It’s been a wild summer in the world of Formula One! It all kicked off in the run up to Hungary, as a four-time World Champion announcing his retirement through Instagram caused more drama than even the Netflix execs filming Drive To Survive could keep up with. The paddock arrived at Spa-Francorchamps off the back of a three week break fuelled with driver rumours, a new manufacturer – Audi – joining in 2026 and the Belgian track getting a well-received one year contract extension.
Spurred on by his orange army, not even an engine grid drop could stop the ‘home’ hero romping away to victory, whilst some surprise candidates join the lists in this edition of the report cards from round 14 of the 2022 Season:
Top of the class:
Max Verstappen – Qualifying: 1st (started 14th ) | Race: 1st (+FL)
Winning a race from P14 (P13 if you’re cynical) should be the marks of an exciting race where the driver has had to battle hard for victory. In reality, Max cut his way through the grid like a knife through warm butter. The Dutchie was truly in a league of his own, which made his drive very much look like a Sunday stroll.
That he would most likely have the upper hand on Sunday was already abundantly clear on Saturday, as he was over six tenths clear of the pack in Qualifying. With a pace that strong, and the necessity for new engine components looming, the team elected to take the fresh engine components and penalties in Belgium. A wise decision, considering Spa-Francorchamps is an ideal place for a recovery race – and the fact that 6 other drivers would take new engine components and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly would start Sunday’s race from the pits after a late issue was found aided that decision, as that moved Max up to P14.
During the race, the Dutchman was already up to P8 before the second lap Safety Car. By lap 12 he was already in the lead of the race. He traded places with teammate Sergio Pérez during the first round of pits, but cycled back to the front afterwards and never looked back.
This isn’t discrediting his victory. As ultimately, he still avoided some carnage and deservedly took the top step. It shows how much he has grown since a similar scenario in 2019 saw him divebomb into La Source and collide with Kimi Raikkonen, ending lap 1 in the wall at Raidillon.
He will have enjoyed taking the victory after 44 laps instead of whatever last year was, and with almost half the fans at the track being Dutch, he brought his car home guided by ear-deafening cheers, the tunes of fellow-countryman Armin van Buuren and fireworks to boot.
Max now has a pretty unassailable 98-point lead after this win. Whilst mathematically still possible for another driver to bring it home, it is looking likely that Max will be keeping that number 1 on his car for one more year.
Alpine
Fernando Alonso – Qualifying: 6th (started 3rd) | Race: 5th (promoted from 6th due to a penalty)
Esteban Ocon – Qualifying: 5th (started 17th) | Race: 7th
The French team have been battered by social media over the course of the summer following Alonso’s bombshell move to Aston Martin and whatever happened to Oscar Piastri and the bridges burned there. The kick-off for the second half of the season brought nothing but good, however, as the team had a weekend worthy of a pat on the back.
Nearly two tenths split Esteban and Alonso on Saturday, and with the Frenchman taking a new Renault engine alongside Max and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Alonso found himself moved up to third.
The innocent part in the first lap contact, Fernando had a very strong race to P6, which would then become fifth as some more Ferrari clownery saw Leclerc hit with a five second post-race penalty for speeding in the pitlane after stopping on the penultimate lap of the race.
Whilst Alonso had a strong race, I’d actually be inclined to argue that Ocon had an even better one. The Frenchman pulled off two double-overtakes, one at the Bus Stop and the other on the Kemmel Straight, to come home solid P7. Driving a recovery race which landed him just over two seconds behind Alonso.
The haul of 18 points moves the French squad 22 points clear of McLaren in the fight for P4. McLaren is also the team joining Alpine in the centre of the Piastri saga, so I’m sure there are some smug faces back at the factories.
Alex Albon – Qualifying: 9th (started 6th) | Race: 10th
Alex rewarded a new Williams contract with his third points finish of the season. His Instagram post rings true, as he made his FW44 the widest car of the grid to defend his P10 from a gaggle of cars, including Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and both McLarens.
