SPANISH GP
“Happy for the team, but we’ll need to speak later”.
I spent the weekend celebrating some exciting family milestones, so I only watched FP1 on Friday morning, and the replay of the race Sunday evening. Without any delay, let’s just jump into the good stuff, because this actually was a very exciting race.
Race 6 Summary
May 22, 2022
With only Lewis Hamilton starting on Medium tires, I was feeling hopeful that maybe he could pull out a victory being on a different strategy than every single other driver. Well… Kevin Magnussen said not if I have something to do about it, but we’ll talk about that in a second. Carlos Sainz starting from P3 had a slow start, while Sergio Perez, starting P5 directly behind him, got off to a great start, shooting around Sainz with ease. Charles Leclerc on pole for the 4th time this young season, also got off to a great start, securing the inside and defending against the aggressive Max Verstappen behind him in P2. Meanwhile, George Russell, starting from a respectable P4 (I believe Mercedes’s best starting position so far this season), jumped up to P3. As he was going around the outside of turn 1, Russell and Perez touched wheels, but no damage was sustained by either car. Russell was able to remain ahead of Perez, holding on to P3. Hamilton, who again was starting on the Medium tires, struggled a little with pace at the start compared to the Soft tire runners, but nothing dramatic. He held onto his starting position of P6 into Turn 1, and even challenged Sainz for P5 before Sainz was able to speed ahead slightly. Going into turn 4, Hamilton took the inside line, and hit the apex, while an admittedly faster Kevin Magnussen attempted to pass on the outside. Magnussen took a WAY TOO TIGHT approach on the corner and collided with the side of Hamilton’s car, causing Hamilton to receive a puncture and car damage. Hamilton limped around the track to the pits to get a fresh set of tires.
Screen shot from on-boards for Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen just before they made contact.
You can see the slight understeer from Lewis, but you can also see how aggressively Kevin was turning into Hamilton, who was still ahead into the apex.
I’ve watched the replay of this so many times, and every time I come to the same conclusion which is: how was Magnussen not penalized, or at the very least the incident not investigated further? I asked that question on Twitter, and received essentially the same general answer from every one who answered: “it was a racing incident” or “it was lap 1”. I understand and admit that Hamilton had some, emphasis SOME, understeer causing him to go slightly wider on the corner than the racing line (here’s a compilation of what intentional understeer looks like). HOWEVER, this is not what caused the incident, and Hamilton couldn’t have avoided it. He couldn’t let up, because there were other cars in line behind him, including Kevin’s teammate, Mick Schumacher, Kevin to his left, and the edge of the track to his right. Not to mention that he had no obligation to yield, as he was ahead into the turn which means it’s his corner, plain and simple. Despite this, Kevin received no penalty, likely because it was lap 1 chaos. I’m tired of this “anything goes on lap 1” mentality. Like, the rules aren’t just thrown out on lap 1 because it’s more chaotic. Driver errors should still (and have been) penalized in the past (but this is just my opinion).
Here are some recent examples:
Bottas in the 2021 Hungarian GP- Bottas received a 5-place grid penalty for the next race
THE Incident- Hamilton received a 10-second penalty
I digress…
Okay, so Lewis and Magnussen both went to the pits, and were both at the back now. On lap 7, Carlos Sainz who was running in 5th, spun off the track into the gravel. He managed to recover the car, and continue the race, but he did lose 9 positions. On lap 9, Verstappen went off the track in a similar fashion at the same spot, but he only lost 2 positions. A tail wind gust is what sent both drivers off track, but they were the only two affected the rest of the race. Verstappen was able to easily gain a position, as Perez switched with him, leaving George Russell’s Mercedes as the only car he needed to overtake to regain P2. By lap 13, Max was on George’s tail, but overtaking him would prove to be a challenge for two reasons. One, Max had a faulty DRS flap (apparently this was a problem during qualifying as well, but Red Bull was sure they fixed it). The flap either wouldn’t open at all, or Max would accidentally close it because he was angrily pressing the button 50 times. The second reason is that George Russell had a defense of the ages! Listen, no one will deny that Red Bull had the clear pace advantage this weekend, but Russell put up a brilliant defense. Perez had even caught up with them, and was hoping for a crack at Russell, since his DRS was working, and Max had failed several times. By lap 24 (11 laps Max stared at the bumper of Russell’s Mercedes!), he finally got DRS to work, and had the pace to overtake… almost. Russell made a brilliant move back up the inside, which absolutely caught Max off-guard. Russell squeezed him out, and held on to P2. You can watch the brilliant battle here: Spanish GP highlights (trust me, it’s so much better than my words can describe).
