F1 Talk: Mighty Mercedes and midfield mayhem in Styria

Formula 1 says goodbye to the Red Bull Ring after a fascinating two weekends in Austria.

Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix may not have had the thrills and spills of the Austrian GP but it showed who had the pace and why Mercedes are set to retain their drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

Lewis Hamilton added to his record pole position tally and is now just six behind Michael Schumacher on the all-time winner’s list.

It was one of the most exciting qualifying sessions for a while. Race director Michael Masi made the right decisions on Saturday. To cancel FP3 and to start qualifying when he did.

Apart from Antonio Giovinazzi glancing the wall at the final corner, everyone else avoided the barriers and the skill and bravery on display from all the drivers was as good as it gets.

Hamilton’s pole position lap was outstanding. He is arguably the best driver in the rain that Formula 1 has ever seen.

To be 1.4 seconds ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas over 80 seconds is extraordinary. The way Hamilton can feel the grip and squeeze the throttle without going over the limit is quite something.

He said himself that his lap was as close as to perfection as he could have got.

Even with Max Verstappen on the front row, it was a relatively comfortable win for Hamilton who seemed to have engine modes and tyres to spare.

If Hamilton leads after lap one, he is almost impossible to beat nowadays. And this is what caught my attention.

In the opening grand prix, Bottas was leading the way but Hamilton was pushing him and without the safety cars, Hamilton may have won the race given he would be on a different strategy and have fresher tyres than Bottas.

Bottas was in the same position as Hamilton was but he did not threaten Hamilton at all. It took the Finn most of the race to catch and overtake Verstappen.

Essentially, when Bottas is behind Hamilton he really struggles to mount a challenge and this is his biggest problem.

It is all down to raw race pace. Bottas needs track position to beat Hamilton whereas Hamilton can win from behind. This is the key difference.

Verstappen got everything out of the car and you could tell after and even during the race, he knew deep down that there was nothing he could do to beat the might Mercedes.

2020 is Verstappen’s last chance to become the youngest world champion and it looks like he will not be able to do it.

Think about this, the cars this year will be used next year too so it could be until 2022 when Verstappen becomes world champion. By that time, the Dutchman will be entering his eighth season which is just incredible.

Frustration must be reaching boiling point for Verstappen because he had the chance to go to Mercedes a few years ago but turned it down.

Behind the front three, the battle was on.

Alexander Albon held onto fourth but you can’t help but feel he was too far off the pace. On heavy fuel, Albon seems to struggle but on lower fuel he is doing a good job.

Sergio Perez was flying through the field following a disappointing qualifying. He couldn’t quite get by Albon but broke his front wing on the final lap, costing Racing Point more valuable points.

Lance Stroll struggled to overtake Daniel Ricciardo but went from a late lunge at turn three. He overtook the Australian but went off the track and took Ricciardo with him.

Somehow he didn’t get a penalty so we can expect everyone to run their rivals off the track now to complete an overtake. Enough said.

That move allowed Lando Norris to take advantage and steal a fifth place. Carlos Sainz’s race was compromised with a very slow pitstop but Norris was there to make up for it with another brilliant final two laps.

Norris has been very impressive this year and has moved up a level from his rookie season. This kind of form is what we wanted to see this season and so far he has delivered, best of all McLaren have got a car which might be able to snatch a few more podiums in 2020.

And there is Ferrari. It cannot get any worse. The biggest most famous team on the grid is in the doldrums.

As mentioned in the latest Driver Ratings, Charles Leclerc was clearly at fault. For me, he deserved a few penalty points on his licence.

If Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc were still in the Grand Prix, they may have been lapped which would have been equally embarrassing.

We will all have to get used to Ferrari battling in the lower points positions and it could be this way for at least 18 months.

Lets finish with Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas has agreed a new deal for 2021 with Lewis Hamilton expected to follow suit.

It’s the perfect line-up for Mercedes. They have one of the best drivers of all-time and someone who can pick up wins and pole positions when Hamilton is not quite on it. Why change when this partnership has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon?

How can the dream team be stopped in their tracks?