Get over it, Babe Ruth.
The checkered flag waved at the end of the Belgian Grand Prix, bringing the first act of the 2024 Formula One season to a close.
If the Grand Prix is any indication, the second act will be even more magical than the first.
Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix featured everything the sport has to offer and more, with some of F1’s most iconic moments including thrilling overtaking maneuvers, colorful strategies and drivers pushing themselves and their cars to the limit.
In the end, the driver who had set his sights on it early in the race and his teammate, one of the sport’s living legends, were leading the Belgian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton made a great start to the Belgian Grand Prix and took the lead early on, while teammate George Russell was one of the first drivers to pit for a new set of tyres on lap 10. But just after the halfway point of the Grand Prix, Russell asked his team to consider doing something unconventional, something Alex Jacques said during the race. F1TV It’s “totally bold” and makes this a one-stop race.
As the laps went by, Russell was leading with Hamilton closing in behind as the only real threat, his tyres losing grip with every lap and the seven-time champion was sticking to his rear wing. If there was any grip left on the hard, worn tyres, it was time to get all the rubber out.
“Is this even possible from George Russell?” Jack wondered on the second to last lap.
However, 2024 will be the year in F1 where the impossible becomes possible.
Somehow, Russell was the only driver to successfully execute a one-stop strategy, fending off all his rivals and winning by half a second over his teammate. In the final laps, Russell was hurtling through Spa on tyres that were 34 laps old by the time of the chequered flag, smoking as he coasted into parc ferme.
But they were smoking in front of the race winner’s placard. Hamilton came second, with defending Hungarian Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri third.
“It should have been impossible to win the Grand Prix in one stop,” Jack declared.
Once again, the impossible becomes possible.
“It’s a great result, we definitely didn’t expect this in the strategy meeting this morning,” Russell told Guenther Steiner trackside after the race. “The tyres felt great and I kept saying ‘I think we can do a one-stop, I think we can do a one-stop’.”
“We took a gamble, but we could do it because the car was working well.”
It was Mercedes’ first 1-2 finish since the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Hamilton admitted to Steiner trackside that it might be asking too much for Mercedes to join Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari in the fight for a true F1 constructors’ championship, but the Silver Arrows have been in fantastic form over the past few race weekends. Dating back to Russell’s surprise win at the Austrian Grand Prix, Mercedes have won three of the past four races, continuing an incredible run of form that has seen them upset the entire grid.
Now the grid will be quiet. The summer holidays are approaching, and by the time the grid comes alive again, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will be over, the NFL and college football seasons will soon be starting, and summer will slowly transition into fall.
And the sport and its fans will now have a well-deserved chance to catch their breath.
Because the second act of the 2024 F1 season promises to be something special.
