After Race 8: Austria

After a decade away, F1 returned to Austria at the renamed Red Bull Ring. Fresh off their first non-winning race, Mercedes also saw their 100% pole position record disappear. Alarms won’t be ringing just yet, however, as they returned to their customary 1-2 on Sunday. However, social media was rife post-race with speculation that the team are sabotaging Lewis Hamilton’s season with mechanical difficulties and slow pit-stops. These are extremely comical accusations – I was sceptical at whether it was even worth bothering to address these wild conspiracy theories. Hamilton had pole position for the taking on Saturday but he made a mistake. Granted, his pit-stops were slower on Sunday but to say that that was deliberate is a huge insult to the hard-working Mercedes mechanics.

What can’t be argued is that Rosberg has been luckier with reliability. The only thing I hope is that the championship is not decided by someone taking advantage of the absurd double points rule at Abu Dhabi. Hopefully, one driver will be 51pts clear or, preferably, they’ll be tied. It is likely that Rosberg will hit terminal technical problems at some point – but no guarantee, as we saw with Vettel in the second half of last season and with Schumi in 2002. On we go…

Merc scored their sixth 1-2 finish of the season
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook)

1. Nico Rosberg (up one spot)

Has the pendulum finally swung in Rosberg’s favour? It seems a strange thing to say given that Nico has led the championship after every race bar one but there seemed to be a feeling that if Lewis had a trouble-free weekend, he would win the race. Well, at the revamped Red Bull Ring, Hamilton was the master of his own downfall as he ran wide at Turn 8 on his first lap in Q3 and handed Rosberg the initiative. The German duly delivered and led home a Mercedes 1-2, as the team out-duelled Williams on raceday, extending his lead in the title race beyond 25 points.

2. Daniel Ricciardo (down one spot)

Firstly, congratulations to Dietrich Mateschitz and Red Bull for hosting a hugely entertaining event; packed with Austrian legends (and Chris Klien & Patrick Friesacher) on track in classic cars, a stunning air show, and lots of lederhosen and dirndls! As I’ve said before, it’s no exaggeration to say that Red Bull saved F1 in the mid-2000s with its continued sponsorship and expansion in multi-team ownership and its junior program. Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for the Red Bull family. Ricciardo (who again outqualified Vettel) was the only finisher in 8^th, a position he stole from Nico Hülkenberg with a fine move around the outside of Turn 5 on the final lap.

 

Red Bull's entertainment was far more successful than their actual race performace
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

3. Lewis Hamilton (no change)

The most high-profile casualty of the stewards’ new hard approach to enforcing track limits, Hamilton, saw his winless run extend into a third race. He’ll look for a home boost at Silverstone although it was Rosberg who took the checkered flag twelve months ago after Hamilton suffered an early puncture.

4. Daniil Kvyat (no change)

Ultimately, it was Williams who stole the headlines in qualifying but Daniil Kvyat put in a scorching run to take P7. He was running solidly in points-scoring contention when a suspension failure saw him head spectacularly into the gravel and into retirement. He also provided us with one of the highlights of the season – a terrific move on Pérez around the outside of T5 on the opening lap.

5. Sergio Pérez (up three spots)

This might be a bit of a controversial selection, especially as Hülkenberg has been Mr. Consistency this year; scoring points at every race. However, closer inspection shows that Checo has outperformed his team-mate in the last four races and put in another superb drive on Sunday to overcome his ridiculous penalty from Canada – something which he achieved on the opening lap. Like Canada, he perfectly optimized the alternate tyre strategy to race amongst the leading contenders and his pace was impressive: Pérez pitted on lap 29, Hamilton on 39, and in that period they ran comparable lap times – demonstrated by the gap being the same either end of that span. He also secured the third fastest lap of his career.

 

Despite his grid penalty, Checo found himself leading the race
Source: Sahara Force India (Facebook)

6. Jules Bianchi (up three spots)

To some this might be another surprise choice but Bianchi put in an excellent weekend to ‘win’ the Caterham/Marussia battle, and was chasing down Romain Grosjean before the checkered flag. After a rocky start to his second season, Bianchi is once again showcasing his credentials in his limited machinery. He earns sixth spot in this week’s F1 Power Rankings as he did what Hülkenberg, Bottas and Grosjean couldn’t do – outqualify and out-race his team-mate.

7. Nico Hülkenberg (no change)

No change for The Hulk as a rather underwhelming weekend was finished off by Ricciardo mugging him on the last lap. As I’ve mentioned before in the F1 Power Rankings, when the Force India is really good, it does seem to be Pérez who is able to extract the most. It could be tyre strategy, but this does now seem to be a recurring theme.

