Greetings to all Formula 1 lovers, I just wanted you to know how much I missed writing racing blogs. Quite a lot happened, nah? But we don’t have too much time to think as long as Silverstone's coming up this week (literally in 4 days). So lets go right into what happened in Spielberg.
Overall the race itself was better than personally I expected it to be. It has even raised some new questions and put some new struggles in front of the pilots, teams and fans.
1. We are NOT playing bowling, man
A little bit epic start of the race - that is what happened actually. Probably I am not the only one who is still trying to figure out what has happened in the middle of the grid when Daniil hit Fernando (trying to overtake or as he claimed sliding as long as his wheels were locked) and then they also hit poor Max whose race was over after he couldn't manage a proper start struggling with his grid. Alonso would say on the radio: "They cannot play bowling". Fernando was frustrated as he had the chance not to struggle with technical problems for the first time in God knows how many races and was out as well as was Max.
The fact that Daniil got 2 points (making it up to 7 in general as well as his teammate Carlos) makes it more possible that there WAS an actual mistake in his actions. So the blame is on him in some case but the team commented this situation as "normal racing accident". Anyways it doesn’t help the people who left the race as well as it doesn’t help the strange situation in Toro Rosso. Let me clarify what I am actually talking of.
2. Sainz against Toro Rosso in "media war"
If you are a F1 follower you probably have heard about Carlos' situatuion evolving the whole weekend. Spaniard literally claimed that it is unlikely for him to stay at Toro Rosso for the next year and he is 100% aimed to go to the main team (where both drivers have lasting contracts until no one is going to leave the team for the better - here I mean Max and the rumors about him replacing Kimi in Ferrari). If not - Carlos is about to leave. The reaction of both Toro Rosso and Red Bull head management was quite expectable as long as Dr. Helmut Marco, Christian Horner and Franz Tost made it clear that the team program gave EVERYTHING to Carlos. He also has an activated contract for the next season already. After that Carlos became smarter and explained the misunderstanding of his words. But still the start to the "media war" has been given.
The only thing I feel like adding is that both Kvyat and Sainz haven't shown anything tremendous this season and they both keep failing a lot in the races so they'd better to be more patient not to be fired from Formula 1 team at all.
3. Bottas drives himself into the champions race
The fact that Daniil got 2 points (making it up to 7 in general as well as his teammate Carlos) makes it more possible that there WAS an actual mistake in his actions. So the blame is on him in some case but the team commented this situation as "normal racing accident". Anyways it doesn’t help the people who left the race as well as it doesn’t help the strange situation in Toro Rosso. Let me clarify what I am actually talking of.
2. Sainz against Toro Rosso in "media war"
If you are a F1 follower you probably have heard about Carlos' situatuion evolving the whole weekend. Spaniard literally claimed that it is unlikely for him to stay at Toro Rosso for the next year and he is 100% aimed to go to the main team (where both drivers have lasting contracts until no one is going to leave the team for the better - here I mean Max and the rumors about him replacing Kimi in Ferrari). If not - Carlos is about to leave. The reaction of both Toro Rosso and Red Bull head management was quite expectable as long as Dr. Helmut Marco, Christian Horner and Franz Tost made it clear that the team program gave EVERYTHING to Carlos. He also has an activated contract for the next season already. After that Carlos became smarter and explained the misunderstanding of his words. But still the start to the "media war" has been given.
The only thing I feel like adding is that both Kvyat and Sainz haven't shown anything tremendous this season and they both keep failing a lot in the races so they'd better to be more patient not to be fired from Formula 1 team at all.
3. Bottas drives himself into the champions race
Following the development of the race I feel like the most important thing was the fact that Valtteri held the leadership throughout almost the whole race and didn't let Ferrari to overtake him even at the very end when it was quite dangerous for him with Seb in DRS-zone. A few same situations happened in the middle of the grid (where Lewis as well tried to fight it out to the podium against Daniel) but it was just a question of bigger points for middle-teams.
Valtteri was voted the driver of the day which I think (not as a Mercedes fan but as a neutral author) is quite justly. Valtteri's not only drove himself to the second career win here in Austria (4th win in 4 races by Mercedes at Red Bull Ring) but also to the champions race where he is 15 points behind Lewis and 35 points behind Seb now. Actually it is not that bad since it was just the 9th race of the season and so many things are still possible to happen.
4. Pole jump-start
All the talks about the Valtteri's jump-start from the pole position were ridiculous. The motorsport rules have nothing about the times when drivers should react after the lights were off. I mean there's nothing fixed, so maybe 0,2 sec is too little but definitely not too early anyways. So what are people talking about now?
As a big Lewis fan I was also quite disappointed after he got five place gearbox penalty this weekend which made almost obvious he wasn’t about to win but could have fought for better points comparing to Seb. Suddenly after the race itself 1/3 of my sympathies went to Valtteri remembering how amazing he is as a person and as a driver.
By the way, the last thing we can still hope is Mercedes being patient in this championship race and not depriving Valtteri the chance of getting the title. Well, here I need to mention that I LOVES Lewis' after-race reaction (especially considering his inappropriate request in Baku).
5. Red Bull struggle: Max retired for the 5th time in 7 races while Daniel collecting the trophies
Valtteri was voted the driver of the day which I think (not as a Mercedes fan but as a neutral author) is quite justly. Valtteri's not only drove himself to the second career win here in Austria (4th win in 4 races by Mercedes at Red Bull Ring) but also to the champions race where he is 15 points behind Lewis and 35 points behind Seb now. Actually it is not that bad since it was just the 9th race of the season and so many things are still possible to happen.
