MERCEDES FEELS THE HEAT IN MONACO
When drivers eliminated each other in Spain, it helped give Red Bull wings
So now we know how to make Formula One more exciting: Get rid of Mercedes.
Better yet, let the two cars rub each other out — right at the start — and leave the others to battle among themselves.
Is that too much to ask for this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix?
Probably. There might be a yacht in the harbour called Fantasy, but that dream belongs to someone else.
In the real world, if F1 can be called that, it’s pretty rare to see teammates commit the cardinal sin of crashing into each other, particularly while fighting over the lead.
When it happens, one or the other could find himself out of the race. But both?
And yet that’s what we saw two weeks ago at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided shortly after the start, scratching Mercedes off the scoresheet and making it anyone’s race to win.
It marked the first time since the pair became teammates in 2013 that neither Silver Arrow made it to the checkered flag.
Instead, two Red Bulls battled with two Ferraris for top honours in a nail-biter that saw all four drivers fighting for the win till pretty much the last lap. As racing should be. In the end, both Ferrari drivers made it to the podium, but in second and third place, with Kimi Raikkonen finishing ahead of Sebastian Vettel.
The victory went to Max Verstappen, and it was historic in more ways than one.
It marked the Dutchman’s first career win in F1, and it came in his first race with Red Bull, after he moved over from sister team Toro Rosso in a swap with Daniil Kvyat.
Verstappen also became the youngest winner in F1 history, at 18, barely legal for drinking the victory champagne.
Let’s just say the good ship Fantasy docked in Barcelona that day.
And the win seemed to have given Red Bull wings.
Though there is no evidence Verstappen or teammate Daniel Ricciardo could have beaten the Mercedes pair, the Red Bulls were more than a fair match for Ferrari.
And now Red Bull believes it can overtake the Italian stable for best-of-the-rest honours and maybe even close the gap to Mercedes before all is said and done.
Why so bullish? The team tested an updated engine at trials in Barcelona after the Grand Prix, and results were sufficiently encouraging to move up the scheduled race debut to Monaco, instead of Montreal in two weeks.
“With what is in the pipeline for coming races, there is a lot of reason for optimism,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told reporters.
“If we get what is advertised and it’s going to put us in a position to at least race Ferraris every weekend, then hopefully we can start to close that gap down to Mercedes at certain circuits.”
Already Red Bull made an impression during practice in Monte Carlo — held Thursday instead of Friday to accommodate market day in the principality — where Ricciardo posted the fastest lap time, 0.606 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Meanwhile, debate continues over which driver is to blame for the Mercedes clash in Spain. Rosberg, in the leading car, was run into as he tried to close the door on the fast-charging Hamilton, who was attempting a bold pass on the inside of Turn 4.
The stewards ruled the accident “a racing incident” and neither driver was sanctioned. Clearly, though, Hamilton had more to lose, and should probably
have backed off.
Hamilton has no wins this season, while Rosberg has four out of five. Hamilton can ill afford to not finish races if he hopes to make up the 43-point gap to his teammate.
In Monaco, both drivers said they’ve left Spain behind, and though they want to avoid crashing into each other again, more wheel-to-wheel battles are inevitable.
“You have to assume there are going to be more,” Hamilton said.
The more, the merrier.