We are racing again! I don’t know why but these few weeks were like torture for me. While waiting for this race in Singapore, a lot of rumors came around that certain teams might have breached the budget cap. In particular we are talking about Red Bull and Aston Martin here. While in general I think that most of the teams are playing the system, Red Bull might have been a little too crazy with spendings. This does not only influence the last season but also the following seasons to come as the advantage that they are getting by putting more money into the development of parts and systems can be taken with you into the next season.
In my opinion it is a very serious act that needs to be punished accordingly. But this should only happen if the rumors are true. Until now I would give everyone the benefit of the doubt as it might be a last attempt of bringing Red Bull down from their amazing performance in this season. Talking about racing again, we might see Max win the championship on this weekend. Of course there must be a lot of stuff coming together for this to happen but it is theoretically possible. It will also be interesting to see whether Ferrari will continue their downwards trend of if they are finally able to turn around their switch in the strategy department.
Qualifying: Red Bull’s Fail
Well, it looked like the whole rumors have reached the Red Bull paddock. Unfortunately for Max, they screwed up his qualifying lap in Q3 by putting not enough fuel into his car! This meant that during his best lap time he had to go into the pits and fuel up his car again. A very disappointing result for Max. But I am more than sure that with his abilities and this year’s car, he will be able to fight for the number one spot without problems yet again.
Despite this little hick up by George Russel who will be starting in P20, there are no more surprises happening in qualifying. Charles Leclerc will be starting from P1 followed by Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. Carlos Sainz only managed to get P4 but will certainly play a big role in Ferrari’s strategy to keep Max away from Charles. In P5 starting will be yet again Fernando Alonso who seems to start performing in his Alpine car better and better. He will be followed by Lando and Gasly and by Max in P8.
The Race: Yellow Flag Festival
This race started off to be a race to remember. First of all it was delayed by a whole hour because of rain. The track was very wet and so the FIA decided to delay the race. It was the correct decision and was certainly in the favor of everyone’s safety. The interesting part about it was that the track had a certain component in it that allowed the track to keep the water on the track instead of absorbing it. This meant that the majority of the race, the track would be a very wet one which also lead to a festival of yellow flags!
Anyways, with an hour delay we were off to a very long race that was supposed to go for 61 laps but due to the maximum time rule went only for about 2 hours. The start of the race was already a very interesting one as Perez stole the first position from Leclerc going into turn one. Verstappen had a horrible start and dropped back 4 places into P12 but was already able to get back into his starting position in lap 5. He was then stuck behind Vettel and Gasly for quite some time until Latifi took Zhou and himself out in Lap 7. This resulted in a Safety Car Period but because of the track condition, nobody pitted as the intermediates were still the better choice here.
After the first restart, the order in front kept the same. Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton and Norris were in the top 5. The restart also allowed Max to clear Vettel and Gasly which lead to him being stuck behind Fernando Alonso. It would be a hard piece of work to overtake the Spaniard. The strategy for everyone at this point was to last their inter tires for as long as possible and outlast everyone else. In lap 21 Fernando Alonso was finally overtaken by Max Verstappen. But not because he made a mistake, but because he has gotten an engine failure! This was a very unfortunate ending to the 350th race of Fernando Alonso. This inevitably meant another safety car period.
It also meant that there was a chance for the drivers to pit. The only one to do that and change his tires to slicks was George Russel. He was in the last position at this point and had nothing to lose really. He was coming out drifting out of the box and had really trouble to put some temperature in the mediums that he has gotten from his team. This is important so keep this in mind! After lap 26 we then lost another driver. Because of understeering Alex Albon made his way into the wall and, causing yet again another safety Car and being out of the race. He was followed soon by Esteban Ocon in lap 28 due to an engine failure.
After all of these outages, the important lap 35 came around. Because Russel was able to perform the quickest lap on slicks in this lap, every team decided to pit for slicks as well! The only team to rightfully not do it was McLaren. They were the only ones to realize that an overcut is certainly possible as the slicks would need more time to get up to heat. Not only that but a Yuki Tsunoda hitting the wall and causing yet another Safety Car was also a reason why McLaren were suddenly in P4 and P6!
At this point it was clear that the race can not go over full distance which is why the timer was shown. It were around 35 minutes left until the end of the race and the restart was on. It was a fairly successful restart for everyone except Max. He locked up during a maneuver on Danny Ric and dropped back to the last place. He was now yet again in P14. With 27 minutes to go, DRS was finally available and made the hunt for Leclerc for Perez on. Fortunately for Perez, Leclerc made some smaller mistakes which allowed the Mexican Red Bull driver to pull away and get himself a nice little 7 seconds buffer to Leclerc. Verstappen was able to get himself a P7 after overtaking Vettel in the last lap of this race.
The final placements were: Perez, followed by Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Ricciardo, Stroll, Verstappen, Vettel and Hamilton in P9. George Russel only managed to finish in P14 and was ultimately the last place after losing 6 drivers due to these difficult conditions. The most interesting point was whether Sergio Perez would keep his win after there was a Safety Car infringement, but because he was able to get a 7 seconds buffer and he only got one 5 second penalty, he was able to secure his win!
Conclusion
To be honest with you, it was very hard race to watch. All of the yellow flags and Safety Car Periods definitely did not help for the pace of this race. It was an interesting one for sure but it would not go into the top races of this season for me. Anyhow, Max was denied his title today, but I am sure that if everything goes to plan he will get it in a few races time. There are only a handful races left and Leclerc is running out of time to be honest. Furthermore, the performances of the Red Bull car are just to stable to let this one slide once again.
Ferrari will probably get their second place in the constructor’s championship after Mercedes had a disappointed race in a very long time. Furthermore, I think that the fight between McLaren and Alpine ignited again as McLaren was able to get double points while Alpine was unfortunate enough to get a double DNF. I am very exited for the last few races and can not wait for the next chapter of the rumors in the paddock!
Published by ga38jem on
Sports Talk Social
On 2nd October 2022