Lewis Hamilton credited an internal shake-up within his engineering team at Ferrari as the catalyst for his much-improved performance in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix, following a tumultuous start to the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
The seven-time world champion staged a spirited fightback to finish seventh, recovering from a challenging qualifying session and a difficult sprint race where he finished well outside the points.
Hamilton revealed after the race a fresh addition to his trackside support team was instrumental in the overnight transformation that helped put him back in contention.
Though Ferrari have not confirmed the identity of the new performance engineer, Hamilton’s suggested he had worked alongside the latter for many years at Mercedes, where he spent the bulk of his championship-winning seasons.
“It’s not easy to switch engineers within the middle of the season,” Hamilton said. “But it's someone that I've known for years [and was] actually from my previous team with me, but not in that position.
“We'll just get stronger and stronger together”
The British driver acknowledged that developing chemistry with a new engineer mid-season comes with challenges, especially on a weekend that saw Ferrari debut a revised rear suspension package.
“So we're getting used to each other and having to learn super, super quick,” he said. “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.”
Hamilton had struggled through Friday and Saturday, suffering back-to-back Q1 exits and a spin in sprint qualifying that left him 18th on the sprint grid.
He later cited a blend of unfamiliar components and braking issues as the culprits behind the incident.
While his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc took to the updated package more quickly and finished on the podium, Hamilton noted that he had limited prior experience with the upgrade.
“Obviously with the upgrade that we have, there's basically two elements to it,” he explained. “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.
“So he definitely did a great job today. He's feeling more comfortable and acclimatised. For me, it was the first time using it and that spin we had caught me out because I didn’t expect it.”
Confidence Rebuilding Ahead of Hungary
Despite the rocky start to the weekend, Hamilton’s recovery on Sunday has reinvigorated his outlook heading into the next round of the championship.
“Also [there is the] change of engineer, we're both in the deep end basically. And I think we did a really good job overnight to rectify some of those tweaks and fine tune it,” he said.
“The car was so much better to drive today. So I had a lot of fun trying to make my way through.”
His ability to adapt quickly to the updated car and forge an immediate working relationship with his new performance engineer gives Hamilton reason for optimism.
“I think this one is definitely one to put behind me. I definitely feel confident going forward,” he added.
“I learned more about the car today, fine-tuned it. I'll set that up better for next week. I will be at the factory on Wednesday. So yeah, I don't see why we can't have better results moving forward.”
Hamilton’s resurgence could not come at a better time as the championship heads into the business end of the season.
With new engineering support and growing familiarity with Ferrari’s latest upgrades, Hamilton seems poised to build momentum in the coming races.
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