What the teams said – Friday in Belgium

Mercedes

Mercedes were a little off the pace in FP1, some of which could have been down to the decision to bolt the soft tyres on quite early in the session. Antonelli had the edge on his team mate though, to the tune of three tenths of a second. The Italian had the edge in FP2 as well, although that time around it was over the entire field. He was fast on the mediums and the softs, winding up fastest of all from Norris and Verstappen. Russell was down in eighth again, after complaining about sliding.

Kimi Antonelli - FP1: 1:47.603, P6; FP2: 1:45.944, P1

"After a tricky FP1, we made several changes to the car that improved things. That gives us a positive direction to follow as we head into the rest of the weekend. There is still lots of work for us to do, both in terms of set-up and also with my driving. Whilst we ended the day quickest, we know just how competitive the field is looking on both the single lap and the long run. Overall, though, we're happy that we enjoyed a much better second hour of practice and we're looking forward to the weekend.

"Our goal as always is to maximise our points scoring and fight for the win. Whilst Silverstone was disappointing for me, it's already behind us and I feel in a good place. Our pace was strong there and whilst Spa presents a different challenge, after today, we can be confident of getting ourselves in the fight at the front."

George Russell - FP1: 1:47.959, P8; FP2: 1:47.229, P8

"We haven't had the smoothest Friday here in Spa. We overestimated the grip levels in FP1 and that meant our starting set-up wasn't in the right place. We struggled with a difficult car balance and, whilst we were able to complete some learning, it wasn't the ideal way to start our weekend.

"We therefore worked hard ahead of FP2 and made some changes which improved things. There is still more lap time we can find, particularly on the single lap, and we will look to do that overnight. Our long run was more competitive and that gives us encouragement heading into Saturday and Sunday."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"There was less grip than we were expecting in FP1 and that meant the car was under-winged during that first hour. The drivers were fighting a tricky balance and thus didn't have the confidence in the car to extract the lap time. Both George and Kimi did well to work with a car that was proving a handful and give us a good direction for FP2.

"The changes we made between the sessions did their job and the car was in a much happier place come FP2. Kimi was able to hook his Soft tyre lap up to top the times and whilst George ended the day in P8, that is not representative of what he is capable of. He only had one go at it and we can see several areas where he will extract more time as we head into the weekend.

"The competitive picture looks tight as it has in recent races. Our goal is always to get both our cars at the front; our long runs looked solid and race pace is by far the most important thing around Spa. We will work hard overnight to find more pace and do our bit as a team to make sure we are in the best possible position for the rest of the weekend."

McLaren

McLaren had a tricky first session, with Piastri picking up a hydraulics issue late on that forced him to limp back to the pits. He only missed out on practice starts, but it was a less than ideal way to begin his weekend. As for Norris, he ran the soft tyres for most of the session, opting for a different programme given he knows he has a 10-place grid drop coming for the race.

Piastri missed the start of FP2 as the team continued to fix up his car, but did eventually come out and managed to get a run in on the mediums and the softs. Norris was the faster of the duo, winding up second, which makes his grid drop even more of a shame here as he does tend to be quick at this track over one lap.

Lando Norris - FP1: 1:47.931, P7; FP2: 1:46.134, P2

“A progressive day on track at Spa. The first session wasn't clean due to a few issues that kept us in the garage, but we made some positive steps forward with the car between FP1 and FP2. The one-lap pace seems reasonable, and we feel a bit happier with the balance now compared to this morning. However, we're not getting ahead of ourselves. We've seen this pattern before on Fridays, and we expect the leading competitors to show their hand more tomorrow.

“Our focus is to analyse the data overnight, see if we can make another step forward in tomorrow’s practice, before heading into Qualifying. We'll see where we truly stand tomorrow and keep working hard to continue moving in the right direction despite the frustration of a 10-place grid penalty on Sunday from using a fourth power electronics unit.”

Oscar Piastri - FP1: 1:47.522, P5; FP2: 1:46.926, P6

“Overall, it has been a reasonable day. Unfortunately, we were delayed going out in FP2 as the team worked to fix the cause of the hydraulic leak that appeared at the end of FP1. Thank you to them for working through to get that sorted. However, we made good progress in FP2, and our pace is looking reasonable. We are heading in the right direction, and we are in a good place to build on that in FP3 tomorrow and into Qualifying.”

