18th April 2019
Well, that was more like it.
He may have lost pole to Bottas on Saturday, but Hamilton certainly showed his team-mate that even when he is driving below his best, the Finnish driver is going to have to produce something special to outpace the champion.
Struggling all weekend with the balance of the Merc, Hamilton slowly fought throughout each session to get to grips with his car, and he so nearly got the pole too which would have been surprising considering the way he was struggling.
Bottas looked comfortable from the get-go in FP1 on Friday and I thought that pole was his to lose come qualifying hour; so for the Brit to get within a quarter of a tenth highlights just how well he is still driving and how hard he is working to improve.
Thankfully the strengths of Melbourne and Bahrain remained though with the car, as their downforce levels seem to still be a considerable amount better than Ferrari’s.
Turns seven, eight and nine looked particularly impressive as the quick-changes-of-direction suited the car perfectly. The car looks really agile and softly sprung, nothing like the ‘diva’ of 2017 or the way it did on the low speed tracks of 2018.
And more importantly it is looking as if Bahrain is looking like the outlier of the season so far, not Melbourne, as Ferrari once again seem to be lacking in certain areas.
Mercedes were just as impressive in the pit-lane as they were out on track.
Most controversially of course is this whole team-orders debate that has exploded in the media, with Leclerc having to suffer a disappointing race by sacrificing his position to Vettel.
This whole we favourite Seb in 50-50 scenarios is just making less and less sense. If they want Leclerc to be a number two, they could have just kept Kimi who they knew was happy to play that role as soon as it was needed.
Leclerc on Sunday had just as much pace as Vettel, and vice versa, so this desperation to get the German ahead was just unnecessary.
Mercedes were clearly too fast for the red cars this weekend, so even if Vettel was indeed fractionally quicker, he was never going to even catch Bottas, let alone pass him.
They hired Leclerc to win the constructors’ title – two effectively number one drivers like Mercedes was finally meant to be the winning piece for them.
But as history tells us, that’s not how the Scuderia like to work. I think it’s becoming obvious now that Vettel is the number one in the team regardless of Leclerc’s pace, so it means the only thing that the guy can do is to get ahead in qualifying.
He has still been out-qualified 2-1 by Vettel this year, so it’s not as if he is making him look average. Vettel clearly had car issues in Bahrain, because he was as quick as Leclerc in both Australia and at China.
All I can foresee is them taking points off of each other and giving them to people like Verstappen like they did again at the weekend. They have to be allowed to race until one of them is completely out of title contention – this competition may end up after all helping both of them as they have to now pursue Mercedes.
Leclerc finished a disappointing fifth in Shanghai. Photo: Artes Max
Further back, I’m still shocked that Pierre Gasly is performing as he is. The guy was really quick in all the junior formula and drove great last year and when he briefly went up against Carlos Sainz too in 2017.
His pace though at the moment is just absolutely nowhere. He’s miles off Verstappen in qualifying and likewise in the race too. The fact that he got the fastest lap too by barely a tenth with a lap to go highlights how much he needs to improve.
Everyone knows now ruthlesss Marko is when it comes to dropping Red Bull drivers, so at the moment he’ll be lucky to still be at the team by the summer break if he continues at this current level.
Someone who would indeed be favourite to replace Gasly should the situation arise, would have to be Alex Albon. The Toro Rosso man is driving superbly at the moment, again out-performing team-mate Kvyat, and his point on Sunday was so impressive that his crash during FP3 was almost forgotten.
This new young generation of stars that are on the grid this year are all settling into F1 with ease, and emphasises how bright the future of the sport is.
The likes of Norris, Albon, Leclerc and George Russell all look quick, composed and at times quicker than their more more-experienced team-mates, and this can only be good for the sport as the new talent begin to emerge.
Albon has made a good start to his F1 career. Photo: Nckfy
joeharbert 