I didn’t get to watch the qualifying live yesterday but was following the timings over formula1.com website and the mobile version isn’t that bad. I was earlier thinking of purchasing the access for a year but the data given by simply signing up is good enough unless you want sector by sector times, tyre, fuel etc. related data that will help you calculate rough strategies in your head.
I did watch qualifying today and knowing results beforehand made it a snooze fest but I wanted to hear what the commentators had to say when Bottas was ahead of Lewis for a while in Q2 and when the home hero aka Daniel binned it causing a red flag.
Let’s move on to the race.
The race was going to be boring considering the cars are now wider, the rear tyres are now wider to increase mechanical grip but the aerodynamic modifications made by the car again make it difficult for the cars to follow, the tyre compounds changed to make them last longer and the track is a street circuit so not only is it narrower and the dirty side of the track being really dirty. So overall what we had was a formula to a single stop bore fest race.
I don’t know why there was an abandoned start at the start. The Ferrari’s despite being on the dirty side of the track did well to hold on to their positions. I am sure Bottas was just biding his time considering his pace post pit stop but Kimi was horrible in both stints.
Hamilton vs Vettel
At the start of the race the left front of the Ferrari seemed to have a few blisters and I thought the Mercedes tyres must be in better shape but I guess that wasn’t the case. A cockpit camera view similar to that of Vettel for Lewis would have helped clear that doubt. Vettel did a fantastic first stint staying so close to Lewis and making him whine on the radio about the tyres which might have forced the Mercedes to take a gamble and pit Lewis hoping that Ferrari would follow to avoid the undercut. A brilliant strategy which was foiled by Ferrari’s usual reluctance to pit their drivers. It worked out this time because despite Lewis being fast post pit stop he got stuck behind Max and Max at this point I am sure started driving more defensively causing both cars to slow down from the target delta. Ferrari saw the opportunity open up and took it.
Though Max pit within a few laps Lewis’s tyres were past their best and the Ferrari did have the pace to pull away. Lewis did complain about the power being a bit unsteady later on when Bottas seemed to be catching him but Ferrari won this race on merit. Considering how fast Bottas was catching Lewis I am sure he was told to hold station.
Despite Ferrari winning I still wonder if Ferrari has what it takes to continue to win. I say that because Vettel managed to get ahead of Lewis because of a bad strategy call and Lewis couldn’t get past Max because of the nature of the track. The rebranded Renault engine in the back of that Red Bull is using 2016 ERS (Source: Commentary during the race.) so it is definitely lacking power and the Mercedes would have easily passed it on a normal track with a long straight. Considering this I think that may be things would have worked out differently on a different track.
The Others -
I can see why McLaren got rid of Kevin, he was nowhere near Romain in the qualifying and took himself out of the equation right at the start in the incident.
A Sauber and a Haas both running Ferrari engines had a blow out and I wonder if this is a cause for concern for cars using Ferrari power.
Daniel really needs to outshine Max this year and the start has been anything but ideal for him.
I was hoping Renault would be further up the grid considering they wrote off 2016 to focus on 2017 early on in 2016.
McLaren 3rd time in a row. Honda really are a mess. I think now that Brawn would have failed in 2009 with a Honda engine.
I don’t understand why Kvyat was made to pit when he was ahead of Sainz.
Stroll is a formula one troll and will soon join the ranks of Alex Yoong, Taki Inoue etc. (Most useless drivers in F1).