Neil Houldey, Technical Director - Applied Engineering

“We’re reasonably happy with the general pace shown today and feel we’re a bit better in relation to the usual status quo seen over the past few race weekend. Lando did an excellent job extracting the maximum from the car and seems happy with the setup going into tomorrow. However, it wasn’t a completely smooth day for us. The hydraulics issue that presented itself at the end of FP1 on Oscar’s car was disruptive, unfortunately costing him valuable track time in FP2 as the team continued to work into the second session after swapping the gearbox. It was a strong effort from the team to get through the workload as quickly as possible, so thank you to them.

“The low downforce rear wing we brought has performed as we hoped, which is another positive to take into the weekend. Our main focus overnight will be on fine-tuning the energy deployment strategy and ensuring reliability so that we are able to maximise our track time. We’ve gathered a lot of data from various options tested today, but we know the best is still out there for us to find. While Oscar’s lost time makes things a little harder, we are confident in his ability to get up to speed. The collaboration between our drivers is a huge strength, and by working together, we’re sure we can unlock more performance from the package for Qualifying and the race.”

Red Bull

Verstappen topped the opening practice session for the first time this season, the Red Bull man looking quick at a track he has admitted is his favourite. He was backed up well by Hadjar, but the Frenchman is carrying a hefty grid drop and thus is up against it to put together a strong weekend. Both were fast in the second session too, although Verstappen did complain about his shifts again. But when the car behaved to his liking, the Dutchman was quick enough to put himself in the battle for pole tomorrow.

Max Verstappen - FP1: 1:47.070, P1; FP2: 1:46.416, P3

“The practice sessions were pretty decent for us today. The balance was good straight away and we were mainly working on fine-tuning the car, which hopefully unlocked a little more pace. In FP2 we were perhaps seeing the real gap a bit more clearly, but we cannot be disappointed with our performance and are focusing on ourselves. It is quite a challenging track with the energy management, and during the session we were also looking at the downshifts as it took some time to get them working properly. From a balance perspective, the car felt okay too and hopefully we can find some more pace before Qualifying. There are some areas we still need to improve, but all in all it was a good day.” 

Isack Hadjar - FP1: 1:47.322, P4; FP2: 1:46.714, P5

“The pace in the car was good from my first lap out there today. It feels like we’ve made a step forward in performance since Silverstone, which is positive. I felt pretty good and, going into FP2, we tried to carry that on. In the second session, the gap to the leaders increased, so we'll look into where we can catch up.  Overall, it was a solid day and it's good to be in the picture.” 

Pierre Wache, Technical Director

“Overall, we made a good start today. Spa is quite a tricky circuit in terms of energy recovery and deployment. In FP1 and FP2 we were looking at multiple strategies to deal with that. It looks quite open at the moment. The balance is not perfect, and we saw some degradation on the long run, so we have some work to do tonight to prepare for Qualifying tomorrow. However, it’s a good starting point to improve upon.

“Regarding the change of the rear wing, we identified a mechanical problem and we have a fix in place. So we will try to bring back the original wing soon. However, our first priority is to make sure that the car is completely safe for the drivers as we don't want to take any risks.”

Ferrari

Ferrari looked quick in FP1, Hamilton setting his fastest time on his second flying lap after picking up traffic on his first attempt. Leclerc backed him up well, the Scuderia looking strong out of the box at Spa. That trend largely continued in the second session, with Hamilton very much in the mix up front. Leclerc was slightly further back, although he lost his fastest lap time to track limits which dropped him back.

Charles Leclerc - FP1: 1:47.277, P3; FP2: 1:47.468, P11

"We did a lot of work over the course of the day, and there is still some room for improvement in terms of our competitiveness. We will fine tune our setup ahead of tomorrow and work on finding some more lap time for qualifying."

Lewis Hamilton - FP1: 1:47.215, P2; FP2: 1:46.691, P4

"We got through a good amount of work today and gathered plenty of useful information across both sessions. The balance of the car is generally good, but there are a few areas where we know we can improve, particularly through the middle sector. Tonight we'll go through all the data with the engineers, refine the set-up and look for those small gains that can make the difference ahead of qualifying."

