Tap For Menu  
Single word yields best result

Sports Articles: Formula 1: Imola/Emilia Romagna Talking Points

Formula 1: Imola/Emilia Romagna Talking Points
Image from: racefans.net

Formula 1: Things To Think About After Imola

 


1. Saudi Arabian GP Added To Next Year's Calendar

Next year's provisional calendar has added a new track to look forward to. Hopefully it will be more like the older tracks rather than the new style tracks and present a challenge to drivers. It is always nice to get a new course where the teams have little data to work with, though I do fear this one will be overshadowed by political considerations.

 


2. Alfa Romeo Name Staying In F1

Alfa Romeo are to stay in F1 for next season and they are keeping both Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi for the year as well. They celebrated by performing well and both cars picking up points. The interesting part for me is the reason for Giovinazzi being in the car. He is part of the deal to acquire Ferrari power units, in that Ferrari get to choose who drives Alfa's second car. It does make you wonder what is happening next season with Mick Schumacher. The son of the legendary Michael Schumacher is leading the F2 championship and is a Ferrari protege. It was thought he would be given this seat, but Ferrari must have other plans for him.

 


3. Gasly Also Celebrating An Extra Year

The other Alpha team, Alpha Tauri has extended Pierre Gasly's deal for next year and he promptly put the car 4th on the grid. Unfortunately, while waiting for the start the Honda engineers noticed an anomaly on their data and had to try an emergency repair before the race began. They did manage to get it to start and Gasly was sat in 5th when they had to bring him in to retire.

 


4. Luck Or Judgement?

After having the race build up disrupted by a loose seat, Hamilton got off to a slow start and it looked like Bottas was finally going to get pole and a win, with Verstappen between him and the Brit. But the damage to Bottas's car meant he was slow and Hamilton was careful enough with his tyres that he was able to go long and then jump in to the pits under a Virtual Safety Car. Just 49 seconds long and he was one of just two cars who were in position to take advantage of it to put new boots on. Hamilton would have almost certainly taken the lead anyway, as Bottas was so slow, but the VSC just gave him a bigger advantage. Once he was in front it was all over and Hamilton was pretty much unchallenged from then on, setting a string of fastest laps throughout. His record has another race win to add now. It must be pointed out that it was Hamilton's call to stay out and run long on the mediums, when everyone else pitted early. He was also able to pump in fast laps to build up the buffer ahead of the VSC. It reminds me of the old saying, the harder I work, the luckier I get.

 


5. Poor Vettel

Another of those who ran really long and it was looking like paying off for him. Well, paying off in as much as it is possible for anything to pay off for him at the moment. He had a top 10 place pretty much in his pocket when he went in for his pit stop only for it to be just about the slowest I have seen in years. It cost him a point, at least. Sad when he had done so well with his strategy to have that point in his grasp.

 


6. Track Almost Lived Up To Hamilton's Expectations

Before the race Hamilton had said that the race would probably be boring with almost no overtaking and it had looked like he would be right, especially the way a struggling Bottas had no genuine challenge from a clearly faster Verstappen who was stranded behind him. The Red Bull just could not get close enough to even try and pass. In fact it was only a mistake by Bottas that allowed Verstappen past. Verstappen then, after continually ignoring repeated instructions to stay off the kerbs, changed the race by suffering either a tyre blowout or suspension failure and crashing. That brought out a safety car and meant it would be a sprint to the flag.

 


7. Mercedes Setting Records

We have had Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton set new records in the last couple of races, and continue to extend their records, this time around it was the Mercedes team's turn to set a new record, with their 7th constructors' championship in a row. It has not always been the best car, but even when the Ferrari was quicker the Mercedes team showed itself to be better. The old cliches about German efficiency certainly seem to apply here, though the team is actually based in England!

 


8. Was That Russell's First Major Error?

George Russell binning his Williams while behind the safety car was a huge surprise. The youngster has been pretty much faultless so far in his F1 career and this was such a basic error to accelerate on a bump and cause the car to spin off. It is certainly very different from Lance Stroll, who seems to make at least one big mistake in every race. Today's was nearly wiping out the jack man while going into the pits. Not sure how he could claim the brakes were cold, you would think he would be better at making excuses by now.

 


9. Magnusson

It was an interesting exchange between the Haas team and one of its drivers, Kevin Magnusson. There was obviously some kind of clutch problem which left the car jerking his head about whenever he upshifted and it was causing him a headache. Literally as well as figuratively. When he complained about it, with him sat right at the back of the pack and with no hope of doing anything, they asked if he wanted to stop. He acted the martyr though by saying it was his job but it hurt. Forgive me for having little sympathy for a man complaining 'it hurts' when he is a multi-millionaire through his 'job'. Most of us have had to work through pain many times in our life. He only lasted about 2 more laps anyway before he did box. Bless his ickle socks. Good job he never had to drive in the days before power steering and the other aids drivers have these days.

 


10. The Restart Was The Best Bit

Thanks to Daniel Kvyat, in particular, who had an absolute stormer on the restart, the restart was the most exciting part of the race. Kvyat went flying past a few cars and ended the race pressuring Ricciardo for 3rd. Albon once again made his role in Red Bull look untenable as he made a silly error after being overtaken and ended up last of the 15 still running. Sergio Perez was also on the move and got up to 6th. You could almost give the rest of the race a miss and just watch from there!

Written by Tris Burke November 01 2020 16:39:20