After the chaos that was the Hungarian Grand Prix, the System 1 grid heads to the ultimate race weekend earlier than the summer time shutdown. And given simply how frantic issues have been on the Hungaroring it appears everybody might use a break.
Together with one intrepid F1 author …
However sufficient about me, there are nonetheless some main storylines forward of us this weekend. So let’s not waste any extra time, and dive proper in. Listed here are the burning points going through the grid this week.
This weekend a six-time Grand Prix winner will take to the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix, hoping to lastly break by means of with a win at historic Spa-Francorchamps after ending second every of the previous two F1 seasons. This driver additionally completed second within the F1 Drivers’ Championship and was a part of a workforce that gained the Constructors’ Championship.
Is the Sergio Pérez’s final stand?
But he could also be racing for his job this weekend.
Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix marks the ultimate race earlier than F1’s summer time shutdown, and it might be crucial for Sergio Pérez’s Pink Bull tenure. Whereas Pérez rebounded from a disastrous qualifying session to complete seventh within the Hungarian Grand Prix, he stays mired in a mid-season swoon that has seen him financial institution simply 21 factors for the reason that Miami Grand Prix. Over that very same stretch, McLaren has outscored Pink Bull by 64 factors (214 to 150) to drag inside 51 factors of Pink Bull atop the Constructors’ Championship standings. The RB20 just isn’t the dominant drive that final season’s challenger, the RB19, was on the grid and in consequence, Pink Bull is going through a real title problem this yr. Not like final yr, Max Verstappen can not win the Constructors’ Championship on his personal for Pink Bull, and barring a shocking turnaround from Verstappen within the RB20 they want two drivers persistently within the factors if they will defend their title from a season in the past efficiently.
All of this quantities to an incredible quantity of strain on Pérez to reverse his present kind, which Pink Bull Crew Principal Christian Horner has referred to as “unsustainable.” One other senior determine with the workforce, Dr. Helmut Marko, famous not too long ago that following the Belgian Grand Prix “there might be a gathering” at Pink Bull to debate choices over the ultimate stretch of the season, which might probably embrace benching Pérez the remainder of the way in which.
The Belgian Grand Prix has been fertile floor for Pérez the previous two campaigns, due to a pair of P2 finishes for the motive force in Spa. However might this be his final stand?
If not Pérez, then who?
If that is certainly Pérez’s remaining trip at Pink Bull, two of his potential replacements, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, might be in motion at Spa this weekend.
Can both of them ship an emphatic closing argument on their behalf?
Tsunoda heads to Spa following a gutty efficiency in Hungary, the place he completed ninth a day after a tough shunt into the barrier ended his qualifying run in Q3. In response to German outlet Auto Motor und Sport Tsunoda suffered a bruised tailbone in addition to bruising to his again within the accident, however he was in a position to pull off a one-stop race in Hungary and end within the factors.
As for Ricciardo, he was undone by an early name into the pits, which noticed him emerge from pit lane mired in heavy visitors behind the sphere. Whereas a subsequent cease allowed him to select up a number of spots, Ricciardo couldn’t get again into the factors regardless of beginning ninth.
In the intervening time, Tsunoda has outscored Ricciardo 22-11 all through the season, and may be the higher possibility for a promotion to Pink Bull on paper.
Nonetheless, Ricciardo’s expertise driving on the higher echelon of the game may make him the higher possibility for Pink Bull down the stretch.
Can both driver ship a robust closing argument? Or will Pink Bull’s third possibility, Liam Lawson, parlay current testing outcomes right into a spot on the grid?
McLaren, per week later
Okay, sufficient in regards to the drama at Pink Bull.
What in regards to the main storyline from Hungary?
McLaren delivered the one-two end they badly wanted after two weeks of questions following the British Grand Prix. However that outcome doesn’t imply the questions have subsided, and if something, Sunday’s efficiency in Hungary has opened the door to much more questions for the Woking-based workforce.
