Belgian GP
First race after the summer break, and I think some people are still on holiday…
Race 14 Summary
August 28, 2022
A starting grid with no cars starting in their qualifying position should have yielded an exciting race, but unfortunately the mistakes were the most memorable parts…
When the lights went out, Perez (starting P2) took a sharp angle to try to be aggressive again Sainz (P1) and Alonso (P3), but it backfired big time. Sainz sped off, Alonso jumped Perez, and even Hamilton and Russell were able to capitalize and overtake him- putting Perez in P5. He was able to regain momentum, and quickly overtake Russell, and begin to catch Hamilton.
Unfortunately, Perez wouldn’t need to work too hard to overtake Hamilton and Alonso, because the two former teammates came together on lap 1. Hamilton, with the aid of a slipstream, Hamilton was gaining rapidly on Alonso, pulled ahead, but he took too tight of a line against Alonso, and the two made contact. Hamilton’s Mercedes was briefly sent airborne, and was clearly carrying damage. He tried to limp the car to the pits, but the longest track on the circuit meant the pits were too far away. He had to pull off and retire the car. I’ll admit- the contact was Hamilton’s fault. I’m glad there’s no penalty, because they’ve consistently been lenient on lap 1; HOWEVER, the disrespect from Fernando Alonso is infuriating. Hamilton in victory and defeat carries himself with more class than any driver on the grid. He’ll be back on top again- I believe it- and until then, he’ll lead with poise and grace from any grid place because he is a better driver, leader, and person. Also, if I may briefly stay on my soapbox: This contact was the same as Verstappen-Hamilton at Silverstone in 2021… And that one wad also “Hamilton’s fault”. I think if 2022 has shown us anything, it’s that the cars on the inside need space, because they’re carrying too much speed and momentum to make the corner without starting to go wide. Verstappen is absolutely responsible for Silverstone, which was my gut reaction at the moment… But I digress.
Hamilton wasn’t the only retirement in the race, as Bottas (who was celebrating his birthday that day) was beached after contact with Latifi. The former Mercedes teammates were the only two DNFs this race.
Before the race, Mercedes (specifically George Russell) said that they expected Max Verstappen to be P5 by lap 7… which is exactly what happened. Verstappen avoided contact on lap 1, and took advantage of the safety car. From there, he was able to pick off each car with ease.
Let’s skip ahead a bit (because honestly nothing usually happens in the middle of races)… On lap 35, Ocon had a beautiful double overtake of Vettel and Gasly, braking late and securing more points for his team (and overtaking his potential, future teammate, Pierre Gasly). On lap 43 out of 44, Ferrari makes the call to pull in Leclerc for a fresh set of soft tires to steal the fastest lap point from Verstappen. Now… this was the dumbest use of the fastest lap point strategy I’ve witnessed. Leclerc was riding comfortably in P5, but with the pit stop, he was immediately under pressure from Fernando Alonso in P6. Alonso is able to overtake him, thus making the task of securing the fastest lap much more difficult (if not impossible). So not only would he potentially not steal the point from Max, he was at jeopardy of losing a grid position and losing 2 points himself. He was able to re-overtake Alonso for P5, but in the racing, wasn’t able to get the clean air to push the car for fastest lap. So nothing was lost, right? WRONG. Leclerc exceeded the pit lane speed limit, and was awarded a 5 second penalty- which dropped him back behind Alonso. There was no reason to risk this with Charles to potentially steal 1 point from Max.
It really wasn’t that exciting of a race, but hey- the contract has been renewed, so we’ll be in Spa in 2023.
FAVE CREATORS
On the Chicane: 2022 Belgian GP Race Review. “Welcome to On the Chicane FIA Girly! We brought the girl with her finger firmly on F1's pulse to talk about the Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. Belgium 2022 was a far cry from 2021, with spicy action in the midfield in a penalty ridden weekend. We couldn't help but talk to Deni about her experience as a Social Media F1 creator as well as the highlights of the race.”
Quickstop F1: Belgian GP Review. “This week, Nyasha and Thandie are joined by friend of the show and F1 content creator extrordinaire CameronF1 to break down a dominant Max Verstappen win at the Belgian GP. We discuss Nyasha getting cooked on Twitter (again), just how good is Max Verstappen right now and of course there's time to make fun of Ferrari. We also have an impromptu discussion around Lewis' trip to East Africa during the summer break...”
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Winners:
-Red Bull- Another solid, if not flawless weekend by Red Bull. Even if it wasn’t flawless, Max’s car was a rocket ship, so he could have won easily with a slow pit stop of bad tire strategy. But that wasn’t the case, and he beat his teammate in P2 by almost 20 seconds… Run off into the sunset with your victory, Max and Red Bull!
-Alpine- On one hand I don’t want to put Alpine up here because of Alonso’s comments about Lewis during the race, but… they undeniably had a solid weekend. I wasn’t sure how this race would shake out with all of the off-track commotion from this team over the summer break, but they showed up and delivered a P5 and P7 finish.
Max driving with no one else in sight
Losers:
-Ferrari- What more is there to say at this point? Post race, Mattia Binotto seemed unfazed by the poor strategy and execution this weekend by his team, and the poor performance of the car.
-McLaren- While Alpine showed up after the mess during the summer break, you did not. McLaren actually had the chance to limit the points damage from Alpine, but with less than 15 laps to go, pitted both drivers (which pulled them out of the points). All in all a disappointing weekend from the team.
My Driver of the Day: Pierre Gasly (with Seb in a close second, followed by Ocon in a close third). Gasly started from the pit lane, and finished P9 at his 100th GP start.
>SILVER ARROW POINTS
>Great drive by George, even though he couldn’t quite secure P3. He gave it his all, and that’s something to be proud about.
>Hard to be mad at Lewis. It was a mistake (and one he doesn’t make often), so I’m more bummed the car had too much damage to continue.
>This car is so horrible. 1 step forward at the last GP, and 2 steps backward this GP. The single lap pace only looked promising at Austria (before both drivers crashed) and Hungary (where George secured pole, Lewis would have likely been P1 if not for a DRS failure). Otherwise, the single lap pace has been abysmal. And that might not seem like a big deal, except for it puts your drivers in a more compromised position. They’re either starting in more traffic, and more likely to get contact (i.e. Lewis in Spain), or in traffic and making them fight twice as hard to get back to where the car should be. Having qualifying pace isn’t everything, but it’s important and helpful. I think if the W13 was even just a few tenths more competitive in qualifying, giving them an extra place or two, they’d be in a different situation. Maybe not P1 and beating Red Bull, but could be P2 over Ferrari.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m bummed that Max is cruising to a “second” WDC… This one is deserved, as Red Bull sorted out their early gremlins, and have continued to build and improve every week. Max had a competitive season last year too, but he wasn’t the rightful champion. Sir Lewis was truly robbed of his 8th, and Max was gifted his 1st. It’s so disappointing…
While I’m on the subject- it would appear that the Flexi-floor TD had no negative impact on Red Bull, in fact it is almost a positive gain, because it does appear to have impacted Ferrari (thus giving RB a bigger advantage).
Looking ahead to the next race in the Netherlands- to say I’m dreading it would be an understatement. The Orange Army will be ever-present, and causing trouble. Ferrari seem to believe they’ll be competitive, but only time will tell.