F1 | Is there Hamilton’s absence behind Mercedes' flop?
Mercedes messed badly with a double pit-stop, causing the waste of Russell’s first win. Could such a mistake be acceptable?
The Sakhir Grand Prix has been just as thrilling as the Bahrain GP of the last week. We avoided a close tragedy but not the drama. The good thrill is watching Sergio Perez capture his maiden Formula 1 win, just before racing his probably last race in Abu Dhabi this Sunday, overtaking his teammate on the track (however, Stroll ended third) and Esteban Ocon jumped on his first podium in the major Formula.
There is a dark side of the drama, though. Mercedes, the most dominant team of the last seven years, wasted a win with its own hands, literally. George Russell was leading the race, fighting as a lion and he showed off on the track, highlighting his most experienced teammate’s weaknesses. He deserved to win and what about to do it when Mercedes had to go with a double pit-stop. There is nothing weird here, they do it all the time, they are the best in everything and this is the exact point where they commit a clamorous mistake. Russell stops, the mechanics just can’t fix the tyre, they lose time, so they send him on the track and there it goes the Bottas and the nightmare repeats. Another incredibly slow pit, even slower than the previous one: Mercedes just switched the two drivers’ tyres. What’s worse, is that they haven’t been able to sort this mistake out and sent the drivers in the race with their previous tyres.
Morning Team. Still hurts, huh. 😔pic.twitter.com/MbmxZ58ifz
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 7, 2020
This rough mistake cannot be accepted in Formula 1, let alone when the one who commits it is the reigning World Champion of the whole turbo era. So, what happened?
Someone called it a classic Mercedes bluff because they couldn’t allow George to win and outclass their official driver, the one they preferred over the Briton for the next season. This would be a nonsense, though because the Silver Arrow could have faked a problem in fixing George’s tyre while they could pit perfectly on Bottas.
Most likely, it would be possible that Hamilton’s absence just messed with their minds. The team looked lost, confused without their principal driver, even if he’s not the boss of the, obviously. Lewis Hamilton is a charismatic champion who is hard to please, he wants everything at his own way and he has all the talent and the class to do it so everything in the Mercedes’ team fits him as a glove. When he tested positive to Covid-19, the team had to fix its whole way of working on a “normal” driver, a crystalline talent who is able to take the lead staying humble and grateful.
Hamilton’s absence just messed with Mercedes’ mind, causing them to change their operative set of working so in the end they collapsed.
Such a result shows that Mercedes is human too and it opens the way to a chasing on the perfect team fighting on the psychological side, if anyone will be able to adjust the 2020 car in 2021 in order to compete against the Germans.
We learn and we move on.
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 6, 2020
Send us all your questions about the #SakhirGP and we’ll answer some of them in our Race Debrief! 👇 pic.twitter.com/2ji6O0cjQB
Now let’s just think about Mercedes’ line-up for 2021: whether the money are to blame or not, Bottas has been confirmed for 2021 because at the time Claire Williams didn’t let Russell free from the contract, while Hamilton is not. If we were in the older Briton shoes, we would be fast in confirming the role, because Mercedes could be interested in investing in a young driver who has all that it takes to keep winning just like Hamilton, but asking less money. And what if they could find a way to withdraw with the contract with Bottas to hire Russell? All these questions will find their answer after Abu Dhabi, hoping that the Silver Arrow will go back to its usual shape and will let Russell to catch his so well-deserved first win, before his dream to drive in Mercedes is interrupted by the end of a thrilling season.
