Lewis Hamilton has poured cold water on the prospect of Ferrari taking a big step forward as a result of the new suspension the Scuderia is introducing at the Belgian Grand Prix.
As Formula 1 rolls into Spa for the 13th round of the season, much attention has been drawn to Ferrari’s newest technical upgrade: a revised suspension system expected to boost its competitiveness.
The suspension has been in development for months and its goal is to help the team with setting up the ride height of its car, something with which Ferrari has struggled this year.
However, Hamilton remains cautious and pragmatic about just how much of a difference the upgrade might make.
When asked if Spa would be the venue to finally see what Ferrari’s car is truly capable of, Hamilton responded: “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 fine-tune it and try to extract performance from it.”
Despite the hype surrounding the upgrade, Hamilton said that on the simulator there was “no difference,” though he acknowledged that “across different circuits perhaps there’ll be benefits.”
Addressing questions about a recent filming day at Mugello where Ferrari ran the car with new parts, Hamilton was quick to downplay any revelations.
“We didn’t test. It was a photo shoot day, basically. So did like 10 laps or whatever. It’s 14 laps of filming, which was not a test.”