Brundle: It’s not Verstappen’s fault that he is at his peak

Martin Brundle, a former Formula 1 driver and now a popular Sky Sports commentator, recalls the key events of the Belgian weekend in his opinion column.

The starting field in Spa promised not just any race, but a real thriller, but in the end the Belgian Grand Prix was very ordinary, although it was decorated with a radiant breakthrough by Max Verstappen.

The morning before the race, smart people told us, “We don’t know what you’re going to say there, because we simulated possible scenarios 5,000 times the night before and nothing out of the ordinary happened.” After that we really saw a very ordinary race.

Verstappen is not responsible for the fact that he is now at the peak of his form and has such a great sense of the possibilities of his car. To be fair, it seems that at the start of the race he could even calmly stay in the Red Bull Racing garage, check his bank account balance, take the time to start and still win.

After eight of the 20 cars replaced powerplants (someone else had gearboxes), and all of these drivers were fined, and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri had electrical problems at the last minute and he had to start from the pit lane, Verstappen actually started from 13th position. Next to him, the race was started by Charles Leclerc, who some time ago was considered his rival in the battle for the title.

But already after the first fifteen minutes of the distance, Max took the lead. He managed to avoid problems at the start of the race and every lap someone fell victim to his speed.

Carlos Sainz started from pole and had a good race, eventually taking third place, although he lost almost half a minute to the leader. Sergio Perez also started from the front row and also finished 18 seconds behind Max, who was clearly in no rush at the end.

Of course someone will soon be complaining that the championship is dominated by one driver, as in the days of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, when all you really have to do is admire Max’s skill and the brilliant work of Red Bull Racing.

I still hope that the result at Spa was influenced by the characteristics of the track and that Ferrari and Mercedes will be able to overtake the championship leaders in the next races. For example, Scuderia had to make the suspension of the F1-75 as stiff as possible, so that the aerodynamic body kit would work more or less effectively and so that the cars did not hit the ground too much at high speed under the influence of g-forces in the Eau Rouge corner. . As a result, the handling deteriorated, which was especially felt when overcoming the roughness of the track and when attacking curbs in the inner corner radius.

Alonso was wrong to comment on Hamilton’s actions

In qualifying, the Mercedes drivers were unable to get the tires to work efficiently, but as the race was run in dry and warm weather, their task had to be simplified on Sunday.

Lewis Hamilton was unable to verify this, however, as he made a rare and unusual mistake in the chicane of Les Combes: he tried to outrun Fernando Alonso along the outer radius, hit his car and the Mercedes flew into the air.

Lewis said he didn’t see Fernando because the Alpine car was in the blind zone, but admittedly she was still somewhere around, and the Spaniard tried to do everything he could to stay on track and avoid the opponent. provide enough places. When Lewis watched the video of the episode, he immediately admitted that he was responsible for what happened.

Obviously Alonso’s comments on the radio were made in the heat of battle, when he was angry and the adrenaline exploded, but his statement that Lewis can only win races if he starts from the front row, I think, is completely incorrect and dishonest.

Lewis is one of the most correct and accurate drivers in Formula 1 history, and he is so fast that he doesn’t have to resort to specific tricks too often. Suffice it to recall how he broke through the pack in Brazil last year. And twice.

But Alonso Lewis will remember these words…

The fate of Mercedes last Sunday depended solely on George Russell, who was a great driver and nearly pushed Carlos Sainz, a Ferrari driver, off the podium. His reward was a 4th place finish in the Grand Prix – George was only a few tenths behind the top three, although it seems the track at Spa didn’t suit his car at all. She also lacked speed on the straights.

Ferrari’s mistakes are painful to watch

Unfortunately, the stage in Spa turned into another race for Charles Leclerc, whom I want to forget as soon as possible. First, a visor film (perhaps thrown by Charles Verstappen) that got into the brake channel forced him to spin into the Ferrari pits as the safety car entered the track. This was due to Hamilton’s Mercedes not surviving a hard landing after the flight, sending Nicholas Latifi Valtteri Bottas into a gravel trap.

The situation with visor films must be brought under control, or at least require teams to write the owner’s name on each. As far as I remember, once the racers had to put them in their pockets or just leave them in the cockpit – it’s wrong to just scatter them when there’s a risk that such a movie could ruin someone’s race.

Leclerc fell out of the general rhythm and still deserves credit as he came in fifth place anyway. But when he ran into tire problems, the team decided they should try to earn an extra point for the fastest lap, causing Charles, after receiving a Soft kit, to return to the track behind Alonso, who had to be overtaken.

But first he was still six tenths short for Verstappen’s best circle; second, he was fined for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him to 6th place. It was painful to watch.

Ferrari insists that they don’t have to change anything and that their strategists make the right decisions, but the old rule is: if you do the same, don’t be surprised if you get the same result. Obviously only a few replicas will be airborne, but it seems Ferrari wants Leclerc to make tire decisions on his own, even though his job is to pilot and he doesn’t have all the information.

Now Charles has dropped to the 3rd line of the personal classification and is already 98 points behind Max. There are still eight races to go until the end of the season and if things continue like this it will be pretty clear to everyone how things will develop.

Alpine performed very strongly: the angry Alonso finished fifth, Esteban Ocon seventh, and now this team is 20 points ahead of McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship.

McLaren has failed to earn points for the fourth time this season and will also file a lawsuit with the same Alpine for the services of Oscar Piastri. After Sebastian Vettel announced his resignation, the situation in the driver market escalated sharply. He himself drove a very good race behind the wheel of an Aston Martin.

It was also a pleasure to see Alex Albon’s impressive performance.