The Late Braking F1 Podcast - 2023 Belgian GP Sprint Review

Episode Date: July 29, 2023

Ben reviews a rainy Belgian GP sprint where Verstappen overtook an impressive Oscar Piastri to take victory. Ben also shares his thoughts on the Perez/Hamilton incident, Haas' continued woes and an interesting weekend so far for Alpine FOLLOW us on socials! You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, X (Twitter) and TikTok SUPPORT our Patreon for bonus episodes JOIN our Discord community JOIN our F1 Fantasy League BUY our Merch EMAIL us at [e-mail]   & SUBSCRIBE to our podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 Podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday. And a very warm welcome to the late breaking F1 podcast. I'm Ben Hocking and I'm here by myself. There's no Harry, there's no Sam to reel me in on a sprint race weekend, which is scary enough in its own right. But they've completely left me by myself here on this one.

Sam does have a valid excuse. Harry claims he's in the sea, which is less of a good excuse, but we realised that after debuting the qualifying review last week, it probably wouldn't be best positioned for us here at LBHQ to not go ahead with it on literally week two. I appreciate the confusion around the Belgian sprint race weekend and when we were going to do the review as a result of that. But here I am at least on Saturday. We've had three competitive sessions so far this weekend, all of which have been impacted by the rain in one form or another. And I'm going to at least attempt to break down some of it. Could be a bit of a shorter one based on it being just myself.

But then again, it's a sprint race weekend. So if I do end up on a soapbox, this might be the first four hour recording that we've ever done on this podcast. Let's kick off with McLaren because Oscar Piestri managed to finish second here in the sprint race this afternoon. eventually once it got going. Both sessions today somewhat delayed as a result of weather. But Oscar Piastri finishing second, Maximus Tappan did win the race, but I feel like at this point, I don't really have too many more things I can say about him outside of he's very good at the F1,

and he proved it yet again by that overtake on Oscar Piastri. But Piastri did manage to hold on to second place for his first podium in F1. I can't. say that. No, he was in the top three in a session that wasn't the race. See, this is one of, I'm off, I'm off already. This is one of the reasons I don't like sprint races is that I want to be able to absolutely celebrate the fact that Oscar Piastri got a podium and he deserves a lot of applaudits and I will give him plenty of pool audits in just a second. But I feel like as soon as he actually finishes top three in a race on a Sunday, what we call a Grand Prix in the business, it's going to be somewhat diluted, I think, the actual occasion. It could be wrong. I'm sure he'll be,

I was going to say he'll be delighted, but he doesn't seem to do delighted or the opposite. He's just very level-headed. But it won't take away the occasion from his side, possibly, but I feel like, at least from my side, it's going to be less of a triumphant moment as he's kind of already done it, just in a shorter event. Nonetheless, finish P-second, and consider me sold at this point, sold on him. Just generally. I feel like coming into this season that Oscar Piastri,

definitely the most touted rookie we've had in this sport for four years or so, maybe five years, because we're having to go back to, I think, George Russell, Lando Norris territory

for the last time a rookie came in with this much pedigree. There were certainly questions around Nick DeVries, Formula 2 champion. There were questions around McSumacher, F2 champion.

But I feel like in both of those instances, it was understood that it had taken them a couple of years to get there, whereas obviously we know Oscar Piastri won the F2 title at the first time of asking. He won the F3 title at the first time of asking, which makes him only the third driver to do that after George Russell and Charles LeClau. So if you're using those two as your benchmarks,

yeah, there's a good chance that this guy's going to be pretty good. Certainly early on in the season, you didn't have a great deal of opportunity to actually show that as a reference multiple times on the podcast. That car was an absolute tractor. But it seems as if mid-season, McLaren have decided to turn up and Piastri's shown up with them. As soon as he's been given an opportunity in a better car, he is week in, week out, proving that not only does he belong in the sport, he very much belongs in a team that is capable of at least at the moment taking podiums and he will hope in the future, Tate wins. And he has absolutely, from a pure driving perspective, justified why he is

