Or Lewis will leave
be the odd circuit blip. So what of the challenge to Lewis? Bottas has to get up to speed quickly and there’s a big difference between driving for Williams a little down the grid and having the spotlight on you at the front. His team are watching him, Finland is watching, the whole world is watching.
For me, Mercedes are just No1 right now as we don’t truly know the pace of the Ferraris, although they look quick. Of the front runners, that leaves Red Bull, who Max Verstappen argues aren’t quite in a position to win races. I hope that’s just bluffing as I think we’ve got a genuine situation where we have three cars and six drivers going for the title. Sebastian Vettel looks happier at Ferrari and I’ve spoken long before of the desire of the sport to get its two most dominant drivers — Seb and Lewis — to finally have a proper duel for the title. We have that potentially in the offing this year.
But that does a disservice to Kimi Raikkonen. A comfortable Kimi is a quick Kimi and he looks very comfortable right now. Last year, he seemed to come alive after earlier struggles and he could be the dark horse in the title race.
The top drivers have been crying out for faster, more challenging cars and they have those, with lap times of up to five seconds a lap quicker than last year. The physical demands of that are huge, take 6G into a corner and these cars will look like brutes and be brutes to drive but that’s what F1 needs.
Concerns have been raised about overtaking but Barcelona — where they tested — has never been great for that and the top six are good enough to overtake if given the slightest chance.
A new champion will emerge with Nico off the grid — the first time a defending champion has been missing since Alain Prost in 1994. Who will it be? My instinct says Lewis but the Mercedes dominance will be a thing of the past.