Analysis of the Belgian, Italian and Tuscan GPS
1 A single Lewis lap destroys the ‘opposition’
Lewis Hamilton picked up at Spa where he left off in Spain. After the closing stint of the previous race at Barcelona, Hamilton spoke of reaching a special mental space that helped him crush chief pursuers Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas.
Once Mercedes finally dialled in its lower downforce set-up and turned up its fresh engines for qualifying, Lewis was unstoppable again at Spa. Spurred on by devasting news of the death of Black
Panther actor Chadwick Boseman, to whom Lewis dedicated his achievements in Belgium, Hamilton secured the 93rd pole position of his career with a mesmerising new track record lap in Q3 that his team boss Toto Wolff called “extra-terrestrial”.
The performance was very much of this world, but it was a spectacular feat of physical manipulation nonetheless – insanely late braking for Les Combes; mere balance of throttle through Malmedy; loud pedal fully down for the fearsome Pouhon; and ridiculous speed carried through the subsequent ‘pif paf’ that claimed Antonio
Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo in the race.
It was breathtaking, a reminder that for all the (sometimes legitimate) sniping about rubbish racing, too-heavy cars and chewing gum tyres, F1 still has power to amaze, thanks to a driver at the top of his game pushing against the boundaries of possibility. The result was pole by more than half a second.
“Valtteri struggled with the set-up, particularly in Q3, there was just a little bit more sliding exiting the corners,” Wolff said. “But I don’t want to downplay or diminish Lewis’s performance. On these fast, traditional circuits, he’s just in a league of his own.”
Hamilton converted this advantage into the 89th victory of his grand prix career with consummate professionalism. Fending off Bottas on the first lap, managing the Safety Car restart, and a slight concern over falling front tyre temperatures, added stress but were managed well.
Hamilton felt he underperformed in qualifying last season, so has made a “couple of adjustments” to how he extracts performance from the current iteration of Pirelli’s tyres in conjunction with his own driving style: “Now I’m back to being able to produce qualifying laps that I was able to do before last year, and on a more consistent basis.”
Which is seriously bad news for his competitors. “Of course, it always comes from so many details,” said Bottas of the deficit. “The out-laps, getting the tyres in the perfect window, the set-up and driving style. Lewis has had the upper hand this year, which honestly pisses me off.”
Perhaps the only man more frustrated than Bottas at Spa was Verstappen, who singlehandedly ensured Mercedes at least had one other car racing in the same postcode, albeit one that couldn’t really threaten and had to get defensive on lap one to fend off Daniel Ricciardo’s rapid Renault.
Max described his race as “lonely” and “a bit boring” – especially once bad tyre vibrations forced him to call off his fruitless chase of Bottas in the final stint. Max is driving heroically, but Mercedes – and Hamilton in particular – look unstoppable.
Ferrari utterly dominated 2019’s Belgian Grand Prix. As F1’s TV graphics never tired of reminding us in the build-up to this year’s edition, Ferrari’s drivers were 1-2 in every practice session and qualifying segment last year.
This season, 2019 race winner Charles Leclerc, who called Ferrari’s display “ugly”, and team-mate Sebastian Vettel could do no better than 13th, the position in which Vettel finished Q1 and where Leclerc eventually qualified, just about within a second of the pace in Q2.
Leclerc was almost knocked out in Q1 by Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa Romeo, which finished the race as the leading Ferrari-engined car. This was a terrible weekend for the Scuderia, the flaws of its 2020 design horribly exposed by Spa’s demand for engine power and aerodynamic compromise.
Ferrari likely based its 2020 drag targets around significantly more theoretical horsepower than it currently has, which has worsened the impact of this year’s engine rules restrictions on its straightline speed amid Ferrari’s quest to add downforce. Now Ferrari is shedding drag and making associated set-up compromises, and the drivers are struggling to get the tyres into the correct operating temperature range, which means they lack consistent grip in the corners. A vicious cycle that, as Ross Brawn said, was exacerbated by Spa’s cold temperatures. Ferrari’s customers are suffering too, though at least they are used to having less downforce and drag to play with.
Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto told Sky Italia his crew had “not been able to understand how to make the tyres work” at Spa. “We are disappointed and angry, as are our fans – and with good reason,” Binotto concluded, after watching his cars score zero points for the first time this year having reached the finish. How the mighty have fallen…