#this is why esteban will always stay my favourite driver

[polite--cat]

heart-wrenching & beautiful excerpts from the article on esteban ocon

[formula365]

The Greatest of All Time - Imola Grand Prix review

It’s Christmas in 2004, and Maranello is a happy place. Ferrari has just crushed their opposition, winning 15 of the 18 races to claim a sixth consecutive constructors’ championship. And it wasn’t just another title: this was one of their most dominant, the F2004 a car so quick that in their first test at their private track in Fiorano they thought something was wrong with the track sensors. This hadn’t quite been the same level of dominance as 2002, when they scored as many points as all the other teams combined, but was pretty close.

Going into the next season, everyone expected Ferrari would be fending off challengers but staying on top. Just as in 2003, the competitors should be closing the gap a bit, but the Scuderia should remain the team to beat. Such was the quality of the 2004 car that the team led by Ross Brawn decided to evolve the car to adapt to the regulations tweaks of 2005, rather than work on an entirely new design.

But as the cars hit the track in Melbourne, it became clear the competition had more than caught up. The 2005 car was only supposed to make his debut in round 5 in Barcelona, but given the poor results in the first two races, its debut was brought forward to round 3 in Bahrain. It didn’t matter: plagued with aerodynamics issues, a gearbox too big and Bridgestone tyres that were losing the performance battle to Michelin, the F2005 won a single race, and only because all the teams using Michelin refused to race in the now infamous US GP, due to safety concerns.

At the time, it seemed impossible such a downturn in fortune could happen. The all-conquering Ferrari, the first team ever to win 6 championships in a row, had fallen off a cliff, finishing a distant third in the standings. No one had seen that coming, least of all those running the team itself.

What does this have to do with this weekend’s race? Obviously, everything. As expected since pretty much the first round of the season, Mercedes has just confirmed their seventh consecutive world title with four races to spare, beating Ferrari’s record, while reaching performance levels similar to those 2002 and 2004 titles. Just like Ferrari, they are at their peak, but the difference is that they show no signs of slowing down or becoming the c-word: complacent.

Ferrari’s 2005 season is a cautionary tale for any team dominating their sport: don’t take anything for granted; this is exactly what Mercedes have always done. Through every regulation change, they have continuously pushed the boundaries on every single level, taking every defeat as a chance to improve, and turning every setback into an opportunity. In what team principal Toto Wolff has described as a relentless drive to perfection, they keep on pushing when most, convinced their superiority would keep them ahead, would have relaxed.

A good example is the improvement made to their engine in this off-season. Clearly beaten by Ferrari in 2019, the team led by Andy Cowell worked to get back on top, not knowing that the only reason the Ferrari engines were so ahead was due to some shenanigans that weren’t entirely legal. The result is that the Mercedes engine took a leap forward in 2020, while Ferrari’s moved backwards, making the increased performance on the back of the Silver Arrows look even more impressive.

There is regular debate among F1 fans about who is the greatest driver of all time; now that Hamilton is beating pretty much every meaningful record, this debate is hotter than ever. But there is less debate about which is the best team, and that is because there are very few arguments left against this incarnation of Mercedes. It’s not just that they make the best car: it’s also that they keep winning even when they don’t have it. There were periods throughout 2017 and 2018 in which Ferrari had the best car on the grid, but due to driver performance or strategy calls, Mercedes would end up winning races that, on paper, it shouldn’t have won.

To me, there is no doubt that this is the best team F1 has ever seen. Through regulation changes, personnel departing and adversaries’ improving, they have kept pushing, onwards and upwards, relentlessly searching those marginal gains, those milliseconds that keep adding up to big advantages. Once this phase is over and someone else is spraying the champagne, we will have the time to really appreciate what they have achieved. But we are not there yet, and their records will keep improving, their chunk of F1 history becoming larger and larger.

Nothing lasts forever, especially if you don’t work hard to keep it going; this is particularly true in F1, where nothing stands still for long: blink, and someone has replaced you on the top step of the podium. That’s what happened at Maranello when preparing that 2005 car. That moment is still to happen to Mercedes, but no one is betting on it happening just yet.

Talking points

•  The rookie class of 2019 has been having a torrid time of late, and if Norris at least got himself on the points after three scoreless races, the weekend was far less kind to his friends. Russell had a first points finish within his grasp when he crashed, in P10, behind the safety car. He will pick himself up and be better for it, but right now it has to hurt. It’s not the first time either, as he lost opportunities at Hockenheim last year and at Mugello. He really needs to take his first points to get this monkey off his back.

Albon, on the other hand, is running out of opportunities to show Red Bull he deserves another year in the senior team. He spun at the restart and ended up at the back of the field, but even before that he was not capable of making a dent in the race. Granted, overtaking at Imola is not easy, but this was another lacklustre weekend from him. Even those like him who hope he does get the nod are finding it hard to come up with reasons why Red Bull should keep him.

