Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes and McLaren could emerge as the leading forces at the Belgian Grand Prix after Ferrari endured a challenging Friday practice at Spa-Francorchamps.
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion saw first-hand how the competitive picture appeared to shift during the opening day of running, with Ferrari unable to match the pace set by its rivals as teams began unlocking their performance ahead of qualifying.
Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli delivered the standout lap in FP2, posting a benchmark of 1m45.944s to lead the session. McLaren’s Lando Norris followed closely behind, while Max Verstappen placed Red Bull firmly in the mix.
Hamilton, however, was left looking up the road at two teams he knows well. The Ferrari driver ended the session 0.747 seconds away from Antonelli’s leading time and believes the characteristics of Spa’s high-speed layout could play directly into Mercedes and McLaren’s hands.
“Mercedes is always the team to beat, they have been all year,” Hamilton reckoned. “On a track with long straights like this you would expect that to be the case. I think they're going to be very strong.
“McLaren is looking good. McLaren is really good at high-speed corners it seems, medium- and high-speed corners.”
Ferrari searching for answers in Spa’s middle sector
While Hamilton acknowledged the strengths of his former teams, he also highlighted where Ferrari appears to be losing ground.
The Briton pointed towards Spa’s second sector – the section dominated by fast corners – as the area where the SF-25 needs improvement. Although Ferrari’s opening practice performance offered some encouragement, the afternoon session painted a more realistic picture of the current gap.
“I think FP1 looks a bit stronger than we anticipated and then FP2 everyone like jumped up and took another step,” he reflected.
“So that was probably more realistic. And then, the car generally feels good, but we're lacking a little bit in the middle sector, so we're trying to figure out why.”
When asked whether he could pinpoint a specific limitation affecting Ferrari through that part of the lap, Hamilton suggested the issue was linked to the aerodynamic compromise required at a circuit like Spa.
“It feels a little bit downforce-related, the balance is good in general,” he said.
“You would have more load on the car if you could, but then you need the speed on the straights, so we'll do a deep dive tonight to figure out how we can pick up that middle sector and not lose hopefully [top speed].”
The challenge facing Ferrari is a familiar one at Spa: finding enough aerodynamic grip through the sweeping corners without sacrificing the straight-line efficiency needed for the long blasts from La Source to Les Combes.
Ferrari refuses to read too much into Friday pace
Despite Hamilton’s concerns, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was reluctant to draw firm conclusions from the opening day.
The Frenchman stressed that Friday practice often provides an incomplete picture, with teams running different fuel loads, engine settings and preparation programmes ahead of qualifying.
“If you have a look on the last three or four Fridays, it's not always representative of the qualifying,” Vasseur pointed out. “I think we are all using different modes, different level of fuel and so on. Let's see tomorrow afternoon.”
That caution is supported by recent trends, with Friday’s fastest car rarely translating directly into pole position on non-sprint weekends.
For Hamilton and Ferrari, the focus now turns to finding the missing performance in Spa’s crucial middle sector while keeping enough straight-line speed to remain competitive.
Meanwhile, Mercedes and McLaren head into the rest of the weekend with momentum – and Hamilton’s own warning that both could be major contenders.
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