Hamilton bemoans return of major Mercedes problem

Lewis Hamilton has bemoaned the return of Mercedes' bouncing issues during the Belgian Grand Prix.

The problem, which plagued the team throughout last season had been largely mitigated for this season after a switch of design philosophy with its upgrade delivered at the Monaco Grand Prix.

But it returned for Hamilton and teammate George Russell at Spa-Francorchamps and speaking to media, including RacingNews365 the seven-time champion said: "It was bouncing like last year. Everywhere."

Hamilton suffered from tyre degradation throughout the race, which prevented him from catching Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for a podium.

"It always felt like he had he had an answer for all the laps I was doing, so he had the upper hand this weekend," he explained.

"I was trying, I was pushing a lot, I had a lot of [tyre] deg in the middle sector.

"We got the fastest lap at the end, [and] there's lots of positives to take from this weekend, [but] we've got work to do."

Hamilton: We need more downforce

"We've been making big steps. I think our biggest step we took was when we go to Monaco and the car has really progressed a lot since then," Hamilton added as F1 begins its traditional summer break.

"We have a better understanding of where to position the car, it's been a lot more consistent, we've had more podiums and top five finishes which has been great.

"Generally pretty solid and got great reliability. So there's lots and lots of good bits, but the car and the balance we've still got to work on and we need more downforce."