The championship contest Formula 1 is serving up in 2018 is often more exciting on paper than it is on the track.
In Canada three different cars occupied the top positions on the grid, separated by less than two-tenths of a second. When the chequered flag fell (prematurely) the race winner edged into a one-point championship lead.
Yet these fine margins are too seldom bring translating into on-track action. In Monaco this resulted in knee-jerk claims for the classic venue to be torn up in the name of creating more passing.But at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, a venue which has reliably produced excellent races in the past and leads the current venues in the race ratings produced by RaceFans readers, the lack of action seemed more mystifying.
With overtaking almost impossible, as long as nothing happened to disrupt the running order, Sebastian Vettel’s 0.09-second margin over Valtteri Bottas in qualifying proved decisive.
Strategic stalemate at the front
In that respect Canada reaffirmed what we saw in Baku: the Mercedes is no longer the quickest car on power tracks. Expect a full house at Monza, though we wait to see what Mercedes’ delayed power unit upgrade will bring.
Vettel was never likely to be beaten on the short, 362-metre run to turn one. Sure enough, he kept up the 100% record of pole sitters retaining their lead at the start of races this year. Valtteri Bottas took up the chase followed by Max Verstappen.
The latter looked like he was back to his 2017 best as he turned in his most convincing performance of the year so far. Verstappen headed all three practice sessions, came close to sticking his car on the front row in qualifying, and hounded Bottas around the opening turns.
Starting on the hyper-soft tyres, Verstappen needed to at least split the front-runners to be in with a shot of winning. It didn’t happen, and around nine laps in he began dropping back from Bottas at a rapid rate. That forced him into the pits as early as lap 15, which meant he had to take the hardest available tyres to get to the end of the race without pitting again. Once back on the track these proved slower than the front-runners’ worn ultra-soft tyres, and he slipped further out of contention.
This highlighted F1’s present dilemma. Why didn’t Red Bull stick Verstappen on a set of ultra-soft tyres so he could lap more quickly, then make a second stop for fresh hyper-softs to continue the attack later? Because in order to make that strategy work he’d have to overtake, and the performance advantage needed to make a pass work is too great to justify such a strategy.
The only way to make up places in a ‘conventional’ race is through strategy. Fortunately for Red Bull, they were able to do that with Verstappen’s team mate.
Power problems scupper Hamilton
The problem was diagnosed as overheating. Afterwards, team executive director Toto Wolff was emphatic that the team hadn’t made a mistake with setting its cooling levels, as had happened in Australia, but that something wasn’t working as intended.
The team chose to bring Hamilton in as early as possible in order to address the problem by opening up parts of the bodywork around his cockpit to aid cooling. This was done without significantly slowing his pit stop (he had the fourth-fastest complete stop of the race). This only alleviated Hamilton’s problem, however. He had to cope with occasion power dips until the end of the race.
That made life more difficult for Hamilton who now had to overtake Daniel Ricciardo, who jumped ahead by pitting one lap later than him and setting a rapid in-lap. Over the closing stages of the race Hamilton got close but just as he was poised to strike he locked up and ran wide at turn 10, where he’d also struggled in qualifying.
“I was pushing so hard,” said Hamilton. “If you could see the things I was saying to Daniel – not derogatory or anything like that – just ‘I’m chasing you’, those kind of things. Real aggression talk.
“Every now and then there was little bit of a chance, then a backmarker gets in the way, you get close, the car slides off the damn road…”
Despite still suffering problems from an engine which was on its seventh and final race, Hamilton pressed on until the end, never dropping out of Ricciardo’s DRS range. But there was to be no last-lap heroics from the Mercedes drivers. As it turned out that was probably for the best.
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Flag gaffe ends race
Nonetheless it meant proceedings officially came to an end on the 68th tour, though the leading drivers did complete the full 70. Bottas cut his fuel so fine he had to lift as he approached the finishing line, which allowed Verstappen to finish a tenth of a second behind him. Of course, had Verstappen slipped by, the flag error would have given Bottas his second place back.
