F1 Talk: Hamilton hits back & McLaren’s massive problem

Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the French Grand Prix and was on top form to retake the championship lead after his main rival Sebastian Vettel made a clumsy error on the first lap. It’s the fourth time the lead has changed in the “Drive for Five” and with a 14 point lead, can Hamilton hold onto his advantage?

Vettel wasn’t punished harshly enough in my opinion. Verstappen in China got a 10 second time penalty for turning Vettel around and Vettel’s lock up which led him to hitting a completely innocent Valtteri Bottas should have at least matched Verstappen’s penalty from China. Personally, I would have gave Vettel a drive through penalty. The German made such a good start and if it was a circuit like the Circuit of the Americas or Mexico then he would have romped into the lead and it would have been a fantastic race with the two, 4-time world champions battling it out for a crucial win.

However, it was just a simple mistake. A loss of downforce from Hamilton in front and perhaps cold tyres and brakes all contributed to Vettel’s lock up. It’s something I’m surprised we don’t see more of because it’s so easy to do. It’s only Vettel’s second error which has had a big consequence. Baku with a few laps to go where he went for the lead but locked up and lost three places is the only other mistake so Vettel has probably dropped at least 25 points through his own faults whereas Hamilton hasn’t made any errors but has been slow compared to Bottas at some of the races. This is Lewis Hamilton we’re talking about though and he usually gets better and better as the year goes on.

With another four races in the next five weeks, Hamilton has built momentum by taking a relatively easy win, whereas Vettel will now have to recover over the next few races. It’s a massive difference because you don’t want to be playing catch up for too long. I talked last week about how Mercedes seem to make their upgrades work very well. In terms of development, they are much more efficient than Ferrari and their new engine called “Spec 2.1” looks to be working very well. Not only is it one race fresher than the Ferrari power unit but for the first time this year, Ferrari powered cars didn’t dominate the speed traps. Force India, Williams and Mercedes themselves were able to match the likes of Sauber and Haas. We know that the Mercedes power unit is very reliable and I expect this one to be no different.

Red Bull nearly maximised their potential last weekend. A good qualifying from Max Verstappen backed up with a solid drive in the race was as good as it could have got for the Dutchman. For Daniel Ricciardo, he was slower than Verstappen all weekend but he looked like he still could have got onto the podium, but for two winglets on his front wing that broke off. It was a surprise to see him drop away so quickly from Verstappen because there were times when Ricciardo was the quickest car in the field.

He had no chance of keeping Kimi Raikkonen behind him and you could tell that he was giving it everything to try and keep his position. A fourth place isn’t too bad though. Raikkonen has now been on the podium at 30 different tracks which is a new record but it’s qualifying were he is so poor and I would like to see someone else take his seat for 2019.

Esteban Ocon was very unlucky to first get shoved out of the way on the run down to turn one and then he got collected by Pierre Gasly after Gasly lost the rear of the car into turn four and speared into Ocon’s car. Ocon must have been in Grosjean’s blind spot because you cannot do what he did. He nearly caused a big collision if Ocon hadn’t swerved to the left quickly.

For Gasly, I saw his mistake in a similar way to how I saw Vettel’s, except Gasly caused not only himself to DNF but also his fellow compatriot. It’s Gasly’s first serious mistake and it will be interesting to see how he can pick himself up for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

France saw the return of Pirelli’s thinner tyre tread (0.4mm thinner compared to the normal tyres). The one and only time we’ve seen these tyres was in Spain were Mercedes dominated the weekend there. With tyres being such an important factor this year, I do wonder if it’s these thinner Pirelli tyres which give Mercedes excellent pace. The last time we will see these thin tyres will be at Silverstone.

This is just one reason why I’m very excited for this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix. We will see the true pace of the front runners and it will be very close because the laptimes will be just a handful of seconds away from being sub one minute. If Mercedes can execute a similar performance to what they did at Paul Ricard then they are the favourites. Ferrari were very good last year at the Red Bull Ring and were hundredths away from taking pole position and one lap away from stealing the win.

