Lewis Hamilton believes that while Ferrari were “lacking a little bit” at times during Free Practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, they will be able to make the right changes and close the gap to their competitors overnight.
The team found their feet early in the day with Hamilton taking P2 in Free Practice 1, finishing the hour 0.145s adrift of Max Verstappen’s benchmark, while the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc secured P3.
However, the Scuderia fell behind drivers from Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren in the later session, with Hamilton settling for fourth place. Leclerc struggled significantly more failed to place inside the top 10 after his quickest lap on soft tyres was deleted.
Hamilton was nevertheless content with their overall performance as he said: “Pretty good day in general. Positive, we made steps forward, relatively clean sessions.
“We made a couple of changes into FP2. The gap seems a bit bigger today, at least in FP2, than anticipated, but hopefully we can try and close that tomorrow. Overall, we generally feel good.”
But with over seven-tenths separating him from Kimi Antonelli in FP2, the Briton admitted that the Scuderia have plenty to adjust overnight in order to take the fight to their rivals in Saturday’s Qualifying session.
“The others look really strong,” Hamilton continued. “Obviously Red Bull look really strong. Mercedes picked up a lot of pace in the sessions. McLaren were looking good as well so I really don’t know.
“As I said, the car feels pretty decent but we’re lacking a little bit in the middle sector for some reason. We’re just looking into why that is and see if we can pick that up tomorrow. I love driving this track, it’s amazing.”
After securing victory in two out of the last three Grands Prix, Team Principal Fred Vasseur appeared keen to recognise that Friday’s results won’t necessarily be replicated in Qualifying, leaving the door open for Ferrari to claim a spot at the front once again.
“We know that fuel is mega important in terms of competitiveness – it means that we can’t compare with the others,” Vasseur explained. “We focus on ourselves, try to get the best from what we have and we’ll see tomorrow afternoon.
“If you have a look at the last four or five rounds, the classification on Friday is not really representative. We have a lot of work to do.”
