Mercedes pace at Zandvoort surprised Verstappen
Max Verstappen says he was surprised that Mercedes pace and the one-stop strategy could make the strategy work to challenge for victory in the Dutch Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver using his fresher tyres managed to overtake Lewis Hamilton at Tarzan following the final restart.
Mercedes had managed to get Hamilton and teammate George Russell into contention after opting for a one-stop strategy and displaying good pace on both the medium and the hard tyre. If it wasn’t for the final VSC that wouldn’t have led to the team making the final stop and left Verstappen needing in the final laps of the race needing to pass Hamilton on track.
Verstappen said about Mercedes, “I was just surprised that they were that quick on the harder compounds. I have to say these tyres are very stiff, the C1 and C2. And they just didn’t seem to really switch on for us as good as they did for them.”
“That’s I think what made it a little bit more complicated for us. But then once we were able to switch back to the soft, we could counter it. But yeah, I expected probably [Mercedes] to be a little bit slower. And I expected Ferrari to be a little bit faster.”
Zandvoort was a huge turning point for Mercedes after it struggled on both Friday and Saturday at Spa, where the team struggled with the high-speed nature of the circuit. Russell eventually finished second matching his best finish at Spa last year, while Hamilton dropped to fourth.
Verstappen realised Mercedes was becoming a growing threat in the race when he made the switch from softs to mediums, only to see the silver cars were “still doing good lap times.”
Verstappen said, “As soon as they swapped to the hard, I was quite interested to see their pace, because I never really wanted to go to a hard tyre. But yeah, when I heard the lap times, I was like, ‘that’s quite quick’. And I was trying to push up a bit. But they were still a few tenths faster.”
He added that he was surprised that Mercedes made the tyres work, before realising that they might get close up in the closing stages with the way the strategies were playing out.
Mercedes believes Hamilton could have caught Verstappen
Mercedes believes Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen would have faced a six-lap shootout for victory at Zandvoort had it not been for the Virtual Safety Car period. The German manufacturer appeared to put themselves into contention for their first win of the season when they fitted the hard tyres to both Hamilton and George Russell’s cars.
Red Bull committed to a two-stop strategy with Verstappen, who was set to emerge from the pits behind both Mercedes cars after making his final pit stop. However when Yuki Tsunoda stopped on track on lap forty-four, gave the Dutchman a free stop and retain track position ahead of Hamilton and Russell, prompting Mercedes to bring its drivers in again.
Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff revealed after the race that the team’s predictions suggested victory was possible had it not been for the VSC, owing to the gap to Verstappen and the need to pass two cars, as well as the reduced degradation of the hard tyre.
Wolff explained “The simulation says that Max would have come out eight seconds behind us with twenty laps to go. He would have probably pitted on the hard at that time and I think we would have had a fair shot at the win.”
While Mercedes claims that the VSC mean it lost out, Red Bull claimed it has lost out more from Tsunoda stopping on track. It had intended to keep Verstappen out on track long enough so he could take soft tyres for the final stint after the Dutchman stressed he did not want to use the hards.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner explained, “Max was conserving tyres, so he wasn’t killing the tyres and the tyres that came off his car were still in pretty decent shape. That gave us the confidence to go back onto the soft tyre. But the Virtual Safety Car couldn’t have really come at a worse moment. That’s at the point we had to convert.”
Verstappen said the timing of the VSC was “a bit unfortunate” and that he was “clearly lacking a little bit of pace” on the hard tyre compared to both Mercedes, which switched to mediums.
Adding “I think the gap was still big enough to manage it to the end,” said Verstappen. But they would have definitely gotten a lot closer than I think the 11-and-a-half seconds it was at the time.”
Schmitz receives abuse over strategy calls
Alpha Tauri has released a statement to call out the “hateful behaviour” directed at the team and Red Bull Racing’s Head of Strategy, Hannah Schmitz, after Yuki Tsunoda’s DNF cost Lewis Hamilton a chance of victory at the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday.
Tsunoda reported tyre issues and appeared set to retire from the race but was sent back out by his team before eventually stopping again after just four corners. The Virtual Safety Car was then called and gave Max Verstappen an effective free pit stop to retain his lead, while he later overtook Hamilton after a full Safety Car, with the Mercedes driver eventually finishing fourth.
The whole incident raised eyebrows in the paddock as well as conspiracy theories online about the final few laps of the race. Following the online reaction to the incident, AlphaTauri has called out the “hateful behaviour” directed at their team and Red Bull Racing’s Head of Strategy, Hannah Schmitz.
Mercedes even called for the incident for it to be “investigated.” With similarities to last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but this incident was different as it was a genuine issue for Tsunoda which the team were unaware of.
