🏁 Tire Whisperer Gets Silenced

PLP Season 2 Edition 31

Last week I said we were due for a boring race… but looks like we’re going to have to wait on all that. I’m even beginning to question if we’ll ever have a boring race again this season. It’s like Now That’s What I Call Music out here with the amount of hits we’re seeing. Yes that is still a thing, they’re just Spotify playlists and there’s like 100 at this point. I had volume 5 back in the day with Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life”. Thus began my love of air guitar.

The field is so close that upgrades, set ups, drivers, and strategies are making all the difference. That and well… minimum car weight requirements. Sorry George.

Quick Question!

Alright since it’s the summer break and we can all take some time to catch our breath from the racing action, the questions for the next few weeks will be PLP specific - helping me figure out ways to bring you the stuff you actually care about. Like a satisfaction survey, but better because it’s only one question a week! Woohoo! As always, thanks for reading and your feedback is super valuable!

Belgian GP Recap

🥇 HAM - 🥈 PIA - 🥉 LEC

DNF: ZHO

DQ: RUS

Fastest Lap: PER

DoTD: HAM

Another race, another nail-biting fight at the top. With Max taking a penalty, Charles Leclerc got a somewhat surprising pole and was able to hold onto it through the opening lap as Perez and Hamilton fought behind. Another poor start for Lando saw him drop back a few places after turn 1, with Max gaining a few himself. Mercedes race pace proved to be very strong, with Hamilton taking the lead from Charles on lap 3. Staggered pit stops resulted in several lead changes, while those that took hard tires later in the race faired better than those on mediums.

Piastri came alive in the second stint, making moves on Russell and Perez and putting heavy pressure on the dueling Mercedes at the end of the race. George himself had a move on Perez, and (now infamously) chimed in on the radio on lap 26 “Think about the one stop.” This would have a huge effect on the outcome. The Red Bulls failed to work together to keep Lando back mid race, though he was unable to catch Max after getting by Checo. Piastri moved past Leclerc with 9 laps to go, moving to 5s behind HAM in P2, and RUS 4s ahead in P1.

As Russell nursed his worn hards, Hamilton closed the gap quickly, with Piastri closing the gap on Hamilton soon after. In the last laps, it looks like Lewis would get the move done, but just didn’t quite have enough to get past his teammate as George put together some stellar corner exits and remained mistake free. He also consequently helped his teammate with DRS and both remained ahead of the flying Piastri - as the top three crossed the line in the closest non-safety car podium gap since 2016. A few more laps and the result would likely have been different.

At the checkered flag George was ecstatic and praising the team, while Toto chimed in “tire whisperer.” But hours later, the sky fell on the jolly brit with the stewards determining his car was underweight. Brutal for George. Felt bad for him, he drove an excellent race and the weight wasn’t his fault. But them’s the rules, kid. Tough one but it’s very possible he gets another shot later this season the way it’s going.

Minimum Weight Factors

• Cars must meet a 798kg (1759lbs) minimum weight requirement after the race, without fuel. George’s car initially made weight - however the fuel had not been drained properly. Once drained, the car was 1.5kg underweight.

• Why is that a big deal? In general, lighter car = faster car.

• While the team is investigating the mistake, George’s mid-race decision to run a one stop strategy was a likely culprit. Loss or rubber from extra tire degradation could be to blame. With the extra tire wear, there would have likely been a ride height reduction leading to extra plank wear as well. Also since Spa is a long lap, there is no cool down lap after the race to pick up “marbles” (extra rubber that’s been deposited on the track from worn tires) to add weight. Crazy right? Fine margins…

What else?

• Russell becomes the sixth driver all time to be disqualified after winning a race, and the first in 30 years since Michael Schumacher lost the W in the 1994 Belgian GP for illegal skid block wear.

• Hamilton and Piastri continue their fine run of form, with both drivers outscoring Ferrari and Red Bull since Austria (HAM/PIA 80 pts each in that time frame, Red Bull with 78 and Ferrari 75). That’s Hamilton’s 201st podium of his career, while McLaren has now has 10 in a row.