Kimi Raikkonen was the last of the front-runner to pit and initially looked like he might use Ferrari’s power to give Hamilton a hard time. But then he slipped back out of range. He had a massive gap back to Nico Hulkenberg, yet Ferrari evidently decided it wasn’t worth pitting him for a fresh set of tyres and a late charge.
Hulkenberg arrived in seventh, ahead of his team mate, the two Renaults easily jumping Esteban Ocon when the Force India driver had a slow pit stop. Sergio Perez in the other Force India clipped Carlos Sainz Jnr while trying to pass, skidded off, and fell out of points contention.
Fernando Alonso took advantage of the delay Perez caused rejoining the track by passing the Force India and Kevin Magnussen. That put him on course for the points until a broken charger air cooler pipe caused a loss of boost pressure, putting him out. The final point therefore went to the increasingly impressive Charles Leclerc, who revelled in the Sauber’s straight-line speed which other drivers commented on enviously.
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Memories of Villeneuve
The home crowd at least got to enjoy a pre-race reminder of past glories. Jacques Villeneuve drove the Ferrari his father Gilles won the first edition of this race in 40 years ago.
It left an obvious impression on the race winner, who scored Ferrari’s first triumph at this track for 14 years. Afterwards Vettel spoke at length about Villeneuve’s legacy in Canada, and said his points gain in the championship was an incidental benefit alongside winning this race.
That was a sentiment that Villeneuve, who drove every one of his 67 races as if it was a title-decider, would surely have shared. Though he probably wouldn’t have thought much of what passed for a race at the circuit which now bears his name.
Hopefully at F1’s next race, the series’ return to France, the action on track lives up to the standard set by the utterly riveting championship fight.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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2018 Canadian Grand Prix
- Hamilton stays ahead but Bottas hits trouble in second practice
- False flags: F1’s three other chequered flag blunders
- 2018 Canadian Grand Prix Star Performers
- Top ten pictures from the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix
- Vettel evokes memories of Villeneuve by ending Ferrari’s wait for Canada win
F1 race reviews
- Verstappen springs Red Bull back to winning ways at unexpectedly warm Suzuka
- Sainz shows surgical precision as Verstappen’s hopes melt in Melbourne
- Virtually unbeatable Verstappen puts simracing aside to collect Jeddah win
- Amid accusations, Red Bull resume “business as usual” with crushing one-two
- Mission complete for Verstappen as Ferrari fall short of their final objective
marcelh
11th June 2018, 21:25
Still with the old engine, and with fuel restrictions i doubt Kimi could have made a late charge and over take Lewis.
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
11th June 2018, 22:35
The only thing this evoked memories of was Sebastian’s utterly boring dominance when he was at RB. Oh it was also reminiscent of Schumacher’s dominance along with a mediocre #2 in the other Ferrari.
Tom
12th June 2018, 4:38
Also the utterly boring dominance of Hamilton and Mercedes?
BasCB (@bascb)
12th June 2018, 16:21
More often than not Hamilton had Rosberg breathing down his neck though Tom. Not like Ferrari’s no2 who nobody in the team seems to care for enough to make sure he finishes in the best possible position (he could have certainly got out of the pits in front of Hamilton, maybe also Ricciardo if the team had pitted him at the right time and he would have been instructed to push in time.)
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
11th June 2018, 22:36
Surely Verstappen will change this when he claimed 2nd in qualy. By overtake or else.
Vettel fan 17 (@)
11th June 2018, 23:10
No mention about the fact it was his 50th win? I thought that would be a big talking point
Balue (@balue)
12th June 2018, 6:47
@vettelfan17 An historic feat obviously worthy of mention, but it’s just Vettel, see.
Komi
11th June 2018, 23:44
Why does boring Kimi get a free pass because teens think hes ‘cool’? Vettel needs a teammate who can keep him honest for everyones sake!
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 7:31
Well, this was one race where Kimi really seemed to be his 2017 self, his 2018 form has been far better even if the results don’t show it.
