Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari are “doing everything” they can with upgrades as they try to fight Mercedes at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, but expects Spa-Francorchamps’ long straights to make it “very difficult”. Hamilton said: "On this track, I mean, it's very difficult. This circuit is all about long straights... But we're doing everything we can in terms of upgrades. The team just... I'm so proud of them. They're continuing to push to optimise the car. We're making fine adjustments to it every week... it's like every weekend we've had something small, and hopefully we keep finding more."

RacingNews365 reports Mercedes has fitted Kimi Antonelli’s fourth power unit for the Belgian Grand Prix after spotting a potential issue in the data from the unit he ran at Silverstone. The championship leader is now on the final power unit in his allocation, so he has avoided an immediate grid drop at Spa, but any further change later in the season would trigger a penalty. Mercedes hopes to resolve the suspected problem and bring the swapped-out unit back into use to avoid needing another new engine.

Haas driver Ollie Bearman says Formula 1's current regulations have left him preferring to race at tracks such as the Hungaroring rather than Spa-Francorchamps, ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix. Bearman said: "If you asked me last year where I'd prefer to race, it would be here. This year I would tell you probably Hungary and Austria, as opposed to Silverstone and Spa, which sounds crazy, but that's what it is."

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli said Roger Federer advised him to focus on “one race at a time” and control his emotions after they spoke during Antonelli’s visit to Wimbledon’s Royal Box. Antonelli said: "About pressure, he just told me to really focus on one race at a time, just focus on what you can control, and also to control your emotions, especially the ones that can make you make mistakes, so those were the main [pieces of] advice."

Max Verstappen says his Red Bull future will “work out naturally” and that he feels no pressure from team boss Laurent Mekies to make a decision. Verstappen said: "No, but you know, I'm just busy making sure we take the right steps... it'll all work out naturally. It's always been that way."

Esteban Ocon has been given a suspended €5,000 fine by the FIA after arriving around a minute late to Thursday’s drivers’ press conference ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. The stewards said Ocon was delayed moving from a team meeting and “underestimated the time it would take to get there”, with Haas’ team representative apologising and promising to allow more time for FIA media duties. The fine is suspended for 12 months unless there is a similar breach.







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