2022 Belgian GP: Post Race Analysis

[SS454]

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.

[Rishu]

DoD has to be Verstappen, I know he has a mega car beneath him but that drive was domination personified