Hamilton gets off sick bed to inflict more pain on Vettel
German at the back of the grid for home grand prix Technical woes force both Ferraris out of qualifying
FEATURE WRITER CHIEF SPORTS
In times like these for Ferrari, it pays to recall that they still have the most lavish budget in Formula One, the most decorated history, and most devoted supporters. A consistent absence of leadership, though, has created a pattern of failure, which lurched yesterday into full-blown crisis as Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were forced to abandon qualifying for the German Grand Prix with technical gremlins.
As Lewis Hamilton exacted maximum punishment with a recordextending 87th pole position, it fell to Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal, to provide a precious dose of honesty. “We need Ferrari so that we can have a competitive championship,” he said. Wolff had initially been quoted as saying on German television that the team had an “illness they needed to cure”, but he later claimed that he had been referring to his rivals’ extended run of problems.
Seldom has a single hour so vividly reflected the story of a season.
Ferrari had finished at the top of all three practice sessions but fell dismally short when it mattered most, cementing their image as the big team for the small occasion. Hamilton, by contrast, had experienced a far less smooth preparation. He awoke yesterday with enough of a sore throat for Mercedes to prepare Esteban Ocon, the team’s junior driver, to take his place. Instead, the five-time world champion shrugged off the ailment with another peerless display, setting a time that neither Max Verstappen nor Valtteri Bottas could remotely challenge. Where Hamilton made hay, Vettel made his way out of the Ferrari garage in morose mood. It has been a ghastly campaign for a man who has won four world titles and who is paid £39million a year by the Scuderia to try to secure a fifth. This year, though, he has found himself going backwards fast. Vettel had headed to Hockenheim 12 months ago with an eight-point lead over Hamilton. Today, he starts his home race at the back of the grid, with a 100-point deficit to his arch-rival. Suggestions mount that the 32-yearold, disillusioned with Formula One since a stewards’ decision deprived him of victory in Canada last month, could forsake the sport altogether. Vettel could point out that this latest lapse was not strictly his fault, being the result of a turbo issue. But it still fit a trend of Ferrari miscalculations under pressure. Moments after he stepped out of the car, his young team-mate Leclerc suffered the same fate, unable to take part in the third phase of qualifying due to a fuel system problem. Vettel has so far been the dutiful team player, loath to criticise Ferrari in public, but there were signs here that his patience was wearing thin. “I’m obviously very bitter,” he said. Hamilton was struggling simply to find his voice. He had developed a bug yesterday morning, but one would hardly have guessed from the ease with which he swept aside his opposition.
At one of the few circuits where Ferrari were expected to have had the upper hand, Hamilton delivered a reminder of his brilliance over a single flying lap, with his time of 1min 11.346sec almost 3½ tenths superior to Verstappen’s effort. One wondered just how quick he could have been if fully healthy. “Lewis, you never cease to amaze us,” Wolff told him over the incar radio.
It was a day of some frivolity for Mercedes, whose staff marked the 125th anniversary of the team’s involvement in motorsport by dressing in 1950s German garb. For Ferrari, it was a more poignant occasion, as Mick SchuFrom macher rekindled a chapter of his family’s extraordinary past by taking to the track in his father’s championshipwinning Ferrari F2004. The Formula Two driver admitted that he had found it an emotional experience.
“It was amazing to be able to drive the car around here,” he said. “It was my dad’s seat, too, and it fit perfectly. coming out of the pit lane to going back in, I never lost a smile. To be able to drive a V10 and to feel how it felt and sounded was very special.”
How Ferrari must wish they could return to those halcyon days of 2004, when Schumacher Snr won his seventh and final title. Today, they are increasingly the objects of derision, incapable of converting their colossal riches into a sustained quest for the championship. For the moment, Vettel denies that he is in crisis. “Crisis would be if I had no idea how to do better, or if my speed wasn’t there,” he said. “When things are going well and not so well, I know myself best.”
Mattia Binotto, Ferrari’s besieged team principal and technical director, indicated that more was needed from their superstar. “Clearly, he has made mistakes,” he said. “What we have to do is be honest and say, ‘we expect more from him’, and ‘maybe he has not been as good as he was in qualifying’. But he will find a way to improve things.”
While Wolff was clearly satisfied that Mercedes could capitalise on Ferrari’s woes, he did sympathise. “We embrace the fight with them but when you see Sebastian get out of the car, followed by young Charles, then you feel for them. You see why this is the toughest motorsport challenge that exists.”