F1: Spa qualifying ‘worst in 10 years’

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff campaigned hard to get the FIA to change the rules to eliminate underbody plank flexing some teams were using to reduce porpoising.

Wolff and his Mercedes engineers felt that by eliminating the flexing (which was legal, but against the ‘spirit’ of the rules) the gap between the top two teams, Red Bull and Ferrari, would be reduced.

The rule went into effect at Spa and instead the gap between Red Bull and Mercedes widened instead of shrinking.

Needless to say, there were many long faces in the Mercedes garage after qualifying for the Belgian GP Saturday.

Wolff pulled no punches when describing his team’s qualifying result at the Belgian Grand Prix.

2022 Belgian Grand Prix, Saturday. Toto Wolff stares at the timing screen in complete dismay after Red Bull widened the gap to Mercedes- Jiri Krenek photo for Mercedes F1

The Silver Arrows of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will line up P4 and P5 today at Spa which, on paper, does not seem to sound too bad.

However, the details around that are that three additional drivers were quicker than them – Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon – and those three all have engine penalties to send them to the back of the grid.

“You can’t be on pole three weeks before, albeit for very different conditions, different track, and then be 1.8 seconds off the pace at the next one.

“So there’s something we totally don’t understand, or seem to get right.

“Clearly, Red Bull are here in a league of their own, as the next Ferrari is eight tenths off. But that’s no consolation.

“That was a very disappointing qualifying result, no matter that penalties for other cars tomorrow will push us up the grid. Four weeks ago in Hungary, we were on pole, albeit with some slightly unusual circumstances that played in our favor; today, we were 1.8 seconds off pole position.

“It’s for me the worst qualifying session I had in 10 years. And irrespective of what positions we will start in tomorrow, being on pole the previous weekend and three weeks later being nowhere, it’s just not acceptable for ourselves.”

#44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG Team salivates over the Red Bull Honda of Max Verstappen in parc ferme after qualifying for the Belgian GP, 25-28 August 2022 at Spa-Francorchamps track, Formula 1 World championship 2022. He is trying to steal what secrets he can see.

“We seem to have high drag on the straights and haven’t given either driver a balance this weekend to give them confidence. Hopefully tomorrow we will have better race pace than we showed today, but we know that no matter our finishing positions, we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

Trackside Engineering Director of the Mercedes team, Andrew Shovlin explained that
Mercedes had high hopes of closing the gap to Ferrari and Red Bull this weekend, but after qualifying in seventh and eighth place originally, the team will likely reign expectations in for the weekend and potentially for the remainder of the season ahead.

“We were hoping to close the gap to the front here which is clearly not what we have achieved, but this year has thrown plenty of setbacks at us, we just need to learn what we can from it and try to move forward.”

Shovlin explained how comprising balance and stiffness has played it’s part in Mercedes’ struggles this weekend but has also stated that a worrying trend of being unable to set a competitive time on new tires would have to be investigated in due course.

“The car has been really difficult to get into a good working window here; we’re having to make a lot of compromises in how we’re running it in terms of balance and stiffnesses. That’s part of the problem but we’ve also failed to do a decent lap on new tires all weekend which is probably a separate issue that we need to investigate and understand.”