With Verstappen and Russell battling for P2, Charles Leclerc was comfortably leading the race 12+ seconds ahead of Russell. Sadly, on lap 27, Leclerc had a Power Unit failure, which caused him to retire from the race. This meant that George Russell was the RACE LEADER, and boy do you love to see it. Red Bull having seen enough, elected to pit Verstappen for a fresh set of tires on lap 28, freeing Perez to go after Russell. Once close enough, it only took Perez one real try, and he passed Russell with ease (thanks to the pace advantage and a working DRS flap). Meanwhile, Hamilton was sitting P12 (remember he was 50+ seconds back from the leader) with the fastest lap as of Lap 31. Just remember that.
Lap 37, Russell pitted just as Verstappen had re-closed in on him, not giving Max another chance at him. Mercedes had a very real shot at the podium, and realistically with Russell’s pace, weren’t fighting for the win. Plus, with both Red Bulls at the top, it is much harder to out strategize and beat both of them. By lap 47, Verstappen had started closing in on his teammate, Perez. When he was almost 3 seconds behind, which is close, but not that close in F1, the team started instructing Perez to play the “team game”. He started slowing down significantly, and allowed Verstappen to pass him for the lead on lap 49. Team orders often come into play when 2 drivers are racing one another, but many debating if it was really necessary to instruct Perez to let Verstappen through. Sometimes teams with instruct their 2 team drivers to swap if the car behind is going faster than the other, especially when they aren’t racing for podiums. You’ll also have teams giving the instructions to switch drivers at a critical point of the season, when it is most beneficial for a championship contender. Race 6 of 22 is not quite a critical point... However, Red Bull robbed Perez of a race win by making him get aside. Their argument was that Verstappen was on the better race strategy, having made an extra pit stop for fresh tires, so he would have always had the advantage, BUT, he struggled a bit with overtaking during this race. If it would be so easy for him to overtake Perez, let him do it on his own. If he’s SO good, let’s see it then.
Okay, we’re almost done. On lap 58, Sainz overtook Bottas into turn 1 for P4, with HAMILTON hot on his tail too. By turn 3, Hamilton successfully overtook Bottas on the outside, without DRS assistance. By lap 60, Hamilton overtook Sainz for P4, which is an astounding achievement! In all reality, Hamilton could have won this race without the contact on lap 1. He had the pace, and as the greatest driver of all time, his tire management and experience would have given him a great shot for the win (definitely a podium). After the contact, and pit stop on lap 1, Hamilton came out second to last (with only Magnussen behind him), and was already 30+ seconds behind Leclerc in 1st. Feeling discouraged (AS ANY NORMAL, FEELING PERSON WOULD), he asked if they should protect the engine (aka, not damage it or burn it up, requiring another replacement) and retire from the race. Bono, his race engineer, told him that he had the pace, and could potentially get P8. With a renewed focus, Hamilton put his head down, and drove his heart out, climbing all the way to P4! Unfortunately, both Mercedes drivers were instructed to lift and coast as much as possible due to an overheating problem with the engine. It was a major DNF risk, and on lap 64, finishing was the most important thing. Sainz was able to easily overtake Hamilton for P4 on lap 65 of 66, which dropped Lewis back to P5. So it was Verstappen, Perez, and Russell on the podium in Spain. Sainz finished in a respectable P4 considering he had a horrible start and spun off track on lap 7. Hamilton was the obvious driver of the day, climbing all the way to P4, before the engine problem dropped him to P5.
“If he’s so good, let’s see it then.”
