2022 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps - Aug 26 - 28

[f1316]

Silverstone was exciting, Austria likewise. Miami and Canada were both close to the end. Saudi was a flat out dual for 20 laps followed by a tactical game of chess; Bahrain had multiple high spots.

If Ferrari hadn’t messed up so much (and had limited themselves to the 2x DNFs, same as RB) we’d be experiencing a close and exciting battle with a lot of great races. As it is, the spice has been taken away by Ferrari just handing an insurmountable lead to their rivals - so naturally that makes it less exciting - but the quality of the racing has been equal to anything we’ve seen in a while (and all the better for being hard but clean).

[_cerber1]

[Alexf1]

Merc, merc, merc, merc.... and some breadcrums for the rest

I'm a fan of the sport. The team doesn't matter to me as long as there is a proper fight.

The fight for this championship fizzled out five races ago. Just midfield squabbles and the frequent Ferrari cock ups are what's left of this cold dinner.

We're all fans of the sport otherwise we wouldn't be posting here. For you to be fine with 2014 to 2020, start whining in 2021 and be bored halfway through 2022 when Ferrari has been on pole for the most races and were in it to win it says enough. It's clear you're bored because your favourite team isn't in the mix. Just sit back, relax and wait for the same 7 years to be in a position to start complaining.

[Michelangelo]

Just avoid hards. S-M-M all the way, I think.

[mendis]

Merc, merc, merc, merc.... and some breadcrums for the rest

I'm a fan of the sport. The team doesn't matter to me as long as there is a proper fight.

The fight for this championship fizzled out five races ago. Just midfield squabbles and the frequent Ferrari cock ups are what's left of this cold dinner.

Not so long ago!
viewtopic.php?p=970174#p970174

I wish the Mercedes was faster. I want it to dominate again. Today i thought it would be a good step on the way, but I was disappointed. I couldnt really tell if it was truly faster. Max was too close. He was in front in fact and we couldn't overtake him after many attempts. Valterri was also too far back, so far there wasnt even a one-two finish. You know how long its been before Mercedes had a one-two?! Man i miss those days! I was glad that the strategy and the ability of HAM to make it work brought the win though. Max could have won if he didn't burn out his tyres in the opening laps.

viewtopic.php?p=970373#p970373

It's like Rosberg versus Schumacher or Ocon vs Alonso nothing too thrilling imo. Like an executive of the sport, Lewis deserves his time just crusing untroubled at the top.

[DChemTech]

This year is a deinifetely a boring one. I have lost interest in lots of things. The title fight is basically done.

It's just the way it is in this sport. The 2014-2020 years had an all-time great destroying everyone including some esteemed teammates. Now the past 2 years we have another all-time great in Verstappen destroying the whole field. 2010-2013 it was Vettel. 2000-2004 it was Schumacher. 2005-2006 Alonso...

Others are just better than others I think it is what we must internalise as we watch these races. Seldom do we actually see realistic and close title fights - at least in this century.

Not quite.

2014 - title fight to the last race. Seb Vs Daniel. Alonso Vs Ferrari. Caterhams and Renaults blowing up every odd race.

2015 - Merc dominance (a bit boring yes). Honda McLaren woes. verstappen enters F1.

2016 - Title fight to the last race. (the silver war).

2017 - Ferrari Vs Merc part 1

2018 - Ferrari Vs Merc part 2

2019 - Vestappen coming of age. Rise of Leclerc and fall of Vettel.

2020 - Covid year... New tracks galore. Redbumm fastest at the end of the year.

2021 - no need to explain.

There were two boring years at most during the Mercedes dominance.

We have our first year of new RedBull era and it might just be to the end of 2025.

2022 - diverse car concepts, ferrari and RB on equal footing, fall of Mercedes

You can easily make a synopsis for this year that sounds at least as interesting as those you made for the MB dominance years.