there. You know, we can talk about the cost of him being there. That might be a separate matter, but his driving is doing the talking at the moment. I know there were some criticisms about how he was overtaken as a result of the safety car restart. I think a few comments were that he made that too easy for Max Verstapp. And in all honesty, I don't think there's anything that he could have done to prevent that from happening. That was an inevitability at that point. And I'm not completely sold on the fact that it would have happened without the safety car. One of the things that McLaren have very deliberately done this weekend, whether it's a smart

decision or not remains to be seen after the race tomorrow, but one of the things they have deliberately done is made sure that their car is an absolute rocket ship in the middle sector at a slight compromise in terms of sector one and sector three, which is more reliant on top speed. Obviously, you've got the camel stray. You've got the run to Blanchemont in sector three. So they've gone one very distinct way with their setup. And I don't know that might have held out. I know Piastri was struggling. And I know that the gap at the end of the race was significant between Vastappan and Piastri. I think it was about six and a half. seven seconds or so. But overtaking was easier for Vostappen based on that safety car restart,

because the whole point of having your car set up to be brilliant in that middle sector is you build out the gap a little bit there in the middle sector to the point where even though you are at a slight deficit in sector three in sector one, you've built up the gap enough that an overtake isn't quite possible. Now there's every chance based on how Vestappen was in this race and indeed all season, he might have got past anyway. But I would have been very intrigued to see how easily he could have done it if that safety car didn't make an appearance. And I knew as soon as that safety car came out,

it was always going to be a matter of time because at that point, this happened's right on the back of him. And he didn't make the move into the breaking zone. He barely made the move halfway down the straight. It was a done deal as soon as really they were going up Radion into O'Rouge. So, but I don't think that should detract. from what a job Piestri's done out there. And he wasn't there by accident. I know he got the right end of the strategy going in for inters at the first opportunity rather than the second opportunity

is the likes of Vestappen did. But he was there on merit in terms of grid position. He outqualified Lando Norris. He was on the front row on pace and pace alone and very, very close to getting first as well in that session. Yes, the car setup absolutely helped him out in the wet conditions, but that's one of the gambles of doing that. We might well turn up tomorrow, and if it is drier, which there is a chance that it will be, McLaren might be struggling if their setup is very dedicated to wet sessions. But that's part of the gamble. And here, Piaastri took absolute advantage of it. I'm sold that this guy is an elite prospect. is it going to carry him to a world championship?

That's always very difficult to say because so much of Formula One is timing. But yeah, this guy, this guy's got it. And today was just further evidence of that. And I look forward to maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe later in the season. But at some point, he is going to stand on the podium for real. And he will have deserved it. He will have earned it. From the positive to the not quite so positive, there was an incident that happened during the sprint race

that ultimately didn't work out for either drivers, which was the incident between Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. So Sergio Perez was one of the drivers that definitely benefited from coming into the pits on the first time of asking after the safety car had peeled off. And he managed to make up, I think, four positions. He started P8 in this one, but ended up P4 as a result of that. Lewis Hamilton was also in that mix. He had a slow pit stop.

I think his pit stop was over five seconds, but he was. was still, he had a good enough grid spot that he was in that mix as well. So Lewis Hamilton looking to go past Sergio Perez. Ultimately, the collision between the Red Bull driver and the Mercedes driver meant that Lewis Hamilton had a five second penalty. And Sergio Perez had what, I don't know if we can call it terminal damage, because I think they probably would have continued him if there was any point to, but it was damage enough to see him drop enough positions that there was no point in them continuing Perez. So on the one hand, you've got a retirement for Perez.

On the other hand, you've got Lewis Hamilton picking up two points rather than the five he should have done for P4. So not absolutely disastrous for Lewis Hamilton, but certainly it had been looking for more in that Grand Prix. I think outside of maybe outside of Vestappany, he looked to be the quickest driver out there. It's a tough one. It's a really harsh one.

