GP Racing (UK)

THE BELGIAN GP IN 5 KEY MOMENTS

1 Mercedes match goes to extra time

Lewis Hamilton was clearly perturbed he’d finished less than half a second behind Mercedes team-mate George Russell in the Belgian Grand Prix. From the near-perfect race he’d just executed, you could sense he felt injustice that he hadn’t just taken win number 105.

“The car came alive and I was really surprised to, firstly, get into the lead and then be pulling away,” said Hamilton, who has found an extra gear since his brilliant Silverston­e win. “I felt fully under control and I’ve not had that for years. I had plenty of pace and tyres… and it just didn’t end up as planned.”

He very nearly sat in the middle, winner’s high chair in the pre-podium green room. And was silent as he watched the replay of race highlights unfold on the screen. You could imagine his mindset: Why hadn’t I one-stopped as well? The tyres felt good. Why had the team chosen to put George on that strategy when pre-race, three stops were discussed? Why couldn’t I get past him in the final laps?

Two hours after the chequered flag, Hamilton was given the victory, as Russell’s Mercedes was discovered to be 1.5kg underweigh­t. Was that why he was faster than me?

In the early stages it was Hamilton who had made the running from third on the grid, passing Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull and then Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari while Russell languished in fifth behind the Mclaren of Oscar Piastri. The big unknown was tyre degradatio­n, since various areas of the track had been resurfaced and bad weather had curtailed practice. Russell switched from medium-compound Pirellis to hards at the end of lap 10, while Hamilton did the same the next time around to guard against a possible undercut from Leclerc. Lewis had already reported that his tyres were beginning to grain.

So the race proceeded according to Pirelli’s prognostic­ation that it was a definite two-stopper – until, on lap 27, Russell radioed his engineer to “think about one stop.” In clear air, the degradatio­n on the hard tyre was much less than Friday’s running had indicated. Russell likened it to driving on the simulator, where he was in a groove, lapping at a quick pace in clear air. As others made their second stops he naturally inherited track position.

On the giant Jumbotron positioned at the bottom of Eau Rouge, George was monitoring the gaps to his two-stopping rivals. They weren’t catching him. It was initially a gamble, since none of the other frontrunne­rs had followed suit. And after 44 hard-fought laps, it seemed to have been the right call. Behind the two Mercedes, Mclaren’s Oscar Piastri was closing in fast. All three crossed the line separated by 1.173s. It was the closest non-safety Car finish between the top three for eight years.

“The grip was improving, but I was still questionin­g why nobody else did it,” admitted Russell. “I thought I must be missing something as everyone was still peeling into the pits.”

Pirelli explained after the race that it had expected a much bigger pace difference between the two compounds, but track evolution put the hard on par with the medium. Its greater resistance to graining added up to a decisive advantage and opened the door for the one-stop strategy.

It was quite a turnaround for Mercedes after a less-than-satisfacto­ry Friday. With rain forecast for Saturday, it decided to row back on a number of changes – including the new floor it had brought to Spa. It also made a mechanical change to the setup

which helped cure the understeer in sector 2.

But the one-stop may have contribute­d to Russell’s disqualifi­cation. When weighed after the race, his W15 was on the 798kg limit. Once 2.8 litres of fuel had been drawn from the tank to provide the mandatory sample it weighed 796.5kg.

Mercedes assured the stewards it was a genuine mistake but, in the absence of missing bodywork items, there were no mitigating circumstan­ces to head off disqualifi­cation.

“We expect the loss of rubber from the onestop was a contributi­ng factor, and we’ll work to understand how it happened,” said trackside engineerin­g director Andrew Shovlin. “We won’t be making any excuses, though. It is not good enough and we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Pirelli confirmed tyres can shed around a kilogramme of weight over the course of a stint – which is why engineers remind their drivers to ‘pick up’ spent rubber on their way back to the pits (not possible at Spa, where the cars don’t do another lap after taking the flag). Although it’s worth noting Fernando Alonso, who finished eighth on a onestopper, didn’t suffer the same legality issue.

“We have to take disqualifi­cation on the chin,” said team boss Toto Wolff. “To lose a 1-2 is frustratin­g and we can only apologise to George, who drove such a strong race.”

Hamilton did take win 105, but it was a bitterswee­t victory.

2 Mclaren is still in the ascendant

Mclaren Racing CEO Zak Brown was seen wearing a papaya-coloured mohawk wig on race day of the Belgian GP. This was the result of a wager with Hungary winner Oscar Piastri. After adding a second tattoo to his arm, following Lando Norris’s first victory in Miami, Zak admits he needs to stop having bets with his drivers.

It says something about the team that after a relatively poor weekend by recent standards it still out-scored Red Bull. Having obtained more points than any team over the last eight races, and with 10 consecutiv­e podiums, the second for Piastri (and fifth for Norris) after Russell’s disqualifi­cation was another decent score. But could Piastri have won?

Like Russell, Piastri found additional pace when running in clear air, lapping up to a second faster than he had prior to his second stop. The difference, though, was that Piastri was in contention for the win and his strategy was optimum for that mission. Russell couldn’t afford another stop since it would put him back where he’d been in the opening laps – behind the Mclaren.

