The new Red Bull chassis

Red Bull is designing a new chassis that should be 6 kg lighter than the current one and is expected to debut in the Singapore GP. This will bring the RB18 closer to the 398-kg weight limit and should give it an advantage of about two tenths per lap. The slimming of the new chassis has been achieved through a different construction, not at the design level, but by studying the crossing of the various carbon fiber layers. By arranging the carbon fibers in a different position, it was possible to maintain the same strength and stiffness values as the previous version, but with reduced thicknesses at multiple points of the monocoque. This aerodynamic upgrade has a very high cost that will affect the Budget Cap, and it appears that 2 million euros were used for this project.

FORMULA 1 ROLEX BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2022

The summary of the Belgian Gran Prix

In the first weekend after the summer break of this fantastic world championship, we could see how Red Bull had a great supremacy over Ferrari. The Milton Keynes-based team showed its advantage over the Italian team as early as Friday. In Saturday's qualifying Max Verstappen was the fastest, turning in 1:43.655, giving six tenths to Carlos Sainz. That lap gave him the pole position, which, however, was taken away from him by the penalty caused by the engine change. Charles Leclerc also suffered an engine-change penalty, as did Norris, Ocon, Schumacher, Zhou and Bottas.

Despite the penalty that made Verstappen start in fourteenth position, he managed in making a historic comeback, finishing in first position winning his ninth race in this world championship disputed between Red Bull and Ferrari. Sergio Perez finishes in second position with Carlos Sainz Jr. in third.

Let's talk about Mercedes' weekend. They had come to Belgium with high expectations, but that did not bring the results they expected. The two silver arrows started in fourth and fifth positions thanks to penalties from the other drivers, otherwise Hamilton would have started seventh and Russel eighth. The race for Mercedes did not end very well with the retirement of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, probably caused by the collision he had with Fernando Alonso. The Brackley team had to settle for fourth place by George Russell. 

Speaking of the other teams, we can say that it was a rich weekend for Alpine with both cars in the points with Alonso in fifth and Ocon in seventh. We saw a very good Sebastian Vettel who took his Aston Martin to P8. Good race also for Pierre Gasly who managed to finish in ninth position starting from the pit lane due to problems with his Power Unit. Finally we end this summary talking about Alexander Albon who gains a point with his Williams, a driver who until a year ago did not have a car to drive in Formula 1 but is bringing important results for his team.

After this fantastic event where we saw a dominant Red Bull, a Ferrari disappointed with its Performance, we move to Holland to the home of reigning world champion Max Verstappen.