Figuring out the pecking order at the top of Formula 1 heading into the summer break is now quite the difficult exercise.
Lewis Hamilton was officially declared the winner of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after his teammate George Russell was disqualified in post-race inspection. Russell held off Hamilton admirably in the closing laps after he used a one-stop pit strategy to seeming perfection. But Russell’s car was found to be 1.5 KG under the minimum weight after the race and subsequently relegated to last.
Granted, every fraction of a kilogram helps create speed in a Formula 1 car. However, there’s little to deny that Mercedes was the best team throughout Sunday’s race. After starting third, Hamilton passed polesitter Charles Leclerc in the opening laps of the race and was never passed under green-flag conditions the rest of the race.
Russell started sixth and inherited the lead because he had one fewer pit stop than the rest of the field. He kept his lead over Hamilton in the waning laps even though Hamilton had far fresher tires.
The 1-2 finish was set to be Mercedes’ first since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Instead, Hamilton’s win is simply the team’s third in the last four races.
Most importantly, it’s a “victory” that was the most straightforward of the three. Yeah, Max Verstappen won the pole and had to start 11th because of an engine change. But Hamilton looked flawless in clean air. His British Grand Prix win three weeks ago came on a track that went back and forth between wet and dry and Russell’s win in Austria came after Verstappen and Lando Norris made contact while racing for the lead.
Mercedes is still a distant fourth in the constructor’s standings to Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Even without Russell’s DQ, the team would be 61 points back of Ferrari in third.
But there’s no denying how good Mercedes has been since the team implemented upgrades at Monaco. Hamilton hasn’t finished any lower than fourth in the last six races and has two victories and four podium finishes in that span.
The only team that can credibly say it’s been faster than Mercedes in the past six races is McLaren. Red Bull is facing a dilemma over the summer break — more on that in a minute — while Ferrari is having a hard time recapturing the form it showed earlier this season. The constructor’s title is very likely out of reach for the silver arrows. But don’t be surprised in the slightest if Hamilton and Russell each score more wins before the end of the season.
What does Red Bull do with Sergio Perez?
Sergio Perez started second on Sunday and ended up finishing seventh after making a pit stop late in the race to score a bonus point for the fastest lap.
Perez didn’t show the pace that Verstappen did throughout the 44 laps at Spa and lost second to Hamilton on the opening lap of the race. After falling to third, Perez was a non-factor the rest of the way as Verstappen worked his way from 11th to an official fourth-place finish after Russell’s DQ.
After the race, Perez said his result was “disappointing” and it seems entirely possible that it was also his last race for Red Bull. Perez has underachieved mightily over the past two seasons and currently sits seventh in the standings. He’d be eighth — and last among the drivers at the top four teams — if Russell had scored the full 25 points on Sunday and hadn’t been disqualified.
Perez’s Red Bull future has been a source of much speculation since the start of the season and McLaren’s performance on Sunday won’t change that. Oscar Piastri (second) and Lando Norris (fifth) scored 28 points in Belgium while Verstappen and Perez combined to score 19. Red Bull’s lead in the constructor’s standings is now down to 42 points over McLaren and Ferrari is just 21 points behind McLaren.
Verstappen still has a healthy lead in the driver’s standings and will need a bad stretch of races for a fourth consecutive title to be in doubt. However, the constructor’s title is just as important for Red Bull. And it’s becoming clear that the team needs a strong second driver to keep everyone else at bay.
Who could that driver be? If the team wants to move on from Perez, the options seem to be VCARB drivers Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and VCARB reserve driver Liam Lawson. Ricciardo has already spent time at Red Bull and has been a teammate to Verstappen. He’s the familiar choice. Tsunoda and Lawson would be auditioning under immense pressure to prove that they are worthy of a seat at one of the best teams in F1.
Another disappointing day for Alpine
Alpine sits eighth in the constructor’s standings heading into the summer break after Esteban Ocon was ninth in Belgium and Pierre Gasly was out of the points in 13th.
The team has scored just 11 points so far this season and is only ahead of Williams and Sauber — the only team that hasn’t scored a point all season.
Alpine was sixth a season ago and was nearly 100 points ahead of Williams in seventh. Instead of charging toward Aston Martin in fifth, the team has been passed by both VCARB and Haas as it simply can’t get a handle on its cars.
A potential Mercedes engine deal in the future brings optimism, but hope isn’t going to improve the team before the end of the season. And some improvement is in serious order. Alpine would love to have Carlos Sainz alongside Pierre Gasly in 2025, but showing Sainz that it can field a competitive car in the short-term is incredibly important.
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