F1 Talk: How the Mercedes Result Didn’t Tell the Story of Silverstone

Another Mercedes 1-2, a huge margin from first to second – you would have thought it was a boring Grand Prix by looking at the results, the 2019 British GP was anything but.

Lewis Hamilton took a sixth, record-breaking victory in Britain to move one ahead of two legends in Alain Prost and Jim Clark.

His seventh win of the season extends his championship lead to 39 points over Valtteri Bottas. Hamilton was very impressive to deal with the added pressure that he has to deal with at Silverstone and he executed a commanding drive.

It was a great race, just as good as Austria a fortnight ago with the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers. Formula One at its best with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc the standout drivers with an all gloves off, titanic battle. Silverstone yet again proved why the new layout that was introduced in 2010 produces spectacular, exciting wheel to wheel racing.

Mercedes locked out the front row for the 64th time but only just. Leclerc was just 0.079 away from pole position as Bottas beat Hamilton by a mere 0.006, the closest qualifying session since Germany 2010.

Leclerc would likely have been on pole position if he did not mess up the final two corners on his first attempt in Q3. He was setting multiple mini purple sectors on that lap and did not do the same on his second attempt.

Verstappen had ‘turbo lag’ which he said cost him a shot at taking his maiden pole position. For Red Bull to be within 0.2 of Mercedes is very promising. Nobody was able to execute an exceptional lap and it was Bottas who made the least mistakes to silence the British crowd.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel was way off the pace and his gap to Leclerc was puzzling to say the least. He just struggled throughout qualifying and only improved by 0.1 from his FP3 time. The four-time world champion was losing time in every corner to Leclerc. Austria was obviously not Vettel’s fault in qualifying, it was a car issue. Nevertheless, it is three races in a row that Vettel has started outside the top five.

Bottas Proved His Stock in the Early Stages

The race got off to a steady start with the top four remaining in position. Vettel overtook Pierre Gasly off the line whilst Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris had a big and important initial scrap as they somehow went side by side through Copse and then Maggotts only for Norris to come out on top at Becketts. 

Then, the action ignited as Hamilton and Bottas battled hard in the early laps. Hamilton did get ahead out of Luffield but Bottas took the slipstream and bravely went up the inside of his teammate to reclaim the lead at Copse. Annoyingly, the TV director made an awful decision by showing a shot of the crowd right in the middle of the battle, in fact when the Mercedes were side by side at Luffield. A ridiculous choice.

Hamilton was more on the cautious side, clearly not wanting to do anything stupid to put both Mercedes out of the Grand Prix. All it took was one snatch of the brake, one snap in the rear at the wrong moment, a misjudgement but both Mercedes drivers raced wonderfully – clean and beautiful racing.

Antonio Giovinazzi’s spin caused a safety car and with Hamilton going longer on his first stint, he inherited the lead due to losing less time during his pitstop compared to if it were green flag racing conditions.

A safety car or a virtual safety car needed to be deployed. You can’t leave a car in the gravel with a tractor and marshals recovering it. The safety car was the right decision.

Safety Car Ruins Bottas’ Chances

Some said a VSC should have been used and that Hamilton got more of an advantage due to a SC being deployed instead. This is simply not the case. With a VSC, Hamilton would have come out in the lead with a six second advantage (approximately) and with a VSC the field would not be bunched up so he would have had a buffer.

Would Bottas have won without a SC or VSC? I don’t think so. 

Hamilton was clearly faster, hence why he was able to stay so close to Bottas – his pace also shown by setting the fastest lap of the race on old hard tyres despite Bottas having fresh soft tyres.

Also, Bottas was not able to bring the gap down by much after his first pitstop (only be around a second) whereas Hamilton could match his laptimes despite being on older tyres. Without the SC, Hamilton would have come out around two seconds behind but with fresh tyres and more pace he would likely have overtaken Bottas on the track.

Of course, it would not be guaranteed because they could have made contact etc. but it would have been highly likely as you can overtake at Silverstone. It also certainly would have made the race a classic, if it wasn’t already. 