I always seem to think that penalties shouldn't be decided based on the consequence and it should be based on the action. And here we had two drivers going side by side in a corner that cars generally don't go side by side in, but Hamilton had such a traction advantage over Perez at that point that they decided to go ahead with it. I think overall it was a harsh penalty. And I'd like to see it a couple more times, but I don't think, I would have given this out. Immediately as it happened, I thought racing incident

because they did seem to be going fairly enough side by side. You know, again, it's not a corner that generally favours side by side racing. But a five second penalty in a sprint race seems pretty harsh. I know there were, the commentators were alluding to Carlos Sines' five second penalty, which he received at the end of the Australian Grand Prix. And the reason they were comparing it to that was because it was a safety car, restart with a lap to go, which of course condenses the field and a five second penalty becomes exacerbated as a result of that.

Here we didn't quite see that much, but certainly Lewis Hamilton not being able to get past Pierre Gasly very much cost him a number of positions. If he was able to get past Pierre Gasly, there's every chance that actually he clings on to, maybe P4 or P5, which you know still isn't optimal for him. Yeah, I think overall it was a harsh one. Sergio Perez is going to be pretty disappointed from his side as well.

He'll be buoyed by the fact that Hamilton didn't really pick up any points or very limited points. And of course, Fernando Alonzo didn't pick up any points either. So not much happens for him in terms of his second place and the championship aspirations. but yeah, I was leaning on this being a racing incident. I'd be interested to hear what all of you think on this one, but I didn't think that this was worthy of a penalty. From Perez's perspective,

I don't know how much struggle was actually down to the damage because he was struggling before that even came about. Certainly, he was backing up a number of cars. Maybe it was just a bad corner here. or there and he would have eventually got the grip and without a damaged car, he might well have been back on a standard path for himself, but

it was at least slightly worrying that he didn't seem to have the pace even before that incident happened. Sprint races have been something of a strength for Sergio Perez this year. Before today, he did have more points than anyone, including Vastappen on Saturdays.

But here, obviously, that run has not continued and he should have a bit of an easier a job tomorrow just based on him having a much better grid position. I think he starts P3, sorry, no, start P2 tomorrow, he qualified P3, but of course, Verstappen has the five-place grip penalty. But of course, you get plenty more points for a Sunday performance. So, yeah, Sergio Perez has an out in terms of what he can place this issue on or place the lack of pace on. Impossible to say what percentage of his lack of pace was

down to that damage. But certainly as soon as he lost that position to Hamilton, he very much plummeted down the grid until he had a bit of a trip into the gravel, which kind of cemented that the race was indeed over for him. One other team I'd like to mention before I take a quick break is Hasse. Now, I might not be quite as critical about Hasse as my good friend Samuel Sage often is, but I'm not going to be much better to them either because this so far has been a pretty shambolic weekend from Hasse even by their standards. I always think that when you're in a position like Hasse where they seem to have a tire wear issue that is well beyond the issues that any other team faces, when you don't have a massively quick car to begin with, and you've got an error that an error with the car that almost makes.

you on competitive every single race weekend and just sees the likes of Nika Holcomberg fall like a stone in the Grand Prix. You have to take advantage of these conditions. You have to take advantage of these conditions. That's what Alpine did. And I will speak about Alpine a bit later on. That's what they did in the Pierre Gassley managed to pick up a podium. That isn't a situation he can often get himself into. But because we were in changeable conditions in qualifying and because we had, again, changeable conditions in the race itself going from wets to winters, he took advantage of that and got good points as a result. Another driver who nearly benefited from that as well was Daniel Ricardo.

You know, he qualified P11, took advantage of a few struggles around him and he was in the points for a good 75% of the Grand Prix. This is the sort of race that those teams need to take advantage of. Has have done the complete opposite here. because in each of the qualifying sessions, they have had situations where their drivers have been unable to complete a lap right at the end of the session. So we have Kevin Magnuson and Nico Holkenberg

both struggling to make the start of the sprint shootout this morning. Nico Holkenberg did not make the start. He was about as diplomatic as you can possibly be over Team Radio, saying something along the lines of it being an interesting strategy or an interesting execution. Again, that's about as nice as you can possibly be about that. But certainly when you're in changeable conditions, I understand you want to get your cars out there as late as you possibly can do. But these teams know how long the Belgian lap is. And yet despite that, they didn't fuel the Hascar's enough for two runs. That's why it seemed to be very confusing

because they came into the pits when there was about two minutes of the session or two and a half minutes of the session left. I immediately thought at that point, okay, they're boxing for, they're boxing for slicks. That's the only reason they would do that. As it turns out,

