Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Belgian Grand Prix

Photo from Formula 1

It’s time for the summer break in Formula 1, and the recent races have shown that the field is very, very close.

Despite that, there’s still quite a lead for Max Verstappen as he goes for his 4th straight championship.

But that’s for later. Here are the winners and losers from the Belgian Grand Prix.

Losers

5. Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon don’t get along. We all know this.

So when Ocon gets two points for the team while Gasly ends up 13th, it has to sting.

Gasly still leads in the championship, but it’s close.

4. Lance Stroll

Stroll finished 11th.

Not bad, but not horrible by any stretch of the imagination.

So why is he on the loser list?

Stroll had a radio feed during the broadcast where he said, and I quote, “straight line speed is a **** joke.”

You can fill in the blanks there.

The problem?

Stroll had the highest top speed in the entire race at 356 kilometers per hour.

Must not have been the straight line speed at fault, Lance!

3. George Russell

George Russell had maybe the best drive of the season, pulling off a one stop strategy and holding off his teammate on faster tires to get the win.

It was a sure fire top spot in the winners section.

But at the end of the race, his car was discovered to be underweight, which is an automatic disqualification.

What was the win of the season ended up being a heartbreaking loss.

But rules are rules, unfortunately.

2. Lando Norris

It feels like the conversation for the past few races is a Lando Norris and Max Verstappen title fight, even if Verstappen is far ahead.

The results of the last 8 races do not show that, however.

Lando is actually 4th in the last 8 races, behind Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and Lewis Hamilton.

Norris had a great chance Sunday to get that point total down with Verstappen having a 10 place grid penalty, but qualifying found him 4th on the grid, and a bad start (again) found him down in 7th after a few corners.

Bad strategy meant that Norris, despite finishing 5th, still wound up behind his championship rival, if he even is that anymore.

Norris desperately needs to reset this summer break, because he’s not only not in a championship spot in the moment, he’s not even ahead of his teammate.

1. Sergio Perez/Red Bull

Checo desperately needed a good race, with reports that he would be replaced in the summer break if he didn’t perform.

He started 2nd in the race, so everything was looking great!

And then he finished 7th in a race in which it was very difficult to overtake.

Perez is likely to be replaced over the summer break, and that brings me to Red Bull.

Perez has not performed at a high level all year long.

Why on Earth did Red Bull think giving Perez a two year extension was a good idea?

Now they have egg on their face and are desperate to replace him.

It was a move that made absolutely no sense whatsoever at the time, and even less now.

Winners

5. Daniel Ricciardo

As mentioned above, Perez will likely be replaced at Red Bull.

The question is, with who?

Yuki Tsunoda has had an excellent year, Daniel Ricciardo has experience with the team and being Verstappen’s teammate, and Liam Lawson showed great promise last year with the Alpha Tauri.

Ricciardo going into the summer break with a points finish is a great sign for the future, whether it be with Red Bull or re-signing with VCARB.

We’ll see, but Danny Ric has been very solid the past few races.

4. Oscar Piastri

Poor conditions in qualifying had Piastri, in the likely fastest McLaren, starting 5th.

But the young Australian drove a great race and worked his way into finishing 2nd and getting a big chunk of points.

And, as mentioned above, has been the better of the McLaren drivers recently.

He’s showing his promise and then some.

I’m very impressed.

3. Charles Leclerc

Remember earlier when I said Stroll had the fastest top speed during the race?

Charles Leclerc had the slowest, at a whopping 327 km/hr.

That’s 13 km/hr slower than the next slowest.

So Leclerc was greatly struggling on the straights.

And despite that, he got a podium finish.

A very underrated and underappreciated drive by Leclerc.

2. Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes didn’t expect much from the weekend, but they finished 1-2 on the track and Lewis Hamilton got his 2nd win of the year due to Russell’s disqualification.

And it wasn’t undeserved. Lewis was quick all race and controlled the pace of the field all day long.

He’s found his confidence again, and the sport is better for it.

1. Max Verstappen

Something is wrong with that Red Bull.

That car dominated the entire season until Monaco and then, out of nowhere, has only achieved one pole position.

I don’t think the cars suddenly got significantly better, so something must have gotten worse with the Red Bull.

Despite all of that, Max is still putting in some excellent performances and extending his championship lead.

Sunday was no different, as the Dutchman went from 11th to 4th on a day where it was exceedingly difficult to pass other cars on the circuit.

There’s a reason he’s still the best in the sport at the moment.