Chris (@chrisgalaz)
12th June 2018, 11:39
not even 2017, more like 2014….
iFelix (@ifelix)
12th June 2018, 11:40
Agreed
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
12th June 2018, 0:48
I think this weekend proved that Bottas is more comfortable with this Mercedes than Hamilton. Maybe he’s not able to fully exploit its advantages, but he’s certainly better at managing it when things don’t go as smoothyl. We only needed a certain pit straight to be swept a bit more carefully to see the Finn right there with Hamilton and Vettel on the championship. He was also unlucky at China.
And as he said, had Mercedes chosen more hypersofts here, pole could’ve been his. He was oh so close, a little bit more preparation would’ve come in handy… Hopefully he maintains this form.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 5:12
@fer-no65 – I agree about Bottas’ performance. While much has been said about Max’s bounce-back (including by me!), one must remember how Bottas’ mistake at Australia suddenly elevated Ricciardo to a possible contender for his seat in 2019 (again, this includes me). Bottas has quietly and impressively proven himself since then, and it does seem an easy decision for the Mercedes leadership to make to retain him.
In the other team, I do hope that Ferrari break with their tradition of having only experienced (read: older) drivers in both the race seats, and instead promote Leclerc in there for 2019. They can still use him as a #2 to Vettel if/when required, but it will give Leclerc a good place to grow his talent and take over the reins of the team from Vettel in some years’ time.
PT (@pt)
12th June 2018, 5:31
A sport where the best athlete doesn’t get the chance to use the best equipment is flawed. For his 300th race Alonso had to park up. I just wonder how things would have been if he was driving one of the top 6 cars. I know a lot of this is Alonso’s fault in decision making, but it’s still sad to see him struggle like this.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 5:53
Best driver? Quite likely, yes.
Best team player? Quite likely, no.
Which explains why Ferrari were happy to let him go out of contract, and also why Ferrari nor Mercedes quite unequivocally stated they were not interested in hiring him in recent years. @pt
I would love to see him driving a Mercedes or Ferrari. I wouldn’t want to be that team principal, though.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 9:06
@phylyp
Vettel’s superior ‘ Team Playing’ has barely elevated Ferrari higher than when Alonso was there with an inferior car.
Let’s be honest. Ferrari can’t handle 2 top tier drivers and Mercedes have admitted as much. Nothing to do with Alonso. Credit to Red Bull and McLaren who’ve been willing to risk it.
Massa and Raikonen would have been replaced well earlier in a team wanting the best driver line-up.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 10:04
@bigjoe – Vettel has his own past with Webber at Red Bull, which is why I didn’t offer any comparisons between Vettel and Alonso being team players. That said, Ferrari saw benefit in replacing Alonso with Vettel (alongside the same driver in the other car), which does say something.
Ferrari always seem to value the WDC more than the WCC, and that heavily influences their approach to driver pairings. And that is a shame, be it Alonso or Vettel seated in the car. It is even worse when they could have had a stab at the constructors last year, with a better driver.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t be too quick to credit Red Bull with a job well done in managing two top-tier drivers, because when they had a championship winning car, they couldn’t even properly manage the Vettel/Webber combination. Right now, they do have two top drivers, but in the absence of them challenging for the championship it becomes far easier to manage their drivers (remember how quickly Hamilton & Rosberg’s relationship deteriorated once they were seated in the 2014 car). If Red Bull’s current driver pairing were equipped with Mercedes cars, I’d expect to see far more toys outside the Red Bull pram, likely more on one side of the garage.
In the era of current drivers, when did McLaren really risk it with two top drivers? Hamilton made his debut in 2007 alongside Alonso, but that season hit the team really hard. And in later years it was Button in the other car, who was more a Rosberg/Webber/Massa-level talent than a Alonso/Hamilton/Vettel.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 10:58
@phylyp
Ron Dennis always believed in having the best 2 drivers in the team like he did with Senna and Prost, he was also very close on signing Schumacher to go with Hakkinnen.
