Mercedes F1 car was a “handful” in wet weather in Spa

The unpredictable wet weather for the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend has complicated things for riders in terms of the typical downforce balance required to get the fastest times through spas long straight first and last thirds and the more technical mid-sector travel.

Motorsport.com sources suggested after Friday’s practice session that given the difficulty of predicting when it would rain for the rest of the weekend – at which point the race might be dry, at least when compared to the wet conditions for Qualifying – would choose to tune their cars for optimal performance in the dry and use this approach to find their drivers in the wet.

In the battle for the top of the grid, this seems to favor Red Bull, who took pole with Max Verstappen, as the team’s high-rake concept has difficulty reducing drag in dry conditions as the rear of the RB16B sits higher the air, which in turn means that with a dry setup it has a more “natural” downforce when it is wet.

Hamilton, who will start the Belgian race in third behind Verstappen and Williams driver George Russell, was probably referring to this in the post-qualifying press conference when he said, “I think there are people with different downforce” compared to Mercedes Weekend.

“Just a tricky session for everyone, also because of the rain – it was more intense at various points on the track,” said Hamilton about Saturday’s qualifying.

“A fight for us today, I would say, with our car. We saw it with Valtteri too.

“Only the car was a bit of a handful today. But I’m still very happy to be in the second row and I will get the points tomorrow. ”

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When asked for his comments on his wet car handling, Hamilton replied, “Well, you know, there isn’t really much to say, there just wasn’t a lot of grip for everyone out there and I think there are people.” with different output levels.

“We tried to find the best compromise, the best balance for the potential circumstances of today and tomorrow – in terms of dryness and wetness. And so we hope that we are fine.

“We’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow and we’ll see how it works.”

After finishing 0.279 seconds behind Verstappen, who led the lead in the interrupted Q3 session following Lando Norris’ major accident at Eau Rouge, Hamilton said he was confident Mercedes had better racing potential.

“I think our racing pace should be a little faster than our pace [on Saturday]“, Explained the world champion.

“But I still think that there will still be a handful – especially if there are these” [wet] conditions [again].