What did you miss at the Belgium GP

So we finished an epic Formula 1 race in Belgium. A race at a pretty historic track, and the race itself, will be remembered with all the other legendary races. Like Hamilton last year in Brazil, and Sebastian Vettel in Singapore, this will always be, Verstappen at Spa. So settle in, this will be long, but it’ll be worth it

Verstappen’s Mega Qualifier

So qualifying was another story, but in qualifying, Verstappen pulled off what Vettel did in Singapore in 2013. He took pole position from his garage. He set his fastest lap, then he went back to the pits and got out f the car with about 4 minutes remaining in the session. No one could match Verstappen’s time. If anything, that was a sign of what was gonna happen at the race on Sunday. 

Verstappen’s Mega race 

So with all the grid penalties, Verstappen was supposed to start 15th. However both of the Alpha Tauri cars had to start from the pitlane, so that moved to max up to 13th. But there was still quite a lot to do. 

But at the end of the first lap, there was a safety car for Hamilton and Bottas as they suffered from 2 separate incidents. And the safety car helped Max to claw his way back. But with a new power unit and max being the max, he made very very light work of the other cars. 

New Redbull Chassis?

Now there were rumours of a new lightweight chassis being introduced and reports said that that was the reason behind Verstappen’s excellent form, and why no one seemed to be able to catch him. 

However, team boss Christian Horner rubbished those rumours. He said  “No, we didn’t bring it (the lightweight chassis). And no we don’t have one…so no, it wasn’t a factor in the performance.

“I think a lot was made and a lot of expectation was placed on that [porpoising] TD, and arguably perhaps it’s hurt others more than its hurt ourselves.

“But I think we’ve seen that already this year we’ve run a higher ride height. Our philosophy is probably slightly different to some of the others. Maybe we’ll get a TD for the next race that [says] we [have] got to run much lower.”

What Horner is talking about is the new technical directive. It was introduced by the FIA after the Mercedes team complained about the potential of drivers getting injured due to the extreme porpoising. So the FIA asked all the teams to raise their car height for the weekend at Spa to eliminate the porpoising. Now throughout the season, Redbull has been racing with a relatively higher car setup, so their aerodynamic performance was not compromised on this track in particular. 

The Record Verstappen is chasing

Verstappen currently sits at 9 wins this season, which is just 4 short of the record of 13 wins in a season. Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel achieved this historic feat only once in their racing career. So it’s mental what Verstappen might achieve and the great names who he might join. 

But you have to keep in mind that in Schumacher’s 2004 season there were only 18 races and in Vettel’s 2013 season there were 19 races. This season there are 22 races. But that doesn’t take away the fact that Verstappen could break those records this season. 

The Ferrari Circus 

As the trend has been this season, whenever Redbull have a flawless performance, you know that Ferrari messed up. And that might be the case for sure this weekend too. 

After all the other drivers had grid penalties, Sainz started on the pole. But the pace of the Redbull was just too much for him and he couldn’t hold back Perez.

But the drama came at the end of the race. Leclerc was comfortable in the 5th position. He had Russell ahead of him and Alonso behind him. The gap between both of these cars was pretty significant and if he continued he would get 5th place. But the Ferrari team asked him to box for a new set of tyres so that he could set the fastest lap. Leclerc said that he didn’t wanna do that. But the team insisted. The team didn’t calculate how far behind Alonso was to Leclerc, and coming out of the pits, Alonso was in front. Leclerc overtook Alonso in the last lap and he took back the 5th spot. 

But the FIA saw that Leclerc was speeding in the pitlane, and they gave him a 5-second penalty. This demoted him to 6th place. And he didn’t even get the fastest lap. 

Even Alonso made fun of Ferrari and he said that they always have some strange strategies. 

Alonso’s best finish this season 

Speaking of Alonso, he had a brilliant race, and the team Alpine in general had a great race. Both of their drivers scored good points. Alonso started 3rd but he had a huge first lap incident with Hamilton. This got back so many memories of the two of them just going at it in the past. But Alonso came out of that incident better than hamilton. Hamilton suffered so much damage that he was forced to retire. And Alonso went on a rant on the radio. It’s important to note that drivers say a ton of things in the heat of the moment, and taking those dialogues and still arguing about them is like beating a dead horse, there’s no point in it. 

Hamilton took the blame for the incident, and Alonso said that it was nice that hamilton did that. Alonso also said that it was just one of these first-lap incidents. Where things just happen. So that incident was pretty much closed. 

Alonso had a brilliant race and he did get promoted to P5 after Leclerc’s mess up. 

Ocon Master class 
His teammate Ocon was out there having a blast for sure. Ocon started in 16th after taking penalties and he managed to recover to an impressive seventh-place finish. But what’s cooler is that he had a double overtake. Well, what’s a double overtake? He overtook 2 cars in one go. but what’s crazy is that he did it twice in the race. He was surely having a blast out there. 

But overtakes and radio messages aside, more importantly, what this means for alpine is that they scored points on a weekend where Mclaren scored nothing. 

The rivalry against McLaren has been enjoyable off late. The oscar Piastri drama just adds to it now. Alpine now have a 20-point lead on Mclaren and they sit comfortably in the 4th spot of the constructor’s championship. 

Mercedes consistency

The Mercedes had a pretty decent day. There were talks about them getting massive upgrades for this race and how the new Technical directive would help them unlock the full potential of the car, but throughout the weekend they looked to be adequate. They split the Ferrari cars and Russell almost snatched 3rd position from Sainz, but he couldn’t. Hamilton was out early and it was just Russell for the mercs. But this finish means that Russell has finished 5th or higher in every race that he has finished. Pretty cool stat for sure. And to show you just how valuable it is to be consistent in formula 1, Russell is now 1 point away from Sainz in the championship. Pretty cool. 

 

Gasly’s 100th race drama 

Pierre Gasly started his 100th race in formula 1 . but he almost didn’t. What I mean is that the alpha Tauri had problems just before the formation lap and the team managed to get his car started in the pitlane, just 90 seconds before the actual race started. He put in a great shift and clawed his way back to a 9th place finish. Sensational stuff. 

 

Albon’s Williams bullet 

Alex Albon started in 6th, which he was probably used to doing in a Redbull, but this time he was in a Williams. The Williams was demolishing the straights at spa. They had the speed and Albon made full use of it. He finished P 10, but he held a huge bunch of cars behind him and he defended hard. Just for that 1 point. A great race for him. 

 

Vettel Carrying Aston Martin? 

Sebastian Vettel had a great race too. He finished 8th in the Aston Martin and he scored more valuable points for the team. To show you just how great of a job the world is doing at Aston Martin. The team Aston Martin scored 24 points. And  Sebastian Vettel has scored. 20 points. It’s a shame that Formula 1 won’t have this great racer on the track from next year. 

 

So that was a pretty detailed report of the Belgium GP. If you liked it do remember to give us a thumbs up, subscribe or even let us know in the comments. We love to read what you have to say and we always take it seriously. 

So thank you for watching this video by fervent motorsports and stay tuned as we get you more updates on all things Formula 1.