Alpine

Alpine were off the pace in the opening hour of practice, but were very much in the mix in FP2. Colapinto wound up a very impressive seventh, raising hopes that Alpine can get in the mix for those Q3 berths that Racing Bulls have locked down of late. But Gasly could not join him there, and his session ended in the barriers after a late crash. The Frenchman lost the rear of his car out of Turn 13, hitting the barriers and knocking off his rear wing. He was able to walk away, but his mechanics will have a night of it fixing his car and it remains to be seen if there is any gearbox damage.

Pierre Gasly - FP1: 1:49.712, P17; FP2: 1:47.360, P18

“Firstly, I am glad I am okay after the incident in Free Practice 2. It was obviously a fairly big impact with the wall after the car snapped and I could not recover it fully. I am sure we'll look into what happened as it was quite a big snap and resulted in a lot of damage to the car. As for the rest of the day, we had a decent day of testing in both sessions where we tried different parts across both cars. We'll work now to learn and see what is good and what to take forwards for the rest of the weekend. Tomorrow, we'll aim to put it all together and focus on reaching the top ten in Qualifying in the afternoon.”

Franco Colapinto - FP1: 1:49.403, P15; FP2: 1:47.147, P7

“Today was very productive and we finished the day in a pretty decent position on the timesheets in P7 in Free Practice 2, so I think we can be quite happy with our progress throughout both sessions. In Free Practice 1, our work consisted of trying various ideas across both cars to see where we need to develop and improve. I know some of our rivals might not have set representative lap-times, but we'll focus on ourselves first and look to make improvements and find more performance. It seems there are some areas of the lap where we look quite strong, others where we are a little weak, but that is the nature of Spa with such different sectors and demands. Our target is to improve the car, find more pace and aim for the best possible result tomorrow.”

Steve Nielsen, Managing Director

“In the end, it has turned out to be a busy and eventful day in Belgium. In terms of the positives, it was good to do a lot of cross-car testing in Free Practice 1 where we were able to compare different parts and set-ups. We did not worry so much about chasing lap-time with all our focus going into providing enough data to accurately compare some strengths and weaknesses of our package. In Free Practice 2, with a clearer direction to follow, we began to push a little bit more and chase lap-time. Franco was well up there on his Soft run in P7 with Pierre also finding good improvements, other than the track limits infringement, which meant his best lap time was deleted. Pierre then had an incident where he had a snap and subsequently ran wide at decent speed with little chance to correct his course. Such is the nature of this track, and that corner, he had a big impact with the wall. Thankfully Pierre is fine and now we have a lot of work to do overnight to repair the car. We were changing some parts anyway, as is normal between Friday and a Saturday, so we are confident we can bounce back tomorrow and aim for a good result with both cars.”

Racing Bulls

Racing Bulls have been the pick of the midfield of late, and that trend continued in FP1 with Lindblad finishing in the top 10 and Lawson just outside it. The former has an upgrade here but the New Zealander does not – the team only able to bring one set of parts in time for this weekend. Lindblad earned the honour of running it by finishing above his team mate in Qualifying at Silverstone last time out. And it does seem to be paying dividends, as Lindblad just shaded his team mate in FP2 as well.

Arvid Lindblad - FP1: 1:48.234, P9; FP2: 1:47.294, P9

"Overall, it's been a decent first day here in Spa. Once again, the team has given us a car with a strong baseline, which allowed us to start the weekend well. There are still a few areas that we'll have to analyse overnight, but it's been encouraging. The main focus will be on extracting a bit more performance on the Soft tyre, as I wasn't able to make as much of a step as I would've liked today. There are also a few question marks heading into Sunday, particularly regarding long runs, as we only managed to do a few laps in FP1 and almost none in FP2. We have a competitive package, and if we put everything together, we should be fighting for Q3 and points for the rest of the weekend."

Liam Lawson - FP1: 1:48.432, P11; FP2: 1:47.434, P10

"We’ve had a good Friday with both cars in the top 10. Spa feels quite different this year compared to previous years, so we’ve been focused on optimising the car and understanding the best way to manage our battery and energy deployment. We’ll work on that overnight and hopefully come back stronger tomorrow. The car has been performing well so far, so the focus is now on fine-tuning everything and making the most of the package we have."

