Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have given their verdicts on the upgrade that Ferrari have brought to the Belgian Grand Prix, with the SF-25 set to run a revised rear suspension.
Following the introduction of a new floor in Austria, the Scuderia have brought another new part for the weekend ahead at Spa-Francorchamps, something that the team looked to have tested during a session at Mugello earlier this week.
When asked during Thursday’s media day in Belgium about how different the car felt in those laps with the new rear suspension, Hamilton responded: “The same as before.”
Pushed further on whether the weekend ahead might be where the team discover what the car is capable of, the seven-time World Champion said: “No. Firstly we’ll get to test the suspension tomorrow and I’m sure there’s going to be learnings from it.
“We’ll kind of figure out how to finetune it and to try to extract performance from it. On the simulator there’s no difference, but I’m sure across different circuits perhaps there’ll be benefits. I think for me the positive thing is arriving at the filming day where you see that new bits are coming, you see that we are getting development.
“In general we had an upgraded floor in Bahrain, then it was quite some time before we got another upgrade, I think it was Austria, so pace-wise it wasn’t necessarily what I would have thought we would have.
“If you look at some of the other teams, they bring small pieces every weekend. Red Bull often do and Mercedes do, for example, whereas these are more like big chunks along the way.
“I think I was just really happy to see that there clearly is a big pushback at the factory, there are a lot of changes, and then to see the results with those changes takes time, so I was just really grateful to see we’ve got new parts. We’ll try and put them to use this weekend.”
Leclerc was also cautious when asked if the revised rear suspension could help Ferrari to move closer to winning this year.
“Is it going to be the change? I would be careful of saying that,” the Monegasque responded. “I think it’s a change, and it’s a change that is going in the right direction.
“I don’t think there’s anything in the car that today, even if we put the best of the best parts [on], will give us three or four tenths which is what we are lacking compared to McLaren, so that’s not the only thing that will make us go back to winning.
“But I’m confident to say that that is going to be one of the parts that hopefully will bring us closer to McLaren because it’s going in the right direction, of that I’m sure. On that I’m confident; I don’t think it’s going to be what is going to turn the situation around completely from one race to the other.”
In terms of what the weekend ahead might hold for the team, Leclerc admitted that the return of the Sprint means that there will be less time to adjust to the upgrade.
“It’s a Sprint weekend so we’ve got to be on top of things very, very quickly, and we also have some new parts which we’ll have to understand how they work as quickly as possible, but I’m not too concerned about that part,” the 27-year-old added.
“But we need to react from what was a very difficult weekend in Silverstone, especially in those conditions. Lots of things that we’ve learned, now we need to apply them on track.”