Red Bull, of course, are optimistic about heading to their home track and fighting for the win. It’s a power circuit but the middle sector will suit their car. Hamilton said this when asked about Red Bull’s chances in Spielberg:

“I think the Red Bulls have been particularly quick there in the past because it’s quite a good downforce circuit, so it’ll be interesting.”

Hopefully it will be interesting. There will be a third DRS zone added to the 4.3KM track. There’s the start/finish straight zone, followed by the new zone from turn 1 up to the uphill hairpin at “turn 2” (it’s called turn 3 on the track map but it’s really turn 2) and the previous DRS zone from turn 3-4. Pretty much half of the circuit will be a DRS zone! This does show how difficult it is to overtake and follow closely with these highly aerodynamic cars.

If this doesn’t create close racing with the current cars, then what will?

Lets talk about the midfield pack. It’s impossible to say the pecking order for the midfield pack. It won’t stop me from giving my view though…

• Renault
• Haas
• Force India
• Toro Rosso
• McLaren
• Sauber
• Williams

I’m sure many of you would change this order but it really is track specific as to who’s fastest.

It’s quite clear that Williams are the slowest team and there are some rumours that the Chief Technical Director, Paddy Lowe, will leave the team at some point this year if the car doesn’t improve. In a similar way to McLaren it’s unclear what is actually wrong with the car. To me, it must be its design and I believe that’s what’s wrong with both Williams and McLaren. In the past they’ve both dominated Formula One but now they’re getting lapped, unable to get out of Q1 and battling to not be last. How long will it take for them to get anywhere near the front?

To extend on McLaren, you do have to look at the management team and the financial implications of having dropped Honda last year. It does look like more and more that dropping Honda was the wrong move. But not just performance wise.

Financially, McLaren have lost $100 million a year and they have to pay Honda $20 million a season compensation until 2020. They also have to pay Renault $20million for their engine and if you go of the basis that McLaren had a budget of $170million last season then they will be losing $140million each year until 2020. This is staggering.

Honda is using that compensation to develop its own PU further so if/when Red Bull wins races next year, McLaren’s investors will watch those victories being taken with their own money. They will be punching themselves in the face next year.

Add the consequences of a late switch to a power unit that has only offered a small increase in power but required a large change in terms of packaging, being as different from the Honda in layout as any of the current power units are, then this is another major factor.

McLaren’s reputation is tarnished and the best thing that they have is a brilliant driver. But this is nowhere near enough to bring in big sponsors or a new manufacturer to make amends to what has been a poorly designed car that was meant to get better and better as the season progresses.

McLaren will have to restructure significantly anyway for 2021 given the new resource restrictions coming in so why restructure the team now if you’re going to do it in two years time anyway. They will have to suffer for the next two seasons. I believe that a Ron Dennis figure or Dennis himself is needed. There’s no clear leader. Zak Brown isn’t always at the races and he hasn’t had the experience of being in Formula One and the challenge of struggling badly in a sport which can beat you up at times. I’ve never been a fan of Eric Boullier and he doesn’t seem to know what’s going on as well.

McLaren fans were promised some success and a move away from the back. If anything, they have somehow gone backwards and the future isn’t bright. Don’t be surprised when you hear that Fernando Alonso leaves the team because if he is a true racer, he should forget the money he’s currently getting paid and do a season in Indycar. The last few years have been dark for McLaren and the future looks bleak.

Sauber must be praised after a horrible last few years with a year old Ferrari engine. Now they have the best engine that they can get and they’re looking very good. Charles Leclerc has impressed me a lot and for him to get into Q3 was phenomenal. If he matched his Q2 time, he would have been 7th.

Back in Spielberg, with Germany knocked out of the World Cup, maybe a few will make the trip over the border to get a taste of F1 2018 before the German Grand Prix next month. Expect lots of Dutch fans for Max Verstappen and expect some more drama in this unpredictable season. The last two Austrian Grand Prix have gone to the wire.

Last year, Vettel finished 0.6 behind Bottas whilst Hamilton challenged Ricciardo on the podium and in 2016, Rosberg and Hamilton collided on the last lap of the race for the lead with Hamilton coming out on top. That was the last time there was a pass for the lead on the last lap. Maybe don’t hope for that but hope that the competition is fierce and the front of the field is as tight as it has been all year.