Signing Alonso as ‘the best’ was obvious and his faith in Lewis (who Autosport described as ‘the first black F1 champion’ as early as late 1990s) and who everyone including Alonso knew was ‘hot’ talent, was justified in the end. After that, the best drivers came through Red Bull’s driver program, so difficult to see who else but Button they could have put alongside Lewis.
That was a very decent driver line-up, so it’s laughable all the blame Alonso gets when any of the teams he drove for didn’t achieve.
In the same style of how other fans speak of Alonso @flatsix Lewis and Jenson were utter failures and totally ruined McLaren and starting the downfall of a once great team.
I disagree. Contrary to what many so-called fans think, Max has been very mature for his age. At 17 he interviewed way older than his years. These kids don’t have normal childhoods, so the derogatory term ‘throwing toys’ is way out of order. The kids on the Kart track who threw the toys never made it for obvious reasons.
They experience pressure like avergae people will never encounter in their lives. Just the ups and downs of adrenaline is tiring mentally and it’s not easy going straight into interview rooms and ‘the pen’ straight out of the car and sadly this is wheer a lot of the headlines are made and where fan’s emotions get tweeked.
I think Riccairdo and Verstappen are a freak good pairing that have been managed well by Red Bull. Looking at the headlines, I’m personally not happy with the way they’ve treated Max, but pretty sure behind the scenes they are looking after and protecting him.
In the space of a week, Horner spoke in public from ‘Riccairdo being an ideal teacher to Max’ to ‘Max did this all on his own’ beating Riccairdo all weekend to the point Riccairdo copied Max’s settings.
Vettel showed exactly why the top tier drivers are known to be difficult to manage even though it’s usually only Alonso made the scapegoat in this era thanks to the witch hunt by Journalists.
Vettel went against team orders but was good enough for them to be able to take no action. Similar scenario at McLaren with Lewis. But again we already have Alonso as the ‘bad team player’ scape goat, so we don’t need to talk about Vettel or Hamilton especially when they get in the dominant cars and the journalist can mention ‘Fangio’ and ‘Senna’ when they reach similar landmarks.
FlatSix (@)
12th June 2018, 7:20
@pt, @balue
No.
1) I don’t think it’s a fact he’s the best athlete in the sport. Him saying so doesn’t make it fact either.
2) All the decisions regarding team movements were made by him, or his management. Ferrari did not boot him, he chose to go to McLaren knowing it was a risk. He thought it would become another Hamilton/Mercedes story. He ruined McLaren in 2007.
3) Being the best athlete in F1 requires much more than just being fast. Vettel and Hamilton dwarf Alonso on more than one aspect of being a good F1 driver, and I’m fairly sure that both today’s Vettel and Hamilton could wipe the floor with Alonso.
4) Robbed of what exactly? We have an unprecedented championship fight between two four time world champions in two of the best teams in the world of racing alongside with three other men capable of winning?
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 7:30
@flatsix – memory fails me, but did he have an option to stay at Ferrari once Vettel signed?
Such as? Is it something on-track, or off-track (like attitude, as I alluded to)?
Agree that a superlative like “best” is near-impossible to judge when it’s not a spec series, all people can judge is “one of the best”, also limited to era/generation.
FlatSix (@)
12th June 2018, 9:08
@phylyp I might be completely wrong here but I believe Ferrari had talks with Vettel because they also had talks with Alonso whom clearly stated he wanted to go, or that’s how I interpreted it all.
From SkySports
Attitudes is one, but also qualifying form for example, building a team (around oneself)…
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 9:22
@flatsix
The only credible argument against Alonso’s style (coming from people within F1 funnily enough) is that his ability to drive around problems and difficult cars makes it harder for engineers to develop the car.
To claim Alonso ‘builds the team” around him is ignorant to say the least. It’s also an insult to the engineer’s hard and busy working practices, development schedules and targets.
I suggest you learn a little how the teams work internally before claiming Alonso is doing any kind of ‘building’ there.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 9:46
@flatsix – ah, ok. I think we interpreted that differently 🙂, to me it felt like Alonso was trying to negotiate hard by waving a McLaren offer at Ferrari, but Ferrari ended up calling his bluff by signing Vettel instead.
