Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth at the 2026 Belgian GP, after contact with George Russell’s Mercedes on the first lap derailed the seven-time F1 champion’s race, with damage to his Ferrari costing him a “massive amount” of downforce. But the Briton believes he and the team “had the pace to win” if his race weekend went a bit more smoothly in all fronts.
Hamilton: FP3 incident had “knock-on” effect on a “difficult” weekend at the 2026 F1 Belgian GP
Five times a winner at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Hamilton’s weekend at the 2026 edition of the Belgian F1 GP was marked by a shunt right at the end of the final practice session, where he lost the rear of his SF-26 exiting the Fagnes chicane and hitting the barriers just a few hours before qualifying, giving the Ferrari mechanics a lot of rebuilding work – which he believes cost him a chance at perfecting the set-up he would carry through into qualifying:
“Ultimately, [it was] a difficult weekend,” Hamilton said after the race in the print media pen. “I take all responsibility for my incident [in FP3], which then had a knock-on effect with the set-up not being right, and then [put me] out of place in qualifying.
“I think with the set-up being right, we probably could’ve been fighting for third – second or third [in the grid]. That meant [I was] starting further back, and then I was in a position where it looks like George [Russell] lost power and then he swooped around my outside and then we just a had a small coming together.”
Front-left of the underfloor was “gone” after the contact with Russell
Not only did Hamilton get a five-second time penalty for causing the collision that wiped out George Russell’s Mercedes on the first lap of the 2026 Belgian GP, the resulting damage left the Ferrari driver missing “massive amounts” of downforce, which then had an enduring negative effect on the balance of his Ferrari F1 car for the rest of the race:
“[It was] unfortunate for him, unfortunate for me. I didn’t want to see that. At the end of the race, I did the best job I could with the damage that I had, and then also the penalty.
“I mean, I think it was a racing incident, so obviously I didn’t think that it should be a penalty, but it is what it is.
“I mean, I’ll text him later on, because we won’t get to see, everyone rushes out here,” he explained. “The last thing you ever want to do is come together with your teammate or with your old team, who you highly respect and with George. But it happened.
“[As for the] damage, overall, I think we lost a massive amount of downforce. I don’t know what the numbers are, but it’s the left [side of the] floor, front of the floor was gone.”
Hamilton was worried about breaking his mechanic’s leg like Kimi Räikkönen in 2018
Ferrari decided to double-stack its cars when the Virtual Safety Car came out on lap 20 of the 2026 F1 Belgian GP, with Hamilton coming into the pits just behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
The Briton had to wait five seconds whilst he served his time penalty for the incident earlier on, but a further delay happened as he nearly ran over the mechanic who was trying to increase the flap angle of his front wing, as the green light was given too early.
The incident was a double whamy for Hamilton, as not only did he nearly seriously hurt a member of his crew – which reminded him of Kimi Räikkönen’s unfortunate incident at the 2018 Bahrain GP, when he ran over Francesco Cigarini’s left leg as he was released too early – but also meant he didn’t get the necessary flap angle adjustments, which caused severe understeer on the hard tyres.
“And then in the [stop], we didn’t get to put the front wing in, because of the double stack, and then I’m just grateful that he didn’t get hurt, my mechanic.”
“I’m looking at the lights, and I’m supposed to go when the car’s dropping,” he said. “And I went and then I saw him to my right, and I stopped as soon as I could. And luckily he didn’t [get hurt], all I could think at the time was like back when Kimi [Räikkönen] did a leg and I was like, “oh…”.
“That’s what I thought initially, but he got up and moved.”
Hamilton believes he “had the pace to win” with a cleaner weekend at 2026 F1 Belgian GP
All those factors combined for a very tough weekend for Hamilton at the 2026 Belgian GP, and still the seven-time champion came away with a fourth place and re-took second place in the drivers’ championship as F1 nears its summer break.
He praised the team’s sharp operations and strategy department for once again taking advantage of a timely VSC to make cheaper pit stops, and even went as far as saying he “had the pace” to win if his weekend had been cleaner:
“[It’s] definitely really encouraging,” he said when asked about the recent strategy calls from the Ferrari pit wall. “I think the team have been making great decisions with strategy.
“We’ve really elevated a lot across the board in how we operate on the weekend. And then today, I think we had the pace to win. So, given everything [that happened] to come away with the [12] points, I’m really grateful.”