they did actually box for more inters, but it didn't leave enough time for, well, it left enough time for Magnuson to start a lap. I'm not entirely convinced he had optimal tire warm up because obviously he didn't make it out of SQ1. And even worse for Necun. Hulkenberg, he didn't manage to start his lap, which would be one thing if that was the only time this had happened this weekend, but of course it wasn't. He managed to, and this was

hydraulic, I think, related. But again, an issue relating to Hasse meant that he couldn't get underway in Q1 on Friday. So that's two incidents where Nika Hulkemberg, whose strength this year has been qualifying. There's nothing like plaintiff's strengths. He's had two opportunities to qualify and in both opportunities, well, he hasn't had the opportunity. Not ideal. I know Sam likes to call them impostors, which, depending on your opinion, might be a step too far. But incidents like today don't detract from his point at all. It's quite embarrassing. Hasse couldn't really say anything over Team Radio outside of, yeah, we messed up here. Sorry about it. But yeah, this was another another disappointing one. I can't see, no, when they qualify inside the top 10,

they end up finishing 17th. So maybe it'll be the reverse here where they're starting 17th and 18th or 18th, 20th or wherever they're starting, and they'll actually score points. I highly doubt it. But yeah, if they manage to drop 10 places in a Grand Prix on a normal weekend, when you don't have even 10 positions to drop, as is the case with both of these guys on Sunday, it's incredibly incredibly worrying. They've got a lot of work to do as they head into the second half of the season. I'm going to take a short break. I'm not used to speaking for nearly 20 minutes consecutively without Sam or Harry idiotically interrupting me for one reason or another. So I'll take a short break, but there are a couple of things that I'd like to mention on the other side, including Alpine.

Okay, welcome back. Just a couple of extra points I'd like to make before I see you out. are going to be three of us on tomorrow's podcast. So rest assured there will be a full three people as we review the Belgian Grand Prix in full. I think it's about time though that we as a collective and I'm talking to, I'm talking to all of you. I'm talking to the FIA. I'm talking to drivers. I'm talking to fans. I'm talking to the F1 community as a large, at large. It is time that we have a conversation about rain. The most frilling of conversation. Now, you're probably thinking that's the inner Brit in me talking. We don't like anything more than queuing and complaining about the weather. But I think it is about time that we have a discussion here because we have had every single session,

not only all three competitive sessions, but indeed the practice session as well. All four sessions this weekend so far have been impacted by rain. Now, I'm not suggesting anything ridiculous. I know Sam is heavy on sprinkler usage, which, you know, wouldn't necessarily be needed this weekend. And I'm not about to pitch anything radical here. I just think it's time we have a discussion because we have got to the point in Formula One where wet tires and a full wet tires are completely and utterly useless. Chocolate teapot-esque, as I like to call them. We saw today a sprint race that was delayed, by, well, ultimately about an hour, but at least from the start time that was given after the sprint shootout, it was delayed by 30 minutes. And even with that 30 minute delay, we only had

half of the drivers doing one competitive lap on the wet compound of tire. And then the other 10 did zero. At this point, they might as well be renamed. They might as well be renamed to behind the safety car tires or warm up tires or just clearing away some standing water tires. They're all very catchy, so take whichever one you want. But it's about time we have a discussion on this because it does make, I think the sport look a little bit foolish. There is a balance to be found when it comes to safety and weather in Formula One. Now, we have seen where it has gone absolutely horribly wrong, where drivers are on track and they shouldn't be, and it's been met with the absolute worst of consequences. That is the number one thing that we need to avoid. On the other end of

the spectrum, and I will stress this is less important, we need to ensure that racing happens when it should happen. These are the best drivers in the world. This is the pinnacle of motorsport, and we do have wet weather tires. And I think there is a limit. You will all always find that motorsport is dangerous to a certain extent. I know it was mentioned on commentary that having 10 cars go through the pit lane at the same time with mechanics about that in itself is dangerous. There will always be danger associated with Formula One. And it's our job to find the balance between not being too dangerous, but also making sure that these drivers have the appropriate challenge laid out to them. And I would say,

