ALL HAIL THE HALO
The record book will show Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz clinching his maiden F1 win in a nail-biting finish at the British Grand Prix. But the overwhelming feeling is of gratitude for the work the FIA has done on safety because of which two drivers walked away with very few injuries despite a horrendous crash during the opening lap.
‘Motorsport is dangerous.’ These three words or words to that effect are printed on every piece of ticket or admission pass to motor racing events across the world.
The British Grand Prix 2022 showed yet again how dangerous the sport can be.
The record book will show a popular driver who got his maiden F1 win in a nail-biting finish. It was also a race, where as many as four drivers were in contention for a win at various points in the race.
But the overwhelming feeling is of gratitude for the work the FIA has done on safety that two drivers walked away with very few injuries, despite a horrendous crash during the opening lap.
The Silverstone circuit is the spiritual home of Formula One where it all began with the first-ever championship F1 race back in 1950. It is also one of the fastest on the calendar.
Halo saves the day
Within moments into the start of the race, while all eyes were on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen taking the lead of the race from pole-sitter Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari and local hero Lewis Hamilton gaining a few places, a car was seen careening upside down, across the gravel trap, into the barriers behind the leaders.
It was the Alfa Romeo car of Zhou Guanyu that hit the barriers and was flung into the catch fencing, which is there to protect the fans from the flying debris. The
car was wedged between the fence and the tyre barriers in one of the worst opening lap crashes in recent times.
The crash was the result of Pierre Gasly trying to find a gap between Zhou and George Russell’s Mercedes and backing out realising the gap wasn’t there.
Unfortunately, Russell moved just a tad left and was tapped by Gasly. This meant Russell spun into Zhou at high speed, flipping the Alfa Romeo upside down. It wasn’t the only incident on the opening lap. Further behind, Alexander Albon was hit from behind by Sebastian Vettel and the former hit head-on into the concrete wall and was sent across the track with two more cars hitting him.
The red flags were put out immediately even before a few cars crossed the first sector. There was a huge delay before the world got confirmation that Zhou was still in the car and conscious before being stretchered off. Later, Albon was choppered out to a hospital away from the track but was cleared fit showing how safe the modern F1 cars are.
Oscillating positions
On the track, the race then restarted in the same order of qualifying which meant Sainz, who had taken a sensational pole in wet qualifying, had a second chance to defend the lead after fluffing the first start by allowing Verstappen to take the lead on softer tyres.
This time, with Verstappen and Sainz on the same medium tyres, the Spaniard got his elbows out in his Ferrari and outmuscled Verstappen giving him no room to make an attack.
However, within a few laps, the realisation dawned on Sainz that his former Toro Rosso team-mate was faster and soon enough in trying to stay ahead, the Ferrari driver erred and went wide. This allowed Verstappen into the lead and just as he was looking to build his race, he started losing pace. The Dutchman feared it was a puncture and went to the pits for new tyres, a very early stop. But when he returned, Verstappen radioed saying the balance of his car was not good and that he was 100% sure the car was broken.
Soon, the team could see that his car indeed had some floor damage losing him chunks of lap time. Fortunately, it was safe to drive and the championship leader had to trundle to a seventh-place finish and pocket valuable six points.
With the main protagonist out of the way, Sainz had a third chance of leading the race with his teammate Charles Leclerc behind him. Earlier Leclerc had tangled with Sergio Perez’s Red Bull leaving the Mexican with a front wing damage. Perez had to stop early to change the wing and was sent to the back of the queue.
Pit strategy
As has been the case through the season so far, Leclerc was the faster Ferrari and was hustling Sainz, who was holding the pack up at the front. This allowed Hamilton to close behind Leclerc and the latter was impatient about losing time to his slower teammate while also keeping an eye on the looming Mercedes
behind him.
Ferrari finally removed Sainz from the equation, pitting him early on lap 20 followed by Leclerc a few laps later.
Both Ferrari went on to the hard tyres and it took some time to get up to pace while allowing Hamilton on mediums to lead the race in front of his home crowd. He needed 18-20 seconds on the second-place driver to come out ahead and the Brit was controlling it nicely.
At the same time, Leclerc was once again growing impatient and by lap 30, Sainz allowed his team-mate to get ahead as could not deliver the time his team wanted. At the front, Hamilton was controlling the race with an 18-second lead and stopped for hard tyres and was expected to come out behind Sainz. Instead, a slow stop meant he was four seconds behind the second Ferrari.
The plot was now about whether Hamilton on fresher tyres could hunt down the Ferraris.
Safety car changes plot
But with 14 laps to go, Esteban Ocon stopped on the old pit straight which meant a Safety Car had to be deployed to recover the Alpine.
It was here that Ferrari, confronted with the need to be quick on their feet, blundered once again. With less than ten seconds to take a call on stopping for fresh tyres, the team left Leclerc out prioritising track position and called in Sainz as he was more vulnerable to attack from Hamilton on fresh tyres.
Hamilton, too, followed Sainz to the pits and both drivers now had a set of fresh soft tyres for the last 10-odd laps sprint to the chequered flag.
On the restart, Ferrari asked Sainz to drop back and hold Hamilton to give Leclerc breathing space on the set of hard tyres that was bound to take a few laps to get up to temperature.
Sainz, however, overruled his team and within three corners attacked Leclerc to take the lead of the race. The big gainer in this Safety Car was Perez, who had made his way up to fourth and got a free stop while wiping his deficit to third-placed Hamilton. The Mexican quickly jumped Hamilton on the restart and was engrossed in a brilliant three-way battle with Leclerc and Hamilton with the cars swapping positions. In the end, Perez managed to get ahead of Leclerc, who was now left to fight with Hamilton.
Leclerc and Hamilton traded blows in fast sections with some sensational defensive driving from the Ferrari driver. However, Hamilton on fresher tyres eventually prevailed but by then Sainz and Perez had sprinted to safety.
On a weekend where he took his maiden pole but did not have the outright pace of his team-mate, Sainz finally had some lucky calls going his way en route to his maiden F1 win on his 150th start.
It was a bittersweet win for Ferrari. Even as it celebrated Sainz’s maiden win, Leclerc, who is the team’s main shot at the driver’s title, could not maximise on championship leader Verstappen’s troubles.