The only issue for Piastri was he lost two seconds on his second stop when he overshot his marks and hit his front jack man – who took it in his stride. Oscar was stationary for 4.4s and, since the total race time between the top three was so marginal, this gave rise to speculatio­n that he might have been able to challenge Hamilton harder without the delay. He had also lost time – a second a lap, he reckoned – running behind Leclerc early on.

Trusting the weather forecasts for dry conditions on race day, Mclaren persisted with lower-downforce rear wing settings on Saturday, accepting a sub-par performanc­e in qualifying as a trade-off for better speed on race day. However, as Norris also found when out of position, overtaking wasn’t as easy at Spa as in previous years – especially now the DRS zone between Raidillon and Les Combes had been reduced by 75 metres.

Although Norris outqualifi­ed Piastri, he wasn’t as comfortabl­e with his car across the Spa weekend. He also scuppered his chances of a podium when he ran wide at La Source on the opening lap.

He picked up understeer as he accelerate­d out of the corner and dropped his left-hand wheels onto the gravel, falling from fourth to seventh as the pack approached Eau Rouge. Thereafter, he was out of contention. It isn’t the first time Norris has made a mistake off the line or into Turn 1 this year and will want to improve his starts for the remaining 10 races of the season. Maybe Zak Brown should offer another motivation­al wager?

3

Losing the penalty shootout

In the past two seasons, Red Bull has chosen Spa as the ideal venue to take a grid penalty in exchange for adding new gearbox or power unit parts to the pool and 2024 was no different. Max Verstappen ran a new engine and took a 10-place grid penalty, so his pole time netted him 11th on the grid. An impressive Charles Leclerc inherited P1.

Alongside Leclerc on the front-row was the beleaguere­d Sergio Pérez. And here was a golden opportunit­y for the Mexican to display some of that fortitude when he finds himself on the ropes. He’d done enough in qualifying to squeak into Q3 – by just 0.003s – and this was a chance to redeem himself in the wake of increasing pressure.

Unfortunat­ely, Pérez did himself no favours and slipped backwards throughout the race. He pitted on the penultimat­e lap to fit new tyres for the fastest-lap point. That option falls onto the driver who has no chance of catching the car in front (in this case Carlos Sainz) and is miles ahead of the car behind (Alonso). The proverbial no-man’s land.

Given the performanc­e convergenc­e across the top teams, Verstappen was realistic about not achieving a hat-trick of Spa wins this year. Sunday was a case of damage limitation. The team had also decided to run with extra wing, in a bid to preserve tyre life while battling in the ‘dirty air’ midfield.

Lando Norris’s poor start contribute­d to him falling behind Max in the pitstop sequence and Verstappen was delighted to have been classified ahead of his nearest points rival. Across the line just 1.3 seconds covered the battle for fourth place as Leclerc just about held off Max and Lando for the final stint. Before they arrived on the Ferrari’s rear wing, though, Norris had been unable to capitalise on the advantage conferred by his lower-downforce setup.

As for Pérez, his seventh place – three places behind Max – was a difficult performanc­e to find merit in. Speaking to Sky Germany after the race, Red Bull’s consultant Helmut Marko said: “Sergio had the opportunit­y to take a good result from second place. Unfortunat­ely, that wasn’t the case. In the last stint, he completely collapsed. What looked so positive in qualifying unfortunat­ely didn’t materialis­e in the race.”

On the Monday after Spa, his drive at Red Bull was confirmed secure for the remainder of the year. Keeping Checo is an easy option. But deciding to part with him isn’t a difficult decision either.

4 Ferrari disappoint­ed with outright pace

The Belgian GP was probably Charles Leclerc’s best performanc­e since his Monaco win. After a brilliant qualifying, where he inherited pole after Max’s grid drop, the Ferrari man held off both Verstappen and Norris to take fourth on the road (which became third with Russell’s disqualifi­cation).

In contrast, team-mate Carlos Sainz couldn’t get enough heat into his inters for his qualifying run and started the race in seventh. From there the team put him on an alternate strategy as one of only two drivers to start the race on the hard tyre (Zhou Guanyu in the Stake was the other).

It meant Sainz enjoyed seven laps in the lead of the race, but he made a mistake on lap 16, running wide on the exit of Stavelot and losing three seconds. In hindsight he should have probably stayed out and gambled on a one stop, but

ultimately he pitted twice and wound up sixth.

At least there was some good news on the day after the race for Carlos. His future is now secure with Williams from next year.

5 All change, please

There were more driver developmen­ts at Spa, as Frenchman Esteban Ocon was confirmed as a Haas driver for next year. The good news had a positive effect on his performanc­e at Spa as he outclassed his compatriot Pierre Gasly.

Competing in Alpine’s one-off livery to promote the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film (a reminder here, that actor Ryan Reynolds is an minority investor in the team) Ocon reached Q3 and took Alpine’s first points since Austria with ninth place. Gasly was complainin­g of an overheatin­g issue and a lack of straight-line speed and could manage only 13th.

As well as a new look on-track, in the Spafrancor­champs paddock, Alpine also unveiled a brand new motorhome. Its predecesso­r was venerable indeed, having started out as Toyota’s in 2002. So this was a long overdue replacemen­t. Speaking of which, the team is preparing to welcome its third team principal in 12 months, as Bruno Famin confirmed he would step away from his current role at the end of August and focus solely on the goings-on at Renault’s Viry-châtillon HQ in Paris.