Mercedes shows it's back near the top of Formula 1 despite George Russell's Belgian Grand Prix DQ

Figuring out the pecking order at the top of Formula 1 heading into the summer break is now quite the difficult exercise.

Lewis Hamilton was officially declared the winner of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after his teammate George Russell was disqualified in post-race inspection. Russell held off Hamilton admirably in the closing laps after he used a one-stop pit strategy to seeming perfection. But Russell’s car was found to be 1.5 kg under the minimum weight after the race and subsequently relegated to last.

Granted, every fraction of a kilogram helps create speed in a Formula 1 car. However, there’s little to deny that Mercedes was the best team throughout Sunday’s race. After starting third, Hamilton passed pole-sitter Charles Leclerc in the opening laps and was never passed under green-flag conditions the rest of the race.

Russell started sixth and inherited the lead because he had one fewer pit stop than the rest of the field. He kept his lead over Hamilton in the waning laps even though Hamilton had far fresher tires.

The 1-2 finish was set to be Mercedes’ first since the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Instead, Hamilton’s win is the team’s third in the last four races.

Most importantly, it’s a “victory” that was the most straightforward of the three. Yeah, Max Verstappen won the pole and had to start 11th because of an engine change. But Hamilton looked flawless in clean air. His British Grand Prix win three weeks ago came on a track that went back and forth between wet and dry, and Russell’s win in Austria came after Verstappen and Lando Norris made contact while racing for the lead.

Mercedes is still a distant fourth in the constructor’s standings to Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Even without Russell’s DQ, the team would be 61 points back of third-place Ferrari.

But there’s no denying how good Mercedes has been since the team implemented upgrades at Monaco. Hamilton hasn’t finished any lower than fourth in the last six races and has two victories and four podium finishes in that span.

The only team that can credibly say it’s been faster than Mercedes in the past six races is McLaren. Red Bull is facing a dilemma over the summer break — more on that in a minute — while Ferrari is having a hard time recapturing the form it showed earlier this season. The constructor’s title is very likely out of reach for the silver arrows. But don’t be surprised in the slightest if Hamilton and Russell each score more wins before the end of the season.

Max Verstappen's longest winless streak in years

Mercedes’ recent run of form is leading to a drought Max Verstappen hasn’t experienced since 2020.

Verstappen has now gone four races without a win thanks to Oscar Piastri’s victory a week ago in Hungary. That’s the longest stretch of races without a Verstappen victory since the latter stages of the 2022 season when Verstappen went 11 races without a win before a victory in the final race of the season.

Four races seems like a lifetime when you’ve dominated F1 the way Verstappen has since the end of the 2021 season. After winning 10 times in 2021 as he and Hamilton dueled back-and-forth for the championship, Verstappen has won 41 times over the past 57 races. He scored 15 victories in 22 and won an astonishing 19 of 22 races in 2023.

So far this season, Verstappen’s win rate is down to 50% and could plummet even further. He’s still the heavy favorite to win the driver’s championship, but the competition around him has stepped up their games.

Sergio Perez reportedly staying at Red Bull

Sergio Perez started second Sunday and ended up finishing seventh after making a pit stop late in the race to score a bonus point for the fastest lap.

Perez didn’t show the pace that Verstappen did throughout the 44 laps at Spa and lost second to Hamilton on the opening lap. After falling to third, Perez was a non-factor the rest of the way as Verstappen worked his way from 11th to an official fourth-place finish after Russell’s DQ.

After the race, Perez said his result was “disappointing” and it seemed entirely possible that it was also his last race for Red Bull. Perez has underachieved mightily over the past two seasons and currently sits seventh in the standings. He’d be eighth — and last among the drivers at the top four teams — if Russell had scored the full 25 points on Sunday and hadn’t been disqualified.

Perez’s Red Bull future has been a source of much speculation since the start of the season and McLaren’s performance Sunday only intensified it. Oscar Piastri (second) and Lando Norris (fifth) scored 28 points in Belgium while Verstappen and Perez combined to score 19. Red Bull’s lead in the constructor’s standings is now down to 42 points over McLaren and Ferrari is just 21 points behind McLaren.

Verstappen still has a healthy lead in the driver’s standings and will need a bad stretch of races for a fourth consecutive title to be in doubt. However, the constructor’s title is just as important for Red Bull. And the team is reportedly sticking with Perez.

According to the Athletic, team members were informed Monday that Perez would be in the second seat for the rest of the season. If Perez was to be dropped, Red Bull would have likely elevated Daniel Ricciardo back to the main team from VCARB or elevated reserve driver Liam Lawson. Instead, it seems to have decided that it's best shot of holding off McLaren is to keep Perez around.

Another disappointing day for Alpine

Alpine sits eighth in the constructor’s standings heading into the summer break after Esteban Ocon was ninth in Belgium and Pierre Gasly was out of the points in 13th.

The team has scored just 11 points so far this season and is only ahead of Williams and Sauber — the only team that hasn’t scored a point all season.

Alpine was sixth a season ago and was nearly 100 points ahead of Williams in seventh. Instead of charging toward Aston Martin in fifth, the team has been passed by both VCARB and Haas as it simply can’t get a handle on its cars.

A potential Mercedes engine deal in the future brings optimism, but hope isn’t going to improve the team before the end of the season. And some improvement is in serious order. Alpine would love to have Carlos Sainz alongside Pierre Gasly in 2025, but showing Sainz it can field a competitive car in the short-term is incredibly important.