Overall, certainly we should start with this full wet weather compound because either we create a compound where the visibility, and you're never going to solve visibility in full wet conditions, but either you create a compound that means the visibility is not, not bad enough that you can go racing. Or you just at this point completely decommit or decommission them is probably the right term. some point you have to just completely get rid of it. If you're not going to race in full wet weather conditions, at least mandate that. Okay, we've got dried tires, we've got intermediate tires. If anything worse than intermediate tires is needed, we don't go racing. Now, I'm not sure that's the right approach. I'm not sure that's the wrong approach, but at least it is clear. Here, we have plenty of situations. We've had this at Monaco in the last couple of years. We've had this here twice in three years where the full wet weather compound is so unviable to the point

where it's just waiting until intermediate conditions are allowed. You know, I completely understand delays in getting the session started. Indeed, if you do have a torrential downpour and on the horizon, it's set to be much better. Okay, I get a five minute delay. get a 10 minute delay. But whilst I might be absolutely fully dedicated, committed to this sport because I don't have a life, that isn't the same with 99% of other F1 fans. And I think there does need to be an appreciation that not everyone has all afternoons sit around waiting for this to happen.

Yes, again, safety is the number one concern. So if it turns out that the way that it's being done right now is the absolute safest way to go about it whilst also ensuring. in competitive racing, so be it. But I think we should, we should get to a point where, certainly today, when there were delays and there was nothing happening on track, get behind the safety car. Even if you have to get behind the safety car for a number of laps, you know, it's still, you're clearing water at that point faster than you would be if you were just sat in the garages or sat on the grid. So I think it's time that everyone,

comes together, has a discussion on this. Just for once and for all, let's decide what are we doing with the full wet weather tires? Are they staying and being used or should they just go completely? And when it comes to Spa specifically, just to make this final point,

I know that there have been a couple of tragedies at Spa over the last four years. And I think overall, Yeah, if spa is too dangerous, or more specifically, if the Radion and Orooge complex is too dangerous to go racing, then that needs to be assessed separately to this wet weather discussion. I know there were some people saying that on other tracks, maybe we would have been able to get going, but here at Spa, we need to be extra careful. My honest opinion is if we have to be extra careful at one specific race circuit, we probably shouldn't be racing there in the current condition. So I know that is an ongoing discussion about, that O'Rouge Radeon complex. But certainly I don't think compensation should be made for one specific circuit based on it being more dangerous. If it's more dangerous, that's the thing that needs to be addressed. Before I go and let you get back to the rest of your day, I do have to quickly mention Alpine. I can't believe that Wednesday's, and this was unintentional, Wednesday's podcast,

the preview of this Belgian Grand Prix ended up being somehow a Hayton Alpine session. And I'm starting to think that someone high up in Alpine might be listening because action has happened, of course, since we recorded that. Most significantly, Othmaa Saffnauer is out. I'm not sure if it's coincidence that it is just two days after Sam called him Othmar Krapnauer. I'm going to think it is, but you never know. It's, oh man, I'm not going to share too much of my opinion on this because this is without a doubt going to appear in a topic in the summer break. And quite honestly, folks, content's more difficult to come by in the summer break. So I need to save it for then. But I will at least give my initial reaction to this, which is what a monumental downturn. This feels like the completion to the monumental downturn. This time last year, let's take. three teams, Alpine themselves, McLaren and Aston Martin, which if you consider the traditional

top three of Red Bull Mercedes Ferrari, you might then be left with these three teams as the next teams. I appreciate Aston Martin are currently outperforming Ferrari and McLaren are right up there, etc, etc., but at least in terms of a traditional top three, we'll leave those to one side. Let's just look here, Aster Martin, Alpine and McLaren. This time last year, or just over this time last year, let's go about 13 or 14 months. Alpine could hang their hat on a couple of things, on a few things. They could claim that they had Fernando Alonzo, one of the best to ever do it. They could claim they had the most exciting prospect in the last five years in Oscar Piastri. And they could claim that they had the fastest car in the midfield. All three of those things were