Alan Permane, Team Principal

"It's been a positive first day on track here in Spa. We've introduced a decent upgrade package on both cars, including a revised rear wing, front brake drum and a redesigned engine cover. Arvid has a little bit extra with the cooling package, which is looking strong too. The car is working extremely well on the Medium tyre, but not quite so well on the Soft. As such, our focus tonight will be to extract more pace on the Soft tyre ahead of Qualifying tomorrow afternoon. We've collected plenty of data which we'll be analysing in order to make the necessary improvements ahead of FP3 tomorrow."

Audi

It was a strong opening session for Audi, who are looking to build on their success from Silverstone where Bortoleto managed to score. The Brazilian wound up in the top 10 in FP1, raising hopes that they might go well here. They dropped back in FP2 though, as Colapinto showed a glimpse of Alpine’s pace and rejigged the pecking order in the midfield. As such, there is work to do for Audi overnight to try and recover a little ground.

Nico Hulkenberg - FP1: 1:48.962, P12; FP2: 1:48.333, P17

"Today was all about learning. We tried a few different things with the car, gathered some useful information and now it's up to us to process everything overnight and make sure we put the best package on track tomorrow.

“We know it won't be easy to break into the top ten here, but there's still everything to play for. You never know how a weekend can unfold, so the focus is on putting everything together and making the most of every opportunity."

Gabriel Bortoleto - FP1: 1:48.406, P10; FP2: 1:47.952, P13

"It's been a regular, productive Friday for us. FP1 and FP2 are now in the books, and we've gathered quite a good amount of data from both sessions. There's still plenty to improve and a lot more to learn, and that will be our focus for tonight. We'll be going through all the data, understanding where we can extract more performance, making sure both the car and I are in the best possible place for qualifying tomorrow."

Haas

Bearman was the pick of the two Haas drivers in FP1, finishing a few places and a few tenths ahead of his team mate. Ocon is celebrating the 10th anniversary of his first F1 start this weekend, but once again he could not quite match the pace of his team mate in the second session. Haas remain slightly off the pace of their midfield rivals, with the team making no secret of the fact they have been out-developed this season.

Esteban Ocon – FP1: 1:49.449, P16; FP2: 1:47.958, P14

“It's been interesting to complete the first laps with the 2026 cars around Spa-Francorchamps today. It's quite difficult to get the energy deployment correct in the right places. We luckily escaped the rain, as it rained in between sessions but not during, so we'll need to monitor that tomorrow, like we always have to in Spa. There's some small details that we need to improve ahead of tomorrow, so we'll be focusing on that overnight.”

Oliver Bearman - FP1: 1:49.010, P13; FP2: 1:47.792, P12

“It’s been a positive day. We’ve brought a new front wing which is not a groundbreaking step, but it’s a step in the right direction, and I’m happy with how the car has been feeling, that’s positive. In the end, we need to focus on what we have, and honestly the balance was pretty good, so I’m happy. Hopefully, the weather will play into our hands over the rest of the weekend. When things get cooler, you uncover less of your limitations, of which, we have quite a few. I think the cool favors us and we will do our very best to be up there where it counts on Saturday and Sunday.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“It was a pretty decent Friday. We ran quite a significant test plan because of various things that came out of the previous two races for us to understand and make progress. I’m really happy that all of the team – trackside and factory – came up with a very good plan, and both drivers have been really understanding in what we need to do. We’ve done basically everything we set out to achieve today, the only thing we couldn’t do due to the red flag was our long run, so we’ll have to look at that for the race. In terms of making progress on understanding and making a car that has better characteristics, I feel we really made a step, so it’s been a good Friday.”

Williams

It was a disjointed first session for Williams, who were attempting to test a new front wing across both cars. Other than the switching and swapping, Albon had the cleaner session of the two. Sainz managed to get in the way of Antonelli and run wide at various points, as the Spaniard struggled to extract any pace from his car. The second session was much of the same, with Sainz struggling a little more than his team mate, as Williams continue to try and bridge the gap to the midfield cars.

Alex Albon - FP1: 1:49.337, P14; FP2: 1:48.019, P15

“The car is feeling marginally better this weekend compared to Silverstone so it’s a step in the right direction. Carlos and I tested multiple different items on the car, which we’ll now go away and analyse this evening to give us the best setup for qualifying and the race. We’ve got a long way to go to the midfield, but tomorrow will be all about maximising the package we have available.”