=8. Romain Grosjean (down three spots) & Valtteri Bottas (up one spot)

Eight Finns have started an F1 race and seven of them have now stood on the podium, that’s extraordinary! After a slight mistake cost him a shot a pole position in qualifying, Bottas benefited from a marginally better strategy than Massa to take P3 on Sunday. Could Williams have won? I’m not so sure. While they were battling in the closing stages, I still feel like the Mercs were within themselves, just making sure they did the minimum possible to secure a safe 1-2 after their recent (and I use this term loosely) woes. It was another weekend to forget for RoGro, and he was also outqualified by Maldonado for the first time this year.

 

Bottas secured a curious looking trophy with his maiden podium
Source: Williams F1 Team (Facebook)

=10. Fernando Alonso (up two spots), Sebastian Vettel (down four spots) & Felipe Massa (up three spots)

The clear heart-warming story of the weekend was Massa securing his first pole position since 2008 and, more importantly, the first since his near fatal accident at the Hungaroring in 2009. As mentioned above, I’m not sure whether Williams could have won but Massa can feel slightly aggrieved that he fell behind his team-mate during the pit-stops. Still, 4^th represents his best result thus far this season.

 

Felipinho was but a mere twinkle in his parents eyes the last time his dad took pole!
Source: F1 Fanatic

Despite flirting with Massa towards the end, Alonso was never quite close enough to challenge the leading quartet and wound up an eventual P5 after a rather lonely race. Not that it’s any consolation but he did lead some laps for the first time season.

 

Alonso led Ferrari's laps of the season
Source: Scuderia Ferrari (Facebook)

It was another nightmare Sunday for Vettel. Just like in Australia and Monaco, his RBR gave up the ghost early on. There was a somewhat magical resurrection a lap later but the team pulled him in early when to save components, both mechanical (eventual grid penalties are a near certainty) and front wings (having driven into Gutiérrez).

=13. Jenson Button (down two spots) & Kevin Magnussen (up two spots)

Not for the first time this season, the two McLaren boys find themselves locked together in the F1 Power Rankings. It was the rookie who had the better weekend with K-Mag qualifying a fine sixth, running in the points all day and finishing seventh – just losing out to Pérez in the closing stages. JB, meanwhile, had a trickier weekend. He missed out on Q3 having also had problems in practice but, crucially, fell behind the fast-starting Pérez on the opening lap. Thereafter, he couldn’t keep up with the Force India and, rather than challenging for a top-six finish, finished outside of the points. 

Magnussen had a good weekend in front of a packed house
Source: F1 Fanatic

15. Jean-Éric Vergne (down one spot)

It was a fifth DNF of the season for JEV as his reliability-stricken season continued. Brake failure eventually put him out although he was comprehensively outshone by Kvyat in both quali and the race.

16. Kamui Kobayashi (up one spot)

KK rises one spot mainly due to Räikkönen’s shocking form. Although he came up short in the battle against Bianchi, it was a solid weekend for Kobayashi as he comfortably outperformed his rookie team-mate; although it was a tad bizarre Caterham didn’t pit him once he lost the position given the state of his tyres.

17. Kimi Räikkönen (down one spot)

Just a miserable weekend for Kimi. Having made mistakes in quali, a decent start saw him run solidly in the early stages before he gradually fell to the foot of the top ten – and miles off his team-mate.

18. Pastor Maldonado (up two spots)

For the first time in six races, Maldonado moves off the bottom in the F1 Power Rankings after a solid, if unspectacular, weekend. He outqualified his team-mate for the first time this season but suffered a poor getaway. Nevertheless, he recovered thereafter to run a quiet race en route to a very lonely P12.

=19. Max Chilton & Marcus Ericsson (both up one spot)

Both drivers were comfortably outperformed by their respective team-mates in the backmarker battle. Chilton edged out Ericsson in both quali and the race (overcoming his grid penalty) but they’re level in this week’s F1 Power Rankings because Ericsson’s still a rookie, while Max should be closer to Bianchi.

=21. Adrian Sutil & Esteban Gutiérrez (down one spot)

If I left these two out of the F1 Power Rankings, would you even notice? Their atrocious season just gets worse and worse; both cars out went out in Q1 before Stevie G was slapped with a ten-second stop/go penalty for being released prematurely from his pit-stop (and a ten-place grid drop for Silverstone) while Sutil was accidentally told to stop himself. Yikes.

 

The Bull was tamed...
Source: Mercedes AMG Petronas (Facebook)

All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.