AFTER THE CHECKERED FLAG
After the drivers crossed the finish line, Verstappen’s engineer told him “sometimes you have to do it the hard way”, which I really have to say… he had it easy. In terms of actual (and successful) overtaking where he had to make a move, and make it stick, he passed 1, ONE, driver- Valtteri Bottas, and we’ve already agreed he’s not the best defender. Leclerc retired, Verstappen never passed George, as he pitted before he could actually overtake him, and Perez was instructed to give Max the victory. That’s not the hard way, my friends. Perez was obviously frustrated over his team radio. As his engineer congratulated him on P2 and securing the fastest lap of the race, as well as thanking him for “everything” during the race, all Perez responded with was “I’m happy for the team, but we need to speak later”. Christian Horner also came over the radio to congratulate and thank, but Perez only had the same message for him “No worries, we’ll speak later, mate”. Fans across Twitter chuckled at the message, as Perez (unfortunately for him) has zero pull with his team. Red Bull has 1 priority and 1 priority only, and he’s currently driving around the circuit with the number 1 on his car…
So let’s understand the issue here. Christian Horner maintained that Perez and Verstappen were on different strategies, which meant Max had “such a tire advantage” over Perez. Let’s have a look…
Here’s some data to look over if you’re interested:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2022/races/1111/spain/pit-stop-summary.html
I’m really only going to be analyzing the top three drivers (I didn’t put them in their finishing order, so just deal with it).
Max and George were the first of the podium finishers to pit, both going in on lap 13. Perez is historically great with tire management, so it’s no surprise that he extended his first stint on soft tires 4 additional laps than Russell and Verstappen. For the record, Leclerc (who was out in front with clean air) and Vettel were the only 2 drivers to go longer than Perez on their first stint (however, I would like to shout out Lewis, as he also went 21 laps on soft tires after pitting on lap 1, and ditching his punctured Mediums).
After their 1st round of pit stops, each driver went to the Medium tires. This is the stint that every team wanted (and hoped) would be long. Max was the first of the 3 to pit for a second time, only completing 15 laps on his Mediums. They wanted/needed to offset Max’s strategy from George and Sergio, as his faulty DRS would likely make it difficult to overtake (as we saw). They also wanted to give him some clean air, and free him from staring at Russell’s bumper. Red Bull put Max on Soft tires, knowing he would have to pit again, but the soft tires would give him the best pace advantage for overtakes. On the Medium tires, Russell had the longest stretch, running for 23 laps, compared to 20 for Perez, and again, the 15 for Verstappen. Russell and Perez both put on another set of Mediums. I think both Mercedes and Red Bull were feeling out a 2-stop (which would have meant that both Russell and Perez would have made their final stops here), but obviously that wouldn’t be the case. All 3 drivers had to make a 3rd pit stop. Verstappen was the 1st of the 3, as he was on the Soft tires, so they wouldn’t last as long as the Mediums (that Russell and Perez were on). Russell pitted for Softs on lap 51, and Red Bull elected to pit Perez to cover any attack from Russell, on lap 53 (also put on Soft tires).
Okay, so that’s the pit stop and tire strategy breakdown, but what does it all mean?
After Max went off track on lap 9, he had caught back up to Sergio, who was behind George. Max stated over team radio that he was “miles faster”, so the team order Sergio to get out of the way for Max to have a shot, promising they’d “pay him back later”. As we all know by now, Max stared at the Mercedes bumper until Max had to pit on lap 28. After Perez’s first pit stop on lap 17, his engineer told him 49 laps to go (indicating a 1-stop, despite that not being a recommended strategy for the race). Perez was constantly asking what the pace of the other drivers (Leclerc, Russell, and Verstappen) were. His team informed him on lap 19 (so a few laps after Perez’s pit stop) that Max was being held up by George. On lap 21, Perez was 5 seconds behind Verstappen. Then on lap 22, he was 3.5 seconds behind- that’s blistering pace. Making up 1.5 seconds per lap, is no joke. On lap 24, Perez requested the team get Max out of his way so that he could overtake Russell quickly. This is where things get interesting. Remember the team told him they’d pay him back? Yeah… They didn’t. The next lap, Perez was instructed to hold a 2-second gap to Verstappen, as getting any closer would risk Perez’s tires. For all intents and purposes, they were planning to have Perez go the whole race on those tires. Even traveling 2-seconds behind a F1 car can create dirty air, and degrade the tires faster. At this point too, Perez’s tires were only 7-8 laps old, while Max’s were 11-12 laps old. Perez pleaded, but Red Bull was consistent. Lap 26, he was told to build the margin and “we’ll get our chance”, while Max still had issues overtaking George. Perez told his engineer that they are compromising his race, and I completely agree. Lap 27, Leclerc retired, so the fight for the race win was on. Again, Perez begged to be let by, but his team just said “you’re going to get your shot”. At this point, he reminded the team that he helped Max earlier, and all they said was “Yeah we know”. The team decided to pit Max, which did finally give Perez his chance at Russell, but the damage to his race was already done. Those early laps on Mediums are crucial, so not being allowed past Max and given a shot at Russell ultimately compromised that stint. If Max got out of his way, and he was able to overtake George as easily as he did on lap 31, Perez would have been out in clean air. He never could have gone to the end, but he may have found some luck with a 2-stop if he could manage his tires in P1.
