Lewis Hamilton pinpoints two factors that contributed to the dismal F1 Belgian GP

Lewis Hamilton has pinpointed the upgraded part and the change of his engineer as something that seemingly caught him out during the F1 Belgian GP. Spa has often been one of the tracks where Lewis has excelled. He has won multiple times and has done well around here.

Coming into the 2025 F1 Belgian GP, the driver was in positive form after the race in Silverstone, where he was better than teammate Charles Leclerc. There was also the much-touted filming day, where Ferrari tested the new suspension.

Hopes were high as many felt that this would help Ferrari close the gap to McLaren. Lewis Hamilton, however, didn't have the best of qualifying sessions on both Friday and Saturday.

In the sprint shootout, Hamilton spun and lost out. On Saturday, it was the track limits. He shared his theory and felt that the new component on the car was the contributing factor to his struggles. Talking to The Race, the driver revealed that he'd changed his engineer as well, and hence, so many moving variables meant that they got caught out a little. He said:

"Obviously with the upgrade that we have, there's basically two elements to it. One of those elements, we had it to test back in Montreal, but I didn't end up testing it. Charles did. He ended up using part of it for a couple of races."

Lewis Hamilton added:

"So he definitely did a great job today. He's feeling more comfortable and acclimatized. For me, it was the first time using it and that spin we had caught me out because I didn’t expect it."

Lewis Hamilton talks about the challenges of changing race engineers

Lewis Hamilton further talked about the challenge of changing race engineers and how it has been an uphill task for him. After the weekend in Spa, he is 30 points behind Charles Leclerc in the championship.

Leclerc now has five podiums to his name, and to his credit, he has been driving brilliantly as well. The next race is in Hungary, one of Lewis Hamilton's best tracks on the calendar, and the driver felt that he would be better prepared for the challenge. He said:

"It’s not easy to switch engineers within the middle of the season, but it's someone that I've known for years [and was] actually from my previous team with me, but not in that position. So we're getting used to each other and having to learn super, super quick."

He added:

“I think the changes that we had [to the car this weekend] really caught both of us out, but I think we did a great job overnight and we'll just get stronger and stronger together.”

The 7x F1 champion is on the longest lean patch of his career right now, as he's yet to score even a podium since the start of the season. Hungary is one of the tracks where he's often performed well, and he would hope to continue that trend this time around as well.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli