Formula 1 2017 seaso Lewis Hamilton’s 4t championship to Me
There’s no denying that the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship season made for compelling viewing, with Ferrari’s revival providing a welcome shot of adrenaline to the very heart of F1 as it ended three years of turbohybrid domination by Mercedes.
Early promise
One of the greatest aspects was that the signs were there right from the first day of testing in Barcelona, as word spread like a wildfire that Ferrari were ‘Quick’.
The Mercedes F1 W08 exuded all the elegance we have come to expect, its antecedents clear in every sleek, evolutionary line and every inch of its long wheelbase. It was a silver arrow, through and through.
The Ferrari SF70 was less pretty, somehow stubbier yet purposeful, with its completely different aerodynamic sidepods and bodywork adding its own unique stamp of thoroughbred toughness.
And, another great thing, it would transpire that the lap times that Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen recorded at the Circuit de Catalunya were representative. Mercedes hadn’t been sandbagging, and nor had Ferrari been grandstanding with low-fuel runs.
Headline news: Mercedes really did have a fight on their hands at last!
Bigger, wider, faster
The new rules package introduced for 2017, which created heavier (up from 702 to 722 kg) but more powerful and grippy cars, played a key role in helping Ferrari to break through.
Pirelli’s range of tyres were 25 percent wider than 2016’s in a successful search for a big increase in mechanical grip to go with significant aerodynamic changes. The fronts were almost the width of the previous rears, rising from 245 mm to 305, while the rears increased from 325 to 405. And making their familiar compounds – the hard, medium, soft, supersoft and ultrasoft – softer still, yet capable of being pushed harder and longer by the drivers, resulted in some great racing and a slew of new track records.
The overall width of the cars increased from 1800 to 2000 mm, facilitating a new front wing that increased from 1650 mm wide to 1800, the width that was mandated between 2009 and 2013. The wing also has a stylish swept-back shape in plan view, and the length of the nose section was increased slightly. Lower-mounted rear wings, increased in width from 750 to 950 mm, also helped the aesthetics. With greater freedom in the bargeboard and sidepod areas too, a new breed of F1 car emerged which not only looked better but was faster and much, much more satisfying for the drivers, who loved them.
Shark fins on engine covers made their first appearance since 2009, allied to controversial engine cowling-mounted T-wings.
With a higher race fuel allowance - up from 100 kg to 105 kg - engine power increased, amid various restrictions on internal componentry and the weight of the MGU-K and MGU-H elements of the energy recovery systems. The unloved engine token development system was shelved, leaving teams free to bring design enhancements during the season so long as they did not exceed their allowance of four engines per driver for the 20 races. Inevitably, many did, and the unprecedented number of associated grid penalties became an embarrassment for some...
Italian renaissance
Ferrari’s tremendous improvement was masterminded by technical director Matteo Binotto, whose leadership made the black horse prance again as a genuine challenger. To their enduring credit, Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda at Mercedes had let Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg race, despite some moments of acrimony, but now everyone had what they wanted: inter-team as opposed to intra-team competition. F1 was a two-horse race, and there is nothing better for a sport than having the two biggest teams slogging it out, weekend after weekend.
And that, pretty much, is how the season developed until October, when the wheels started to come off the Ferrari challenge.
Ferrari seize the initiative
Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari underlined their strength with a shock victory in the season opener in Melbourne’s Albert Park, when he beat the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and his new partner Valtteri Bottas by 9.9s. Think of a much-hyped boxing match where the reigning champion gets