4. Pole jump-start
All the talks about the Valtteri's jump-start from the pole position were ridiculous. The motorsport rules have nothing about the times when drivers should react after the lights were off. I mean there's nothing fixed, so maybe 0,2 sec is too little but definitely not too early anyways. So what are people talking about now?
As a big Lewis fan I was also quite disappointed after he got five place gearbox penalty this weekend which made almost obvious he wasn’t about to win but could have fought for better points comparing to Seb. Suddenly after the race itself 1/3 of my sympathies went to Valtteri remembering how amazing he is as a person and as a driver.
By the way, the last thing we can still hope is Mercedes being patient in this championship race and not depriving Valtteri the chance of getting the title. Well, here I need to mention that I LOVES Lewis' after-race reaction (especially considering his inappropriate request in Baku).
5. Red Bull struggle: Max retired for the 5th time in 7 races while Daniel collecting the trophies
The most controversial feelings (as well as Valtteri win and Lewis "loss" for Mercedes) caused me "win" and loss of Red Bull drivers. Seeing Max retiring almost every race is painful not because he is a cute boy from Netherlands but because he IS a really good and fast driver. He is the one of those who has this potential to fight for podiums and wins (especially considering the fact that Red Bull has a nice car with probably not the best engine this year).
You probably can tell how frustrated Dr. Marco was since Max is considered as his favorite driver and most of the time the retirement is NOT pilot's fault but technical stuff. Red Bull keeps gaining points thanks to Daniel. He (after brake problem retirement in Sochi which was 4th race of the year) keeps finishing on podiums and even won the whole thing in Baku. There must be a lot of mixed emotions inside the team in that case. I just hope they will solve the problem if team really wants to keep Max for the next season.
6. Tyres on the limit
You probably can tell how frustrated Dr. Marco was since Max is considered as his favorite driver and most of the time the retirement is NOT pilot's fault but technical stuff. Red Bull keeps gaining points thanks to Daniel. He (after brake problem retirement in Sochi which was 4th race of the year) keeps finishing on podiums and even won the whole thing in Baku. There must be a lot of mixed emotions inside the team in that case. I just hope they will solve the problem if team really wants to keep Max for the next season.
6. Tyres on the limit
Being honest it was my first race where I saw tyres working on their limit (and yes, I've seen not that many GPs). Before the race I thought it was going to be two pit-stops race (not the biggest expert in this, sorry).
At the end of the race I saw that Lewis was pushing literally everything from his Ultra Softs and Valtteri was doing the same with his Super Softs. I cannot tell that this race has been a race of "tyre strategy" in general. Probably. The only fenomenal fact F1 experts we mostly talking about was Lewis making it on SS in quali so he had a different strategy. Here I should mention that he had this 5-place pen on the grid so he knew he wasn’t fighting for the speed at this point but for the consistancy.
Actually in the end I was pretty sure someone would go for the second pit (I mean leaders) but it was too dangerous so we got what we got. Looking at the tyre strategy graphics I was only impressed how different was Felipe's decision as long as the whole grid used almost the same strategy in different variants.
At the end of the race I saw that Lewis was pushing literally everything from his Ultra Softs and Valtteri was doing the same with his Super Softs. I cannot tell that this race has been a race of "tyre strategy" in general. Probably. The only fenomenal fact F1 experts we mostly talking about was Lewis making it on SS in quali so he had a different strategy. Here I should mention that he had this 5-place pen on the grid so he knew he wasn’t fighting for the speed at this point but for the consistancy.
Actually in the end I was pretty sure someone would go for the second pit (I mean leaders) but it was too dangerous so we got what we got. Looking at the tyre strategy graphics I was only impressed how different was Felipe's decision as long as the whole grid used almost the same strategy in different variants.
7. No rain despite the expectations in Spielberg
I mean the rain happened just after the race. However, the forecast before the race showed 50% chance of rain. In that case some of the drivers were probably kind of hoping on the wet track to help them slide into bigger points while others were absolutely against this possibility as long as it might have ruined their better results.
Anyways, it didn't end up raining so far we saw some AMAZING times. Michael Schumacher's record from 2004 was beaten numerous times and Lewis was the fastest man on Sunday even though he didn't drive himself to the podium. Remember the new record, everyone: 1.07.411!
Anyways, it didn't end up raining so far we saw some AMAZING times. Michael Schumacher's record from 2004 was beaten numerous times and Lewis was the fastest man on Sunday even though he didn't drive himself to the podium. Remember the new record, everyone: 1.07.411!
Some other race moments I would love to mention to end up my blogpost are the emotions: Seb being honestly frustrated with his second place. Valtteri refusing drinking from Daniel's shoe and asking him: "are you laughing?" Kimi being in a conflict with Ferrari management and saying he IS doing everything he can. Lewis calling his result mediocre but being nice to what Valtteri did. I bud really liked all this honesty we saw.
We haven't seen anything extraordinary from Force India drivers that time even after them talking a lot on each other (which I am going to write the next post on). We saw good pace and good result from Roman and Haas (Kevin retired unfortunately) as long as they kept struggling the grid thing throughout the weekend. We saw some driver skills proofs from Felipe and Lance finishing in top-10 since Williams managed to qualify in the 1st segment. Not to mention yellow flags in the end of Q3 which helped Valtteri to get the pole position and made it impossible for Lewis, Max, Seb and others to improve.
Not a bad race, guys. I can't wait to see what will happened in GB. See you very soon!
Not a bad race, guys. I can't wait to see what will happened in GB. See you very soon!
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