Mercedes feeling Friday blues again at Spa: ‘We’re a long way off’

Mercedes endured another difficult Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton claiming the team is “a long way off”.

After their most competitive weekend of the season in Hungary before the summer break, expectations were high for the Brackley-based team at Spa Francorchamps.

Then, on Friday, their chances were further boosted by news that both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen will take grid penalties for new engine components.

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But Mercedes’ performance on the track indicated they may not be in a position to capitalise as both Hamilton and George Russell finished well over a second off the pace.

“It could be tyres, it could be tyre temps, it could be wing level. It could be a multitude of things,” the seven-time world champion said on what was their main limitation.

“It doesn’t feel disastrous out there, it’s just we’re a long way off.

“But we often find this on Friday, and things change a little bit more on Saturday, so I hope that that’s the case.

“The car doesn’t feel the same as Budapest in terms of qualifying pace but it’s not far off how it felt on the Friday, so that gives me hope that we can turn it around.

“We’re going out and giving it everything we’ve got,” he added. “We’re just going to work hard tonight to analyse the data, and try to figure out where we can get with this car.”

Teammate Russell also began his summary of Practice by suggesting Mercedes may have to settle for third-best team in Belgium.

“We’re pretty used to having bad Fridays,” he said. “Let’s see if we can turn it around, but I don’t think there will be any guarantees we can find the performance step that we found in the last race.”

The Briton though does hope the prospect of better weather on Saturday and Sunday can address what was his main issue at Spa.

“Tyre temperature is something we’ve struggled with this season and I struggled quite a lot on every compound today. In these conditions, it’s definitely something we need to work on,” he conceded.

“We know that once you get temperatures in the right window, you can find a huge amount of performance, so there’s a little optimism there. We’ll be working flat out tonight to try and get on top of it.

“Totally different day tomorrow, conditions will be very different, hopefully warmer and drier so let’s see what it brings,” he added. “But for sure, the gap to Max [Verstappen] and the Ferraris is pretty extravagant.”