‘Oh dear’… Lewis Hamilton radio message at Belgian GP will worry Mercedes

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Lewis Hamilton is looking to continue his positive momentum at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend. Hamilton seems to be in the process of turning his season around.

The seven-time world champion made his poorest-ever start to an F1 campaign, failing to finish on the podium until the 10th race of the season in Barcelona. But just two races later at Silverstone, he ended a victory drought stretching back to the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP.

Mercedes didn’t quite have the pace to contend with McLaren in Hungary, but Hamilton still extracted the maximum from the car. Having qualified fifth, he finished third after a commendable defensive effort to hold off Max Verstappen, who had the benefit of fresher tyres.

Hamilton seemed buoyed by an emotional victory on home soil, outqualifying and outracing teammate George Russell for just the second time all season. Russell still leads 10-3 on Saturdays and 8-4 in the races.

Toto Wolff’s team have introduced some new parts onto their W15 at Spa. They’re running a revised beam wing, floor edge, halo and diffuser.

During FP1, Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok spotted significant movement in the Mercedes front wing as the car navigated the Bus Stop chicane. Flexible bodywork is outlawed under the regulations.

Lewis Hamilton reports ‘really bad’ bouncing at Belgian Grand Prix

Hamilton set the fifth-fastest time in FP1 on Friday, lapping more than nine-tenths slower than Verstappen. Russell was one spot and 0.05s ahead.

After the low-fuel runs on the soft tyres, the teams completed some brief race simulations. The bulk of this preparation takes place in the second half of FP2, but they begin gathering the data in the first session.

Hamilton, who was running mediums at the time, had to abort the run because he was experiencing severe bouncing. This is particularly concerning for Mercedes, who wrestled with the issue at the start of F1’s ground effect era and looked to have got on top of it.

Sky Sports commentator Rachel Brookes expressed her concern immediately. Ferrari have been trying to address a similar problem in recent races, which has seen them fall away from the top three teams.

“I’ve got to come in,” Hamilton told race engineer Peter Bonnington. “The bouncing is really bad.”

“Oh dear,” Brookes replied. “They don’t want the bouncing back.”

Martin Brundle reflects on ‘disturbing’ Lewis Hamilton footage

Mercedes are trying to re-establish themselves as the best team in F1 after a sustained regression. The Brackley outfit rattled off eight consecutive constructors’ titles between 2014 and 2021 but, before Austria, had only won one race in two and a half years.

After the Hungarian GP, Lando Norris reminded Hamilton that he had a dominant car ‘seven years ago’. Damon Hill felt Norris’ comments were ‘weird’ and almost ‘dismissive’.

Hamilton may be the most successful driver in F1 history with 104 race wins, but that era is a distant memory at this point. That’s why his Silverstone win was almost universally popular within the paddock.

He’d been through a period of self-doubt after the bitterly controversial events of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. Martin Brundle says it’s ‘disturbing’ to look back on some of his interviews and radio messages during his victory drought, because they show he was in a ‘pretty tough place’.