SUNDAY’S rain-affected German Grand Prix reminded us that, even at the top of Formula 1, everyone is human and even great drivers and teams make mistakes. Ultimately, Max Verstappen made fewer mistakes than most, recovering from a 360 degree spin to win his second Grand Prix in three races, while all around him there was chaos.
On a weekend when Mercedes was celebrating its 200th Grand Prix and 125 years of its involvement in motorsport, F1’s dominant team made a series of poor decisions. I won both my World Championships using Mercedes engines, including a win in the German Grand Prix back in 1998, so I know how much a home race means to them. Their disappointment at Sunday’s result was clear to see.
For the first part of the race, until lap 26, everyone was going smoothly for Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, but the decision to move on to slick tyres on a drying track proved disastrous.Mainly because the rain had started falling more heavily again.
Rain is a great leveller – even the most sophisticated strategy software and experienced engineers struggle to cope with fast-changing conditions, driver errors and fluctuating lap times.
We could already see that the conditions were causing major problems, because Charles Leclerc, who had been running in second position, crashed his Ferrari on his first lap on dry tyres.
I can imagine Charles’s frustration. I experienced that during my career, such as in Belgium in 2000, when I spun off while leading the race and had to battle back to get the win. For Charles, there was no recovery, however, his Ferrari stuck under a collapsed Mercedes Benz advertising board.
It is not often that we see Lewis Hamilton crash, but in these conditions, you cannot really blame the driver. Sooner or later a 1000bhp Formula 1 car on the wrong tyres, in the wet, is going to crash!
His accident was small, but the result was huge, because he had to use the incorrect route to return to the pits – resulting in a five second penalty – and the Mercedes team was not ready for him. Changing that front wing, and finding the right tyres, cost over one minute. From then on, the German Grand Prix looked completely different.
Lewis’s problems should have given Valtteri an opportunity to score a lot of World Championship points, but he too was caught out by the conditions when he lost the back of the car at Turn 1. He was very disappointed with that outcome, especially when the subsequent disqualification of both Alfa Romeos meant that Lewis was classified 9th and extended his Championship lead.
It also sums up the race when you consider that Valtteri was chasing Lance Stroll’s Racing Point for 3rd place when he suffered his crash. Stroll, who had been in last opposition on lap 28, benefitted from changing on to dry tyres on lap 41 and was in fact leading the race at the start of lap 48 – an extraordinary example of just how fast the conditions were changing for everyone.
Bet on the Hungarian Grand Prix
In many ways, it was great to see Sebastian Vettel finish 2nd for Ferrari, particularly when you consider he started in last place following a technical problem in qualifying for his home race. Sebastian has endured some difficult times recently, but in Sunday’s race he really showed his skill and maturity to make a strong start, survive the conditions and overtake Carlos Sainz, Stroll and Daniil Kvyat in the last five laps of the race. I was not surprised to see him smile. I think he enjoyed himself.
Kvyat’s podium finish for Toro deserves a mention for two reasons. First of all, the Russian driver is effectively enjoying a second career in Formula 1, after initially being dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2017, and he has repaid the faith being shown in him. The second, is that his Toro Rosso is powered by Honda, and this gave Honda two drivers on the podium. The Japanese manufacturer has really made a lot of progress this year, and you could really see how delighted their management was at these results.
Going into Hungary next weekend, therefore, I think Red Bull Honda will be in strong shape on a track which typically places the emphasis on chassis rather than engine. Red Bull’s chassis should work well around the twists of the Hungaroring, but with a decent Honda engine now supporting them, I expect a very strong three-way battle between Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
With Lewis and Valtteri pushing to re-established their dominance, Verstappen chasing a third victory and Ferrari still looking for a break-through race, it should be fantastic.