The result was largely set up on Saturday, finally making it to Q3. Meaning that all full-time drivers this season have reached this stage, another stat in favour of the 2022 regulations. Couple this P9 result (and P6 start) with a gamble on a low downforce set up, and it resulted in Albon’s Williams was the fastest on the straights on Sunday.
With a host of penalties pushing him up to 6th, P10 was probably the best he could achieve as a gaggle of top dogs would be flying by and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was the only car that qualified behind Alex to get into the points. Albon defended well after lengthy pressure from McLaren’s ousted driver Daniel Ricciardo and Aston Martin’s Stroll to ensure the result. Which hopefully gives Williams a much-needed confidence boost, showing that they are actually progressing after a particularly difficult season so far.
Pierre Gasly – Qualifying: 12th (started from the Pit Lane) | Race: 9th
It was a difficult choice between Pierre and Vettel for the final slot in this list, but it was Pierre in the AlphaTauri who just shaded it because of the ground he made up in the race. The Faenza team have rather flopped with their AT03, once more highlighted by the fact that a technical issue stopped Pierre from taking his P8 slot on the grid.
Gasly bounced back with a coy drive to the points. He took advantage of an aggressive 2-stop strategy which cycled him in front of the Albon battle, keeping him safe from being chased. Still, with the AT03 not being the brightest star in the sky, it was impressive that the Frenchman was able to reach the points despite no further race interruptions after the lap 2 incidents brought out a brief Safety Car.
He couldn’t quite hold off Ocon and Vettel, who caught him on fresher tyres with four laps to go, but it should be said that he at least did temporarily retake P8 from Vettel. P9 was about par from what should have been his starting position, but considering the circumstances of race day him bringing it home in P9 was a pretty superb result.
With the spotlight being drawn to Pierre in this enthralling saga of who will be taking the second Alpine or McLaren seat, this was a good time to remind the paddock that he is a capable driver despite a somewhat clumsy 2022 season.
This was only his fourth points finish of the season, but a welcome change of fortune in his 100th F1 race. It also does instil some confidence in the that the recent upgrades that should bring AlphaTauri back in the top 10 consistently.
Honourable mentions:
You wouldn’t guess he was retiring, because Sebastian Vettel had a stellar weekend in which he surpassed Michael Schumacher for the highest number of laps raced around the venue. With plently of Germans having crossed the Belgian-German border to see their Seb bring it home one last time, it must have unlocked just a little extra something. As a P8 was by far the maximum Aston Martin could have achieved.
The other honourable mention goes to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit owners. This mainly for the improvements the have made to the track. This includes adding some gravel run offs that meant track limits weren’t really a discussion this weekend, and the extended run off at Eau Rouge/Radillion that reflects the lessons learnt from a spate of hefty incidents and ultimately the fatal accident of Anthoine Hubert in 2019. They also get kudo’s for organising an extra Thursday event in conjunction with Formula 1 for the 2021 attendees. Whilst it doesn’t make up for the let-down that was the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix (more about that here) it does show that they value their fanbase and are keen to make amends.
The struggle bus:
Lews Hamilton – Qualifying: 7th (started 4th) | Race: DNF
A disappointing weekend all round for the Silver Arrows, but whilst one side of the garage saw the chequered flag, the other was out on lap one in a self-inflicted incident. It’s not something we’re used to seeing from our 7-times World Champion, but admittedly, Lewis was rather apologetic in his error at Les Combes.
With a super start to jump Sergio, Lewis then set his sights on the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. After having pulled slightly ahead along the Kemmel Straight, Hamilton rather abruptly cut the apex and contact was made with the Alpine that launched the Mercedes into the air.
When crashing back down to the tarmac run off, the force caused significant internal damage that resulted in leaking fluid around the rack. Ultimately, Lewis pulled off at Blanchimont and retired on the opening lap of a Grand Prix, which is a rare occurrence for Sir Lewis Hamilton.
