Lewis Hamilton offers Ferrari heartfelt apology: 'Unacceptable'

Lewis Hamilton has sincerely apologised to Ferrari following a qualifying performance for the Belgian Grand Prix he has described as "unacceptable".

After being knocked out in the first session of sprint qualifying at the Spa Francorchamps Circuit on Friday evening, for a moment it appeared as if the seven-time F1 champion had avoided a double shock with a Q1 exit for the grand prix.

Race control, however, deleted the lap for exceeding track limits at Raidillon, leaving him 16th on the timesheet, 0.031s behind the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto.

Although claiming his SF-25 was no more comfortable for qualifying than at any other stage over the weekend so far, Hamilton then honestly held his hands for not playing his part.

"We made some changes, and the car didn't feel terrible," said Hamilton, speaking to Sky Sports F1. "It was even tougher for us as we had to put a second set [of soft tyres] on just to get through Q1, so not great, and then from my side, I made a mistake.

I've really got to look internally. I apologise to my team because it's just unacceptable to be out in both Q1s. It's a very, very poor performance from myself."

Hamilton conceded at the start of this weekend to handing Ferrari a set of documents on how and where he feels the team can improve moving forward.

With the current campaign fast slipping away, he insists the focus is moving towards the major regulation changes for 2026.

"We're trying to do the best with what we have, and then obviously everyone's working flat out back in the factory," he added.

"We have had upgrades but I think that's probably it for the rest of the year, and then I think the focus now, back at the factory, is to focus on next year's car."