Guenther Steiner calls out Lewis Hamilton for blaming the engineers during the F1 Belgian GP

Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner called out Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton for blaming his engineers during the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix. The British driver had a relatively underwhelming weekend at the Iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit as he failed to get out of Q1 in both the sprint shootout and main qualifying but scored points in the main race.

The 40-year-old had an uncharacteristically mistake-prone SQ1 session where he, on his final run, spun on the bus stop chicane. However, after the sprint race, Hamilton was critical of his team as he believed that the new brake pads had a role to play in his spin in SQ1.

He also claimed that the new rear suspension had not made any significant difference to the performance of the SF25, while teammate Charles Leclerc mentioned the contrary.

While appearing on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner was critical of Lewis Hamilton's comments and pulled no punches in his reactions as he played 'Gas or Brake', saying:

"If the driver needs to explain to the engineers that the results are not good. I think how about the engineers telling Lewis the track limits are there, you shouldn't go over them by the way if you didn't know that we tell you, I mean, the engineers are pretty smart people."

Lewis Hamilton was apologetic about his Q1 exit as he got track limits on his final lap, which demoted him to P16 and eventually started from the pit lane for the main race.

Former F1 driver defends Lewis Hamilton's Spa weekend.

Former F1 driver and pundit Jolyon Palmer stated that he believed that Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton's Belgian Grand Prix weekend was not as bad as it seemed, given that he was able to turn around his fortunes in the main race.

In his column for F1.com, the former Renault driver reflected on Hamilton's weekend and said:

"Lewis was always going to be hamstrung by his decision to add more downforce and the fact that the dirty air was bad for all as they knuckled down to slick tyre pace. His race charge was over, but it was at least a glimpse back to the Hamilton of old that allowed him to leave a difficult weekend on a high. "Overall, you have to judge Lewis’s Spa weekend as fairly miserable. Scoring just six points on a Sprint weekend is far from his or the team’s expectations, but delving into the details gives much more hope than the raw positions relay."

Lewis Hamilton finished the race last weekend in P7 and managed to score some points to add to his tally in the driver standings, and finds himself 30 points behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Edited by pranavsethii