To assess his qualifying form is a bit tricky, given the rubbish cars he’s had for quite a few years now! And he often ends up gaining places in the opening lap.
FlatSix (@)
12th June 2018, 9:50
@phylyp I believe had Alonso wanted to stay, he could’ve.
Alonso himself said he wasn’t the best of qualifiers in his most recent interview where he stated he was the best.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 10:05
@flatsix – thanks for that bit about the qualifying. And damn, it would have been fund to see Vettel and Alonso duking it out in the 2015 Ferrari.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 10:17
@flatsix
I was going to say in another reply to you that you seem to listen to too many headlines .
This proves it. There is context to every question a driver answers that makes it difficult to accept as a ‘statement’. I could list all drivers as hypocrites from their quotes that often differ. Such as Hamilton talking about his and Max’s ‘maturity’
You should perhaps listen to the question presented at Alonso to see how difficult that must have been. The journalists are Narcissistic people who have pretty much pre-written headlines with the actual question. You can study this with clever football managers, such as Jurgen Klopp and Roy Hodgson who tell the reporter their own headline to write when they receive the loaded question. IIRC Alonso has mentioned Senna in the past as being the best.
FlatSix (@)
12th June 2018, 10:46
@phylyp I think so yes, and I also believe both Hamilton and Vettel would beat Alonso simply because they are better qualifiers, and overtaking remains difficult in this formula, whether your name is Alonso, Senna or Max Chilton.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 11:09
@flatsix
Except every single season Lewis has had slump periods where he’s looked like he’s driving backwards. versus Alonso’s major strength being his almost inhuman relentlessness, never mind his highly lauded consistancy, week in week out over a long season, many times over.
Rosberg is the thorn in the side of Lewis’s qualifying record. It’s always an eye opener looking at the results as at the time so many people following F1 including most of the English speaking media wished Rosberg didn’t exist.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
12th June 2018, 18:07
@flatsix
on an irrelevant note 2 of those names might be more similar to each other than you intended :p
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 9:14
@flatsix
Give us as much or as little detail as you want please, to explain how McLaren improved when Alonso left or name a single driver who took over his seat who did better?
He beat both McLaren drivers in 2008 and outscored them both in the 2nd half of 2008 in a rubbish car. This was their last title, a lucky one at that.
Looking at McLaren’s performance after Alonso left, it would be more justified to claim Lewis was ruining McLaren all along. He threatened to leave twice in his first season (Monaco, Hungary).
Regards to spygate. No spying took place and Ferarri should have been punished for their employees behaviour as much as McLaren for theirs. This had nothing to do with Alonso.
Wayne
12th June 2018, 12:21
“No spying took place …”
ha ha
Joseph (@bigjoe)
14th June 2018, 18:56
They are spying all the time which is why it was ridiculous to call the McLaren-Ferrari affair ‘spygate’.
PT
12th June 2018, 20:33
@flatsix
If Ferrari still had Alonso onboard, he wouldn’t have behaved like Vettel did at Baku last year. And without that incident, Alonso would probably have won the title. Clearly your argument on Vettel “dwarfing” Alonso on aspects other than being a fast driver doesn’t stand. In fact Vettel threw away the title that was there for the taking last year. Alonso would never resort to such shenanigans on the track, and I’d say that makes him a more complete driver. And do you think Hamilton or Vettel would be able to keep up their motivation after years and years of driving under-performing cars? Hamilton has been well known for his out-of-form seasons at McLaren. But Alonso is relentless, and that’s proof that he is head and shoulders above these two even if you don’t consider the speed aspect. At 36 he’s still giving Vandoorne a hard fight, and the Belgian, with a proven junior racing record, is no slouch. Alonso is relentless, fast and has a stable head on his shoulders, making him unquestionably the best.
And, beside the point, he’s the only currently active F1 driver to have mastered the ovals, something which Senna himself shied away from.
