Mercedes, and more specifically Lewis Hamilton, experienced a tricky Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, as the seven-time world champion finished more than a second off Max Verstappen’s pole time in qualifying on Saturday and then he had to leave after an accident with Fernando Alonso on the first lap.
But the German team recovered quickly, and at Zandvoort Hamilton managed to get really close to the best times in qualifying and in the race he will start fourth, despite being forced to abort his last lap of Q3 due to a spin by Sergio Pérez, when it seemed that the first row was possible.
This was the latest radical performance change from Mercedes in a season in which they have yet to fully understand the W13 and its weaknesses, due in no small part to problems caused by porpoising earlier in the year.
Asked by Motorsport.com if the British driver’s performance at Zandvoort gave him hope of never having a weekend like Spa-Francorchamps again, Hamilton replied: “There is hope that the potential is really there.”
“But I have no idea if the car is going to be good or bad in the next few races. This season is something we find out when we get to the circuit.”
“It’s like mood swings in a human being. You don’t know how he’s going to get up each day.”
Hamilton said Mercedes engineers now have a “much better understanding” of why the W13 didn’t perform as well as expected at Spa, acknowledging there were “things we could have done differently”.
“We’re just looking at the things we can do to make sure we come into each race better prepared,” said Hamilton.
“But in general, on this type of track, just taking the car out for a run works much better than others just because of the height and that kind of thing.”
Mercedes Formula 1 director Toto Wolff revealed after qualifying that team data showed Hamilton was a tenth of a second ahead of Verstappen’s pole time before aborting his lap due to yellow flags displayed. by Sergio Pérez’s spin in the final sector.
It was a big performance change from qualifying at Spa, which Wolff called “unacceptable” and said it was “the worst I’ve seen with Mercedes in 10 years”.
However, the German team took valuable lessons from Belgium: “Now we understand the car more and we knew this would be a much better race for us based on the learning from Spa, and it is showing,” said Wolff.
“We are there. I think we had a competitive car in qualifying. And as you saw in practice, fast for the race as well, so the predictions were correct.”
“Ultimately, I’d rather be confusing and fast than slow and clear,” he concluded.
