Lewis Hamilton casts alarming ‘completely different’ Mercedes W15 verdict after ‘pretty bad day’

Lewis Hamilton is hoping for rain after admitting that the Mercedes W15 felt “completely different” to recent rounds after Friday practice at Spa.

Mercedes has enjoyed a development breakthrough in F1 2024 with their W15 challenger, the team claiming back-to-back wins at the Austrian and British GPs, Mercedes locking out the front row at the latter as Hamilton raced on to a record-breaking ninth British Grand Prix victory.

Lewis Hamilton wants Belgian GP rain after ‘pretty bad day’

Hamilton followed that up with a 200th career podium in Hungary, but the signs are perhaps not looking as promising after Friday practice in Belgium, Hamilton ending FP2 in P10 and 1.259s off the pace of McLaren’s Lando Norris who topped the session. Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell was a second down on Norris.

And Hamilton told the Formula 1 website after FP2 that it was a “pretty bad day”, revealing a “completely different” feeling with the W15 compared to recent successful outings.

“It was a pretty bad day,” Hamilton admitted.

“I don’t really know what to say. Obviously it has been feeling great in the past couple of races. That just felt completely different today.

“So 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, and then, when I got to the soft tyre I just couldn’t improve and there was a bunch of balance issues we had throughout the lap.

“But it was better in this session. But, everyone else went even better. So to be 1.2 seconds behind is not great.”

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While the rain predicted throughout Friday at Spa never showed up, the forecast once more indicates a wet track for Saturday, making for a potential qualifying twist.

And Hamilton hopes it does rain to bring Mercedes back into contention.

Asked how he feels hearing rain is forecast for Saturday, Hamilton smiled and replied: “Oh, fantastic.

“Because if it’s dry then we’re not, at the moment, going to be in the greatest of places. But overnight we can make some changes for sure.

“I think 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.”

Hamilton is the most successful active F1 driver at the Belgian Grand Prix with four victories to his name, his most recent coming in 2020.

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