Analysis of the Belgian Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit
MOTORSPORT – Before we get onto the excitement of another action-packed weekend in Spa, even the most casual of followers of F1 cannot have escaped the dramatic news since Silverstone of Christian Horner leaving his role as boss of Red Bull.
He was replaced by Laurent Mekies, who was promoted to his role from the junior team, Racing Bulls. Mekies made his first public appearance at the weekend’s race in Belgium and was keen to talk about anything other than Horner’s departure. It’s a dramatic change for the team, who have enjoyed no fewer than eight drivers’ championships under Horner’s stewardship. Whilst they are big boots to fill, Mekies arrives at a critical time for the team. Coming into this race weekend, they were sitting fourth in the championship, almost 300 points behind leaders McLaren and their star driver Verstappen was sitting in third in the drivers’ title fight. Equally as important, they will be building up to a critical time for next year’s car development, with substantial new aero rules and a new engine, which they will be building in-house for the first time. That’s before one considers the lingering question over Max Verstappen’s future. Consensus and the noise from both Red Bull and Mercedes seems as though the Dutchman will stay where he is, but F1 is certainly nothing less than predictable. It’s quite an in-tray to deal with, so he will need all of his 20 years’ plus experience in F1.
In the short term, however, there was a race weekend in Belgium and the arrival of some upgrades to the Red Bull car, which they hoped would focus the minds on the track. The early signs were good as Verstappen won the Saturday sprint race with relative ease. It was clear that they were running a lower downforce setup compared to their rivals, offering better straight-line speed. This proved fruitful as, starting from second, Verstappen completed an overtake on Piastri in pole on the first lap and never looked back. Whilst Piastri and Norris in third followed Verstappen closely for the 15 laps, Verstappen looked comfortable as he took the full 8 points for the sprint win.
Red Bull had a decision to take for their race setup. Whilst reducing rear wing downforce helps for straight-line speed, it slows you down in the corners and is not optimal for rain conditions either. With the forecast in Spa inevitably unsettled for race day, Red Bull opted for the higher downforce setup. That change showed in qualifying, as they struggled to keep up with the McLaren pair. Norris was looking to continue his form of winning the last two races and duly put his car on pole, just ahead of Piastri. Charles Leclerc showed that the Ferrari updates for this weekend were taking effect as he qualified an impressive third. Verstappen was 0.4 seconds behind the lead in fourth, reflecting that setup change in anticipation for a wet race, with Alex Albon in the Williams an impressive fifth. Russell, Tsunoda and Hadjar completed the top eight for qualifying.
All eyes were on the sky for race day and the early signs were for a wet one, with the F3 race having been cancelled in the morning due to rain conditions. Indeed, as the heavens opened and the rain became harder ahead of the start, an exploratory formation lap showed that race conditions were not safe and the race start was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes.
The start eventually got underway under the safety car and once that was cleared Piastri took immediate advantage. His overtake of Norris on the first lap was a carbon copy of Verstappen’s move in the sprint race, taking place on exactly the same place on the track. As the race settled down and the rain ceased, teams were faced with the typical conundrum of a drying track, trying to work out the optimum time to change to slick tyres.
Hamilton was the first in on lap 12, with little to lose as he had started the race at the back of the field from the pit lane. Others swiftly followed, as Piastri came in the next lap, with most of the field behind him. McLaren had an issue in that because their cars were racing close together, they were not able to double stack (bringing in both cars on the same lap). As a result, Norris came in the following lap, costing him precious seconds.
There was one intriguing difference between the McLaren cars, in that Norris went to hard tyres, with Piastri – and indeed the rest of the field – on medium. Norris had therefore committed to taking his tyres to the end, with the rest of the field trying to work out whether the medium tyres would last.
By half distance, Piastri had an eight second lead to Norris, who in turn had seven seconds on Leclerc. Verstappen was two seconds further back in fourth, followed by Russell, Albon and Hamilton who had done some impressive overtaking.
As the remainder of the race progressed, it became clear that the medium tyres would last, just not as well as the hard option. Norris got within three seconds, but Piastri’s now characteristic calmness showed through for the win. Leclerc was third but 15 seconds back, again showing the gap that McLaren has upfront. Verstappen was almost invisible to the TV audience, such was his undramatic race in fourth. Russell was fifth, followed by Albon. Hamilton, who was rightly voted driver of the day, started from the pit lane to finish seventh. Lawson, Bortoleto and Gasly completed the top ten.
F1 is straight back to action next weekend for Hungary, before it takes its usual summer break.
* Laurence Jones is senior manager, Marketing and Communications, Bahrain International Circuit
l.jones@bic.com.bh
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