After his second pit stop, Perez asked immediately how far to Max (in P1), and on lap 38 he was told that Verstappen was 16 seconds ahead but “we’re doing a different race”. So here’s the funny thing, if they knew on lap 38 that the 2-stop was going to be the slower strategy, why not account for that? In his post race interview, Christian Horner makes it clear that it was only because the 3-stop strategy “happened” to be faster that Perez wasn’t allowed to compete with Verstappen, but on lap 25 he was told they were in a different race than Max (aka, Max is going to finish in front of you, no matter where that is).
You can read the radio transcripts for Max and Sergio here.
Horner’s whole defense of the orders was that because of how hot it was, cars were at more of a risk for overheating, and were experiencing higher tire degradation, so they didn’t want to risk a DNF for 1 or both drivers. Listen, I understand that. I understand protecting the team, but Max was struggling during the race! He spun off track, had a faulty DRS, and couldn’t overtake George, so why not let the better driver of the day fight for P1? Red Bull maintained that Max had the tire advantage, so it was inevitable. BUT, if Max’s tire advantage was so tremendous, he should have been able to pass Perez with ease, so I would have given them 1 or 2 laps of racing. Max finishing P2 behind Perez wouldn’t have been the end of the world for his championship contention. And you know what? If your reliability is such a concern still, then you better start figuring that out. Rather than use past DNFs and reliability concerns to defend your favoritism of Verstappen, even if he didn’t deserve it that day.
“Red Bull has 1 priority and 1 priority only, and he’s currently driving around the circuit with the number 1 on his car…”
WINNERS AND LOSERS
Winners:
-Mercedes
-Alpine
-Red Bull
Mercedes- P3 for Russell and a stellar comeback drive for Hamilton from P19 to P5. Their upgrades this week absolutely improved the porpoising, which hopefully means they can actually unlock the potential of the car. This race for me really solidified why Russell is with the team. The kind of defense could aid the team in a major way. Let’s keep pushing!
Alpine- Okay, I’m pretty sure I said that I wouldn’t put Alpine anywhere but the Losers section, but I have to give them credit. Alonso started from the back of the grid due to a penalty for engine replacement, and Esteban Ocon started P12. Both drivers ended in the points with Ocon coming in P7, and Alonso coming in P9. The team deserves to be up here this week, but I haven’t forgotten past grievances…
Red Bull- I was so close not counting them as one of my winners of the week because of the broken DRS, Max’s road rage, and how the team screwed Perez. Nevertheless, they got a 1-2 finish, and they still had great pace.
Losers:
-Haas
-Alpha Romeo
-Ferrari
Haas- Kevin Magnussen ramming into Hamilton is enough to earn them a spot with the losers this week, but it’s not the only reason. To my pleasant surprise, both drivers started in the top 10 (Magnussen P8 and Schumacher P10). Because Kevin IS NOT the superior driver Hamilton is, he only managed P17, and that was with 2 retirements (meaning there was only one driver who actually finished the race behind him). Sucks to suck. Schumacher was hovering around the top 10 most of the race, but the team attempted a 2-stop strategy (which we’ve already discussed did not really work), so he lost several positions at the end, finishing in a disappointing P14. The strategy and the drivers didn’t have it this weekend, and it showed.
