Lewis Hamilton has revealed his sprint qualifying spin at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix was triggered by a new component that had also caused team-mate Charles Leclerc to crash in Canada when he ran it for the first time.
The seven-time champion’s hopes of a good result in the Spa-Francorchamps sprint race were derailed when he spun at the bus stop chicane in his final effort in SQ1 – which left him down in 18th on the grid. On his banker lap, he’d had an oversteer moment at Stavelot.
There was no immediate explanation from Ferrari about the cause of the rear wheel lock-up that had pitched the SF-25 off the track and it was something that Hamilton claimed had never happened to him before in his career.
This weekend is, however, the first where Ferrari is running a revised rear suspension layout that it hopes will address some set-up weaknesses it has with its current challenger.
Reflecting on what had happened in qualifying after he came home 15th in the sprint, Hamilton explained that investigations have pointed to a new part that he is running for the first time this weekend being the catalyst.
And, interestingly, he has suggested that this piece – which has not been identified – was also what caused Leclerc to crash out in FP1 in Canada when he put himself out of action for the day after a lock-up put him into the wall at Turn 3.
“We’ve got a new component on the car that Charles had in Montreal, and has had for a few races,” explained Hamilton. “But that’s the first time I’ve had it.
“And Charles, you remember, he crashed with it in Montreal. And I had the same experience in my first run with it yesterday.
“But, also, like the brakes felt pretty good, and I ultimately braked in the same position as I did in P1, but [with] a little bit more pressure and it snapped the rears.
“So we’ve understood it. I got a bit of running just now [in the sprint], and hopefully that won’t be a problem…hopefully.”
While Hamilton’s hopes of points in the sprint were non-existent after starting so far back, Leclerc appeared to be in the fight for a podium finish early on after he muscled his way past Lando Norris for third on the opening lap.
However, he failed to keep the McLaren behind him for long losing the spot on lap 4/15 and afterwards simply did not have the pace of the front-runners – ending up 10.176 seconds behind winner Max Verstappen at the end as he came home in fourth.
Leclerc reckoned that gap was a reflection of the fact that Ferrari is simply lacking performance compared to Red Bull and McLaren.
“Unfortunately, this is the situation we are in at the moment,” he said. “And it’s [been] a long time that we’ve realised that.
“We are not accepting that situation, and we are pushing like crazy to try and turn the situation around.
“McLaren and Red Bull are still pushing to develop the car, and so we came with an upgrade. But they also came with an upgrade, and that means that it’s very difficult to then catch back.
“At the moment, it’s where we are, and I don’t think we could have done anything better today.”