Some choice words came from Alonso’s team radio, but the Spaniard was able to continue, which probably saved Lewis from further punishment, as the Stewards probably deeming the loss of points sufficed rather than adding further woes with a grid drop for Zandvoort.
This isn’t an isolated example of first lap tangles for Lewis this season, and whilst they’ve mostly been racing incidents, on this occasion it was clear to see who was to blame. What is a bigger concern for Hamilton and the team, however, is the gap to the leading pack which was just not acceptable for Mercedes’ high standards.
Valtteri Bottas – Qualifying: 20th (started 13th) | Race: DNF
The other retiree, although completely blameless, was birthday boy Valtteri Bottas. A clumsy error from Nicholas Latifi in his Williams resulted in a spin on the exit of Les Combes on lap two and Bottas was tagged, causing him to be beached in the gravel at Malmedy.
Nevertheless, Bottas’ first Q1 exit since Monaco 2015 put Bottas further down the field than he should have been, as he wasn’t matching the pace of teammate Guanyu Zhou across the Spa weekend.
It shouldn’t dampen his birthday celebrations in his balloon-filled room too much though, as Valtteri has been quite impressive this season. So he’ll most likely be bringing home some more points before long.
Dishonourable Mentions:
Need I say more than death, taxes and more Ferrari strategy blunders. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the decision to pit Charles for the fastest lap point when the margin over Alonso was borderline. This was compounded by Leclerc getting a penalty for speeding in the pitlane, which dropped him behind Alonso once more despite the Monegasque fighting with tooth and nail to keep him off his back.
The cherry to this foul-tasting cake is the fact that it was Max Verstappen’s tear-off which forced Charles to pit early and was to blame for the burnt sensor which should’ve prevented him from speeding during his last go-round in the pits. It’s not something you can blame the Dutchman for, but it certainly sounds like something more at-home in a Hollywood movie script.
What we then haven’t mentioned yet, is the appalling tyre error in qualifying for Charles, dithering over Sainz who was falling into the grips of George Russell. It was very much another unconvincing weekend from the Ferrari pit wall.
The second dishonourable mention goes to Sergio Pérez, and perhaps I am being rather harsh on him because he did finish P2, but the Mexican was quite anonymous this weekend. Red Bull were head-and-shoulders above the pack as clearly shown by resident world-champion Max Verstappen, yet Checo still qualified behind the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
A slow start in the race could have made his Sunday worse if not for the Hamilton/Alonso tangle on lap 1, but Pérez coming home over 17-seconds behind Max despite his teammate starting 12 places lower doesn’t instil a whole lot of confidence.
Yes, having a fresh engine did give Max a vast performance gap over the whole grid, so it’s no surprise that he clinched victory, but the margin Pérez fell behind should be a warning sign to the team. Checo will most definitely need to step on the gas in Zandvoort, because with Silly Season well underway it isn’t exactly unlikely that Horner and Marko are shopping around despite Checo being under contract for quite a while still.
The final one goes to Nicholas Latifi. Due to the vast number of penalties he also found himself starting up in P11, but he threw it all away with the spin on lap two and came home a lowly P18 whilst teammate Albon took another point in P10.
It was really nice not only to see F1 banish the memories of last year with a successful race, but also to see Spa handed a contract to remain on the calendar, even if it is only for next year. They clearly went all out in convincing F1 management of their added value, having taken notes from the spectacle that was Zandvoort last year and going on the charm offensive.
Speaking about Zandvoort, there’s no let up as the paddock makes a short hop in the northern direction, arriving in The Netherlands for the second part of the triple header. The orange army will once again be out in full force, and it doesn’t appear that anything or anyone can stop Max cantering to a second Driver’s Championship. Still, Ferrari seems convinced that Zandvoort will suit their car very well, so find out if anyone can throw a spanner in the works on the weekend of the 3rd & 4th September.
