Formula One returned from its annual summer break, and the theme of the 2022 season continued where it left off. Max Verstappen claimed a dominant victory at the Belgium Grand Prix, while Ferrari continued to be its worst enemy.
The Belgium Grand Prix weekend started in a bizarre set of circumstances. Max Verstappen and Red Bull decided to take a new engine for the race, which exceeded their permitted total for the season, meaning they suffered a grid penalty that should have dropped them to the back of the grid. However, six other drivers also took the same engine decision, including Verstappen’s closest title rival Charles Leclerc. After qualifying, Yuki Tsunoda joined the ever-growing list, and eight drivers incurred engine penalties.
Because so many drivers had been penalized, Verstappen didn’t start at the back of the grid. He started 14th instead, which gave him a realistic chance of winning the race. And that’s exactly what he did. Verstappen’s dominance over the field was so great that it took only twelve laps to take the lead. He never looked back and claimed victory by 18 seconds over teammate Sergio Perez, who had started on the front row.
The dominant way that Verstappen won the Belgium Grand Prix is the storyline of Formula One 2022. And it’s very different from how the season began, with Red Bull having reliability problems that caused Verstappen to retire from two of the first three races of the season. Now, it looks as though Verstappen may be able to reach, if not exceed, the record of 13 race victories in a single season jointly held by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. Verstappen has won nine out of the 14 races so far, and when you consider he retired from those two early season races in Bahrain and Australia, it has been a dominant surge in his quest to win a second consecutive world title.
The story is very different at Ferrari, which has continually dropped unnecessary points through poor team strategy or team/driver errors, and woes continued in Belgium. The confusion started in qualifying. Charles Leclerc was initially sent out on new tyres for the final part of the session, despite having a grid penalty for the race. The driver seemed unaware of this decision and openly queried it over the team radio.
Then, in qualifying, Carlos Sainz took the pole position from Perez, despite the Red Bull’s significant pace advantage. Despite a good start for Sainz from pole and maintaining the lead of the race until the 1st round of pit stops, Ferrari’s race pace was terrible. At issue was maintaining tyre life on each of the three compounds they used during the race. Sainz would eventually finish third, almost 27 seconds behind Verstappen, and he was just able to hold off the fast-charging Mercedes of George Russell at the race’s end.
For Charles Leclerc, the Belgium Grand Prix started badly and got worse.
This decision initially dropped Leclerc back a place behind Fernando Alonso, which meant his fastest lap attempt would be hampered by overtaking the Spaniard. Leclerc did pass Alonso to reclaim fifth, but as was seemingly obvious to everyone watching, Leclerc also failed to claim the fastest lap by over half a second.
Leclerc Ponders (photo, Sky Sports)
In a final blow to Ferrari’s weekend–and to rub more salt into ever-widening wounds–Leclerc exceeded the pit-lane speed limit during that needless extra stop, resulting in a five-second race time penalty that dropped him back to sixth place in the final race classification. [/beautifulquote]As a result, Ferrari and Leclerc cost themselves two points in their attempts to gain one extra point.
Max Verstappen now has a 93-point lead over teammate Perez in the season-long quest for the Driver’s title standings and is 98 points ahead of Leclerc. So, it is only a question of when, and not whether, Verstappen wins the title. As for Ferrari, instead of fighting for the title, they are looking over their shoulders at Mercedes as they at least try to claim second place in both the Driver’s and Constructor’s championships.
What could have been for Ferrari now seems lost.