true for Alpine about 13 months ago. 13 months later, absolutely none of them are. No disrespect to Gasslia Ocon, who are a solid partnership, but they don't have now the Fernando Alonso, who is, who is, as we know, excellent. They no longer have Oscar Piastri, who was and is proving to be the most exciting rookie in the past five years. And they definitely don't have the fastest car in the midfield anymore. McLaren are light years ahead of them and Aston Martin, even after a downturn that has gone on throughout the first half of this season, still, I would argue, have a better car than Alpine. So they could claim three things last year. They can't claim any of them anymore. And then Altmar Saff now obviously comes out to say that

they're only 40% of the way through their 100 race plan, which of course Alpine didn't take. too kindly because they figured, no, we're not going to let you see out the other 60. That's not according to our timelines. We're going to go in a different direction. There's a lot to be said about Alpine. There was an outburst from an outburst might be putting it a bit too rich. But Alan Prost had some interesting comments. Of course, he was employed by the team not that long ago, but he left and he had some scathing remarks for the team. and pretty much anyone in a position of power at the team, who was there 18 months ago, is no longer there now. It's a team in utter turmoil, which I guess will make them pretty happy that Pierre Gazley managed to claim an unexpected P3 today.

So at least that actually adds some points to the tally because that's not something they've really done over the last month. So that's a good sign for Alpine at least. But yeah, overall, goodness me, this is. is not, this is not good. And one, one thing that really caught my eye more than anything, the timing of this, they could have, they really could have waited three days. That's all they had to wait, at which point you get the summer break. Now, if you want to bury news, or if you want news to not necessarily, you don't want to face tough questioning from journalists about something. What do you do? You release it, I mean, you release it in the summer break or you release it in the

winter break, right? Because the opportunity to be grilled about some of these decisions is far less. Here, Alpine have left Otmar Safnau completely out to dry, deciding on their own accord to release this news on a Friday. Not just any Friday, the Friday of a Grand Prix. So now we go in this weird situation where Otmar Safnaur is leading the team that he knows he is leaving in a couple of days' time by mutual agreement. Sure. So yeah, it's bizarre timing on the surface of it because, again, they could have waited a week, at which point you announced this in the summer break. there isn't the opportunity at Grand Prix to ask Alpine why this has happened, what does this mean for the team,

all of the questions you don't necessarily want to receive. And by the point we get to Zanvort, which is the first race after we come back at the end of September, sorry, the end of August. The questions, more than likely, would have died down enough. They wouldn't have died down completely, but sure, it wouldn't be as hot off the press as it would be if it had happened, say, as it did, this Friday.

I can only think that it's a bit of a statement from seniors at Reno and Alpine to essentially lay the blame at the feet of Othmar Saffnauer. So he has to take the heat from it whilst he's still employed by the team. Again, they could have just waited. So I feel like this is a statement. This is an attempt to, from higher ups to wash their hands of this and put this solely on the outgoing parties, which include, of course, Otmar. I won't share any more at the moment, because there is going to be plenty of opportunity

to discuss Alpine as we get into the summer break. But yeah, not great, in summary. I think I will leave it there. Those are all of my key thoughts as of what's happened both today and yesterday. As mentioned earlier on in the episode, all three of us. will be here for the review tomorrow. So you'll get the opportunity to hear more voices than just myself, which I'm sure will be a relief to at least 99% of listeners out there,

excluding maybe Laura and maybe my mum. But outside of that, if you do want to follow us on social media, you can do. As Sam references, we have managed to make us the same username on all of our platforms now. So late breaking F1, you can find us, Instagram, TikTok, and indeed Twitter. Twitter, Discord. I think we've just managed to creep over the 2,000 members in Discord Marks. So thank you very much to all of you for joining and joining in for chats, not only on race weekends, although it's very lively on race weekends, but there's so much

going on in there, including a racing league and just random chats. So do get involved, give it a try, if you haven't already. And speaking of giving it a try, Patreon is available as well. So we've just managed to finish the second Patreon recording of July. So you do get two extra episodes or extras, as Sam likes to call them, every single month, including beer with breaking if you're on the top tier. All of the details can be found in the Patreon link that will be in the description of this episode. I've spoken for far too long, so I'm going to stop now. I've been Ben Hocking. And remember, keep breaking late.