Lewis has plenty to prove
EVEN world champion Lewis Hamilton has something to prove as Formula One embarks on part two of its season-opening double header in Austria.
Hamilton will want to avoid his mistakes from qualifying and the race at what is officially known as the Styrian Grand Prix, a week after the Austrian GP on the same Red Bull Ring in which he had to settle for fourth.
That race saw both cars from home team Red Bull fail to finish and Ferrari far adrift in performance even though Charles Leclerc somehow managed to finish second behind Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas. And outgoing Ferrari man Sebastian Vettel will also want a faultless drive for once after another ill-fated incident last Sunday.
Hamilton had ruled all three practice sessions ahead of Bottas but the Finn then pipped him in qualifying and won from pole, untroubled by three safety car phases and all the mayhem behind him.
Hamilton will want to put a grid penalty for speeding under yellow flags in qualifying and a five-second penalty for an incident with Red Bull’s Alex Albon which cost him second place or better behind him.
But in order to achieve that Mercedes must also fix gearbox sensor problems that kept them on edge for at least half of Sunday’s race.
Mercedes have identified electrical noise as the reason which has affected other areas and motor sport chief Toto Wolff is upbeat that a fix can be found. “What I understand is that there are solutions that we can at least improve the situation. Austria is for sure stressing these parts on the car most in all of the season. So if we find a way around of protecting the car next weekend, we should be fine. I think we have ideas,” Wolff said.
Outperformed comprehensively, Ferrari face much more complicated fixes and have brought forward aerodynamics upgrades originally scheduled for the following race (July 19 in Hungary).
Leclerc qualified seventh and three safety cars and the retirements of Max Verstappen’s and Albon’s Red Bulls, plus Hamilton’s penalty, helped him onto the podium. Vettel qualified 11th and finished second-last 10th, after a too ambitious passing move on Carlos Sainz, the man to replace him at the Scuderia next year.
“It is an opportunity for me to do things better than last Sunday,” Vettel said. “We will have much more data with which we can work and I believe it will be useful what we have learnt from the first race.”
Ferrari said the upgrades won’t provide an instant turnaround but an envisioned “progress in terms of lap time could allow the team to move up the order and put the drivers in a better condition to be able to display their talent”.
Verstappen, winner of the previous two Spielberg races, and Albon rued missed podium opportunities because of the cars’ problems and wants to do better this time around.