The rear view mirror after the final races before F1’s summer break shows team orders are ruining races Peter Coster reports.
Oscar Piastri could be forgiven for losing his cool after a Belgian Grand Prix he should have and would have won had it not been for shaky strategy by the McLaren team.
The Melbourne driver won the previous race in Hungary after being undercut by his own teammate before team orders prevailed to put him back in the lead.
At the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, Piastri was again in the lead when the team called him in for a change of tyres he didn’t need.
That allowed Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and then George Russell to lead him home in a Mercedes one-two.
Hamilton suffered from a similar strategy, with the seven-time world champion also pitted for a tyre change he didn’t need.
Piastri was in front by five seconds in what he described on team radio as a “purple” patch on strongly performing rubber.
Clearly, it was another mistake by the strategists at McLaren. The same could be said of Mercedes with a frustrated Hamilton saying he had plenty of grip when he was called in.
George Russell in the second Mercedes made his own decision on tyres. He said he wanted to continue on a one-stop strategy.
The team agreed. Russell was running in fifth and the team didn’t think a change of tyres would make any difference.
It made all the difference.
Russell found himself in the lead as Piastri and Hamilton made second stops. Russell and Hamilton then led Piastri over the line by less than a second.
Piastri kept his cool after the race when he might of had more to say about the obvious blunder by his pit wall.
Hamilton was more clearly frustrated, having returned to brilliant form in winning the British GP at Silverstone but being deprived of a second victory in a strategy stuff-up.
Then came the reversal of fortune when Russell’s car was found to be under the minimum weight by the FIA after the champagne had been sprayed around on the podium.
Not when it was weighed initially, but only when the remaining fuel had been drained out.
But rules are rules as Mercedes admitted and Russell was disqualified, leaving the champagne bitter rather than sweet.
Hamilton was promoted to first place and Oscar Piastri to second followed by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari.
Max Verstappen was fourth in the Red Bull, after finishing first in qualifying but penalised 10 grid places for an engine change. Lando Norris was fifth in the second McLaren.
All this saw Daniel Ricciardo, the other Australian on the grid, in 10th place and picking up the remaining championship point in the Visa Red Bull.
Some pundits saw this as keeping him in contention for a seat in the Red Bull senior team for the remainder of the season if Sergio Perez was to be dumped.
The Mexican river was second on the grid at Spa but slipped back through the field to finish a distant seventh, offering little support to Verstappen in the race for the constructors title after the summer break.
Ricciardo has his supporters at Red Bull, principally in Christian Horner who has maintained the faith in the Honey Badger, who won seven of his eight victories with Red Bull.
There was Renault and later McLaren for an unlikely win in Italy when Hamilton and Verstappen crashed out before Ricciardo was sacked in favour of Piastri, who is under the management of another Australian in Mark Webber.
There are reportedly no hard feelings between the Australians, nor between Ricciardo and Verstappen, who invited the Honey Badger to share a ride on his helicopter after the Belgian race.
But any hopes Ricciardo might have had collapsed on Tuesday morning when Christian Horner confirmed the Mexican driver was staying on.
“Checo remains a Red Bull racing driver despite all the speculation of late,” said the Red Bull principal.
Meanwhile, Liam Lawson, the reserve driver at Visa RB is a likely replacement if Ricciardo moves on or even fails to find a seat.
There is also a likely match off between Ricciardo and the New Zealander in a test at Imola, which might finally decide the Australian’s future.
Having been pushed out of Ferrari after Hamilton leaves Mercedes next year, Carlos Sainz has ended speculation by announcing he will join Williams alongside Alex Albon.
The Hungarian and Belgian races have sent the driver market into overdrive as the top teams fight for supremacy.
Red Bull and Verstappen are no longer a certainty at the front of the grid with 10 races remaining of a record 24 GPs this year.
McLaren is only 42 points behind Red Bull in the constructors championship, with Ferrari 63 points adrift and Mercedes 142.
The best that can be said is don’t believe everything you hear as teams show they are prepared to do whatever is necessary to win points in a market still in upheaval. The next race is the Dutch GP at Zandvoort on August 25.
The 20 drivers on the grid in F1 are paid in millions, some in tens of millions and with money comes risk.
The adage of one week a rooster snd another a feather duster is as true of F1 as it is of politics, with the recent run of races showing team bosses and strategists as the ones making mistakes.
At least McLaren principal Andrea Stella as much as admitted the bosses’ blunders it when a commentator remarked that the team “deserved” the summer break.
Stella said he didn’t think the team deserved it, they “needed” it.
That doesn’t include Oscar Piastri. Stella said after the Hungarian race that the unflappable Piastri is the “youngest and the wisest” at McLaren.
The King of Cool.
Results of Belgium Grand Prix
28th July 2024
| POS | DRIVER | CAR | TIME/RETIRED |
|---|---|---|---|
| DQ | George Russell | Mercedes | 19:57.0 |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.526s |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | +1.173s |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | +8.549s |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +9.226s |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | +9.850s |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +19.795s |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | +43.195s |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +49.963s |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | +52.552s |
| 10 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | +54.926s |
| 11 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | +63.011s |
| 12 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | +63.651s |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | +64.365s |
| 14 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | +66.631s |
| 15 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | +70.638s |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | +76.737s |
| 17 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | +86.057s |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | +88.833s |
| NC | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | DNF |
PETER COSTER is a former editor and foreign correspondent who has covered a range of international sports, including world championship fights and the Olympic Games.
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