No F1 team has won the Belgian Grand Prix more than Ferrari, but they travel to Spa in 2025 with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc chasing their first win there since 2019.
The 2019 Belgian GP even marked the first Grand Prix victory that Leclerc achieved among his eight career race wins so far. Ferrari promoted the Monegasque from Sauber for the 2019 F1 season, and saw Leclerc get the Scuderia’s 18th Belgian GP win so far from pole position.
Ferrari are still waiting to see Hamilton win his first Grand Prix for the pride of Italy since the Briton moved to Maranello this term. The 40-year-old is also still yet to take a podium in red, but Hamilton is the second-most successful driver in the Belgian GP’s history with five wins.
The seven-time winner of the F1 drivers’ championship also triumphed at Spa one year ago for his final victory as a Mercedes driver. Hamilton inherited the win in the 2024 Belgian GP after George Russell was disqualified as his then-teammate’s car was deemed underweight.
Photo by SHAWN THEW/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Lewis Hamilton does not share Charles Leclerc’s doubt about Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade
Ferrari are desperate to join the fight for glory at the 2025 Belgian GP, with the pride of Italy the only team out of F1’s top four still yet to win a race or record a pole position this season. So, Ferrari will debut a rear suspension upgrade at the 2025 Belgian GP at Spa this weekend.
The Scuderia recently tested the upgrade at Mugello, having utilised F1’s filming day rules to give Leclerc and Hamilton 100km each with the new rear suspension on the SF-25. But Auto Action reports that ‘close’ Ferrari ‘sources’ believe the drivers do not agree about its impact.
Leclerc ‘wasn’t too convinced’ by Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade and left Mugello sensing that it did not deliver a ‘significant change’ to how the car handles. But Hamilton was ‘quite happy’ with the impact that the upgrade had when he got to use it on the SF-25 at Mugello.
Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade working at the Belgian GP will be essential for their hopes for the rest of 2025 as it represents the team’s last major technical upgrade this season. The Scuderia hope that it improves how the SF-25 reacts to sudden losses in aerodynamic load.
Lewis Hamilton needs Ferrari’s rear suspension upgrade to improve the SF-25’s predictability
Leclerc’s doubt about the rear suspension upgrade clashed with Ferrari’s cautious optimism after their filming day test at Mugello, as the Scuderia’s mechanics shared Hamilton’s stance that the update had a positive impact as the team strive to unleash the SF-25’s full potential.
Ferrari technical director Loic Serra, who visited the test at Mugello with team principal Fred Vasseur, took his focus off F1’s 2026 regulations to oversee the design of the update, which changed the mounting point for the front wishbone of their rear suspension to the gearbox.
Serra hopes that the updated design can make the rear of the SF-25 more stable, which has been one of Hamilton’s biggest issues as the Briton struggles with the car’s unpredictability. Ferrari also hope their rear suspension update lets them run the SF-25 lower to the ground.
