Why ‘wrong’ winner is bad for Red Bull but great for F1
With Verstappen and Leclerc both missing out on a podium finish, how the ‘bridesmaids’ sent out statements of intent
From Ferrari and Red Bull’s perspective, the “wrong” drivers took the top two spots in yesterday’s British Grand Prix.
Although Sergio Perez went into the race as Max Verstappen’s closest challenger – 46 points behind to Charles Leclerc’s 49 – it is the Monegasque who is the defending champion’s main threat. The “bridesmaids” emerging ahead of their team-mates at Silverstone was exactly what the championship – and especially maiden winner Carlos Sainz Jnr – needed.
Verstappen and Leclerc both ended it off the podium, which was the first time that neither had finished in the top three this season. Verstappen’s hopes of a third straight victory ended when he sustained damage to his car’s bodywork, losing him significant lap time. He finished a distant seventh. Leclerc’s hopes were up and down for much of the race before he faded to fourth in a damaged Ferrari.
Sainz has endured a difficult second season at the Scuderia. Last year he finished ahead of his teammate on points, though Leclerc was arguably the better driver, but for the first part of 2022 he has been nowhere near him. Part of this has been through bad luck but the biggest chunk has been a lack of performance and confidence in the car. There have been too many elementary mistakes which have tended to put him in the wall or the gravel.
Perez has been doing what Red Bull require from him all season but it was not that long ago that he struggled to match Verstappen in either qualifying or the race, even on his good weekends. But it is only in the past couple of races that Sainz has stepped up to do what is expected of him. And he needed to more than ever.
In Montreal he was the lead Ferrari as Leclerc took an engine penalty on the grid. The Spaniard harried Verstappen but fell just short of a first race win. At Silverstone, he carried on where he had left off and then went one better. This is a track he enjoys and the sodden conditions in qualifying were where he excels.
Yesterday, the underdogs showed both their intent and their quality. Yes, Verstappen was taken out of contention through no fault of his own, but Perez still had to be there to take advantage and make the most of it. And he did so boldly.
Their wheel-to-wheel battles at the first restart and towards the end of the race in those frantic, thrilling closing laps showed their racecraft, determination and aggression. Their intent stood out in those flatout exchanges.
Lewis Hamilton, who was in the thick of it with both men, described the tussling as “Formula One at its best”, comparing it to his karting days. Everyone spoke glowingly of their duels, and though it came at the cost of carbon-fibre, it was all hard and fair racing.
Though it was the two No2 drivers who finished ahead, the top two teams will be pleased. Yet, as is often the case in F1, there was an element of luck in Sainz and Perez finishing on the top two steps on the podium. Both had struggled to match the pace of their team-mates throughout the weekend but benefited from a pit stop for fresh tyres under a late safety car.
Perez rode his luck after he had dropped back following a tussle with Leclerc and had to change his front wing after debris from the Ferrari hit the front of his car in the opening laps. The safety car gave him the opportunity to battle with the drivers he had been chasing, since his early stop, by removing the gap.
The 13 points that Sainz took out of Leclerc at Silverstone – to go with the 10 in Canada – are significant. He now trails his team-mate by just 11 points in the standings. Perhaps that played a part in some of Ferrari’s indecision in swapping or not swapping the cars, as it is no longer a big enough gap to warrant favouring Leclerc in race strategy.
There is a long way to go before we have a genuine four-man fight for the championship, but Silverstone does suggest that it is looking more that way than at any other time this season.