After Race 7: Canada

The Canadian Grand Prix never fails to deliver in absolute thrillers. Sunday’s race evoked memories of the 1999 European GP – which seemingly no-one wanted to win; the chaotic finish to the 2012 European GP in Valencia – with last-gasp crashes as the top five battled it out; and the 2012 Malaysian GP – where Sergio Pérez came up just short in pursuit of victory.

The almost unthinkable happened on Sunday as Mercedes conceded their chance of a perfect season, with Daniel Ricciardo becoming the 105^th man to win a Formula One Grand Prix – following in the footsteps of Thierry Boutsen, Jean Alesi, Lewis Hamilton & Robert Kubica as drivers who secured their maiden triumph in Montreal, along with circuit namesake Gilles Villeneuve.

With cars falling off the track left, right and centre due to various issues, can you imagine the potential carnage at Monza – with its extreme top speeds and braking points? The teams will already be furiously recalculating their models and software in preparation. Anyway, without much further ado – as the season crosses one-third distance – let’s get cracking…

  

Danny Ric, You bloody ripper!
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

1. Daniel Ricciardo (up one spot)

There simply was no other choice. Even prior to Canada, the Aussie was the only man able to infiltrate the Mercedes duo in the F1 Power Rankings, and his superb opportunistic victory sees him reach the summit.

Because one photo of the smiling Aussie isn't enough
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

2. Nico Rosberg (up one spot)

It has to be said, Rosberg came extremely close to reclaiming top spot this week after a fine pole position and an exceptional drive in the second half of Sunday’s race to extract the most from his ailing Mercedes, even if it was a tad fortuitous as others also had woes. It’s a critical 18-point gain for Nico over his team-mate and the pendulum seems to have swung in his favour once again. The only blot on his copybook was setting the fastest lap of the race (at the time) by cutting the last chicane.

3. Lewis Hamilton (down two spots)

Hamilton relinquishes top spot in the F1 Power Rankings for the first time since Malaysia after his miserable Canadian race; it’s now three poles, three wins and three DNFs for Lewis in Montreal. He was edged out by Nico to pole position – something which personally angered me as he chose not hug the (shorter) right-hand-side of the track in the run to the line – before his race unravelled to a terminal degree.

4. Daniil Kvyat (no change)

It was a fairly anonymous weekend for the young Russian. Comfortably outperformed by Jean-Éric Vergne throughout the weekend, he was still flirting with a possible point before his drive train broke in the second half of the race. Despite a silly spin in the early stages, he remains one of the stars of this season so far.

5. Romain Grosjean (no change)

After a couple of promising weekends, Canada proved to be another huge disappointment for Lotus, although they never expected to do well at the track. Both cars suffered bizarre bodywork damage on Sunday with Grosjean seeing his rear wing fail. He hangs on to P5 in the F1 Power Rankings for another week as he continues to lead the team through adversity.

6. Sebastian Vettel (up three spots)

The quadruple world champion’s yo-yo season continued in Canada. An excellent lap in Q3 saw him lead the ultra-competitive RBR-Williams quartet but he saw his chances of victory evaporate as a negative undercut (is overcut an F1-word?) occurred during the second round of pit-stops against his team-mate. He miraculously survived the late Pérez/Massa clash to pick up his second podium of the year.

And because one photo of happy team-mates isn't enough
Source: Red Bull Racing (Facebook)

7. Nico Hülkenberg (down one spot)

It’s a one place drop this week for The Hulk, despite picking up his sixth top-6 finish of the season. Why the drop? Just like in Bahrain, when Force India were leading the podium charge, it was Pérez – and not Hülkenberg – who was extracting the most from the car. Granted, a large part of this may have been influenced by tyre-strategy, but Pérez definitely seemed to be the quicker man on Sunday – especially given his various mechanical gremlins. Make no mistake though, it was another fine drive from Nico. It’s funny how things work out – when you consider the whole Maldonado-Hülkenberg-Williams-Lotus-Force India situation over the winter. 

It was Checo who was leading the Force India victory charge
Source: Sahara Force India (Facebook)

8. Sergio Pérez (up three spots)

Oh what might have been for Checo… For the second time in his career, a terrific late charge into a seemingly inevitable win turned sour for the Mexican; although this time it was the car that let him down. He was also penalized for the spectacular last-lap crash with Massa, which I felt was tad harsh – it seemed a racing incident.

 

But it all came to an abrupt end
Source: Fox Sports

=9. Jules Bianchi (down one spot) & Valtteri Bottas (down two spots)

Marussia’s Monaco momentum was literally brought to a crashing halt in Montreal as the two cars collided on the opening lap. Jules was actually outqualified by Max Chilton this weekend but was ahead of team-mate by Turn 3 – where the carnage commenced.

