No one is surprised by Max Verstappen’s victories anymore. Behind him, however, the fight for second place is intriguing. Unsurprisingly, there is the other Red Bull driver, Sergio Pérez. If the latter had as many victories as his teammate (two) after the first four races, the portrait quickly changed. The Mexican is now 53 points behind Verstappen.
Last year, Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari edged Pérez by three points for second place among the drivers. This season, the situation is different. First, a new player has joined the fight: Fernando Alonso, at Aston Martin, has managed 5 podiums so far and is only 19 points behind Pérez. And behind him, Lewis Hamilton pushes.
The seven-time world champion and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell finished second and third respectively in the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago. These results, coupled with a 7th place finish from Alonso and a 6th place finish from Lance Stroll, saw Mercedes take the lead by 18 points over Aston Martin in 2nd place in the constructors’ championship.
Never mind. In his post-race interviews, Alonso said Aston Martin would arrive in the Quebec metropolis with an upgraded car. “In Canada we will crush them,” the 41-year-old Spaniard said.
The 2022 season has been difficult for Mercedes, which was not a shadow of itself. But the top team finally sees the end of the tunnel after its results in Spain.
In Barcelona, the team finally properly tested the many improvements to their single-seater. And the least we can say is that these paid off. Both Mercedes were quicker than Aston Martins and Ferraris, their main rivals so far this season. This should reassure the British team.
“This result is definitely what we were working towards,” Lewis Hamilton said at the post-race press conference. It’s incredible and it’s thanks to all the great work that is done with the people at the plant […]. I hope everyone feels really proud. »
At Red Bull, nothing to worry about just yet. The team still holds a snug 135-point lead in the constructors’ championship. “[The Mercedes] were still [24 seconds] behind at the end of the race,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner ably recalled.
We can’t help but feel sorry for Charles Leclerc (and his supporters!). Not everything goes as the poor Ferrari driver would like, although he has all the tools for a brilliant career.
By the time he arrived in Canada last year, Leclerc had four podium finishes, including two victories. He was vying with Verstappen and Pérez for the top spot in the standings. But already, the bad luck had begun. Often during the season, the Monegasque fell victim to Scuderia’s reliability issues and questionable strategies.
A year later, it’s still going. Leclerc is seventh in the driver standings. Twice in the first three races of the season, he failed to cross the finish line. In Bahrain, he was forced to retire due to an electrical problem. In Australia, he collided with Stroll on a bend.
In Spain, qualifying did not go as planned. Starting from the pits, the Ferrari driver tried to climb the slope, but he had to settle for 11th place, out of the points.
“I don’t understand what we are doing wrong, but we are doing something wrong,” he told Sky Sports after the race.
The Scuderia still have work ahead of them to overtake Aston Martin and Mercedes in the standings. The season is still young.
By edging out McLaren by 14 points in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022, earning them 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship, Alpine have finally established themselves as the best midfield team. Ahead of the 2023 season, general manager Laurent Rossi claimed the team wanted to “at a minimum” finish 4th again this year, according to comments reported by Agence France-Presse.
Of course, Aston Martin’s faster-than-expected progress is upsetting those plans a bit. The French brand, whose team is based in England, is in 5th place among manufacturers, but with a serious deficit of 60 points on Ferrari.
Still, she can rejoice in her recent results. After a catastrophic collision between its two drivers in Australia, the team was finally able to celebrate a podium – its first since 2021 – in Monaco. This third place for Esteban Ocon allowed the team to pick up 15 precious points in the championship.
In Spain, the two French drivers had had good qualifying, but had to settle for 8th (Ocon) and 10th (Pierre Gasly) places. “I’m sure the performance is there so [we can] go for something like a top 6 next time,” Gasly told the on-site media after the race.
If Yuki Tsunoda’s name only appears in 16th place in the driver standings, that does not mean that the AlphaTauri color holder is having a bad season, quite the contrary.
The Japanese had a lot to prove this year and he is doing well with a very average vehicle. Tsunoda’s consistency is unmatched among midfield riders. It’s not just his meager two points; he has finished close to the points most of the time this season, unlike his young rookie teammate Nyck de Vries.
Tsunoda will arrive in Montreal with the desire to regain his lost points in Spain. Wanting to defend his 9th place against an insistent Zhou Guanyu on lap 56 of 66, the AlphaTauri driver inherited a 5-second penalty. He therefore finished 12th.
“From my point of view, there was still space,” he lamented. The other car suddenly pulled out of the area and pretended to have been forced. There was still room, [Zhou Guanyu] could have stayed on the track. […] I just have to accept the reality, that I lost points after this big race. It’s disappointing, very, very disappointing. »
