Sundaram Ramaswami
A few years ago, the Formula 1 fan community claimed that the sport was just about three top teams fighting for podiums and victories, and it lacked the unpredictability that the fans craved for. Well, from a three-team challenge, the current F1 season has increasingly started to look like a three-driver battle, which basically means the variable factor has taken a serious dip.
The Belgian Grand Prix was no different, with usual suspects Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen taking top honours once again. These three have snapped up 18 of the 21 podium spots available so far this season, with Bottas and Verstappen often swapping places between 2nd and 3rd.
Although the safety car made its customary appearance at Spa Francorchamps, the rain gods decided to stay away for the second race in succession after threatening to mix things up.
Lewis Hamilton took yet another start-to-finish victory, and unlike Carlos Sainz Jr, he doesn’t seem to mind the lack of screen time. The Brit loves Belgium, but not just for its picturesque scenery. Except for his first F1 season (where he finished fourth ), Hamilton has ended up on the podium in every race he’s finished at Spa-Francorchamps. He currently stands at 89 victories in the sport and looks poised to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 wins during Ferrari’s celebratory 1000th GP at Mugello. What a coincidence!
Hamilton’s unbelievable consistency in taking poles, podiums and victories usually ends up with him breaking a record or two at every Grand Prix. At Belgium, he surpassed Michael Schumacher to become the driver with the most kilometres while leading. The six-time champion has driven 24,297 kilometres in clear sight and with Mercedes’ domination expected to last until the end of 2021 at least, it looks like Hamilton could easily go past 30,000 kilometres when in the front.
Valtteri Bottas though doesn’t particularly enjoy playing second-fiddle to his teammate. The Finn seemed unperturbed starting second on the grid, as he believed the lengthy Kemmel Straight would provide him with enough opportunities to go past Hamilton, however, no such opportunity arose. He eventually had to settle for a 2nd place finish behind Hamilton once again.
That being said, Bottas’ title challenge is far from over, as F1 makes the trip to some of his favourite circuits in recent years. Ever since Bottas joined Mercedes in 2017, he’s finished on the podium in each of the races at Italy, Russia and Bahrain. The only question is if he has the pace to go one step further and convert that into a victory?
On the other hand, Max Verstappen has never stood on the podium at these tracks although he’d want to change that statistic this year. The Red Bull driver brought his car home in 3rd after battling with Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap, at a venue that is usually thronged by thousands of Dutch fans. Verstappen is currently running on a hot-streak of 6 consecutive podiums which is likely to continue unless the team suffers a bout of unreliability or an early lap collision.
His teammate, Alex Albon did a decent job once again by finishing 6th after having to yield to Esteban Ocon in the final stages of the race. Albon’s first race with the senior Red Bull outfit was at this very circuit last year, and he’s now come a full circle with the team. However, despite coming quite close on two occasions, the Thai driver has failed to register a single podium finish while Verstappen has had 10 in the same period.
Nevertheless, the team must be mindful that Albon does possess a cool mind and manages to bring the car back in one shape. Barring the 2019 Canadian GP retirement, which wasn’t his fault, he’s been classified in every race since his premier class debut and is currently on a 21-race streak.
But the stars of the day were clearly the Renault team. The track characteristics coupled with their low-downforce setup saw them start the race in 4th and 6th. Ocon got the better of Albon to finish the race in 5th, thus equalling his best ever race-finish he achieved at Spain and Mexico in 2017. Daniel Ricciardo strung together a quick last lap on the hard tyres which saw him take Renault’s first fastest lap since Robert Kubica at the 2010 Canadian GP. The French team accumulated 23 points from the race in what was their best ever race-finish (position wise) since Monza last year, which coincidentally is the venue of our next race. The team are in a feisty battle with McLaren, Racing Point and Ferrari for third place in the Constructors championship as only nine points separate them going into the Italian GP.
McLaren were running handicapped at Spa due to an exhaust failure on Carlos Sainz Jr.’s car during the reconnaissance laps. Last year he suffered a loss of power and couldn’t get past the start line, while this year he didn’t even make it to the starting grid. In his 6 races at Belgium, he’s had 4 retirements and has never finished better than 10th. Clearly, his track record hasn’t been the best at Spa-Francorchamps.
But coming to Ferrari, it just seems the team is in an endless downward spiral, with each race weekend looking worse than the previous one. The team qualified 13th and 14th and finished the race in 12th and 13th. Charles Leclerc put in an impressive first lap climbing up to 8th but suffered a pneumatic valve problem soon after. The issue compromised his car’s power output as he watched cars breeze past him at the Kemmel Straight.
To give an indication of how poor Ferrari’s race pace was, Kimi Raikkonen in his Alfa Romeo easily went past Sebastian Vettel before the second sector. The Finn did manage to outperform his former teammate on more occasions than one during his last season at Ferrari in 2018, but seeing that happen this year clearly conveys the woeful performance of the scarlet red car.
This turned out to be the team’s worst race-finish since the 2010 British GP, as they failed to score any points. Quite ironically, amongst all drivers, Leclerc clocked the highest speed of the race at the Kemmel Straight (359.4 kph) while Hamilton had the lowest (316.2 kph). The team are currently placed 5th in the constructor’s standings and it’s worth mentioning the last time they finished lower than 4th in a championship was in 1981.
The defining moment of the race, however, was the Antonio Giovinazzi-George Russell crash. Giovinazzi ended up in the barriers after his car over-steered uncontrollably at Turn 13 but a detached wheel found itself bouncing in the path of the incoming Russell. The young Brit tried to take evasive action but ended in the barriers himself after hitting the free-running wheel. Thankfully both drivers made their way out of the crash unhurt.
It’s been 28 races since Russell’s F1 debut and he is yet to score a championship point. Although he’s still quite far from the overall record for most races before scoring a point by Nicola Larini (44), his only consolation, for now, is that’s never been out-qualified by a teammate. Surely enough the Brit will be itching to get that first point in the coming races this year.
One driver who wasn’t pleased with the timing of the crash and the subsequent safety car period was Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman started brilliantly off the line as the team opted to put him on an alternate strategy. Running on hard tyres, Gasly had overtaken numerous cars with his blistering pace and was looking to get past Lance Stroll for 7th place, however, the safety car ultimately neutralized the advantage Gasly could have gained by running a longer stint. He slipped back to 16th after his mandatory pitstop but made his way up to finish 8th and earned himself the ‘Driver of the Day’ title.
Gasly’s resurgence since his demotion to Toro Rosso has been commendable, as he’s accumulated 50 points until now, while Kvyat just has 12 to his name. He’s looked strong in qualifying and on race day as well and surely would like to add yet another podium to his name before the season ends.
The only other driver breaking records this year apart from Hamilton has been Kimi Raikkonen. Raikkonen’s ended the Belgian GP in 12th which meant he’s now finished 250 Grands Prix, five more than Fernando Alonso, while Hamilton currently sits at 230. The Finn is yet to score a point this after 7 races, which is by far his worst start to any F1 season. Although he’s not one for records or numbers, perhaps that’ll be the only thing he can be proud of this year going by how pitiful Alfa Romeo’s car is this year.
