LEWIS HAMILTON is predicting a few surprises in the second half of the F1 season.
Red Bull have won all 12 races so far in the 2023 F1 season, leaving Mercedes fighting to be the best of the rest.
The seven-time world champ finished fourth behind the Red Bulls and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Belgium Grand Prix, as F1 now stops for the summer break.
The pause in the season will give teams the chance to work on upgrading their cars.
And Hamilton expects those upgrades to cause some ‘movement’ among the top teams.
Speaking to PlanetF1.com Hamilton said: “I don’t know how much development people will be doing in the second part of the season, but I think there will be movement.
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“I mean, I don’t know what happened to Aston [Martin], they’ve taken a step back.
“The McLarens will be strong in the second phase, Ferrari and us, we’re all very very close.
“So depending on the track, I’m sure there’ll be some movement of positions for us all.”
The Stevenage speedster lies fourth on the drivers’ championship leaderboard, just one point behind Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
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But the Brit expects Ferrari and McLaren to put up more of a fight after the summer break.
Charles Leclerc is 49-points behind Hamilton and Lando Norris 79-points adrift.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff acknowledges some technical issues need to be addressed during the summer break.
The latest upgrade of the Mercedes W14 has been caught out by the bouncing saga known as porpoising during the first half of the season.
He said to PlanetF1.com after the Belgian Grand Prix: “The main limiting factor today and yesterday was the bouncing, the car is just bouncing literally on every straight.
“Even Blanchimont was a corner that Lewis had to lift, which is an easy flat normally, and you’re bouncing on the straight, you overheat the tyres on the braking.
“So that is a vicious circle and was the main limiting factor this weekend and it’s frustrating to check out on the holidays like this.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
