Pain-free penalties and vicious Verstappen: 5 things we learned from the Belgian GP

Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen — Photo: © LAT Images

Belgian Grand Prix

Pain-free penalties and vicious Verstappen: 5 things we learned from the Belgian GP

The last race before the summer break held a fair bit of drama!

Chris Deeley

Monday 31 July 2023 16:57

Rain-affected running was the order of the weekend for Formula 1's 2023 trip to Spa-Francorchamps.

With Red Bull hitting a dozen 2023 Grand Prix wins, a familiar name stood on the top step for both races, but there were plenty of other stories from up and down the grid in a busy three days in Belgium.

From apathy over sprint events to team radio rants, here are five things we learned from the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix.

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Hamilton's Pain-Free Penalty

Lewis Hamilton seemed to hover around P4 all weekend, qualifying fourth on Friday, finishing fourth after in Sunday's Grand Prix, and crossing the line P4 in Saturday's Sprint.

Yet it wasn't to be a P4 sprint classification for the Mercedes driver, as a five-second penalty for contact with Sergio Perez demoted him to P7, just ahead of team-mate George Russell.

Hamilton has a reputation for wearing his heart on his sleeve after challenging sessions – usually giving short answers to whizz through his media obligations when there's little to cheer about.

However, with the shorter sprint race handing out far fewer points than Sunday's main event, the British driver didn't seem particularly upset about the penalty, despite insisting it was a racing incident.

"It doesn't make a huge difference, fourth or seventh in the sprint race, you don't get a lot of points, so it's not the worst thing in the world," claimed Hamilton when speaking to Sky Sports about losing the on three points.

You have to think he'd be far more curt had that happened in Sunday's race...

Sidepods Only Need One Hole

Hamilton's penalty came from contact with Perez at Stavelot after encountering the slow Red Bull on the rapidly-drying track.

The initial off-board camera showed the two tapping but hid the damage left by Hamilton on Perez's right sidepod.

Onboard footage, however, showed a large hole in the RB19's thin carbon fibre bodywork after the contact, and Perez's already-slow pace decreased further, and he eventually retired on lap 8.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz suffered a similar fate in the Grand Prix from the very first corner when colliding with Oscar Piastri at La Source to receive an oddly similar bit of sidepod damage.

The Spaniard's efforts to avoid Hamilton under braking saw him lock up and head into the path of the Australian rookie, ending Piastri's race before Eau Rouge and turning Sainz into a cork in the bottle.

While the top four surged ahead, Sainz's SF-23 acted like a rolling roadblock until the onslaught came when every remaining driver overtook him in the opening laps.

As with Perez, the aero loss was insurmountably problematic, and Sainz retired on lap 23 when the threat of rain dissipated.

Verstappen's Vicious Radio

You'd imagine everything would feel like plain sailing when you're cruising to a third world championship title unrivalled by anyone on the grid, but that didn't seem to be the case for Max Verstappen in Belgium.

There's still one man who is entirely unafraid of him in the paddock – the one in control of his car every round, Gianpiero Lambiase, AKA GP.

Verstappen and Lambiase clashed throughout the Belgian weekend, with the pair's internal bickering broadcast on the team radio as early as Friday's qualifying, then again in Sunday's race.

The expletive-filled exchange on Friday had Verstappen apologising after securing pole position, with GP firmly telling his driver that his instructions got them through to Q3, albeit in P10.

Things weren't as strained on Sunday, but GP had to keep Verstappen in check as the reigning champion's impatience showed when sitting behind Perez in P2.

"You just follow my instructions," and "Please follow my instructions, thank you," were the early commands from GP on the pit wall before Lambiase lambasted Verstappen for using too much of his tyres at the start of his second stint.

Practice Makes Points

After a run of four top-11 finishes, scoring 10 points in the process, Williams looked like they could continue muscling their way through the midfield in Spa, a track that should've suited their FW45.

Instead, they left empty-handed after struggling for pace in Friday's qualifying and falling victim to Lance Stroll's SQ2 crash on Saturday to start the sprint and the Grand Prix down the order.

Alex Albon had a stellar opening lap, though, to show how slippery the Williams could be in dry conditions, surging from 15th to P7 by the time he pitted and looked set for more points.

However, hopes of another haul of points vanished, with Albon and Logan Sargeant repeatedly visiting the pits in the race to complete the lesser-spotted three-stop strategy, eventually finishing P14 and P17, respectively.

The lack of dry running in Friday's wet solitary free practice session, not to mention Sargeant's red-flag triggering trip to the barriers, left the Grove team without any understanding of degradation on the slick tyres.

Although it was the same for all the teams, AlphaTauri managed to take advantage and grab their third point of 2023, with Yuki Tsunoda finishing P10.

It might not sound like much, but the bottom four constructors currently have just eight points separating them at the bottom of the standings, and the prize money swing is significant between P7 and P10, so every point counts.

All Change at Alpine

Consistency at the top of Red Bull Racing has turned them into the all-conquering team today. Equally, Toto Wolff's ever-present stewardship led Mercedes to a record-breaking run of constructors titles.

You might, therefore, think staying the course might be the blueprint to follow for Formula 1 success.

Yet Alpine have followed the Ferrari approach of chopping and changing the people in charge when things haven't improved within a few seasons – a tactic resulting in zero championship titles for the Scuderia in a decade and a half.

The Belgian weekend began with the shocking news that Otmar Szafnauer and Alan Permane, Team Principal and Sporting Director, will leave the Enstone-based team after the Grand Prix by mutual agreement.

Further compounding the musical chairs at Alpine was Williams' announcement that Pat Fry would join the team as CTO in November.

This trio of alterations follows Laurent Rossi's sacking as CEO, replaced by Philippe Krief, and Bruno Famin's promotion to Vice President of Motorsports in a month of turmoil for the team.