Doesn't change the fact that the MB dominance years were boring as hell most of the time. Maybe not so if you are a Mercedes fan and cared about the intra-team battle, but for the rest of us it was clear that, incident aside, mercedes would win and, except that one year, it would be Hamilton. The years that ferrari could challenge were slightly better, but also there I never really had the feeling they would make a lasting challenge.

At least this year I did have that feeling - RB is not miles ahead due to RB dominance. Ferrari was more than a competent challenger, until they started messing it up themselves. Nevertheless, still plenty of races where ferrari can challenge the win if they improve strategically, still opportunity for MB to get in the mix, and plenty of quarrels in the midfield (see williams Q3!). Much better than most of the MB dominance years in my view.

[Juzh]

Had a look on perez' final q3 lap. He really threw away an easy pole position by having probably the worst lap of the weekend. First mistake was he positioned himself too close to hamilton at around 3-4s. Then he completely missed T5 corner entry, 4 tenths gone right there. Then had to come off throttle mid puohon as he wasn't sure car will turn in, making him slower than williams on minimum speed. Then continued with generally unremarkable lap, losing time as the lap went on. And despite being ~3s behind hamilton on the long back straight, this only gave him half a tenth advantage over his previous lap when he was in clean air.

RB didn't need no slipstream for easy pole, but that's just perez being perez.

[Spoutnik]

Had a look on perez' final q3 lap. He really threw away an easy pole position by having probably the worst lap of the weekend. First mistake was he positioned himself too close to hamilton at around 3-4s. Then he completely missed T5 corner entry, 4 tenths gone right there. Then had to come off throttle mid puohon as he wasn't sure car will turn in, making him slower than williams on minimum speed. Then continued with generally unremarkable lap, losing time as the lap went on. And despite being ~3s behind hamilton on the long back straight, this only gave him half a tenth advantage over his previous lap when he was in clean air.

RB didn't need no slipstream for easy pole, but that's just perez being perez.

Agree with you. But he will eat Sainz after Eau Rouge at the start I'm afraid, he has too much top speed.

I'm wondering who will try the one stopper

[Juzh]

Had a look on perez' final q3 lap. He really threw away an easy pole position by having probably the worst lap of the weekend. First mistake was he positioned himself too close to hamilton at around 3-4s. Then he completely missed T5 corner entry, 4 tenths gone right there. Then had to come off throttle mid puohon as he wasn't sure car will turn in, making him slower than williams on minimum speed. Then continued with generally unremarkable lap, losing time as the lap went on. And despite being ~3s behind hamilton on the long back straight, this only gave him half a tenth advantage over his previous lap when he was in clean air.

RB didn't need no slipstream for easy pole, but that's just perez being perez.

Agree with you. But he will eat Sainz after Eau Rouge at the start I'm afraid, he has too much top speed.

We shall see. You could also say Sainz ain't never getting passed Perez if positions were reversed (2017 vettel vs ham).

[organic]

Quali top speeds (without the tow included)

Here's the data with the tows included if you are curious


McLaren have clearly got on top of their drag woes

[RZS10]

I doubt this is the Q3 run, someone's just trying to stir up some sh...

Just have to watch the onboard

to be able to tell he's not off and that it can't even be the same run (try to spot the photographer).
He's past the fence and screen in that still image, whilst in is onboard he's furthest out with the screen still visible in his onboard and clearly back on track when he's past it.

[organic]

[chrisc90]

Not going to be long before max is up into the top 10.

Going to be a mega race

[organic]

Consider they changed PU without approval of technical delagate, does that imply that the new PU in yuki's car is of different specification to the previous one (as the rules now allow you to change to same spec pu without a pitlane start under new rules)

[Juzh]

Consider they changed PU without approval of technical delagate, does that imply that the new PU in yuki's car is of different specification to the previous one (as the rules now allow you to change to same spec pu without a pitlane start under new rules)

Could confirm ers update if that is the case.