New Lewis Hamilton evidence emerges after cryptic ‘new component’ comments
Lewis Hamilton is working hard to make a success of his Ferrari career
Lewis Hamilton tried Ferrari’s new Brembo brake discs and pads for the first time at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, it has emerged.
It comes after the seven-time World Champion pointed to a mysterious “new component” on the SF-25 following his strange spin in sprint qualifying at Spa.
New Brembo brakes behind Lewis Hamilton’s bizarre Belgian GP spin?
After a challenging start to life at Ferrari in F1 2025, Hamilton endured a rollercoaster weekend in Belgium.
The 40-year-old suffered two Q1 eliminations in the space of 24 hours across Friday and Saturday, qualifying 18th for the sprint race and 16th for the main event after having a lap deleted due to a track limits breach.
Hamilton was among a number of drivers who opted to start from the pit lane, rising to seventh at the chequered flag after an impressive opening stint in wet conditions.
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Hamilton’s hopes for the sprint race disappeared after he spun under braking for the Bus Stop chicane on his final lap of SQ1 on Friday, leaving him in 18th place on the grid.
Speaking after the session, Hamilton claimed it was “the first time” in his career that he has spun after locking his rear brakes.
He later suggested a “new component” on his car, first used by team-mate Charles Leclerc at last month’s Canadian Grand Prix, contributed to his mistake.
It has emerged that Hamilton was using a new combination of Brembo brake materials – including discs and pads – at Spa, designed to give him a more responsive feel under braking.
The unfamiliar brakes, combined with the amount of engine braking used by Ferrari, is thought to have resulted in Hamilton’s spin.
Hamilton said after Saturday’s sprint race at Spa: “We’ve got a new component on the car that Charles had in Montreal.
“He’s had it for a few races, but that’s the first time I’ve had it.
“Charles, you remember, he crashed with it in [FP1 in] Montreal and then I had the same experience in my first run with it yesterday [Friday].
“It’s just about finetuning it. Yesterday was the first time running it for me and I think now it’s just about finetuning it.”
It is common knowledge that Hamilton has struggled with the feel of Ferrari’s Brembo brakes since his arrival at the Italian team at the start of this year.
It emerged soon after his on-track debut with Ferrari’s 2023 car at Fiorano in January that had identified the brakes as an area of concern, having grown accustomed to Carbon Industrie materials over the course of his 12-year stint at Mercedes.
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The Belgian Grand Prix also saw Ferrari compete with its highly anticipated rear-suspension upgrade for the first time after its first on-track appearance at a recent filming day at Mugello.
It is hoped that the new part will go some way to rectifying the SF-25’s persistent ride-height issues and allow Ferrari to experiment with more aggressive setup choices, and potentially compete for race victories, in the second half of F1 2025.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at Spa, however, Hamilton confirmed recent reports that he has not noticed a major difference with the upgrade.
Asked how the car feels following the addition of the new rear suspension, he laughed: “The same as before! The same as the week before!”
Hamilton went on to outline his hope that Ferrari will optimise the suspension upgrade over the coming months, expressing optimism that the team has kept bringing improvements to its 2025 car.
He explained: “I’m sure there’s going to be learnings from it.
“We’ll kind of figure out how to fine tune 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.
“Because, in general, we had an upgraded floor in Bahrain and then it was quite some time before we got another upgrade. I think it was Austria.
“And 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 single weekend – like Red Bull often do, or 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 push back at the factory.
“There are a lot of changes and then to see the results of those changes takes time.
“So I was just really grateful to see that we got new parts.”
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