I ultimately was right. I knew in my heart that this circuit was perfect for Mercedes. However, this Grand Prix was spoiled (for the ferraristas) by the horrible starting of the Ferrari. When there is some incident at the start, most of the time there is Mad Max behind it. It was an easy race for the two Mercedes. Vettel’s 4th place is well-deserved, Arrivabene & Co will never admit it, but they failed with Vettel.
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Hamilton. Score: 9 ½. Hamilton put a lot of effort in his victory, and Saturday he made a terrific lap. We know, he has a special feeling for the Canadian GP. This is his 6th winning.
Bottas. Score: 8. He made his homework and gained the 2nd place. For a moment, I felt like I was watching at the boring races of the past years, the ones marked by the grey Mercedes.
Vettel. Score: 8. He starts badly, let’s not quibble over details. Raikkonen starts badly too, allowing Verstappen to overtake them and, in the contact (which certainly is a regular contact during a race), Vettel damages the right front wing. It is disastrously managed by the team, and Vettel can’t do other than try to limit the damage. A 3rd place would have been a masterpiece, the 4th place is the bare minimum (the final duels were engaging and the overtake he did on one of the pink panther was a very skilful one) and it allows Vettel to stay on the top of the F1 standings.
Raikkonen. Score: 6. He started his race as if he was walking on eggshells. The extenuating circumstance is the fact that the endothermic unit in his power unit is not updated (Vettel has 10 hp more than him), however, he never felt completely comfortable on the track named after Gilles or, at least, he never felt like that during the race. A seesaw performance, as usual.
Ferrari’s new spoon-shaped wing. Score: doubtful (and it makes me think of ice cream… but I’m on a diet!). Ferrari this year is constantly evolving its single-seater. That wing should pledge a higher top speed and less downforce (Cristiano Sponton will explain it to us). I feel like it slightly denaturalised the single-seater, especially with a back part that is not as stable as the previous one. However, because of the things that happened at the beginning of the race, we can’t really know Ferrari’s potential on this circuit, just like Mercedes’ potential, since during this Grand Prix they’ve never had a rival to tailgate them.
Lauda’s facial expression when his team is winning. Score: unbearable. That sneer mixed with conceit and useless nagging is very unpleasant to me.
Mad Max. Score: Mad Max. Someone may say welcome back… well, not me. An incident like the one with Vettel is normal during the race and, since I don’t want to open a never-ending quarrel, I’ll let the fates decide. The gods of the races punished the young pilot that ended up with no car after few laps. It’s definitely his fault!
Vettel and Hamilton’s love story. Score: Love sparks again! This is Hamilton, a close relationship makes him run away but, as soon as his turtle dove is away, he desperately looks for him (he was asking to the technicians on the radio “Where’s Seb, where is he?”. They’re constantly going back and forth, but the desire for love isn’t love itself?
Ricciardo. Score: 9. He couldn’t do more with his Red Bull and, actually, I’m not sorry for him. But I liked to see the nice chomper on the podium.
Team Ferrari. Score: 5. I don’t know. Let’s take a look at the facts: you have a damaged wing, the Safety Car is on the track so you can spend a small amount of time changing the tires and the wing, you don’t take the chance to that, it “blows up” when they start to race again (the bottom part of the car and the bargeboard are pretty damaged), and you’re forced to change the tires and the wind afterwards.
Maurizio Arrivabene said: “the data said that everything was fine”, well, when the Safety Car is on the track you slow down, but did you see the cameras? I refuse to say more.
Alonso’s axiom. Score: the facts (again). If your name is Alonso and you have a Honda engine behind your back, it doesn’t matter where you’re racing, sooner or later the engine will break.
by Mariano Froldi
Translated by Isabella Lai
