F1 Talk: Bottas victorious in a race of attrition

After 217 days Formula 1 returned with a bang. A chaotic Grand Prix with nine retirements, three safety cars periods, chaos throughout the field and it resulted in a win for Valtteri Bottas.

Where do we start with this week’s F1 Talk?

Lets talk about Bottas. He was a match for teammate Lewis Hamilton throughout practice and managed to take his third pole position at the Red Bull Ring.

It was a weekend which rewarded the drivers and teams who made the least mistakes and Bottas did exactly this. In the race he did not quite have the pace or tyre management of Hamilton and I believe the first safety car saved Bottas somewhat.

Why? Hamilton was coming at Bottas quickly after Max Verstappen retired from the race and Bottas would almost certainly have pitted first, giving Hamilton the opportunity to stay out, pit later and therefore have a fresher set of tyres to attack Bottas at the end of the race.

We saw Hamilton got close to Bottas on numerous occasions when they were both on the hard tyre with both being urged to look after the car to prevent any damage to the gearbox.

Nevertheless, if Bottas can lead after the opening lap he can cause problems for Hamilton. The question is can he do this every weekend?

Ferrari, what do you say. Most people including myself thought that they would not be a match for Mercedes and Red Bull but who could have predicted this. Sebastian Vettel out in Q2, another spin and a car which was average at best.

Vettel was unable to adapt to the weaknesses of the Ferrari unlike Charles Leclerc, a sign that the German needs a car built to his needs to be able to perform.

On the other hand Leclerc was mighty. Aggressive, decisive, bold, picked his fights well to salvage a brilliant second place – reminiscent of a certain Fernando Alonso.

Just because Leclerc was on the podium though, Ferrari have to be expecting same pain this year.

Qualifying comparisons compared to last year

Racing Point -0.921

Williams -0.737

Renault -0.493

McLaren -0.473

Alpha Tauri -0.360

Mercedes -0.323

Red Bull +0.038

Haas +0.619

Ferrari +0.920

Alfa Romeo +1.119

The numbers above say a lot. All Ferrari powered cars have lost speed on a relatively power-sensitive track.

Whatever trickery was going on last year (and maybe even during 2018) has cost Ferrari a lot of speed. Leclerc and Vettel were around 15KPH slower in the speed traps.

Ferrari were good in the corners though so it looks like they have been building their 2020 car with last year’s power unit in mind.

That is why the car is draggy to compensate for better grip and speed in the corners. But now the FIA have told Ferrari to stop their engine tricks, they are suffering badly.

Worst of all, with the engine freeze and the budget cap Ferrari will find it very difficult to find performance with their power unit so it could be a nightmare 18 months for the team.

A team that have moved up the pecking order is Racing Point. Sergio Perez could have won the Grand Prix. How? The team decided to not pit Perez when the second safety car came out for the stranded George Russell.

With fresh soft tyres, Perez would have had similar pace to Alexander Albon who himself could have won had he not tangled with Hamilton at turn four. My thoughts on that incident can be found here.

In a way, Racing Point underperformed and a sixth place finish for Perez, a DNF for Lance Stroll was below par considering the pace they had. Of course, the good news it they can expect podiums this year.

Just eleven cars finished the Grand Prix with rookie Nicholas Latifi missing out on a points finish. Many expected the drivers to be rusty but it was the cars which had troubles in a true race of attrition.

It creates drama and the safety cars can cause havoc with strategy so its nice to see. We can expect to see a more normal race this weekend though as the teams will naturally improve and learn from their mistakes.

Red Bull will be the most disappointed team with a 1-2 very much possible. Instead, electronics issues left the team frustrated.

Had it been a normal race I think Red Bull would have challenged Mercedes because Max Verstappen was able to stay with Bottas despite being on a harder tyre. It looks like Red Bull are a match on race pace but still do not have it in qualifying.

With a Mercedes front row lockout, they will always be tough to beat and this will be the biggest problem for Red Bull every weekend because they know they will have to overtake the mighty Mercedes at some point.

Championship hopes over for Red Bull? Too early to say but they cannot afford anymore retirements in the next few races or else they are just handing lifelines to Mercedes.

More action is on the way this Sunday at the Red Bull Ring, same time same place and hopefully a similar amount of drama.