Belgian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton said the team made huge improvements to his car’s handling following their poor practice session on Friday.
Mercedes used the first day of practice at Spa-Francorchamps to evaluate a new floor for their W15. However after ending the day outside the top five they reverted to the original design from Saturday.
Hamilton took third on the grid in a rain-affected qualifying session on Saturday. When dry weather returned on Sunday he was thrilled with his car’s handling and raced to finish second on the road, which became first when his team mate George Russell was disqualified.
The car felt “night and day different” in the grand prix, said Hamilton in the press conference after Sunday’s race.
“On Friday it was pretty disastrous for both of us and we were really struggling with balance. Then today the car came alive and I was really surprised to, firstly, get into the lead and then be pulling away from everyone.
“It felt fully under control and I’ve not had that for years and so that’s why it was also a bit of a strange way to finish it. but it is it’s great to go into the into the summer break with the one two. the team did really deserve it and did such an amazing job.”
Hamilton has won two of the last three races after ending a two-and-a-half year win-less run. He said both Mercedes drivers feel “more comfortable in the car.”
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“The balance through low to medium to high [speed corners] are all much more in line with what we had targeted.”
Speaking before he learned of his disqualification as his car was found underweight, Russell said the team changed “a lot of things” after their poor showing on Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of things we can play around with,” he said. “I think we just had it in the wrong window on Friday.”
He is confident the team will address the problems they experienced with the new floor in time for the next race.
“We obviously reversed on the floor because we just wanted to rule that out [as a cause]” he said. “But I’ve got no doubt in Zandvoort we’ll be returning to the new aero package and getting the car in a slightly different window mechanically.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
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