Photo by Bryn Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
The grid heads to Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix this week, and here are the biggest questions facing the teams and drivers
After the chaos that was the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Formula 1 grid heads to the final race weekend before the summer shutdown. And given just how frantic things were at the Hungaroring it seems everyone could use a break.
Including one intrepid F1 writer …
But enough about me, there are still some major storylines ahead of us this weekend. So let’s not waste any more time, and dive right in. Here are the burning issues facing the grid this week.
This weekend a six-time Grand Prix winner will take to the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix, hoping to finally break through with a win at historic Spa-Francorchamps after finishing second each of the past two F1 seasons. This driver also finished second in the F1 Drivers’ Championship and was part of a team that won the Constructors’ Championship.
Is the Sergio Pérez’s last stand?
Yet he may be racing for his job this weekend.
Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix marks the final race before F1’s summer shutdown, and it could be critical for Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull tenure. While Pérez rebounded from a disastrous qualifying session to finish seventh in the Hungarian Grand Prix, he remains mired in a mid-season swoon that has seen him bank just 21 points since the Miami Grand Prix. Over that same stretch, McLaren has outscored Red Bull by 64 points (214 to 150) to pull within 51 points of Red Bull atop the Constructors’ Championship standings. The RB20 is not the dominant force that last season’s challenger, the RB19, was on the grid and as a result, Red Bull is facing a true title challenge this year. Unlike last year, Max Verstappen cannot win the Constructors’ Championship on his own for Red Bull, and barring a stunning turnaround from Verstappen in the RB20 they need two drivers consistently in the points if they are going to defend their title from a season ago successfully.
All of this amounts to a tremendous amount of pressure on Pérez to reverse his current form, which Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has called “unsustainable.” Another senior figure with the team, Dr. Helmut Marko, noted recently that following the Belgian Grand Prix “there will be a meeting” at Red Bull to discuss options over the final stretch of the season, which could potentially include benching Pérez the rest of the way.
The Belgian Grand Prix has been fertile ground for Pérez the past two campaigns, thanks to a pair of P2 finishes for the driver in Spa. But could this be his last stand?
If not Pérez, then who?
If this is indeed Pérez’s final ride at Red Bull, two of his potential replacements, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, will be in action at Spa this weekend.
Can either of them deliver an emphatic closing argument on their behalf?
Tsunoda heads to Spa following a gutty performance in Hungary, where he finished ninth a day after a hard shunt into the barrier ended his qualifying run in Q3. According to German outlet Auto Motor und Sport Tsunoda suffered a bruised tailbone as well as bruising to his back in the accident, but he was able to pull off a one-stop race in Hungary and finish in the points.
As for Ricciardo, he was undone by an early call into the pits, which saw him emerge from pit lane mired in heavy traffic at the back of the field. While a subsequent stop allowed him to pick up a few spots, Ricciardo could not get back into the points despite starting ninth.
At the moment, Tsunoda has outscored Ricciardo 22-11 throughout the season, and might be the better option for a promotion to Red Bull on paper.
However, Ricciardo’s experience driving at the upper echelon of the sport might make him the better option for Red Bull down the stretch.
Can either driver deliver a strong closing argument? Or will Red Bull’s third option, Liam Lawson, parlay recent testing results into a spot on the grid?
McLaren, a week later
Ok, enough about the drama at Red Bull.
What about the major storyline from Hungary?
McLaren delivered the one-two finish they badly needed after two weeks of questions following the British Grand Prix. But that result does not mean the questions have subsided, and if anything, Sunday’s performance in Hungary has opened the door to even more questions for the Woking-based team.
Because beyond what they did in Hungary, is how they did it, and how the team handled Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri through team orders over the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris, facing repeated instructions from Will Joseph, his race engineer, finally pulled to the side to allow Piastri to regain P1, “re-establishing” the order the two were running in when Norris pitted first during the second round of pit stops, effectively undercutting his teammate for the lead.
In the hours after the race all the involved parties, from the drivers to Team Principal Andrea Stella, said the right things about the decision. McLaren and their drivers understand they are playing a team game at the moment, and making sure of a one-two finish was a massive step for the team in their chase of Red Bull at the front of the field in the Constructors’ Championship.
But Norris has a fight of his own in the Drivers’ Championship, and while his P2 on Sunday saw him inch closer to Max Verstappen in that fight, a win would have seen him inch closer still. Yet, Norris sacrificed those few points for the greater good of team harmony.
Will there be any lingering effects from how that decision was made — and communicated — or will it be full speed ahead for McLaren into Spa, and the summer shutdown?
Can Ferrari build off Hungary?
McLaren’s strength in recent weeks combined with the resurgence of Mercedes, as well as the struggles from Pérez and Red Bull, have all combined to overshadow another fascinating aspect of F1 these past few weeks:
Struggles at Ferrari.
When Charles Leclerc broke through with a long-awaited win in the Monaco Grand Prix — emerging victorious on the very streets where he learned to drive — his win along with a P3 from Carlos Sainz Jr. saw Ferrari add 40 points to their account, and pull to within 24 points of Red Bull at the top of the table.
But since then? Ferrari has managed just 70 points, and their gap with Red Bull has widened to 67 points. Even worse? McLaren has now lept over them for second in the Constructors’ Championship, dropping Ferrari to third.
With Leclerc fighting to a P4 result on Sunday, and Sainz finishing seventh, it gave Ferrari their first double-points result in a Grand Prix since Barcelona (Leclerc’s two points during the Austrian Grand Prix came in the F1 Sprint race), and offered some hope that the tide might be turning.
“We got the most out of our package that we could this weekend. We have made a good step in terms of the car’s driveability but now we need to come up with a step forward in performance to close the gap of two to three tenths to McLaren,” said Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur. “Of course we cannot be happy just with this, but I think we are back on the right track.”
Can Ferrari close out the last race before the summer shutdown by building off what they did in Hungary?
The driver transfer market that will never, ever, ever end
Is this the week we finally see the big domino in the driver transfer market fall?
For weeks speculation has surrounded Sainz and his eventual decision regarding his F1 future, but we still await news on his next destination. The current Ferrari driver has been linked to teams such as Williams, Sauber, Alpine, and even Mercedes, but has yet to make a decision.
On the one hand, how we opened this piece is the likely reason why. Sainz and his team are reading the same stories you are, about the ongoing speculation at Red Bull regarding Pérez. While Marko all but ruled out a reunion between Verstappen and Sainz — the two drove together at Toro Rosso during the 2015 season and part of the 2016 campaign —Sainz may hold out hope that he emerges as the best option for the team next year.
However, while he waits, other teams may get tired of waiting for him. And while Sainz may desire a seat at Red Bull, he also does not want to be cut out of a seat when the “F1 game of musical chairs” sees the music stop.
Now, maybe the decision comes sometime during the shutdown after Sainz has had a chance to catch his breath away from the hectic nature of the F1 schedule. But at some point, he will need to make a decision, and once he does, you can expect the rest of the driver dominoes to fall in short order.
