2022 consistency down to 'a lot of good things put together,' says Lando
Lando on his love for Spa and how he has maintained consistency after the 2022 regulation changes
Returning from a summer break that was spent topping up his tan with family and friends, Lando has said that he welcomed the opportunity to relax and shut off from racing ahead of a busy end to the season.
The team now faces nine races in 13 weeks, beginning with this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, which is followed by the Dutch GP and the Italian GP as part of a European triple header.
One of the original seven races in the first official F1 World Championship back in 1950, the circuit is a classic of the calendar and one that Lando has previously confessed his love for. He won there during his European Formula 3 days and took a podium during his sole season of Formula 2, with a highest finish of seventh at the track since stepping up to F1.
"It is a chance to take your mind off of racing and off of Formula 1," said Lando on the summer shutdown. "It is good to have a break and to have some time with family and friends - it goes quite quickly, so before you know it, you are back racing.
"[Spa-Francorchamps] is good for racing - it is a great track in qualifying and a great track in the race. There is a lot of history to it, and it is unique. It's a track that I have watched and enjoyed since I was a little kid, and I will continue to do so now."
"The thing that I like the most is just the character of the track and the style of the layout, which is very up and down. It is a big circuit, so you have got a lot of different corners - some banked corners, some off-camber corners, some high-speed, some low-speed - it has got a little bit of everything, and it has also got some long-straights."
With the varying setup options available to teams at Spa, including the age-old discussion of downforce versus drag – more on that here - it is one of the circuits where the differences between the 2021 and 2022 cars could potentially be more apparent.
Asked whether he expects the 2022 machinery to perform differently around the Belgian circuit in comparison to last year's car, Lando said that he wasn't anticipating the changes to be too stark in qualifying or the race.
"Probably not too different," said Lando, who finished P13 in FP1 and P3 in FP2. "I think one of the main differences is that the cars are different in terms of following and slipstreaming.
"I wouldn't say that it will be too different come qualifying, but in the race, there is a chance for some corners to overtake more easily than you could in the past, and in some corners, it will be worse for overtaking. I don't think there will be too many differences in terms of actually driving."
Due to a team decision to use new power unit elements, Lando will unfortunately take a grid penalty on Sunday. As such, he will face an uphill challenge to increase his points tally in Spa.
Lando has missed out on the top 10 just three times this season and entered the summer break on a run of seven points finishes from the last eight races, despite the 2022 regulations evening out the grid and increasing the competitiveness of the field.
Our No.4 believes that his impressive consistency so far this season can be attributed to a combination of varying reasons. Praising the team's work, he discussed the alignment of factors that have contributed to his form and said that it is only with a continuation of that work that the points will keep coming.
"It is a lot of good things put together," he said. "Good pit-stops, decent strategy, getting as much out of the cars as possible. I don't think in every race we have had the car to finish absolutely in the points, in terms of actual speed, but putting everything together, qualifying well and not making mistakes has helped us score a lot of good results lately.
"The focus is to continue doing that, continue working hard and to make the most of the car that we have got."
On how he and the team can continue to improve in the final nine races, he added: "There isn't an easy answer, but there are always little things here and there that you can continue to work on and continue to improve.
"You can continue to have good pit-stops, you can continue to have good strategy. Good starts always help, and just continue to try and improve the car with small tweaks and small upgrades here and there.
"No easy things, F1 isn't like that, so nothing is going to come easy, but we will keep working hard on what we have got."
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