Sir Lewis Hamilton has expressed his discontent with the “massive bump” that has formed at Eau Rouge.
Reflecting on the opening two practice sessions for the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton said it was a “bit miserable here” and noted that it was difficult for the team to get valuable data in FP1 and FP2 due to the sessions being short.
“It’s been an okay day, a bit miserable here, the sessions are very short so we don’t get a huge amount of knowledge from the short time we have,” Hamilton told Sky F1 on Friday.
“At least it was dry for FP2, so we got some laps in, but the car wasn’t quite underneath me today, so I’ve got some work tonight to try and figure that out.
“It’s a massively challenging circuit, trying to find that right balance, and this morning we had it one way, we changed it this afternoon, very, very similar.
“You go faster in the first and third sector, but you go slower in the middle, or you go quicker in the middle and slower in the other two.
“So trying to find that balance is quite tricky, but it’s a great, great circuit.
“It’s very bumpy now through Eau Rouge, something has happened, they have ruined it a little bit, I don’t know if there is a new patch there but there is a massive bump right at the compression point, which we never had there before.
“It’s really sharp, you feel it through the backside, but I’m sure they’ll fix it, I think it’s something to do with the mudslide, the rain,” he added.
Asked about the weather – which is typically very unpredictable in this region of Belgium – Hamilton said it will be an important factor on race day and teams will need to consider it when deciding which set-up to run in qualifying.
“Naturally I think if it is guaranteed to rain then you would want more downforce,” he said.
“But then if it doesn’t rain and the weather man or woman is wrong, then you are a sitting duck on the straights.
“So we have to be very careful, cautious with setup changes that we make over the next day.”