After parting ways with Verstappen, Qin Miao approached Frankie and the others.

He hugged Frankie and shook hands with his chief technician. Reyes suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "Did you notice anything?"

Qin Miao was momentarily stunned before realizing that Frankie was asking if he had figured out anything after standing in front of Verstappen’s car for a while.

Qin Miao rolled his eyes; he wasn’t an aerodynamic design expert like Newey who could tell at a glance what specific effect a part might have on a car, or how airflow might behave at high speed. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Nothing, I couldn’t understand a thing. I was just puzzled by why they’re so fast."

"Well, that’s normal." Reyes nodded.

Afterward, Qin Miao freshened up and headed to the post-race interview area.

By this time, Red Bull’s two drivers had completed their interviews, and Qin Miao was the last to appear.

"Qin Miao, congratulations on finishing third in today’s race. How did you feel about the race today?"

Qin Miao clicked his tongue before saying, "Honestly, Spa always feels great to me, the weather was really good today, and both starts went well—everything was positioned as planned. It’s just a pity the result didn’t turn out that way."

"Did the Mercedes team anticipate such a significant speed gap with Red Bull before the race?"

This question was somewhat tricky, but surprisingly, Qin Miao nodded and shrugged, saying, "After qualifying, we already expected today would be a tough challenge for us. Red Bull showed speed that’s almost out of this world during qualifying; we just didn’t expect them to be this fast. We’ll look into what happened afterward."

After answering two questions, Qin Miao turned and left.

Next was the podium ceremony. Qin Miao used to enjoy this part regardless of his standings, as having a podium finish was always decent, right?

Now, Qin Miao just felt the Dutch national anthem was a bit noisy.

After the Dutch national anthem ended, the Belgian Grand Prix was thoroughly wrapped up.

And after this race, the final driver standings and points were as follows:

P1: Verstappen +26 (fastest lap)

P2: Perez +18

P3: Qin Miao +14

P4: Sainz +12

P5: Alonso +10

P6: Leclerc +8

P7: O’Kang +6

P8: Vettel +4

P9: Gasly +2

P10: Russell +1

Leclerc was the unluckiest driver today. Originally in 5th, he dropped to 6th due to the team’s "spur of the moment," ending with only 8 points.

It felt like a classic F1 case of losing the watermelon while picking up the sesame seeds.

In today’s race, Russell also defeated his teammate Albon, becoming the last F1 driver to score points in the 2022 season.

After this race, all drivers participating in the 2022 season have different scores.

Originally, Zhou Guanyu could have scored a point in this race.

But during his battle with Albon, Zhou Guanyu’s gearbox malfunctioned again.

The other gears could shift normally, but Zhou Guanyu’s 8th gear wouldn’t engage.

As a result, Zhou’s normal driving was unaffected, but his top speed on straights couldn’t be achieved.

Ultimately, Zhou Guanyu couldn’t even hold onto his position as the goalkeeper of the points zone, ending the race in 13th behind his teammate Bottas.

Meanwhile, after this race, the updated driver standings are as follows:

1: Qin Miao, 238

2: Verstappen, 225

3: Perez, 178

4: Leclerc, 172

5: Sainz, 129

6: Hamilton, 110

7: Norris, 64

8: O’Kang, 62

9: Bottas, 38

10: Alonso, 37

11: Magelsen, 19

12: Zhou Guanyu, 19

13: Vettel, 19

14: Gasly, 17

15: Ricardo, 14

16: Tsunoda, 9

17: Mick, 6

18: Stroll, 2

19: Albon, 1

20: Russell, 1

After this race, Qin Miao’s lead on the standings is almost negligible; he is only 13 points ahead of Verstappen.

If Red Bull maintains their frightening speed in the next race, it’s likely the standings’ lead will change hands after that.

Meanwhile, Leclerc has returned to his familiar fourth place in the standings.

After this race, the team’s overall standings are as follows:

1: Red Bull, 423

2: Mercedes, 391

3: Ferrari, 324

4: Alpine, 111

5: McLaren, 78

6: Alfa Romeo, 64

7: Haas, 25

8: Toro Rosso, 26

9: Aston Martin, 22

10: Williams, 2

Even though the points difference between the top three teams in the standings seems minor, given Red Bull’s demonstrated pace, they’ll likely widen the gap from other teams quickly in the second half of the season.

...

The race ended here, but its ripples did not disappear.

Clearly, everyone can see that Red Bull’s cars became this fast after FIA issued TD039 technical directives during the summer break.

So many in the paddock are questioning whether FIA’s technical directive was deliberately aiding Red Bull.

Yet, FIA feels wronged. They insist that they did nothing wrong; the TD039 technical directive is clearly written, simply asking teams to control their cars’ bouncing, without restricting teams on how to do so.