F1 Talk: Mercedes in a League of their Own

Mercedes recorded a 5th consecutive 1-2 as Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory to take the championship lead. Valtteri Bottas was unable to challenge the 5-time world champion but Mercedes were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, with plenty of speed in hand too.

Hamilton leads Bottas by just seven points in the drivers’ championship after taking the full 26 points (the win and the fastest lap). It now looks set to be Hamilton vs. Bottas championship fight with Ferrari and Red Bull simply not having the speed of the Silver Arrows and lacking in nearly every department compared to the mighty Mercedes.

Bottas had one of his best qualifying sessions of his career, taking pole position by 0.6 from Hamilton. His lap was immaculate, nailing the apexes and using all of the track, carrying an incredible amount of speed into the Circuit-de-Catalunya’s high speed corners.

Rather worryingly, despite Hamilton not putting in anywhere near a good lap, he still managed to put his car on the front row of the grid. Ferrari were losing over half a second in the third sector alone which does not bode well at all for Monaco as the final sector in Barcelona is all about traction, pure downforce and a car which can ride the kerbs well. Ferrari is losing a lot in those areas to Mercedes and to me it is just a lack of mechanical grp compared to the Mercedes which is letting Ferrari down.

The Ferrari looks very easy to drive, with good rear stability – but that lazy understeer is suffers is proving costly. Meanwhile, the Mercedes is very lively and wild with Bottas and Hamilton having to work pretty hard to keep the car going forward. But, it just generates speed from nowhere and the forward momentum of the car is a key aspect to the Mercedes W10.

Bottas blamed his average start on the clutch, but from his onboard is just sounded like genuine wheelspin. It is the third race in a row, Hamilton has had the better launch over Bottas and with the long run down to turn one in Spain, Hamilton put himself in a prime position immediately.

Sebastian Vettel used the slipstream to give himself a small chance of taking the lead but was forced to go to the outside. He did have the option of trying the inside, but I am pretty sure Hamilton would have shut the door. But, you never know. In 2011, Fernando Alonso went from 4th to 1st going into turn one, by taking the inside.

Vettel braked as late as he could but locked up his front right tyre, going deep and causing a big flatspot on his car which severely hampered his first stint. I am glad Vettel chose the attacking option because if it paid off he would have looked like a hero. He also knew that, that was his best chance of getting ahead of the Mercedes. It did not work out and worse still, Max Verstappen went around the outside of him going through turn three – a classic Barcelona opening lap move.

With Vettel trapped on the inside, and in the dirty air of Bottas in front of him, Verstappen went for the outside line (thus his car was not getting as much dirty air) and was able to swing around the outside carrying more speed than Vettel through and out of the corner.

Vettel then came under pressure from teammate Charles Leclerc because he had no pace due to the big flatspot on his tyre. They were holding each other up and it took Ferrari a little bit too long to make the decision to tell Vettel to move over. Eventually, they did and Vettel let Leclerc past.

Later in the race, with the two drivers in different strategies, they swapped again – this time Leclerc letting Vettel go by. In the end, it does not really matter. They may have possibly lost a podium due to how long it took to make the team order each time but what is more concerning is the pace deficit to Mercedes.

It now looks like the Ferrari aerodynamic concept is flawed and very restrictive for development. This is something McLaren suffered dearly from last year. The amazing Ferrari straight line speed might not be down to the power unit, but rather the aerodynamics. The Ferrari looks much more simple compared to the Mercedes and it is possible they have traded speed in a straight line for less downforce.

Is 2019 a write-off for Ferrari? I think so. They will get destroyed at slow speed circuits such as Monaco coming up or Hungary and Singapore. If it is Ferrari’s car philosophy that is wrong then their pace deficit to Mercedes will only get bigger and bigger as they will be unable to develop the car as much as they want.

As of now, I would put my money on Max Verstappen beating both of the Ferrari’s in the championship. He has maximised every single race this year, beating at least one of the Ferrari drivers at each event when the Red Bull should really only be finishing 5th at best; the young Dutchman is driving superbly.

I felt as if Verstappen was disheartened after the race because he realised the Mercedes are too far away. Despite him getting on the podium, inside his heart he knows a shot at the title will have to wait another 12 months. Its a massive shame for the sport that we are being robbed of a Verstappen vs. Hamilton season-long battle.

In the midfield, there was a little bit of decent racing but overtaking is just so tough at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Daniil Kvyat pulled off a few good moves as did Carlos Sainz. Toro Rosso have got really good pace, coupled with a good driver line-up and the team could be the surprise package in 2019.

The big moment was when the Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean raced each other very hard for a few laps with Grosjean really struggling on the restart. Team principle, Gunther Steiner, must have been going crazy to say the least. Grosjean cut the turn 1/2 chicane 3 or 4 times against various drivers – going around the bollard and rejoining the track, not losing any time or any positions.

Grosjean managed to get a solitary point (his first of the season) but it could have been much more for Haas. The good news for them is that they have been able to convert their qualifying pace into good race pace.

Conversely, Alfa Romeo have taken a step backwards with Kimi Raikkonen not scoring any points for the first time this year. Spain could be an anomaly but whilst I think the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is not good for racing, it does tell a lot about how good a car is over a season. That’s why F1 goes testing there, because it tests every aspect of a car. Alfa Romeo may be the first midfield team to put themselves out of contention for the best of the rest team.

In Monaco, Mercedes will be looking to make yet more history – six consecutive 1-2 finishes. No team has ever done it in F1’s 69 year history but it looks very possible. They will need another perfect weekend, with a bit more emphasis on the drivers to keep it out of the walls but with the perfect start to the season they have had, is very much on.