The wet opening practice session at Spa-Francorchamps left teams blind about choosing their best set-ups for the Belgian weekend – especially with parc ferme conditions kicking in from the start of Friday afternoon’s qualifying session. Lewis Hamilton admitted it was a complete guessing game about how best to approach things, with Mercedes in the end covering its bases and opting for a lower and higher downforce configuration across both its

With F1 committed to using fully sustainable fuels from 2026 rather than going down an all-electric route, thoughts are already being put towards what type of power unit the series could use further down the road.  And with Domenicali having been clear recently that he wants to see car weight coming down, one area where significant mass could be reduced is with the hybrid power units, which currently incorporate heavy

And while the big-ticket items, such as the sidepods and front suspension, were obvious talking points, there were also some interesting detail changes that emerged too.   Mercedes W14 front detail Photo by: Giorgio Piola In terms of the new front suspension arrangement, the main change came to the pickup position at the chassis end on the lead arm of the upper wishbone. The arm is now mounted on the