•  Could Daniel Ricciardo be wondering if he made the right call in choosing McLaren over Renault? While the papaya team are moving backwards, Renault are improving by leaps and bounds, and this weekend saw him score his second podium in three races. The French team are probably now the favourites to claim third in the championship, which might make him wonder if he should have waited for a few races of 2020 before making this decision.

•  This podium was ultimately thrown away by Racing Point’s decision to pit Perez behind the Safety Car, when the Mexican was running third. To be fair to them, it was a hard call, since they had no way of knowing what those behind them would do. If Perez had been the only one staying out, he would have been vulnerable and would all be criticising the team for not pitting him. In any case, the only reason Checo was in contention anyway was the brilliant strategy to run long on the medium tyres, that had allowed him to leapfrog pretty much the whole midfield.

•  On the other side of the pink garage, Lance Stroll is in dire need of a reset. His Monza podium is looking like a curse, with the Canadian driver scoreless since then. To add injury to a dismal weekend, he even hit a mechanic in his second pit stop.

•  First double-points finish of the season for Alfa Romeo, with a rocket start from Giovinazzi and another steady race from Kimi. Their are winning the battle of the backmarkers, and it will take a miracle for Haas to take P8 from them now.

•  I wrote in my preview about drivers about to drop off the grid for 2021 and hoping they can enjoy and give us some good memories. That was exactly what Kvyat did: as his unlucky teammate was forced to retire from P5, the Russian had a fantastic race, clinging on to the back of Leclerc and Albon’s cars, and then using a fresh set of soft tyres to beat them and Perez at the restart. For a moment it seemed like he could even challenge Ricciardo for the podium, but, as it was, P4 was a brilliant result. Helmut Marko all but confirmed he would lose his seat at the end of the year, but if that is to happen, this is an impressive calling card for his job search.

•  So much talk about track limits, weekend after weekend. To me, this is the simplest of debates: the track limits are the white lines, and if you are going over them, you need to brake earlier. Done. Drivers who want to not have to worry about this should probably be considering moving to IndyCar.

•  McLaren are still in the fight for third in the championship, but not by much. They continue to maximise their results almost every weekend, but this time around they didn’t seem to be able to compete even with AlphaTauri. The development of the car has brought them backwards, and this must be a big concern for Andreas Seidl. With the cars remaining largely the same next year, they need to start making progress on this front sooner rather than later; otherwise, losing P3 in 2020 will be the least of their concerns.

•  Can Esteban Ocon get a lucky break? His return season has been underwhelming, but his luck with reliability has been abismal as well.

•  Oh, and while we are at it, can Vettel get a lucky break? Fantastic race from the German with a broken front end plate, only to be wrecked by a pit stop 11 (eleven!) seconds slower than normal. 2021 can’t come soon enough for him.

[thisdaynews]

Lewis Hamilton determined to contest German Grand Prix despite illness

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Lewis Hamilton determined to contest German Grand Prix despite illness

Listen to the German Grand Prix on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport website from 14:00 BST

At one point on Saturday morning, Lewis Hamilton was not even sure he would be able to race in the German Grand Prix, so bad did he feel with an illness that has been bothering him this weekend at Hockenheim and which took a turn for the worse overnight.

His Mercedes team had prepared the car for the possibility that they might have to sub the world champion out of qualifying and replace him with reserve driver Esteban Ocon.

So to take yet another pole position was a bigger achievement than it might at first look in a season that so far has passed in a blur of silver.

“I was really not expecting to be able to fight for pole today,” Hamilton said. “I felt pretty bad this morning and there was a moment when we weren’t even sure we would be doing the weekend.

“But I have never missed a race weekend in my life and for us competitors you can’t miss a single race.

“I haven’t even been in most of the [engineering] meetings; I’ve just been sleeping and then waking up and getting in the car. But the team have done such a great job in terms of the processes we went through and I was really happy with the car in my last lap.”

It’s not entirely clear whether Hamilton would have been able to take pole had Ferrari, who went into qualifying as favourites, not shot themselves in the foot again, with the cars of both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel going out with engine problems that left them 10th and last respectively.

But Hamilton was so pleased with his performance, despite his discomfort, that he reckoned he would have had a chance either way.

“It would have been close between us and the Ferraris,” he said. “I am not convinced they would have been much quicker than us, if at all. Leclerc was doing some good times over the weekend but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Hamilton would not say what was wrong with him, simply saying he was “a bit under the weather”.

Team boss Toto Wolff said: “There is a flu going around in the paddock and he was not feeling great.” And Mercedes said he had been off colour since earlier in the week.

Hamilton added: “It has been a real challenge and tomorrow is going to be worse.

“Just doing 12 laps today – and yesterday in practice – was so hard. I don’t know how tomorrow will go.

“I will try to sleep as much as I can and just try to recuperate and make sure I have got as much energy as possible. If it is super-hot like yesterday or even like today it could be really bad, but if it’s a little bit cooler like it’s forecast to be, it might it ease it up a little bit. But where there’s a will there’s a way. I won’t give up, that’s for sure.”

Hamilton on pole despite illness as both Ferraris break down

The story behind Leclerc’s journey to the top

Chequered Flag podcast: Qualifying review

Preview: Home comforts or more heartache for Vettel?