• For the first time in F1 history, every driver that finished in the top 10 at Spa last weekend has a GP win to their name.

• Russell Hamilton joins Verstappen as the second driver to win multiple races this year.

• Lando is the only driver yet to gain a place on lap 1 of a race. He’s lost a position in 7 races, and stayed in the same position in 10 races.

Sainz Signs

While we thought it likely to be decided during the Summer break, Carlos and Williams wasted no time in announcing Monday that the three time race winner will be paired up with new teammate Alex Albon for 2025 on a (you guessed it) “multi-year deal.”

Team Principal James Vowles made a pitch better than Sauber/Audi and Alpine after pursuing the driver he wanted most for the past eight months or so - noting that he first met with Carlos and fam in Abu Dhabi last year. On his pursuit on who was the consensus best available driver: “I needed a leader, not just someone who is quick in the car.” He also laid out the full picture of the team’s plan, noting he left the comfort of Merecedes to build something new: “Everything I have told him is the truth behind this project, so that means all the good bits and all the bad bits. This is who we are, this what we’re investing in, this why I believe in it, this is what it looks like in the future – do you want to be part of it?”

Sainz joins Alain Prost, Jacky Ickx, and Nigel Mansell as one of four drivers to compete for the oldest and most iconic F1 teams: McLaren, Ferrari, and now Williams (Sainz also started his career with Toro Rosso, and had a stint at Renault). In his announcement, he acknowledged the test that lies ahead, joining a team that’s struggling to score points at the moment: “I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to continue my F1 journey and I am extremely proud of joining such a historic and successful team, where many of my childhood heroes drove in the past and made their mark on our sport. The ultimate goal of bringing Williams back to where it belongs, at the front of the grid, is a challenge that I embrace with excitement and positivity.”

Speaking of a weight, Williams now has a competitive advantage that no other team can boast: They are inherently lighter as the first appendix-less team in F1 history. (I didn't fact check that, but it has to be right… right?). No doubt their line-up is strong, now the burden lies on the team to take a better step in 2025, and nail the new regs in 2026 with the technical team Vowles is building. Will be a fun team to watch if they can get it right.

Checo to Survive the Summer

In what’s a least a medium term resolution to probably the second biggest ongoing driver saga (or perhaps even the biggest), Red Bull confirmed this week that Sergio Perez will be driving in Zandvoort after the summer break. After a Monday meeting where Checo was one of many topics, Team Principal Christian Horner reportedly addressed the full team at the factory and confirmed that Perez would be staying on for the time being. Talk about a driver switch ramped up over a string of poor results over the past few months, and more intensely lately as he dropped to P7 in the standings and Red Bull look to be under a huge threat from McLaren for the Constructors’ title.

Perez has understandably “had enough of the speculation” after saying himself that he’d be back after the break. “I don’t think I will be responding anymore to any future speculation…I’m here with the team fully committed, as a team we have a lot of stuff to focus on, to get ourselves ready for the second half of the season.”

The current rumor is that Red Bull was set on dismissing their underperforming #2 driver (with Max even thinking it was a done deal) before F1 owner Liberty Media stepped in and asked them to reconsider, fearing a loss of revenue at the Mexican GP later this year.

Have to admit this is a bit surprising - both the move AND the rumor about Liberty intervening. Hungary was a good race for him, but going from P2 to P7 in Spa looked like it was going to seal the departure. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll still be here in 2025, but at least now he has some more opportunities to turn it around - as Liam Lawson continues to drift around in F1 purgatory. Also, it’s not unheard of in other sports, but I don’t like the idea of F1 ownership influencing a team’s personnel decisions. That’s a slippery integrity slop right there.

Down the Grid

Tech Talk

Off the Grid

Welp here goes the Summer break that no one wanted. Imagine that sentiment as a kid back in school days? Oh how the turntables…

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