Records may be immolated by Mercedes, Hamilton
MOTOR RACING
LEWIS Hamilton is closing in on a seventh Formula One championship but his dominant Mercedes team should get there first at Imola tomorrow.
No team has ever won seven constructors’ titles in a row, but Mercedes may not need another point to make history at an Italian circuit making its return to the calendar for the first time since 2006.
Mercedes at present shares the record streak with Ferrari, which won six in a row between 1999 and 2004 in a golden era for the Italian team when seventimes champion Michael Schumacher was at his peak.
Mercedes is a hefty 209 points clear of secondplaced Red Bull in the standings and after tomorrow’s 13th round of the season there will be four races, and a total of 176 points, remaining to be won.
That means Hamilton, winner of a record 92 races with eight wins so far this season, or teammate Valtteri Bottas need finish only fourth for Mercedes to add another title to the sequence even if Red Bull finished onetwo.
Red Bull must score 34 points more than Mercedes to spin things out to the following race in Turkey, where Hamilton could wrap up his own championship battle if things go his way tomorrow.
The Briton is 77 points clear of Bottas going to a circuit, named after Ferrari founder Enzo and his son Dino, where neither have raced previously in F1.
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is where on a dark weekend in 1994 Brazilian triple champion Ayrton Senna and Austrian Roland Ratzenberger died after crashes.
‘‘It’s a track with lots of history but one that the Mercedes works team has never raced on before, so there are quite a few unknowns heading into the race weekend,’’ team boss Toto Wolff said.
The third race this year in Italy, another first, will be behind closed doors after the Covid19 pandemic forced promoters to scrap plans to allow 13,000 spectators a day.
The race weekend will run to a twoday format, with no Friday practice but an extended session to be held today before qualifying.
The novelty of that was slightly diminished by this month’s Eifel Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring also effectively becoming a twoday event when bad weather ruled out any running on the Friday.
Kimi Raikkonen, the most experienced driver in Formula One history, was around last time Imola was on the F1 calendar but others have raced there in junior series.
McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was only 6 years old when Raikkonen finished fifth for the same team in 2006, raced at Imola in Italian Formula Four.
‘‘I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like in a Formula One car,’’ the Briton said. — Reuters