As for Bottas, he narrowly edged out Massa in qualifying and was in strong contention for a podium – even before the Mercedes duo suffered the maladies – but the second half of his race fell apart as Williams, once again, just weren’t able to fulfil their potential.

11. Jenson Button (up four spots)

The big gainer this week is JB after picking up a stunning four places in the final two laps. Of course, he was aided by the crash, but he also picked off both Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso having slowly worked his way through the field. I’ve yet to see any onboard footage of Button’s last couple of laps but I can imagine they must look like Nick Heidfeld’s from Spa 2008.

12. Fernando Alonso (down three spots)

It was an eventual P6 for Alonso on Sunday but it was another fairly miserable weekend for Ferrari. They weren’t even close to challenging for the podium and thus missed this golden opportunity to battle for a rare 2014 victory. Unlike the Renault-powered cars, Ferrari have not yet made significant progress since the start of this season.

13. Felipe Massa (down one spot)

It might come as a surprise that Massa has dropped a spot after his Canadian GP but – when you look at it closer – rather than gain momentum this weekend, Williams once again failed to capitalize on the situation. Massa himself was outqualified by Bottas before a slow first pit-stop had crushing ramifications on the rest of his race. It was only 3-4 seconds longer but it left him mired in traffic and the time he lost cost him a possible victory. Perhaps I’m being overly critical but I don’t feel Massa was aggressive enough in the closing stages, he should have attacked the leading quartet instantly but failed to do so and the icing on the cake was the last lap crash. 

Source: Getty Images

It was good to see both drivers were fine - both with previous F1 head injuries
Source: Felipe Massa (Instagram)

14. Jean-Éric Vergne (up two spots)

Finally! JEV had a trouble-free weekend for the first-time since the season-opener and duly delivered with only second points-finish of the season after another fantastic qualifying effort. As mentioned last week, Vergne can take heart from Ricciardo’s superb results this season – something that reflects well on the Frenchman. Despite the (deserved) Kvyat hype, Vergne has been quietly delivering when the car has been reliable. He must hope he can build on this result to quell any further discussion about Carlos Sainz, Jr.

The sun finally shone for Vergne
Source: Scuderia Toro Rosso (Facebook)

15. Kevin Magnussen (down one spot)

Not much to say on young K-Mag this weekend. He was shaded by JB throughout the weekend but also capitalized on the last lap chaos to secure a couple of points on the track where his father, Jan, scored his only F1 points in what turned out to be his last ever race (1998).

16. Kimi Räikkönen (down four spots)

Yikes. The less said, the better. In addition to Ferrari’s aforementioned woes, Kimi further exaggerated his own issues with mistakes in both quali and the race – the latter being a pathetic-looking spin at the hairpin. He’s one of only four drivers (Button, Alonso, Massa) to have raced in the Austrian GP and will be desperate that experience can count for something.

 

The story of the weekend for Marussia & Caterham
Source: Autosport

The bottom six

In a change to the usual format, I’ll discuss the bottom six drivers together. If it seemed like no-one wanted to win the race at the sharp end of the field, then you’d be forgiven for thinking that none of these six (bar Maldonado) actually wanted to even be in Formula 1, let alone the F1 Power Rankings. Ineptness was seemingly the order of the day, or even the whole weekend.

The two Caterham drivers were tied at 17^th last week; Kamui Kobayashi retains that spot as he was the only one of the Caterham/Marussia drivers not to crash this weekend (Bianchi scraped the wall in practice).

Thereafter, I’m finding it hugely difficult to rank the final five. Pastor Maldonado had a clean weekend and was running well inside the top ten on the same one-stop strategy as Force India before his Lotus expired but he just has no momentum whatsoever to move himself off the bottom. Having said that, Stevie G (a.k.a. Esteban Gutiérrez) was another to slam the wall in turn 4 – a crash which ruled him out of qualifying. Adrian Sutil kept his nose clean but was once again the invisible man on the invisible team as he was classified behind the non-finishers Massa and Pérez. As with Pastor, the Swiss team have zero momentum.

Finally, Marcus Ericsson once again suffered a pressure-crash in Q1, while Max Chilton saw his finishing record come to an end in spectacularly embarrassing fashion. Clearly, it was an unintentional crash but the penalty is probably deserved on the basis that it ruined his team-mate’s race (although he did manage to outqualify Bianchi).

With all this in mind, I feel the only way of accurately depicting the grid is to place all five drivers in a tie for 20^th. Technically, it does not make sense, but the two place gap between the rest of the field and this five is justified. Hopefully, they will shake themselves out in Austria so F1 Power Rankings can return to a much more standard order next week!

 

And finally... because you just never forget your first win
Source: F1 Fanatic

 All views expressed in this blog are my own and no copyright infringement is intended.