SimRacer (@simracer)
13th June 2018, 6:00
Mercedes were a bit stronger last year, as well as more reliable. The Baku penalty wouldn’t have made a difference. Alonso also wouldn’t have beaten Hamilton.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
14th June 2018, 19:10
@simracer
Alonso has beeen beating Lewis since 2008 in inferior cars including 2 Ferarris nowhere near as good as the one Vettel had last year and this year.
SimRacer (@simracer)
14th June 2018, 23:03
@bigjoe Alonso did finish slightly ahead of Hamilton in 2010-2013, but that’s no guarantee of him winning in 2017. He couldn’t get the job done in 2 Ferraris as capable as the SF70-H.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
15th June 2018, 19:25
@simracer
This is just derogatory stuff now.
Alonso had a lot of bad luck, several single incidents that would have have won him the championship if any of them had gone the other way.
SimRacer (@simracer)
15th June 2018, 23:39
@bigjoe – And his rivals didn’t have bad luck and incidents that lost them points? Vettel and Hamilton certainly lost more points (often wins) through unreliability. If car failures count as bad luck, then that invalidates that last point. If car failures aren’t luck, but instead a flawed car, then giving up points like that indicate that the RB6 and RB8 (or MP4/27) weren’t “dominant”.
FlatSix (@)
13th June 2018, 8:47
@simracer And it’s assuming Alonso would’ve gotten every other result in every other race. It’s a mute discussion.
Big assumption. You wouldn’t know.
Yet one is a four time champion fighting for his fifth and the other one is at the bottom of his career where his results are more like his first season at Minardi thank anything else.
Yes, but no.
Relentless he says. Who says neither Vettel nor Hamilton are. If you really believe all of Alonso his hogwash in saying he’s having the best races of his life week in week out, you’re just naive.
At 36, doesn’t really matter. Schumacher could make it Nico Rosberg difficult too. Also, and it pains me to say, but despite his junior record Vandoorne has been disappointing. Meanwhile Vettel is killing Kimi and Hamilton had quite the measure over Bottas last year too, both at this moment in time better drivers than Vandoorne.
I think this would be an argument in who’s the best driver, not best F1 driver. So it is as you say beside the point, and incorrect I’d add too. How exactly did he master it,…
@pt So yeah. I think one could very much argue Alonso is the best, but it doesn’t take much work to say Vettel or Hamilton is.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
14th June 2018, 19:04
@pt @flatsix
Lewis has never beaten Alonso in an inferior car like Alonso did to him in 2008 and with Ferrari for 2 seasons. These periods are exactly the points in time ex-drivers and pundits were raving about Alonso and he was being voted driver of the season by team bosses.
I don’t recall Alonso having such dips in form as Lewis did in 2008 and is going through now. He just soldiers on. Lewis’ most convincing titles were all in utterly dominant cars. Alonso’s in seasons where other cars were quicker or dominant over 50% of the season. This is unprecidented.
SimRacer (@simracer)
14th June 2018, 23:16
@bigjoe – Hamilton was the 2008 World Champion, so Alonso didn’t beat him, unless you are referring to individual races.
And Alonso’s Renaults were fast in 2005 and 2006. The ’05 Mclaren kept suffering with unreliability, while the ’06 Ferrari was only quicker in the second half of the year. Alonso drove well, but the way he won his titles wasn’t “unprecedented”. In fact, 2008 and 2012 were seasons where Hamilton and Vettel won the title with cars that won only 33% and 35% of the races.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
15th June 2018, 19:31
@simracer
Yes Lewis was one of three drivers to have won the title in a non dominant car the whole season in recent decades. the others were Alonso twice and Button once.
If Alonso was as bad to teams as being claimed, then McLaren should have improved with him gone, but they never did. They got worse in the second half of 2008 and Alonso got better.
Lewis had a massive power advantage with the Mercedes engine at Singapore 2008 after the 2nd safety car wiped the slate clean, Alonso just left him for dust and outscored him for most of the 2nd half of the season. So who was really ‘toxic’ ?
