F1 Talk: Magical Max beats the Mighty Mercedes

Mercedes were toppled from the top step after an incredible performance from Max Verstappen to give Red Bull their first win at Silverstone since 2012.

Verstappen’s drive on Sunday was similar to his dominant wins in Malaysia and Mexico 2017.

It all came from qualifying when Verstappen was able to make it through Q2 on the hard tyre compound therefore starting on that tyre for the first stint of the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

Another crucial moment for Verstappen was to jump Nico Hulkenberg off the line. From there, he managed his tyres perfectly and was giving Mercedes a headache with his pace early on.

With Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on the medium tyres they pitted early to go onto fresh hard tyres.

This next part was how the race was won. Despite significantly older tyres Verstappen extended the gap to second place Bottas.

He emerged behind Bottas but quickly dispatched him. Red Bull knew that the hard tyre was the tyre to be on so only did a very short stint on the medium tyres to cover off any undercut threat from Mercedes.

Bottas was actually faring better than Hamilton in the middle of the grand prix but Mercedes opted to extend Hamilton’s middle stint. At one point Mercedes were thinking of trying a one stopper with Hamilton but the risk was too high.

Verstappen eased to victory and Mercedes were beaten which was a huge surprise. Silverstone has been one of their best tracks in recent years so for Red Bull to win there is significant.

Could Mercedes have won? There were to key errors for me. They should have used the hard tyre in Q2 so they could match Verstappen, why they chose not to was strange considering all of the data they have.

In the race, they pitted both cars too early. Hamilton and Bottas still had track position over Verstappen and Verstappen was never going to try to undercut them because to make his strategy work he had to go long.

Mercedes should have waited until Verstappen overtook Hamilton to then pit.

Even if this was just a few laps after they originally pitted, it would have forced Verstappen to use his tyres harder to overtake Hamilton and he would possibly not have had the pace to extend the gap to the Mercedes’.

Nevertheless, Red Bull had no blistering issues whereas Mercedes did and it was that which cost Mercedes the chance to retain their 100% record.

I feel Sunday was still a one-off for Mercedes with the increased tyre pressures hurting them most but if it is not and Verstappen and Red Bull have found something then the slim chances of a title fight might be back on.

Charles Leclerc was the star of the show once again as he got everything out of the Ferrari to get fourth, at one point fighting with Hamilton in the final stanza of the race.

Ferrari have definitely improved their aerodynamics and if only they had a stronger power unit, they would not be too bad but instead they are a midfield team for 2020.

In contrast Sebastian Vettel seems to be experiencing a living nightmare. His relationship with Ferrari in tatters and he is clearly fed up.

His spin was remarkable, in a bad way and the strategy he was given to pit early to get out of Leclerc’s way, presumably Ferrari not trusting that Vettel would listen to team orders, was the final nail in the coffin.

It’s sad and its a shame the four-time world champion’s reputation has diminished so much in recent years. Too many mistakes, not delivering enough and now any hope has turned into unable to cope.

There is talk that Mattia Binotto, Ferrari Team Principal, is at fault but I find that very harsh. Do not forget it was Vettel that was in support of Binotto stepping up to lead Ferrari.

Any talk of former Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene having a better relationship with Vettel is not really true. It did not get this bad but Vettel is only getting the same treatment which Kimi Raikkonen and Mark Webber had for years, a taste of his own medicine you may say.

Some may find that opinion harsh but Vettel needs to adapt to the car and at the moment the views of Vettel only being able to handle a car with a strong rear end are coming true.

Elsewhere Alexander Albon had a better race, proving his racecraft once again with phenomenal overtakes around the outside at Copse.

However, whilst his recovery drives are great he should not be having to make these comebacks again and again. Pierre Gasly qualified better than Albon has so far and up front we saw Mercedes split the strategy to try and cause problems for Verstappen.

Verstappen still won of course but had Albon been there then Mercedes would have had even more trouble. Albon had a car worthy of the podium in my opinion but he was still nowhere near and that is what disappoints me.

Perhaps my expectations are too high and Verstappen is just outstanding. He just needs to sort out qualifying, the problem is only once has he qualified within four tenths of Verstappen from the 14 races Albon has been at Red Bull. That is what’s worrying.

Renault and McLaren will be displeased that they lost out to Leclerc and Racing Point. Strategy and pitstop errors from both teams cost them dearly and gifted Racing Point some easy points.

As for the Pink Panthers, they collected 14 points so nearly turning around the 15 point penalty they received last week. I gave my views on that in another article.

Nico Hulkenberg was stellar. To qualify third was exceptional but to manage the race as well as he did was just as impressive.

He had a few practice sessions to get up to speed but compare this to Lance Stroll who has had four full race weekends plus winter testing to get used to the car is a massive difference yet Hulkenberg was the better driver at Silverstone.

For Stroll it is slightly embarrassing to get beat on pace (he only finished ahead because Hulkenberg had to pit late on due to a tyre vibration) and I can only think what Sergio Perez would have done in that car.

Racing Point have not extracted anywhere near the maximum out of the car in recent races and it might cost them if Ferrari, McLaren and Renault can find form.

Kimi Raikkonen had a strong race with great tyre management to make the one stop work and some nice racecraft too. His 15th place will go completely under the radar but it was his best race of the season so far for the 2007 champion.

Alfa Romeo are probably a tad slower than Williams at the moment so for Raikkonen to beat them was a fantastic result.

After two weekends at Silverstone, we have been served a variety of action. I enjoyed Sunday’s race as it was nice to see strategy and tyres come into play.

I’ll admit I don’t want to see this every weekend as seeing a car go at 70% through Copse and Maggots and Becketts is not nice.

Having a mix of tyre management races though is perfect so it was good to see with one stop races becoming the norm in Formula 1.

Spain is coming up this weekend, can Verstappen topple Mercedes again?