As a result of past what they did in Hungary, is how they did it, and the way the workforce dealt with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri by means of workforce orders over the closing laps of the Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris, going through repeated directions from Will Joseph, his race engineer, lastly pulled to the aspect to permit Piastri to regain P1, “re-establishing” the order the 2 have been operating in when Norris pitted first in the course of the second spherical of pit stops, successfully undercutting his teammate for the lead.
Within the hours after the race all of the concerned events, from the drivers to Crew Principal Andrea Stella, mentioned the appropriate issues in regards to the determination. McLaren and their drivers perceive they’re enjoying a workforce recreation in the mean time, and ensuring of a one-two end was an enormous step for the workforce of their chase of Pink Bull on the entrance of the sphere within the Constructors’ Championship.
However Norris has a combat of his personal within the Drivers’ Championship, and whereas his P2 on Sunday noticed him inch nearer to Max Verstappen in that combat, a win would have seen him inch nearer nonetheless. But, Norris sacrificed these few factors for the better good of workforce concord.
Will there be any lingering results from how that call was made — and communicated — or will it’s full pace forward for McLaren into Spa, and the summer time shutdown?
Can Ferrari construct off Hungary?
McLaren’s energy in current weeks mixed with the resurgence of Mercedes, in addition to the struggles from Pérez and Pink Bull, have all mixed to overshadow one other fascinating side of F1 these previous few weeks:
Struggles at Ferrari.
When Charles Leclerc broke by means of with a long-awaited win within the Monaco Grand Prix — rising victorious on the very streets the place he realized to drive — his win together with a P3 from Carlos Sainz Jr. noticed Ferrari add 40 factors to their account, and pull to inside 24 factors of Pink Bull on the prime of the desk.
However since then? Ferrari has managed simply 70 factors, and their hole with Pink Bull has widened to 67 factors. Even worse? McLaren has now lept over them for second within the Constructors’ Championship, dropping Ferrari to 3rd.
With Leclerc preventing to a P4 outcome on Sunday, and Sainz ending seventh, it gave Ferrari their first double-points outcome in a Grand Prix since Barcelona (Leclerc’s two factors in the course of the Austrian Grand Prix got here within the F1 Dash race), and supplied some hope that the tide may be turning.
“We obtained probably the most out of our package deal that we might this weekend. We’ve made a very good step when it comes to the automotive’s driveability however now we have to give you a step ahead in efficiency to shut the hole of two to a few tenths to McLaren,” mentioned Ferrari Crew Principal Frederic Vasseur. “In fact we can’t be completely satisfied simply with this, however I feel we’re again heading in the right direction.”
Can Ferrari shut out the final race earlier than the summer time shutdown by constructing off what they did in Hungary?
The driving force switch market that may by no means, ever, ever finish
Is that this the week we lastly see the massive domino within the driver switch market fall?
For weeks hypothesis has surrounded Sainz and his eventual determination relating to his F1 future, however we nonetheless await information on his subsequent vacation spot. The present Ferrari driver has been linked to groups resembling Williams, Sauber, Alpine, and even Mercedes, however has but to decide.
On the one hand, how we opened this piece is the possible cause why. Sainz and his workforce are studying the identical tales you might be, in regards to the ongoing hypothesis at Pink Bull relating to Pérez. Whereas Marko all however dominated out a reunion between Verstappen and Sainz — the 2 drove collectively at Toro Rosso in the course of the 2015 season and a part of the 2016 marketing campaign —Sainz could maintain out hope that he emerges as the best choice for the workforce subsequent yr.
Nonetheless, whereas he waits, different groups could get uninterested in ready for him. And whereas Sainz could want a seat at Pink Bull, he additionally doesn’t wish to be minimize out of a seat when the “F1 recreation of musical chairs” sees the music cease.
Now, possibly the choice comes someday in the course of the shutdown after Sainz has had an opportunity to catch his breath away from the hectic nature of the F1 schedule. However sooner or later, he might want to decide, and as soon as he does, you possibly can count on the remainder of the motive force dominoes to fall briefly order.