While the whole episode looked strange on TV, at the time a review of the onboard footage and radio conversations confirms that it was a simple case of the team and driver not knowing what had got wrong, and reacting as best they could to the unusual circumstances.
The team’s statement read, “It is incredibly disheartening to read some of the language and comments directed at our team and towards Red Bull Racing’s Head of Strategy, Hannah Schmitz.”
“Such hateful behaviour cannot be tolerated, and to entertain accusations of foul play is unacceptable, untrue and completely disrespectful towards both Hannah and us. We have always competed independently, fairly and with the highest levels of respect and sportsmanship.”
“Yuki had a failure that the team didn’t immediately detect which caused him to stop on track. To suggest anything different is insulting and categorically incorrect.
Hamilton’s unofficial supporter’s group, TeamLH, posted on Twitter, which was later taken down, was retweeted by Hamilton and said: “We 100 per cent understand that everyone’s emotions are high right now.
“No one expected the race to unfold that way when we were so close to a win. But it’s important to us that we continue to spread love and empathy towards the hardworking teams in the paddock – whether from our team or others – but especially the women.”
“The language and hateful comments directed at Red Bull’s head of strategy Hannah Schmitz is intolerable and should not be condoned. This sport is cut-throat, and you have to be ready for absolutely anything, and that’s what she did today.”
“There are lots of positives from Lewis’s race today, and that’s exactly what we are focusing on doing. Thank you for your unwavering support for LH! We win and we lose together.”
However, the statement released by the TeamLH supporters group received backlash and therefore the group chose to take the post down and release a second statement on Monday afternoon. That read:
“We understand the statement issued ended up doing more harm than good, and incited comments that are exactly everything that TeamLH stands against – for that, we sincerely apologise.
“We’d like to clarify that we do not condone any form of abusive comments, whether towards Lewis, his team, or fans. This was not a generalisation to TeamLH as a whole, and should not be read as such.”
Piastri criticisms ‘unfair’ – McLaren
McLaren says criticisms aimed at Oscar Piastri for turning his back on the Alpine are ‘unfair’ by the facts coming out. On Friday, the Contract Recognition Board ruled that the Australian’s contract with the team was valid despite Alpine saying they had a deal with him and announced him for 2023.
Before the CRB ruling, Piastri found himself criticised amid questions over his “integrity” for turning his back on the Alpine squad that had contributed towards his career in the junior categories.
However, it has now become clear from multiple informed sources that Piastri only decided to go for McLaren amid frustration about ongoing delays from Alpine in delivering a contract he was repeatedly promised and that never arrived.
For rather than it being an opportunistic move to get out of a deal through a contractual loophole, Piastri and his manager Mark Webber only switched camps because Alpine were “shilly shallying” over what to do with him and potentially was going to delay giving him a seat at the works team until 2025.
The last straw is understood to have come when, with Piastri eager to race for Alpine in F1 in 2023, he was told that the team wanted him to be at Williams for as long as two years.
When the row emerged in early August, McLaren maintained its silence despite it also being on the receiving end of criticism. But now that the facts of the case have emerged, team principal, Andreas Seidl is in no doubt that some of the accusations levelled at Piastri were “inappropriate”.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he welcomed a much clearer picture of what happened being out in the open, Seidl said: “It’s good in the end the facts are out, and it’s good that you guys have seen the verdict as well. Therefore, everyone can read this and make up their own conclusion, which is a pretty clear case, and also corrects some of the judgements that have been inappropriate and unfair regarding Oscar.”
Seidl added that he was never too worried about McLaren being criticised by fans for how it handled things between Piastri and Ricciardo, as all parties were pretty clear with each other behind the scenes.
Ricciardo open to a reserve role
Daniel Ricciardo has admitted that he would be open to taking a reserve driver role with one of the top teams in 2023, and believes he can get back to winning ways despite his current “adversity”.
The Australian has taken a big hit over the last eighteen months, with the charismatic Australian having gone from being heralded as one of the sport’s greatest drivers to having his contract terminated by his current team in favour of a young rookie, Alpine youngster Oscar Piastri.
Ricciardo now is a free agent, while he wants to remain in the sport, says it will only be for the right project, though his competitive options are slim with Haas and Williams seemingly his realistic suitors. But he is also open to taking a sabbatical in 2023 before gaining a race seat for 2024.
Asked about that scenario, Ricciardo said he was open to it. He added, “I think there’s pros and cons with all of it. There’s pros with having some time off as well, currently the eighteen months I’ve had has been more challenging than not so maybe some time away would be good.”
