Formula 1: Red Bull even more alone in the world

While the rivals of the English team thought they had reduced their delay, the double signed by Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez at Spa shows that the Ferraris and Mercedes are on the contrary even more distant.

Mercedes motorhome, 5:15 p.m., Sunday (pictured). The Grand Prix has been over for an hour, everyone has deserted the place. The engineers left to catch their plane – or rather try to get out of the monster traffic jams around the circuit -, while the mechanics dismantle the garages to leave without waiting for Zandvoort, where the Grand Prix of Holland will be held next Sunday.

Alone at the back of the room on the ground floor, Toto Wolff keeps smiling. The slightly depressed smile of one who regrets the good old days, the smile of one who realizes his impotence.

The sad smile, in a word. « Frankly, it’s catastrophic, » he says. “Saturday, we were even further from the Red Bulls than usual, and we were even beaten by the Alpine, we were at the level of Lando Norris and the Williams of Alex Albon. Whereas in Budapest, we were in pole position. It’s really hard to adapt to these ups and downs. Something is seriously wrong with this car, and we don’t know what. »

The worst thing for the team, having won the title of world champion eight times, is that it is not certain to do better next season. “We have not yet decided on the concept of the 2023 car, continues Toto Wolff. A concept is complex, it includes weight distribution, suspension mountings, aerodynamics, etc. We have one, inherited from the current car, but if we change it radically, how can we be sure that it will be better? We have to be careful.”

Sunday evening, all Toto Wolff wanted was to forget this 2022 season. Get to the end of it as quickly as possible. “For sure, the W13 (note: this season’s car) will not have the star place in our museum, at the factory, he quips. I think the world championship will be played before we leave Europe (that is to say on the evening of Monza, in two weeks!). But we absolutely have to win at least one race this season. After our result in Budapest (note: George Russell qualified on pole position and Lewis Hamilton finished second), I’m sure it’s possible. We really need it for the morale of the team.

It is this Monday that the court of « recognition of contracts » (the « contract recognition board », or CRB) will meet to decide the fate of Oscar Piastri.

The young Australian, winner of the Formula 2 championship last year, has a contract with Alpine and plays the role of third driver at McLaren this season, on loan from Alpine. The French team has been following him for years, and has financed part of his training.

When Fernando Alonso announced his departure from the French team on August 1, the team immediately announced his replacement by Oscar Piastri. Logic.

A few hours later, however, the Australian denied having signed any contract with the French team, even adding: « I will not drive for Alpine in 2023 ». It took a certain nerve to write it, but also contempt for those who formed it all these years. In reality, Oscar Piastri had already signed a contract with McLaren – who preferred him to Daniel Ricciardo, dismissed last week.

Alpine does not hear it that way. The team filed a complaint with the CRB, based in Geneva. In the next few hours, the court will therefore decide which of the two contracts, Alpine or McLaren, is valid and where the young driver will be next year. If he has to drive for Alpine in 2023, that promises him a warm welcome within the team…

Forcing a driver to drive in a stable against his will has happened twice in the history of the CRB (which has existed since 1991): David Coulthard in 1995, who had to stay at Williams for another year before joining McLaren, and Jenson Button, who wanted to leave BAR-Honda for Williams ten years later and had to stay at BAR.

Oscar Piastri does not yet know for which team he will drive next year.

Ferrari: It’s not the circuit’s fault

While Carlos Sainz started from pole position at Spa, the Spaniard finished third, unable to resist the two Red Bulls. Charles Leclerc, on the other Ferrari, finished sixth.

Within the Scuderia, it was hoped that this relative poor performance was perhaps due to the characteristics of the Spa circuit, which particularly favored the Red Bulls.

Unfortunately for the tifosi, this is not the case. “No need to hope that our lack of performance is due to the specificities of Spa, tempered Mattia Binotto, the boss of Ferrari, after the race. There is a big difference between the performances of the Red Bulls and ours. With hindsight, we can even see that they were a little faster than us in Hungary already, although it’s a very different track, with a lot of downforce. Here at Spa, you need power and aerodynamic efficiency for the straights. But in addition, we had a strong degradation of the tires, they were also better than us from this point of view. In short, they are much faster than I expected!”

Charles Leclerc, for his part, admits that it will be “very difficult” to win the title with almost 100 points less than Max Verstappen eight races from the end of the championship. “That said, the delay we saw today will not be the delay for the next circuits.” Nice consolation!

Charles Leclerc admits it will be “very difficult” to win the title.

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