One of the great tracks on the F1 calendar, and it provided a pretty excited race. Red Bull couldn't be happier. A masterclass drive from Max Verstappen, he was in a completely different world out there. It's curious that Perez was so far off his teammate's pace. Do they have different car parts? How much is down to the fresh engine? Or did Max just mop the floor with Sergio? Whatever the case is, it was alarming how fast Max was today. A great team result regardless. Ferrari really struggled. It's not terribly surprising that Spa doesn't particularly suit the car, but it is very possible that the new technical directive have hurt Ferrari's performance. It was predicted that Red Bull would not really be affected, which seems to be true, while teams like Ferrari that got such good performance from their floor would be more heavily impacted. We will know more in Zandvoort. Sainz finishing P3 has to be a big relief as he struggled quite a lot. Scruffy laps, could not get the tires to last, and just generally didn't have the pace. His overall performance was honestly not deserving a pole position or a podium, so that's a good result. Leclerc had his bad luck with the tear off that forced an early pitstop, but not only did the car not have much pace despite his fresh engine, he made a couple mistakes this weekend, most costly being a silly pitlane speed violation that dropped him down to P6. Ferrari of course continue to look like a bunch of incompetent clowns. They had no idea what to do for tires, or when to pit. The A B C D E F G strategy each and every week is a joke. The top 2 (A & B) strategies are always wrong? What does that tell us? In the secret world of F1, Ferrari gave all their options and ideas over the radio. Of course pitting Leclerc to drop in behind Alonso just to fail at FL wasn't necessary. Understandable if they had a realistic chance at the WDC, but at this point they need to wait for Max to DNF before they do those things. Things can go wrong, and Ferrari always find a way to mess it up. Mercedes have a strange characteristic of being terrible in qualifying, but competitive in the race. George Russell was the 3rd best car today, but by his own admission it all comes down to keeping the tires in their optimum window. Lewis Hamilton likely would have been challenging for the podium if it wasn't for his mistake. Hats off to him for admitting fault and not getting baited in his post race interview when she mentioned Alonso's comments. He messed up, DNF'd, and it's time to move on. Alpine were very strong. Their car seems to like the low drag tracks, which means Monza should be good for them. Alonso extremely fortunate to have a tank for a car, as the shunt with Lewis was pretty significant. He drove well to a deserving P5, but in all honesty, Ocon appeared to be the faster driver. Ocon had some incredible overtakes, and finished just a couple seconds behind Alonso, despite his grid penalty. Aston Martin another one of those cars that is dreadful in qualifying but is a lot better in the race. Vettel had a fantastic race. Elbows out against his teammate in the opening laps. If this is his final race at Spa, he can be proud of it. Stroll wasn't too far off, but got stuck in the DRS train and just didn't have enough to make a pass on Albon. AlphaTauri wasn't predicted to be a strong runner coming into the race, and when Gasly had to start from the pitlane, all hope seemed to be lost. It is not secret that Gasly has had a disappointing season so far, so to come back up through the grid and finish in the points is a huge result and hopefully a big boost in confidence. Tsunoda never seemed to be on the same level as Pierre this weekend, but I don't think he saw a clean lap as he was stuck in traffic all race. Williams had top speed for days, but it didn't mean they had a good car. Alex Albon really made the difference for them and once again a stunning drive, holding off half the field to get P10. Really impressive. Latifi spun out by himself which collected Bottas, and I didn't see a penalty which was surprising. Last car running for him - traditions. McLaren took it on the chin. For the first half of the race or so, pretty much up to the last pitstop they looked in contention for points. Then poof they were out and couldn't make any passes. P12 and P15 while their rivals, Alpine, get double points. Tough day. Alfa Romeo decided to take penalties for both drivers. Zhou had a similar situation as Tsunoda where he never really got to race his race, and once stuck in the DRS train, he had no where to go. Bottas was last in qualifying but P13 on the grid, and a good opportunity. Unfortunate he got clipped by Latifi, he may have been able to challenge for a point or two. Haas were in for a tough weekend right off the bat. It was apparent that their downforce package was wrong for the track. They were trimmed out as much as they could, and they were still slow. Poor speed in qualifying, and no speed in the race. Driver of the Day: Esteban Ocon. This is a tough one, as there are a handful of drivers one could pick. Verstappen, Albon, Gasly, Vettel to name a few. Ocon gets the nod for starting back in the pack, pushing forward all race, and making some crazy passes. Not one, but two double overtakes. He was also fast enough to keep moving forward until the end of the race, closing in on Alonso who drove very good as well.
RE Max vs Perez Honda engine performance drop off is very low, only .1 between brand new engine and end-of-life engines, so definitely not on the engine side. They both had the same upgrade fitted this weekend so the car is the same. Max commented on Friday that from lap 1 he was right in the zone and didn't adjust the setup of the car at all. Only diff settings from the steering wheel and bit of front wing adjustment with different fuel loads. I think Max was just comfortable with the car and was unbeatable. I think the new TD really hurt Ferrari in the race. Not so much in quali maybe. Opposite for Mercedes. Zandvoort could be bad for Ferrari...easier to get tyre temp there so if it's not cold Merc will do well. Zandvoort is similar to Hungary (i.e. not a power circuit). I'm fearing a big blow for Ferrari there. Agree on Ocon, he had a great race.
It still amaze me that some compare Verstappen and Perez; they are at different skill levels. One cannot expect Checo to perform like Max. I thought that was obvious. Red Bull works on the principle of a leader followed by his tail gunner, a role that Perez fulfills rather well.