“But then also staying active is good. That’s why I kind of want to hear everything. Even if it’s a reserve, I don’t want to be too proud to say I’m too good for that. I just want to hear everything and see what makes sense. It could be something that sets me up better for the future and next year may be one of those years where I need a bit of patience.”
Movements are expected again following this weekends Italian Grand Prix, and the three-week break before Singapore. Although their are five seats currently available on the grid for next season, although the best seat available at Alpine looks set to go to Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri, who want to sign Colton Herta. The other seats are at Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams.
Speaking to media at Zandvoort, Ricciardo appeared to be opening up to longer-term deals compared to his more dismissive tone the previous weekend in Belgium. While he wants a project he doesn’t want to be short-sighted and pointed out since leaving Red Bull in 2017 he has changed teams every two years.
He has reaffirmed that he is only interested in F1, saying “I wouldn’t give up on F1. if it means I’m not on the grid next year, I’ll certainly try to find a way to be on there in 2024. It’s honestly the only racing I’m really interested in at the moment, my mindset is still: I’m an F1 driver.”
Ricciardo may draw on the experience of Sergio Perez, who looked set to leave the sport at the end of 2020 before landing a Red Bull drive and winning races not too long after. However while accepting there’s a bit of a road ahead, he says he still has that fire in his belly.
De Vries replaces Vettel for FP1 at Monza
Nyck de Vries will replace Sebastian Vettel’s seat at Aston Martin for first practice at this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The Dutchman will have his third outing of the season having already driven the Williams and Mercedes, he is the Mercedes powered teams reserved driver.
De Vries has already spent time preparing for his outing in Aston Martin’s AMR22 by driving the team’s simulator at its Silverstone base, having been in talks with the team earlier this season about stepping in for an FP1 session.
The Formula 2 champion in 2019, has just completed his third Formula E campaign with Mercedes and took two wins en route to ninth in the championship. He won the 2021-22 title by seven points from Venturi driver Edoardo Mortara. De Vries has also been Mercedes reserve driver combining his role as the works Formula E driver.
De Vries said, “I am really looking forward to driving for AMF1, particularly at such a legendary circuit as Monza. It will be my third FP1 session of the season, and in the third different Formula One chassis.”
“These opportunities have given me a fantastic insight into how Formula 1 cars and teams function and operate. I hope I can bring a fresh perspective to the AMF1 team and can undertake a run-programme that proves beneficial to us both.”
The 2022 regulations mean that each driver must vacate their seat at least once over the season to allow a driver with fewer than two F1 starts to take over. This is to allow younger drivers to gain experience with F1 machinery.
Like last year, De Vries has been linked to replace Nicolas Latifi who is expected to lose his set a Williams.
Race was “seventy laps of qualifying” – Alonso
Fernando Alonso has described his Dutch Grand Prix as “seventy laps of qualifying,” as he fought from thirteenth to sixth, which also boosted Alpine’s challenge for fourth in the constructor’s championship.
The Spaniard was knocked out in Q2 after being hindered by traffic in qualifying, before battling his way up the order during his opening stint. Alpine was one of the first teams to switch to the hard compound tyre, helping Alonso move up the order before planning a return to softs for the final stint.
The Spaniard managed to keep McLaren’s Lando Norris at bay after the late safety car to cross the line seventh, moving up to sixth after Carlos Sainz’s five-second penalty had been applied.
Alonso explained after the race, “It was good, it was seventy laps of qualifying today because we could not relax at any point. The start was good, but I lost places on the outside of Turn One, so I had to fight very hard to recover some, then we put the hard and we had to push very hard to make that middle stint work.”
“Then when we thought that it was a more relaxed part of the race at the end with a good freshness of tyre, it came to safety car and we have to fight again all the last twelve laps. It was a very demanding race for sure.”
During one stage Alonso did manage to get close to Sainz and Sergio Perez as they battled ahead of him. He says that he knew because of Sainz’s five second penalty he didn’t need to battle him too hard.
Alonso revealed Alpine’s pre-race simulations only had him finishing as high as ninth, making the result a welcome boost for the team in its constructors’ fight with McLaren.
Alpine is currently twenty-four points ahead of McLaren in the battle for fourth in the constructors, helped also by Esteban Ocon’s ninth place. However, the Frenchman was left lamenting running the soft tyre too long in the opening stint, staying out six laps longer than Alonso who managed to get the undercut.
Ocon said “We lost a good eight or nine seconds, in the beginning, trying to stay on that soft tyre for longer That was where we lost the race today. So it’s a bit of a shame, but it’s still a good recovery, coming back with both cars into the points from where we were. It’s a solid effort, but today there was much more possible on the table.”
