© Getty ImagesSeason So Far: Part 4Recapping our triple-header across Belgium, the Netherlands and Monza.
It’sonlybeenthreeweeksbutalreadythesummershutdownisadimanddistantmemory.F1hitthegroundrunningwithatriple-headertogetthesecondhalfoftheseasonunderway.
Our grand triple-header tour took in the Ardennes, the coastline of the Netherlands and a trip across the Alps to the Temple of Speed. The racing – or lack thereof – was dramatic, the outcomes mixed and as we head back out for the remaining eight rounds, our season is very much in the balance.
- Circuit: Spa-Francorchamps
- Max: P1
- Checo: P19
The shutdown has been around long enough now for people to start referring to it as the ‘traditional’ summer break – and it is traditionally followed by the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, where anyone who’s spent their holiday somewhere warm will receive the traditional shock of Spa’s traditionally-variable weather.
This year the Beast of the Ardennes pulled out all the stops to be both cold and wet throughout – but one bright ray of sunshine was that the team announced Checo had been retained for 2022.
Qualifying ranged between wet, very wet and damp, which developed into a fascinating duel between Max and McLaren’s Lando Norris. However, this ended with a huge crash for Norris coming out of the Eau Rouge compression, during a period of heavier rain. Thankfully the Brit climbed out of the fine unscathed. This halted the session for around 45 minutes while the barriers were repaired, and the debris swept away.
At the restart, Max kept his cool and duly took his sixth pole position of the season, much to the delight of the predominantly orange crowd.
Sadly, Sunday’s race didn’t happen – or at least it didn’t happen in any meaningful sense. Heavy rain from lunchtime onwards made a race start seem marginal. Checo didn’t make it to the grid, as he slid off in slow motion into the barriers between Les Combes and Malmedy, suffering suspension damage.
The formation lap started behind the safety car, with Max saying he thought it was OK to race, though his opinion was discounted by race control, being that of the only driver not following another F1 car into an impenetrable wall of spray.
The consensus among the other 18 was that visibility made a start untenable, and after circulating behind Bernd Mayländer for a while, the cars duly trooped back into the pit lane to wait it out.
Soaked Behind The Safety Car© Getty Images
Over the next three hours, everyone got more time to examine F1’s sporting regulations than they probably desired. Topics of conversation ranged from ‘has the race officially started?’ to – in our case – can we get Checo into this race? The initial answer to the latter was ‘no’, and then, after a review by the stewards ‘yes’ – not that this affected the crew, who were busy repairing his returned car at full speed anyway.
The race duration clock had started at 15:00 when the formation lap began, meaning any running we were going to get in had to be completed by 18:00. Race Control later took the unusual step of stopping the clock, keen to get in a race if there was sufficient light.
Shortly after 18:00 they announced they would try again, and the field – now including Checo – duly pulled out of the pit lane behind the safety car. This, technically, was a race start. The field continued behind the safety car for two laps, conditions were deemed too bad to realistically continue, the red flag appeared again and, shortly afterwards, the race was formally halted. Half points were awarded and Max gets the trophy – but not the way we wanted to win the Belgian Grand Prix.
Max Holding Trophy At Spa© Getty Images
- Circuit: Zandvoort
- Max: P1
- Checo: P8
F1 returned to Zandvoort after a 36-year absence, although it was very different to the Zandvoort on which it had last raced in 1985. Perhaps more significantly, it was much changed from the Zandvoort on which most of the field had raced in junior formula.
The track criss-crossing the dunes of North Holland’s North Sea coast remained tight, twisting and undulous, but with the addition of high-speed, high angle banking at turns three and 14. F1 hadn’t raced on anything like it for decades.
To the delight of a vast and overwhelmingly partisan crowd, Max continued where he had left off in Belgium, taking pole position. It was a close-fought affair with Max’s Q3 advantage over Lewis Hamilton being measured in hundredths rather than tenths of a second.
Max Taking Pole Position At Zandvoort© Getty Images
New Zandvoort is still decidedly old-school in its approach to gravel and runoffs, the sessions all being stop-start with red flags and double-waved yellows on the quali-sim laps, meaning no-one really knew what to expect. The disruptions continued into qualifying, which became something of a lottery as drivers attempted to complete laps between flags. Checo was one of those to not secure a winning ticket, ejected in Q1. Rather than start the race P16, the team opted for an overhaul, a fresh power unit and a pit lane start.
One thing practice had suggested was that Zandvoort would be a circuit on which it was almost impossible to overtake. That didn’t prove to be entirely true, with 23 overtaking moves completed in a race that saw the leaders take advantage of large gaps behind to switch to two-stop races. The busiest driver, however, was Checo, who made seven of those moves to recover to eighth position and win the driver of the day award.
For Max, the day was rather more serene. His lead was rarely threatened on track, but he did have to worry about a two-pronged Mercedes assault, with Lewis Hamilton attempting an undercut while Valtteri Bottas went long. Max opted to cover Hamilton, and had plenty of pace in hand to put in the fast laps when he needed them, and retake the lead before Bottas made his stop. The grandstands going crazy at that made everyone in the garage smile, and Max duly became only the second Red Bull driver to win his home grand Prix.
- Circuit: Monza
- Checo: P5
- Max: DNF
The Sprint Qualifying format returned at Monza, however qualifying straight after Free Practice One didn’t seem so rushed this time around: at the end of a triple-header it felt like the team had been on track for ever.
Monza, though, is special. La Pista Magica has speed, history and a passionate horde of fans. Their change in hue from orange to red meant we weren’t quite feeling so much love as before crossing the Alps, but you wouldn’t want it any other way.
Monza hasn’t been a particularly happy hunting ground for us. Two Italian Grand Prix wins back in the day, but not a sniff of a trophy since 2013. This year, with serious horsepower in the back of the wagon, we had high hopes of changing that – but our Monza hoodoo continued, albeit in unusual circumstances.
Mercedes appeared to have the upper-hand on the long Monza straights, with Max qualifying on Friday in P3 and Checo P9, although things were looking up – for Max at least – when he nipped past Hamilton at the start of Sprint Qualifying to take P2. And with Bottas set to take PU penalties, Max was content to take the two-points for P2 and pole position for the Sunday’s race.
Max’s race didn’t start particularly well, with a rocket start from McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo saw the Dutchamn drop to P2 at the first corner. Max had the faster car but not enough of an advantage to launch a committed attack on his former teammate. After a few laps of probing, he settled into the slipstream to look after his tyres and wait for his chance in the pit window. With speed in the car, he had opportunities to go either under or over. Daniel blinked first and pitted on lap 22, whereupon Max put the hammer down, pitting the following lap.
How successful that would have been, we’ll never know, a slow stop cost him time and, far from challenging for the lead, he slipped behind Lando Norris in the second McLaren as well. Then Lewis Hamilton, who also had a slow stop, emerged from the pit lane alongside Max. They went into the Rettifilo chicane side by side, collided and were both out on the spot. The stewards decided it was Max’s fault, and gave him a three-place grid penalty for the next race.
Significant Clash At First Chicane© Getty Images
What the ensuing safety car did do is bring Checo back up into contention. A cheap pit-stop saw him climb to P4, and a few laps after racing resumed, he was able to pass Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for P3. The stewards adjudged that he had completed the move off-track, and awarded him a five-second penalty which, at the chequered flag, dropped him from a podium spot to P5.
Next stop Russia!