Young Guns Get Physical

Before and after the safety car, Verstappen and Leclerc fought hard and it all felt a bit personal after what happened in Austria. Brilliant for F1 and it is a rivalry that will surely last for the next 10+ years. Some of it was right on the limit but with the stewards allowing Verstappen’s overtake on Leclerc to be legal in Austria, it was all fair and hard racing. 

There were a few times I shut my eyes when Leclerc and Verstappen were just millimetres away from each other at over 180MPH. Leclerc described it as:

“the most fun I have had in F1” – Charles Leclerc

And rightly so because I’m sure everyone watching the race enjoyed it too. Silverstone once again proved why the new track layout (introduced in 2010) produces great racing yet still remains a track that the drivers love.

The other Ferrari driver could not keep it quite as clean as Vettel made another mistake as he crashed into the back of the Red Bull of Verstappen. The incident itself was clearly Vettel’s fault and it all looked desperate as he tried to outfox Verstappen. Will this be another year, similar to 2014, when Vettel was beaten convincingly by Ricciardo.

Vettel’s race day mistakes in 2018 and 2019 so far:

• 2019 Britain – Crashed into Verstappen, lost a potential podium
• 2019 Canada – Lost the rear and cut the grass, a mistake regardless of whether a penalty was deserved or not
• 2019 Bahrain – Spun off after battle with Hamilton, lost a potential podium
• 2018 USA – Hit into Ricciardo and spun
• 2018 Japan – Collided with Verstappen and spun
• 2018 Italy – Collided into Hamilton and spun
• 2018 Germany – Crashed out of the race while leading
• 2018 Paul Ricard – Crashed into Bottas on the first lap
• 2018 Azerbaijan – Locked up going into turn 1 and lost the lead

What is going on I wonder? He is not driving like the champion he is and as discussed in the latest Driver Ratings, it must only be pressure or something more personal. It’s not just the mistakes but he has not qualified as well compared to other years this season too and Leclerc is beginning to outclass him, something many thought would happen.

In the midfield, Toro Rosso had a stronger weekend; Daniil Kvyat collecting two points in what remains a tight battle in the championship for positions 6th-9th. Renault and McLaren have broken away from the other teams slightly but the advantage is still not significant.

Some drivers including Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo and Alexander Albon lost out due to the safety car which allowed Carlos Sainz and Kimi Raikkonen to take crucial championship points.

Meanwhile, Haas continue to find trouble on and off the track. Kevin Magnussen was knocked out in Q1 for the first time since Mexico 2018 and then ‘K-Mag’ and Romain Grosjean collided going onto the Wellington Straight. It was unusual because the impact was not huge yet both cars retired. Compare it to Vettel and Verstappen colliding, it was nothing so it just shows the strength of the Red Bull. 

The Rich Energy saga must be affecting the team as they clearly have decent qualifying pace but just go backwards on Sundays. 

Speaking of the saga, Tuesday’s latest development has seen Director William Storey terminated from his position in Rich Energy, after a Companies House document was leaked by Formula Money. The document also confirms that Matthew Kell is now the controlling shareholder of the renamed ‘Lightning Volt’. It is unknown how this will affect Haas.

Finally, some praise for Pirelli. I have been highly critical of Pirelli over the last few years but the tyres were very good throughout the weekend with not too much tyre wear but enough to force the teams into a two-stop race and the drivers could still push pretty hard, as shown with the Ferrari and Red Bull battle.

After two brilliant races, we can only hope for more. Germany has a lot to live up to but after the drama with Vettel crashing out of the lead last year, anything can happen in F1 – even when the sport was apparently in ‘crisis’ just a few weeks ago.

The championship may be over due the advantage Mercedes have built but if we can have the excitement we have had in Britain and Austria for the rest of the year, then I won’t care because wheel to wheel racing at the front is uncommon in Formula One and seeing the drivers fight so hard when in battle is what we all want to see.