F1 Talk: What’s left for Mercedes to Prove after Sixth Consecutive Title

Six consecutive constructors’ world championship and the drivers’ title guaranteed – relief and jubilation for Mercedes as they have now won both championships with four races to spare.

It was a first win since Baku for Valtteri Bottas as Lewis Hamilton completed the podium after attempting an alternative strategy, which he ultimately backed down from. As thoughts in the team turn to the 2020 season and 2021 regulations, we must stop and ponder what is left for Mercedes to conquer. Japan was yet another example of the team proving they did not need to start at the front to win, with their biggest rivals having a weekend to forget in Japan.

Ferrari locked out the front row on Sunday morning (after qualifying was postponed due to typhoon Hagibis) with Sebastian Vettel pumping in a brilliant lap. Prior to Japan, Vettel had been outqualified by Charles Leclerc for nine consecutive races. The SF-90 and Vettel were arm in arm around the 3.6 miles circuit with the car planted beautifully.

Things unravelled immediately though as Vettel jumped the start but crucially did not go over his white line, meaning the sensor did not pick up the false start. It is similar to Valtteri Bottas in Austria 2017 in that regard.

Leclerc’s start was no better, as he possibly saw Vettel’s initial movements which caught him out. Bottas took advantage of the situation and swept by the two red cars on the run down to turn one.

Max Verstappen had a very good start too and tactically went around the outside at turn one and two to get into the cleaner air. But, Leclerc was to his inside and simply understeered into the Red Bull, causing damage to both cars and ending Honda’s best hope of a win on home soil.

Without doubt it was Leclerc’s fault and he received a five second penalty post-race for the incident. Why the stewards left it until after the race to make a decision, I have no idea because it was clear-cut to me and it’s not as if Leclerc was out of the race.

Looking at other similar incidents in recent years such as Kimi Raikkonen on Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone 2018, Vettel on Bottas in France 2018 and Verstappen on Daniel Ricciardo in Hungary 2017, they all received 10-second time penalties during the race. Strange stewarding yet again.

Red Bull and Verstappen will be immensely frustrated that any chance of a strong result was swept away after just two corners. All of the grid penalties and sacrifice of races was all for nothing. They can only hope for victory in Mexico as they swallow a bitter pill.

Leclerc had lots of damage to his front wing and bits started to fly off left, right and centre. It took far too long for the Monegasque driver to come into the pitlane with the Ferrari ‘telling the race director they were calling the car into the pits at the end of lap two.’ This did not happen.

If anyone still has doubts about why the halo is in place, Leclerc’s dismantling car which hit Hamilton’s car is proof of how the halo can save drivers’ from injuries. The debris could easily have gone into the crowd or into the path of a marshal with the cars travelling at nearly 200MPH.

It was ridiculous that Leclerc continued and even worse that Ferrari were not clear enough to tell Leclerc why they had to pit.

Back at the front and Bottas was extending his lead. Vettel pitted first, forcing Bottas to cover whilst Hamilton extended his first stint. Bottas was flying on the new medium tyres and had a 20 second gap to Hamilton after Hamilton pitted.

The race was all about whether Hamilton would try a one stop or a two stop strategy.

Bottas and Vettel were set for a two-stop race and Hamilton eased into his stint, not attacking hard too early but trimmed the gap to Bottas who was in the lead.

Vettel and Bottas came in for a second time with Bottas emerging around nine seconds behind his Mercedes teammate. Unlike the first stint, Bottas was unable to close the gap, with Hamilton somehow able to match the laptimes of the Finn. This was despite being on a harder compound, which had done 16 extra laps on a green track, which caused very high tyre degradation.

It would have been fascinating to see if Bottas would have been able to close down the gap to Hamilton and overtake him. Would Mercedes have told Hamilton to let Bottas by? I think so. Would Hamilton have obliged? I doubt it.

We were robbed of some tension for the lead battle when Mercedes decided to pit Hamilton for a second time and instead of getting a 1-2, the Silver Arrows ended up with a 1-3.

Hamilton could not find a way past Vettel even though he was in the slipstream down the back straight and had DRS down the home straight. Any other car on the grid, and Hamilton would have eased by.

It’s not like Hamilton was 0.8-0.9 behind either, he was within half a second at times yet still only gained one or two car lengths on Vettel. Vettel drove very well, focusing on getting good exits out of the hairpin, the spoon curve and the final chicane to keep Hamilton at bay.

Personally, I love those kind of heavyweight battles and it would have been ten times better had the championship still been on the line.

Bottas cruised home for a confidence boosting victory whilst Hamilton was clearly not happy with his strategy but kept his thoughts to himself. Ferrari could have won, had they been 1-2 after the opening lap and it was a massive shame to not have Verstappen in the mix.

Elsewhere, Alexander Albon was excellent as was Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo, who made a great recovery after a disappointing qualifying.

Renault are under investigation though, after Racing Point made a protest against the French manufacturer over a ‘pre-set distance dependent brake bias adjustment system’. In other words, a system that automatically changes the brake bias corner by corner which will dramatically help performance under braking.

The driver can change the brake bias anytime, anywhere, but it takes time to do it, time that you don’t have when you are averaging 140MPH and making thousands of decisions every lap anyway.

And a word in Pierre Gasly who is driving beautifully once again, and showing the same form we saw last year. For some reason, he finds the Toro Rosso easier to drive and understands the car better compared to the Red Bull but it’s brilliant to see him not be fazed by his poor showing earlier in the season and is bouncing back very strongly.

So, qualifying and the race was all done in two days. I would like to see this format at times in an F1 calendar, simply for variety.

Keep three day weekends for tracks which have good attendance on a Friday, such as Albert Park, Silverstone and Spa but two day weekends at places such as Bahrain, Sochi and Abu Dhabi would allow teams to get to the venue later which means more time at home and less time at the racetrack.

Anyway, that’s a thought for another article.