Hamilton will go "the extra mile as he sees a huge amount of potential within" Ferrari

On the back of an up-and-down start to his Ferrari career, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton stressed that he will go "the extra mile" as he sees "a huge amount of potential within" the Maranello-based outfit.

Ferrari endured an up-and-down weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. While Charles Leclerc delivered an absolutely faultless performance all weekend long, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton struggled to put together his laps in both the sprint and standard qualifying session.

The Monegasque started from P3 on the grid, and managed to maintain this spot in the tricky, damp conditions, fending of the attacks of Max Verstappen whose Red Bull was arguably more competitive in the early stages of the 44-lap race.

Leclerc then pitted at the right time, and never lost his concentration, keeping Verstappen at bay despite enormous pressure from the reigning champion.

His team-mate Hamilton started from P18 following a tough qualifying session on Saturday. The Briton was excellent in the damp conditions, picking off five drivers in the opening stages of the race.

The seven-time world champion pitted at absolutely perfect time, gaining a lot thanks to his early stop. He then went on to close in on Alex Albon, but with his aerodynamic configuration he was unable to make any further progress.

Still, it was one of the most successful race weekends with Ferrari for Hamilton, and his sensational comeback drive also saw him earn the title of "Driver of the Day".

Over the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, Hamilton mentioned that he had written documents to Ferrari. Pressed on to reveal why he felt the need to act like that, the seven-time world champion stressed that he can recognize a huge potential within the Scuderia.

"The reason for it is that I see a huge amount of potential within this team. The passion—nothing comes close to that. But it’s a huge organisation, and there are a lot of moving parts.

"And not all of them are firing on all the cylinders that they need to be. That’s ultimately why the team has not had the success that I think it deserves. So, I feel that it’s my job to challenge absolutely every area, to challenge everybody in the team—particularly the guys that are at the top who are making the decisions.

"If you look at the team over the last 20 years, they’ve had amazing drivers: Kimi, Fernando, Sebastian—all world champions. However, they didn’t win a world championship.

"And for me, I refuse for that to be the case with me. So, I’m going the extra mile. I’ve been very fortunate to have had experiences in two other great teams. While things are different because there's a different culture and everything, I think if you take the same path all the time, you get the same results. So I’m just challenging certain things.

"They’ve been incredibly responsive. We’ve been improving in so many areas—through marketing, through everything we are delivering for sponsors, the way the engineers continue to work. There’s still a lot of improvements to be made, but they’ve been very responsive.

Signing off with a word for his own commitment, the Briton said: "Ultimately, I’m just trying to create allies within the organisation and get them geed up—get them pushing. I’m here to win. I don’t have as much time as this one here [gestures], so it’s crunch time.

"I truly believe in the potential of this team. I really believe they can win multiple world championships moving forward. They already have an amazing legacy. But during my time, that’s my sole goal," Hamilton concluded.