Just as the pecking order at the front of the Formula One grid is shifting, the spot now moves into a four week summer break. Mercedes have won three of the last four races and at the 2024 Belgium Grand Prix it was George Russell who triumphed over his team mate Lewis Hamilton.

The front eight left the rest of the field behind, although Sergio Perez faded on the final stint of his three finishing 43 seconds behind the eventual winner.

Lewis Hamilton complained at there end of the race that he had plenty of tyre life left at the end of each stop. The suggesting simply being it was the team’s lack of foresight not to also put the seven times world champion on a one stop race plan.

 

 

 

Hamilton implies Mercedes team strategy error

Hamilton said in the post race interview: “Every stint I had tyres left but the team pulled me in. Unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

“We definitely didn’t expect it, congratulations to George and the team,” Hamilton added. “We had a disaster on Friday, car was nowhere. But it was fantastic today. If we can continue these types of performance, it will be fantastic. We’ve got to keep pushing.”

When asked how Russell had managed the one stop, F1 presenter Karen Chandhok eulogised over the Mercedes driver’s decision making and execution: “I think thats the first question Lewis Hamilton will be asking at the team debrief because a one stop wasn’t on anybody’s radar in the morning. I just spoke with some of there Mercedes people and even they didn’t consider it,” said the ex-F1 driver.

“But I think what is clear in the first stint they were saying that it was harder to overtake than all of us though. All through the weekend this is one of the easiest tracks to overtake on. Maybe with the shorter DRS and the way the wind was it was harder to overtake and the tyres were overheating at the end.”

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George made the winning call

Chandhok revealed having listened to Mercedes team radio: “I think they had a conversation with George about that that thinking ‘can we…, what do you think?’ And clearly he came back and said ‘think about the one stop’. I agree with Ted [Kravitz] He [Russell] made it happen – he called for the one stop – but he hung on which is super impressive.

“Martin said in commentary, ‘its his best win’ because not only did he call the strategy but he then executed the strategy which is so hard to do.

You’ve got Lewis Hamilton charging down on you with 19 laps fresher tyres – you’ve got Oscar Piastri on even fresher tyres coming at both of them but he kept his cool.

We saw Lewis go deep at La Source two or three times and lock up. We didn’t see that from George and he just managed his pace in the early part of the stint and we heard in the cool down room him saying ‘the grip came to me’. He really used his brain under pressure.

Wolff reminds Hamilton team orders must be obeyed

 

 

 

Wolff surprised after chaos on Friday

Hamilton had been catching Russell following his final stop at around three quarters a second a lap. Yet as Lewis closed inside the DRS 1 second gap, he made a number of mistakes running wide and locking up at turn one.

Toto Wolff appeared surprised when interviewed by Sky F1 after the race: “On Friday we were not competitive so we were expecting best case a podium. The team in Brackley worked really well overnight and the trackside engineering team did their job and the car was on one stop and it would good on two stops.

“Overnight, Friday to Saturday Shov [Andrew Shovlin] said ‘I think we’ve figured out what it is’ and the decision was good.”

Work in the simulator on Friday night had shown the Mercedes new floor was not working properly with the mechanical elements of the suspension, so both W15 cars reverted to the floor used back in Hungary last time out..

FIA take action over Verstappen’s ‘foul language’

 

 

 

Wolff defends Hamilton’s race strategy 

When asked whether Lewis should be disappointed with the result given at one stage he was 12 seconds ahead of his team mate, Toto Wolff was diplomatic: “I’d like to have had two winners today but we had to [stop Lewis] t cover Norris because we would have been undercut, that was the call and George had nothing to lose because we were at P5 and the one stop and the two stop [simulations] were showing P5 so we just kept him out.”

And looking to the future of the team without Hamilton, there Mercedes boss admitted his junior driver is ready for the challenge next season of becoming the team leader: “Yes he’s very strong and the two of them today were so much sure – so good – but George is stepping up. It’s all good.”

Hamilton again stressed how his strategy was to blame for him losing out to his team mate for the win in the media pen following there chequered flag: “It was a bit of a shock at the end to see George [staying out] but we’ll take that in house and move forward – we can all go into the Sumer break with out heads held high.”

Max and dad Jos disagree over his future team mate

 

 

 

Hamilton again blames team race strategy

George wasn’t in my race for the most of it, if the strategy had been done right, he wouldn’t have been in my race, we wouldn’t have been having that [conversation].”

Lewis was informed that his boss had explained his second stop was to cover off the pit stops of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc who were immediately behind him at the time. Hamilton shrugged and appeared somewhat lost for words before replying: “It is what it is – its done – we’ll go into the break and we’ll have a great time.”

Speaking to the written media in Spa, Lewis added: “You have to put the faith in the people you work with. I put my faith in my strategists, I should be able to lean on them fully. I told them that the tyres were fine and they pulled me in. Did I know I was at risk of getting one stopped by my teammate? They didn’t tell me that.”

Chandhok defended Hamilton’s right to be upset about the result in Spa: “If I was Lewis and I’d just seen the fact that my team mate’s won when I was 12 seconds ahead of him on a different strategy, I wouldn’t be happy. His face was thunder in the cool down room, Lewis exists to win. He’s had 200 podiums – so I guess 201 doesn’t mean something –  but he exists to win and will be very annoyed not to win today.”

Sargeant SLAMS Ericsson for starting “false rumour”

 

 

 

Retirement coming? Crunch meeting for Perez tomorrow

Red Bull Racing will hold a crucial meeting on Monday to discuss Sergio Perez’s future within the team. The meeting, which will take place immediately after the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix, has been confirmed by the team’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. Indeed retirement from the sport is most certainly on the cards for the Mexican.

Discussions will focus on whether to keep Perez as Max Verstappen’s team-mate or replace him, despite Perez recently signing a contract extension until 2025… READ MORE