Another Ferrari fiasco

Ferrari should have had at least two wins so far this season – and arguably could have had as many as four – yet halfway through the year they remain on zero. And qualifying at the German Grand Prix showed exactly why.

They went into qualifying looking favourites but, remarkably, the cars of both Leclerc and Vettel broke down. And from looking like they could have locked out the front row, they start in the midfield and right at the back.

Vettel did not even manage a single flying lap – his intercooler developed a problem as soon as he left the pits at the start of the first session. It was the second time in three races the German’s qualifying has been hit by an engine problem. And he said it felt “very bitter” for it to happen at his home race.

Leclerc made it through the first and second sessions – quickest on soft tyres in the first; second behind Lewis Hamilton in the second, when both switched to mediums, because they wanted the more durable tyre to start the race – only for his car’s fuel-pump drive to fail and force him to miss the top-10 shootout.

It’s unknown exactly how things would have shaken out had the Ferraris made it into the final part of qualifying to dispute pole with Hamilton. But as Leclerc said: “Mercedes were very quick but we definitely had the pace to challenge them at least. It’s a shame.”

So the Italian team have another failure to add to what is becoming an embarrassingly long list this year. It’s worth going through them, to underline what might have been.

Leclerc lost victory in Bahrain when his engine went sour in the closing laps

Vettel spun while racing Hamilton in Bahrain and turned a second place into a fifth

Leclerc crashed out of qualifying in Azerbaijan when looking a certain bet for pole

Ferrari made a strategic error that led to Leclerc being knocked out in the first session of qualifying in Monaco

Vettel made a mistake while leading in Canada and went off track, leading to the penalty that cost him the race

Vettel had a problem with the air pressure line to the engine in qualifying in Austria, where he could have joined Leclerc on the front row

And now both cars have had engine problems in qualifying in Germany

On top of that, Leclerc made a series of small errors in qualifying in the early races of the season, until turning around his form after Canada.

There is also a question mark over whether Ferrari made a mistake in choosing to start Leclerc on soft tyres rather than mediums in Austria. Had he been on the mediums, he may have been able to stop later and hold off Max Verstappen’s late charge to victory for Red Bull.

And that’s without even going into the questionable wisdom of their employment of team orders – largely to favour Vettel – in all of the first five races.

All told, it makes for grim reading, especially as their title challenges in 2017 and 2018 also unravelled as a result of a combination of reliability problems, driver errors and operational issues. And it underlines both the seriousness of the malaise at the team, and their apparent inability to do anything about it.

After qualifying, Wolff told Sky: “Ferrari have an illness that they need to cure and we need them so we can have a competitive championship.”

Tyre choice available for the German Grand Prix

Wolff later said he had got himself “lost in translation” with that comment, and that he had been thinking of the German “die Seuche” which has a double meaning.

He explained: “It means illness but it [also] means having lots of problems all the time – you don’t seem to be getting yourself out of problems; it is nothing to do with an illness. When I said it, I felt like I probably said the wrong thing.”

The semantics, though, were largely irrelevant. Either way, Wolff had summed up the situation well.

Leclerc was his usual modest and humble self, pointing out that he had made his own mistakes this year so he could hardly question the team.

But he did add: “I feel for the team. One car is difficult, two cars is very, very unlikely and very difficult for the team. We need to understand the issues to try to not to reproduce them.”

The problem is, there are precious few signs as yet of the team being able to achieve that ambition.

Verstappen is hoping to add to his Austrian Grand Prix victory with a win at Hockenheim

Hamilton v Verstappen looks tasty

Had Leclerc – and Vettel – been up at the front as well, the race would have been set up nicely, for a fight between the dominant figures of the older generation and the two men who look most likely to take their place over the next few years.

But one man of each generation remains, and that means there is the chance of the first straight fight for victory between Hamilton and Verstappen. Which is a mouth-watering prospect.

Hamilton says his position in the championship will not affect his desire to battle Verstappen hard, despite the Dutchman’s take-no-prisoners reputation.

“I’m here to win,” he said. “So we battle. I approach it with respect. He’s experienced enough now that I don’t think I’ll have to approach it with caution. And for sure I’ll be pushing.

“But every time I approach it I am always trying to make sure I keep position and don’t collide with anyone. I will try to stay as far away from his possible.”

Verstappen did not sound that convinced that he would be able to take the fight to Mercedes. He’s concerned that the need to start on soft tyres after an engine problem in second qualifying could hinder him, against the Mercedes on mediums.

“I don’t know at the moment how much a fight we can put on,” said Verstappen, fresh from his monumental battle with Leclerc at Silverstone two weeks ago. “We have a different strategy but we will always give it a go.

“It doesn’t matter to me who it is [I’m fighting with] – if it’s Lewis or Charles. Of course I know Charles a bit better because we were racing a lot in the younger years in go-karting but it doesn’t matter. As long as you are fighting for victory that’s a positive thing.

There is also a chance for rain, in which both men excel.

“I love the rain,” Hamilton said. “So if it rains, no problem.”

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