Alpha Romeo- What are y’all doing to Zhou?! The poor rookie driver had another DNF due to issues with the car. Bottas drove a respectable race, but the team let him down with strategy. Again, the 2-stop didn’t work, so he had no answer for Sainz or Hamilton towards the end of the race, and couldn’t catch up to a coasting Hamilton at the end of the race.
Ferrari- Oi… It was looking like Ferrari was going to prance away with the Driver’s and Constructor’s championships. Red Bull and now Mercedes have stepped up their game, and Ferrari hasn’t had an answer yet. They have impressive qualifying pace, but their struggling (at the moment) to convert that to race wins. Charles has started on pole 4 out of 6 races, but has only won 2 of 6. Furthermore, Sainz is struggling with a bout of yips (and a little bad luck). They need to find some RACE momentum and fast, although Monaco is traditionally a race of best qualifying position. This weekend could be a real opportunity for Ferrari to grab a victory and tilt the scale in their favor.
My Driver of the Day: Lewis Hamilton. Duh.
>SILVER ARROW POINTS
>The upgrade worked! The highly anticipated floor upgrade (among many other elements) was supposed to reduce the porpoising, and it delivered. Based on some recent data, Mercedes struggled the least out of all teams this weekend with porpoising. With the solid foundation, Mercedes can hopefully unleash some power and pace. I feel like Hamilton’s amazing pace in Spain was just scratching the surface. But we probably shouldn’t get too much ahead of ourselves…
>Speaking of Hamilton, we need to collectively figure out how to get the luck to shift back his way. Magnussen completely tanked his race. Hopefully Mercedes can unleash some qualifying pace, and Hamilton can get out of the midfield, because these other drivers CANNOT be trusted.
>Russell’s defense was amazing. I’ve always liked George, and I definitely believe he’s extremely talented, but we really haven’t had to see him defend much. He’s had a few moments, but in Barcelona he proved himself. Mercedes is going to need that fight to fend off Red Bull and Ferrari, and give Hamilton his best shot. Plus, if Russell keeps putting himself in the right position, he could have a bright future.
>Other issues from previous weeks, like strategies and pit stops, weren’t as big of an issue this week. Fortunately there was no safety car, so Mercedes didn’t have to account for that. They pitted both drivers 3 times each, so that was 6 chances to royally mess up, but they did alright. Now, this doesn’t mean y’all have to go messing things up, and try to beat the World’s Longest Pit Stop (which you hold the record of), okay? Just put your drivers in the best position possible, okay? Thanks.
Other F1 Commentary to check out:
Quick Stop F1 Podcast: Spanish GP Review. “Nyasha and Thandie are joined by motorsport content creator Jay from Wolf Pack Performance to break down a surprisingly entertaining Spanish Grand Prix! From K Mag's bozo moment, to Christian Horner keeping Checo Perez as a side piece and more, this episode will leave you feeling happier than a boy from King's Lynn in a quick Mercedes.”
On the Chicane: Spanish GP Race Review. “Join Paris and Marium as they talk all things F1 in their Spanish GP race review. This week they're joined by Sarah and Samantha from Gridclique, content creators from the US who are on a mission to tear down the barriers in motorsport, one IG Live interview at a time!”
MONACO
Ah Monaco, the most famous and luxurious grand prix. In fact it is so famous, it was featured in Iron Man 2. Unfortunately the hype around the grand prix, is more around the status, and not the racing, as the races lately have become quite processional. It’s a narrow street circuit with little runoff, so overtaking is nearly impossible, especially when the cars couldn’t follow close for very long. While these new cars can follow more closely, they are wider and a bit clunkier than previous iterations, so many fear how boring it’s going to be watching these cars go around the narrow streets of Monaco.
If there ever was a weekend that you watched qualifying, this would be it! The Monaco Grand Prix starts at 9:00 AM (EST) on Sunday, May 29th, but Qualifying starts at 10:00 AM (EST) on Saturday. Don’t miss out- I’ll hopefully be watching along for Qualifying, so come hang out on Twitter.