceptable’ but I do think he still seems to be looking for the fault in his own team rather than just getting on with it,” he wrote.

“After his spin in sprint qualifying he said that he had never locked the rears like that at Spa. That has to be incorrect. Doing that is a common thing, it is just about getting the brake balance right to avoid locking the rear axle.

He added: “Worryingly, I do not think Hamilton’s approach from his final troubled years at Mercedes has changed. I think he’s still a bit shell-shocked since the start of these ground-effect rules when Mercedes went off the boil dramatically, and he went personally from winning championships to a podium being a good result.

“Again, in those final years at Mercedes, it was often (but not always) about pointing the finger rather than taking personal responsibility. He needs to change his attitude and accept that these cars are complicated to drive and that sometimes you need to drive within the limit rather than pushing for something that is not there.”

Lewis Hamilton can at last show one of his greatest strengths in the Ferrari car

Hamilton partially redeemed himself by nailing his tyre call during the race. Collaborating with his engineer Riccardo Adami, he was the first to pit for slicks, and he did so at the perfect moment.

Even Max Verstappen’s engineer commended Hamilton for his perfect timing. He gained 11 places in the race to maintain his record of scoring points at every single race weekend.

Going forward, Hamilton can be more aggressive on the brakes. He was clearly still adjusting to Ferrari’s new pads at Spa, but it should feel more natural in the coming races.

Both driver and team still need to improve, though. For instance, Ferrari are still telling their drivers to lift and coast during races, which points to a fundamental problem with the car.