Carlos Sainz - FP1: 1:50.862, P20; FP2: 1:48.256, P16

“It was a scrappy day today. There was an issue on my car in FP1, so the session wasn’t representative as we couldn’t do the setup work we wanted. In FP2, we made some good progress and got the car to a better window although I picked up some damage somewhere and it wasn’t a clean session either. This evening we’ll look into everything to find solutions, improve our balance and hopefully we will be in better shape tomorrow.”

Paul Williams, Chief Trackside Engineer

“We knew coming here would be difficult in terms of energy management, so we’ve done a lot of work back at Grove to prepare for this week. This circuit is very energy sensitive, so getting the balance right is key, particularly in the second sector. We made a number of setup changes across the sessions to test various options and we’re generally happy with the balance of the car, although traffic impacted final lap timings. We’ll regroup this evening to review the data and put us in the best position possible for the weekend ahead. Tomorrow will be about managing energy, particularly in low fuel, and getting in amongst the midfield for qualifying.”

Cadillac

Cadillac did not run into any reliability issues in FP1, both drivers able to complete the session and bank plenty of laps. That trend continued in the second session, with Bottas narrowly ahead of his team mate. The good news is Cadillac are comfortably ahead of Aston Martin so far here, the bad news is Williams look to be a little out of reach at the moment.

Valtteri Bottas - FP1: 1:49.839, P18; FP2: 1:49.199, P19

“It was a positive and productive day overall. We completed all of our planned set-up work, ran through a number of valuable tests and had no issues with the car, which allowed us to maximise our track time. It also looks like we’re a little bit closer to the midfield here, which is encouraging. There’s still plenty to analyse overnight, but we’ve gathered some good data and the focus now is on finding those marginal gains that can help us take another step forward tomorrow.”

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:50.226, P19; FP2: 1:49.596, P20

“It’s great to be back in Spa, although the lap feels very different with this new generation of cars. We had a solid day today, running through the tire compounds and different fuel loads, although it was interrupted by the flags in both sessions. We have some work to do to get the balance and energy deployment right over the lap, but we will look into this tonight to improve for Qualifying tomorrow.”

Graeme Lowdon, Team Principal

“We had a clean day today and were able to conduct some very useful evaluation of the new front wing endplate we have brought to Spa. It is performing well and showing a step forward in terms of balance and aero performance. Energy management over the long lap will be our principal focus tonight as we have yet to put together the optimal strategy for deployment, so we know there is more lap time to come from us.”

Aston Martin

Crawford was in Alonso’s car in FP1, the rookie giving a good account of himself with a clean session. Stroll’s hour was not entirely clean though, the Canadian running wide through the gravel at one point. Roll on FP2, and neither driver was able to extract enough pace to challenge those ahead. Stroll pipped Alonso, but the Canadian will be dropping back tomorrow as he has a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s race.

Fernando Alonso - FP2: 1:51.418, P22
Lance Stroll - FP1: 1:52.808, P21; FP2: 1:51.131, P21
Jak Crawford - FP1: 1:53.199, P22

Crawford said:

"It was great to get out there today and experience my first laps around Spa in a Formula One car. It's a completely different circuit compared to my previous FP1 sessions.

"We know we're not as competitive as we’d like to be at the moment, but we completed the run plan and gathered some valuable data.

"These sessions are really important for both my development and the team."

Pirelli

Simone Berra, Pirelli Chief Engineer

“The rain that fell overnight and throughout the day significantly reduced track grip, increasing lap times compared to both our and the teams’ expectations. If there is no further precipitation, the track will gradually rubber in and return to the anticipated levels. Despite the interruption in the second hour of free practice, teams should have gathered sufficient data to tackle the weekend.

“Degradation was slightly higher than initial expectations on the two softest compounds, on both axles: on the front due to abrasion, and on the rear due to thermal effects. We do not expect this phenomenon to recur over the coming days, when temperatures will be lower and the track conditions improved. The delta between Medium and Soft is between four and five tenths, in line with simulations.

“The Hard compound was used by only a few teams in FP1. Many teams therefore chose to preserve two sets of the hardest compound. It is interesting to consider the reason, given that a one-stop race on Sunday appears very likely. The additional set could represent a valuable joker in the event of a neutralisation during the Grand Prix, should a first stop have already been made.”