I dont think many expect Perez to match Max. 3 tenths off is not unexpected. However he was 8 tenths off in quali with just 1 attempt from Verstappen, and perhaps even more off the pace in the race. That's insane.
Max was over 17 seconds ahead of Perez on lap 42 of 44 laps and Max started P15 and Perez started P2......that's mega!!
Mega = understatement lol. This again is going to look dominant as we look back on this season, when the next starts. It is. Its not a bad thing either. RedBull have fully sorted all of this years regs etc. I say well done.
Yep But in no way did the rules and regulations aid in the RedBull supposedly dominance for 2022. There's more parity amongst the top 3 teams. Ferrari literally threw it away as a whole and Mercedes got it all wrong with the W13 (overcomplicated IMO) that after 14 races, they still don't understand the car.
Mercedes didn't design a good car, and that Ferrari cannot operate their. Red Bull wins on the engineering side and the pitwall work.
They all play by the same rules. Politics is part of the sport. I really ignore that aspect if possible. They show up and race, and on Sunday/Race Day we see who makes the effort/calls the strategy correctly and or adapts to situation on 'the fly' - RedBull have done this superbly. We are seeing a good season and we have some Ferrari victory as well. I think we can be pleased. Its the first real season of full change and next year we hope someone will bring a challenge. If not then RedBull wins and thats ok. The sport has history of back to back to back winning. Dont like it - Hire Newey LOL
Again the Scuderia was totally ridiculous. -The questioning about what tyres Charles 'wanted' . -The completely failing alfabetsoup strategies. -Calling in Charles in the penultimate lap to fail doing the fastest lap. -Charles' speeding in pitlane and therefore finishing behind ALO. -Taking penalty (starting at the back of the grid) for mounting a new engine that didn't give any benefit. No shame in Maranello. Incredible how chaotic they handle the whole thing. Some engineers built a good and promising car in the winter. That's it. Let's party. Idiots.
I think the ol’ professional victim Elton Hamdashian-the queen of all that is F1, was trying to dig the side of his cars floor into the tire of Alonso. Frankly, I wish it would have worked and they both be taken out of the race however I did have a nice chuckle at the outcome. Elton never would have thought he woulda cracked his own engine in two. LOL
I've rewatched it several times now and can only come to 1 conclusion: How can Lewis claim that he didn't know Alonso was there ''because he was in my blind spot"? Lewis came up from behind Alonso and overtook him round the outside under braking, all fine so far. But to expect that Alonso just disappear into thin air is absolutely ridiculous. You don't need mirrors to know there's someone on your inside right then and there. This is stuff you learn in Formula 4. Do this in F3 and you're rightfully berated. Alonso was 100% correct saying that Lewis demonstrated his lack of pack racing skill here. I do a bit of sim racing (single monitor so don't see my mirrors very well) and even I'm aware of drivers on my inside in moves like this. Yes Lewis took some responsibility but still used the excuse of the blindspot. And then played victim because Alonso called him an idiot.
Yeah, the "i didn't know he was there because he was in my blind spot" excuse is, of course, pure rubbish. Everyone knows it. Where did he think Alonso was, if he wasn't in Hamilton's mirror ... and was fully and visibly alongside, 0.2~0.3 seconds earlier? A potentially very dangerous collision, 100% Hamilton's fault. Not the first time Hamilton thinks he's "entitled" to an apex, all other drivers be damned. What's Hamilton's grid penalty, next race, for causing a dangerous collision? wait ... nevermind
I'm amazed he didn't get penalty points on his license. My guess is because Alonso came away unscathed and only lost 1 position I think, and deemed Hamilton punished because he retired.
@werewolf @Bas The reason Lewis didn't get a penalty. Why don't the commissioners punish the culprit? Although there was no doubt about his guilt, just like last year at Silverstone, where he shot down Max Verstappen, this time the FIA commissioners did not penalize him. Why? They investigated the incident several times, but none of the pilots, according to them, bore a greater share of the blame. "The stewards reviewed the video footage and determined that Alonso was on the inside of Turn 5. Hamilton's front wheels were in front of Alonso's entering it. Alonso moved his car off the race track to the inside with both right wheels on the curb and even more on its inside," the commissioners describe the accident (original FIA document here ). "Alonso did not appear for a moment to lose control of the car or to have an understeer. Hamilton swerved towards the top of the corner with Alonso still next to him and the collision occurred. The stewards are treating this as a first-lap incident where a lot of relative movement to the other cars in the first few corners, so they didn't take any further action," explaining their decision not to penalize Hamilton. Zdroj: https://f1news-autoroad-cz.translate.goog/novinky/103523-idiot-ktery-umi-zavodit-jen-z-prvniho-mista-zlobil-se-alonso-proc-fia-hamiltona-netrestala-video?_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc Zdroj: https://f1news-autoroad-cz.translate.goog/novinky/103523-idiot-ktery-umi-zavodit-jen-z-prvniho-mista-zlobil-se-alonso-proc-fia-hamiltona-netrestala-video?_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
,"he made a couple mistakes this weekend, most costly being a silly pitlane speed violation that dropped him down to P6. " It wasn't Charles fault, the tear off burnt a sensor, hence the mistake.
At the time of posting, Leclerc admitted to making a mistake. Ferrari claim its a sensor, which seems somewhat hard to believe. Primary sensor being in only the right front brake? What about the left side? Ferrari made 2 other pitstops without issue, why suddenly does it error out by just 1 kph? Why add more pitstops if they knew their sensor that controlled their pitstpeed limiter was burnt out? Who knows. Just seems weird.
don't know, that's what they said, it's normal they only found out afterwards, maybe in the first stops Charles was a bit slower,...
