Bottas seems to be on a roll but can he take the fight to Hamilton this year?
THE FIRST GRAND PRIX OF THE YEAR always comes with a great sense of excitement and anticipation. But to be honest, this weekend was a really weird one in terms of the emotions across the paddock and I actually now get on the plane to head home feeling absolutely exhausted.
We arrived at the circuit on Thursday to hear the shocking news of Charlie Whiting’s passing. Charlie leaves a huge void in the sport, not just in Formula 1. He was one of those people that fans in the grandstand wouldn’t have really known but not a single person in the paddock didn’t know him. He was the man drivers would talk to about changes to the track or behaviour of their rivals. The team managers would talk to him about issues with sporting rules and he was the first port of call for technical directors for clarifications. His work went way beyond F1 within the FIA where he worked on various commissions for the betterment of the sport.
On track, qualifying proved to be a bit of an anticlimactic punch after such high expectations of Ferrari and Red Bull from preseason testing. Obviously, there were several people out in the social media world who were quick to hurl abuse and mockery at our pre-season testing analysis which clearly had Ferrari in front, but that was true from what we saw there. Ferrari did look to have the fastest car in Barcelona and that was the opinion of not just people like me watching from the outside, but also people within the paddock itself - including Mercedes!
The reigning World Champion squad looked quite surprised at the pace of their rivals in Qualifying. I got the impression that they ended up achieving the speed and lap times that they expected to achieve but it was Ferrari and Red Bull who under-performed on their pre-season expectations. It’s worth considering that the gap from Mercedes to Haas, the leaders of the midfield, looked normal, whereas the seven-tenths gap to Vettel was totally unexpected, although similar to last year.
Speaking to some key technical and aero people in the paddock, the feeling seemed to be that both Ferrari and Red Bull were struggling to get their cars into the right set up window in terms of stable aerodynamic performance as well as not getting the tyres to work in the right window. Albert Park is a unique circuit which has some odd cambers in the road as well and bumps which means that the cars can’t run at their optimal ride height. It seems like
Mercedes were able to dial their car into the circuit much better than their rivals. Red Bull looked to be in big trouble with balance and grip and it took for all of Max’s brilliance to drag a lap out of it in Q3 and get on the second row of the grid.
I was really impressed with Valtteri Bottas this weekend. It can’t be easy seeing Esteban Ocon literally sitting in the Mercedes garage next to their boss Toto Wolff, watching for every single fumble that Valtteri may make. Bottas has come off the winter break fighting but went under the radar all through free practice, sitting a couple tenths behind Lewis who topped every practice session. He made a real statement with his first lap in Q3 however and it made Lewis dig deep into his reserves of special talent and speed to sneak in front by a tenth at the end.
On Sunday, once the Finn got in front on the rundown to turn one, he was utterly brilliant. Yes, Mercedes found some damage on Lewis’ floor and at the moment they’re unsure when that occurred. Either way, in that opening stint when it’s pretty safe to assume Lewis’ car was in good shape, his team mate broke out in front and looked to be in complete command. Even without the floor damage, I very much doubt that Lewis would have overtaken Valtteri although he probably wouldn’t have been beaten by over twenty seconds. I’m very pleased for Valtteri – he’s had a very tough 2018 and it’s fantastic to see a driver bounce back from a tough period with such tenacity.
Ferrari were the big losers of the weekend. Vettel had no answer to the Mercedes pace early on and later in the race, his pace completely dropped away with some sort of problem which neither he nor the team had an immediate answer for. Leclerc had a scrappy first race weekend for Ferrari but his race pace too was disappointing – Bottas managed to pull a gap big enough to come out six seconds in front even after his pitstop. There will be a big investigation at Ferrari after that thrashing, and being beaten to a podium by a Red Bull Honda would have only added salt to the wounds.
I’m fascinated to see if this form carries on in Bahrain. Don’t forget last year that Lewis took pole by seven-tenths and should have easily won the race in Australia, but the Ferraris locked out the front row in Bahrain next time out. I don’t think it’s time to panic yet at Ferrari but if Mercedes come away from Bahrain and China still with the fastest car, then the alarm bells will be well and truly ringing at Maranello. ⌧
The world wants to see a hard fought battle for the championship. I think we’ll have that this year