SimRacer (@simracer)
15th June 2018, 23:47
@bigjoe – I’m not here to say whether Alonso is “toxic” or not. I’m saying that there are other drivers that have won in “non-dominant” cars, for instance Vettel in 2012, where Red Bull won only 7 out of 20 races. In 2013, they won 13 out of 19, including 9 in a row, now THAT is what you can call a “dominant” car.
Jorge Lardone (@jorge-lardone)
12th June 2018, 20:01
Alonso the best? No think so…
http://www.grandprix.com/news/no-top-team-wants-alonso-says-rosberg.html
PT
12th June 2018, 20:44
@jorge-lardone
Interesting to hear these words come from a man who did play his fair share of politics at Mercedes. No one’s free from politics. No driver just drives the car, tests it, does promo work and goes back home. They do look to influence the team in more ways than one – Senna himself did that, as did Prost, Piquet, Schumacher, Hamilton himself and many others. That didn’t make them “not the best”. You can’t have a human being made from a cookie cutter.
Joseph (@bigjoe)
14th June 2018, 19:15
The two top teams can’t handle any other top driver let alone Alonso. If Lewis was to leave Mercedes and they keep getting hammered by Vettel like they are now, they’d be begging Alonso to drive for them just like Ferrari did. Ferarri even offered him all of his race cars to keep to sweeten the deal. Very few drivers take Ferrari F1 cars home.
Balue (@balue)
12th June 2018, 6:55
@pt
So true. The sport is losing out and fans are frankly being robbed.
Still a vague hope Mateschitz will put him in a Red Bull if Ricciardo leaves. Not the soft drink young and happening type maybe, but just for the headlines and fun factor of the age gaps between him and Verstappen.
Azmo (@azmo)
12th June 2018, 10:32
This would be awesome, i’d think Alonso is up for it.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
12th June 2018, 12:33
@balue And maybe ALO will win a title if VES goes
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 9:27
@balue @pt
As fit as F1 drivers are, it’s very hard to refer to them as ‘athletes’ until they can all use the same speed running shoes.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
12th June 2018, 18:10
@bigjoe Do actual athletes use the same running shoes, or racquets, or golf club?
Joseph (@bigjoe)
12th June 2018, 20:19
@davidnotcoulthard
Yes if they want to.
PT
13th June 2018, 10:54
@bigjoe
I just meant “sportsmen”.
OllieJ (@olliej)
12th June 2018, 13:04
‘Ferrari evidently decided it wasn’t worth pitting [Raikkonen] for a fresh set of tyres and a late charge.’
On the Sky coverage one of the Ferrari engineers told Ted Kravitz they wouldn’t gamble on another pitstop because ‘things can always go wrong at pitstops’ (or words to that effect), suggesting that their mechanic having his leg broken earlier in the year has discouraged them from making this kind of call.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 14:36
@olliej – if (and that’s a big if) this is where Ferrari’s confidence is with regards to pit stops, I can only expect more problems in the pit for them. For their sake, I hope that’s not their line of thinking. Besides, the margin they had to the Hulk is something they’ll probably not see very often.
I think Red Bull have a very consistent pit crew, built up by a strong work ethic – despite the Monaco fumble that wrecked Ricciardo’s chances a few years ago (to give one example), they didn’t lose confidence, instead they sorted out their mistakes, and continue to confidently perform double-stacked stops when required. Ferrari should learn from them.
FlatSix (@)
12th June 2018, 15:12
@phylyp With the lack of overtaking taken place during the race, what could Kimi hoped for at best from stopping again?
Phylyp (@phylyp)
12th June 2018, 15:17
@flatsix – a tyre advantage might have helped chase down Hamilton, similar to what Ricciardo did (although in China RIC didn’t suffer as much a pit stop loss).
But that isn’t the point – the Ferrari pitwall have seemingly told Ted Kravitz they were afraid of things going wrong at a pitstop, not that pitting wasn’t expected to give a meaningful benefit. I would have been fine with the latter explanation (they have more data and better prediction tools than my seat of the pants guesses), but my comment was for the former.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
12th June 2018, 18:12
@flatsixa The field getting bunched up again (not impossible) or simply having enough pace to try to overtake HAM et al?