Analysing and Reviewing the Qualifying, Tyre Strategy and performance of the teams and drivers in the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix in 2022.
It was an interesting Spanish Grand Prix. An exciting one which kept turning around. A race in Spain that ended in Pain for some and turned out Insane for others. A race where the Mercedes helped out the Ferraris until they damaged themselves and the Ferraris potentially helped out Mercedes a bit maybe. A race of strategies once again and overall a race of threats and dismays.
QUALIFYING
Although there were several independent events in the race, quite a few of them were a result of a mixed up qualifying session in terms of the results. Verstappen was second after suffering a power issue with his car, which otherwise could have been a pole position given that there was presence of a certain amount of track evolution and his lap hadn’t been his best possible until then. The Mercedes cars were placed quite well and both drivers were able to work the car during the session. Russell’s Qualifying edge is once again playing into his hands as he is able to take that car well over its limits comfortably as he takes the track for a ride pushing on it.
Norris’s error saw him being pushed out of the Top 10 and Magnussen and Schumacher both got into Q3. And both Aston Martins were relegated to the bottom five in what was a car with a new concept that worked a bit better in the race later.
THE RESULTANTS
Before getting into the how, it is important to take note of whom was this race a disaster for and whom was this race a very good one because this one was filled with all of those, breaking several trends and being quite hard on machinery.
It was a disaster for Scuderia Ferrari, who suffered a power loss in Leclerc’s car, and although not a Ferrari drivers, Ghuanyu Zhou who drives a Ferrari engine also suffered similar issues a couple of laps later in his Alfa Romeo Racing. For Ferrari, Sainz did claim a fourth but that was after he spun, and probably let go off a podium position. It is safe to assume that possibly he would have finished 5th if not for the car concerns by Mercedes. This race leaves a lot for them to introspect given that even they had brought upgrades to Spain, but seemed to be challenged once again on tyre degradation and pace by a developing threat – Mercedes. Sainz not getting completely comfortable in his car will haunt them even more as RBPT sort out their issues.
It was also a disaster for Williams Racing, who had both their drivers finish 2 laps behind the leader in the final classification. Red Dye got a bit overused in Spain it seems as the team were a bit all – around not good with their setup and strategy as their main performing driver – Albon, struggled even more. One good sign for them was that they were able to keep going, had good pit stops and finished the race. This shows that they are moving and working well but failed to understand it all together whereas others did. This is bad in light of their recent performance but overall they haven’t been able to make a breakthrough in the 6 rounds.
It was a better than would have been race for Red Bull Racing and Lando Norris as well in his McLaren. RBR benefitted from Leclerc’s car not working after Lap 25 and got a one – two.
THE RACE START
The Race Start was very comfortable from Leclerc. It was Perez who got the main launch, especially as he angled his car specially to block Hamilton and try and get into the mix if he gets the right launch which he did. Sainz did not have a wholly bad start but with Perez getting such a strong start and Hamilton getting a
STRATEGY
Strategy was key and a two – stopper with Medium to Softs seemed like a logical strategy in what was expected to be a high degradation race with strong tyres, and the Hards being a bit too much to make work. Half of the grid were on a pure three – stopper strategy to manage the tyre degradation and also be able to push enough on the tyres as the new regulations seemed to work with the DRS to allow for a lot of action in the race.
Hamilton had three pit stops but was essentially on a two – stop strategy as his first pit stop came at the end of the first lap itself, due to damage from the contact. He was the one starting on mediums but then switched to softs as a result. The softs although definitely degrading, lasted a good amount of time. Russell was on a three stopper alongwith the Red Bulls and Sainz. This was the interesting part as once again the three stopper seemed to be because of simply it being a faster strategy in Spain. Verstappen went on a soft – medium strategy after his first pitstop, which allowed him to be the fastest possible and without DRS make up any and all pace deficit. Perez was on an alternate strategy which was interesting considering that no necessity was visible for it.
Through the second stint, Verstappen was stuck behind Russell, whereas Perez firstly was in clean air and then was able to overtake Russell as well. He was very strong on pace. And at the same time Hamilton was also very strong on pace. On essentially just two stops, that also a soft – medium -medium strategy. He was faster than everyone else, maybe not Verstappen. He was matching his teammate Russell as well and this shows the strong pace both possessed. But even more interesting is that, Hamilton had actually started on Mediums meaning that he was aiming for either being able to push more for the same duration or go longer on his first stint, unlike on the softs. This was when he was in the Top 6. Given that, and how the events panned out, Hamilton may not have won the race but could have put in a big spanner to disturb the strategy of the Red Bulls and potentially would not have seen Perez make his third stop which wasn’t as necessary.
The pace could have provided him a chance to help Russell and overtake Verstappen as he was held off. Both Mercedes together could impact Verstappen’s DRS situation even more badly. Potentially resulting in one of the Mercedes – Hamilton running away while Russell would defend. This would have meant that RBR would have also had to cover for a potential undercut or overcut from Hamilton up ahead who would have track position, causing he was able to lap faster and overtake while Verstappen was stuck behind Russell.
Bottas was on a long stint as he was on a two stop strategy, which he started on a set of used soft tyres. He was not that good on pace as a result. He then switched to mediums which he did not use for very long. On his final stint, he tried to work the mediums for half- race distance which was about 32 laps for him, and this was too much for the tyres. He was not on a perfectly controlled racing line throughout which was not possible, and then he was also racing with others in the midfield, and this resulted in his tyres giving up towards the end just around the time Sainz and Hamilton approached him.
Norris only had one new set of each tyre compound. He finished the race on a three stop stratgy with three stints on the soft tyre compound, that is two used sets and one new set, alongside a new set of mediums. Norris and Ricciardo both weren’t very strong on pace on any sets, even the new mediums and the new softs. They were just not dialled in as much as compared to the front runners of the midfield.
THE WILLIAMS
They were really away on it. Albon made four pit stops. Latifi three. Still in no stint were the properly even matching Magnussen or the McLarens or anyone. They simply did not put up a good race setup or even a quali setup. Magnussen on hards did match Mick on mediums, which is very impressive given the difference but the Willaims did not match them on faster tyre compounds.
ALPINE
The alpines did not have any special pace but were good on it and both the drivers again gave a spectacular performance as Alonso, who had start from 20th, finished 9th and Ocon finished 7th.
All in all, a race with a lot of takeaways and a lot of new issues for teams to understand with emerging threats and new found challenges for the teams.
|A RACE IN SPAIN THAT WAS GREAT|
spielens 