Max Verstappen won the Belgian Grand Prix with unprecedented dominance this season. The Red Bull driver swept the entire grid and Sergio Pérez completed an unappealable double for the Anglo-Austrians.
That Max Verstappen wins a race this year is not news, in fact already has achieved 9 out of 14 possible. But that he does it dominating as he did against a Ferrari team that, although it fails excessively, has a very fast car, it has confused many of us this weekend.
There are several hypotheses that have been considered this weekend to explain the sudden advance of Red Bull Racing in this Grand Prix. But before we delve into them, let’s put everything that happened in context.
what the numbers say
For the first 14 races of the season, including Belgium, Ferrari has had the fastest single-lap car overall for the year.
If we compare them with the ideal time for pole position, the Italians roll on average just 0.066 seconds per lap from said reference. Instead, Red Bull gives up 0.186 secondsslightly less than two tenths.
In Spa-Francorchamps that slight superiority of Ferrari over Red Bull (9 poles for those from Maranello against 4 for those from Milton-Keynes), disappeared completely. And not for a little, as Max Verstappen took the fastest time in qualifying with no less than 0.632 seconds of margin over the second classifiedCarlos Sainz.
To the greater ridicule of his rivals, the Dutch driver swept that way using only two sets of soft tires, so he faced the race without strategic problems.
Resignation at Ferrari
After the Belgian Grand Prix, Mattia Binotto He was dejected as a result of the dominance of his opponents, something that Carlos Sainz had already anticipated the day before. After qualifying, the man from Madrid acknowledged being very overwhelmed by the speed of Max Verstappen and recognized that everything indicated that he would be a candidate for victory despite starting 15th due to a penalty.
Said and done. On Sunday, Max Verstappen took exactly 18 of the 44 laps of the race to get into first position. And, from that moment, he dedicated himself to walking around his favorite circuit: Spa-Francorchamps.
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What’s more, not even Charles Leclerc’s pit stop on the penultimate lap to put on new tires and attempt the fastest lap worked for the Monegasque.
“Spa was the perfect track for Red Bull. There was a real difference in performance. Although it wasn’t that big, it was already noticeable in Hungary, on a completely different track that requires a lot of downforce.. The Red Bull is simply a faster car,” admitted Mattia Binotto after the race at Spa.
“What worries me the most is that they drove with less downforce and were still able to set good times in the middle sector, where downforce is needed.”lamented the director of Ferrari.
Why Red Bull swept Spa
That in Belgium the Red Bull RB18 was the fastest car in all conditions was proven. Not only did he have the highest top speed by far, but he was the fastest in sector 2, plagued by curves of medium and high speed. And this despite competing with a low-downforce spoiler, certainly less than Ferrari’s. Why?
This is possible mainly because Two reasons. The first is that the Red Bull is the car with the greatest ability to generate grip with ground effect. That is the lower area of the RB18 it generates more downforce than any other car on the grid.
This, in addition to providing gross benefits, allows running with lower ailerons, which results in a higher top speed. If we add to that an exceptional engine able to put out a little more power in the higher gears, the combination results in a plane on wheels.
The second cause it has more to do with the peculiarities of a circuit as peculiar as Spa-Francorchamps. To begin with, it is the layout that demands the greatest aerodynamic efficiency. And in that, Red Bull is unbeatable.
Also, Spa has Eau Rouge and Stavelot. The first is a corner in which the vertical compression of the car is brutal, while the second has a very pronounced bump. As a result, teams must ride a little higher off the ground than normal.
Team manager Christian Horner admitted that “The track suited us. But we didn’t expect to win so easily. Max appeared at the top much earlier than we had calculated. It was our most dominant performance since Vettel’s winning streak in 2013.”
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This weekend, Ferrari (and Mercedes) had to raise the height of the car more than expected, there is talk of between 5 and 6 millimeters. This placed the F1-75 outside of its optimum window for aerodynamic performance, causing it to lose payload and speed.
Instead, the original concept of the Red Bull RB18 is different from its rivals. Instead of delivering its optimum performance with the car as low as possible, it does so by running slightly higher, so the Belgian circuit characteristics suited it perfectly.
“Throughout the season we have shown more than once that our car can handle higher ground clearance”Horner confirmed.
The technical directive and tires
The last determining factor, which is related to the previous ones, was that Red Bull enjoyed a lower tire degradation to that of its rivals. Ferrari suffered especially in this section, coming to see itself in difficulties against George Russell. This also made Sergio Pérez no match for Carlos Sainz.
In addition, other causes of Red Bull’s dominance were handled, such as a new chassis 5 kilograms lighter or the new technical directive applied in Spa, whereby the floor now has to be stiffer to prevent pouring.
In fact, Christian Horner joked that “They should make directives like this more often. They seem to give us wings and slow down others who wanted to harm us.”in a clear allusion to Mercedes.
However, neither of these two factors had an influence on Spa. Red Bull does not plan to debut the new chassis until Singapore and, as for the DT, precisely the need to run with the tallest car in Spa made it unimportant in any of the cars on the grid.
On the other hand, it can start to be so in bumpy circuits and without vertical compression such as Zandvoort, the next appointment on the calendar. We will see to what extent all this affects the dispute for victories in the races to come.
Photos: Red Bull Content Pool | Scuderia Ferrari