After a rather lame Canadian GP, the hope must be that Ferrari have spent wisely while Red Bull contemplate home discomforts in Austria
Thursday 18 June 2015 14:20, UK
Will it be a year of pole positions for Mercedes?
How time flies. Last year's Austrian GP, when Williams locked out the front row, marks the last time a works Mercedes car didn't claim pole position on an F1 Saturday. Since then the best result any team has registered in qualifying is splitting the Mercedes.
To record-breaking effect in the modern era, the Silver Arrows have been on pole for the last 18 races in succession – even the all-conquering McLaren-Honda cars of 1988 and 1989 could only manage 17 successive poles, with Ferrari and Williams both breaking up that run. In total, they've monopolised the front row on 20 occasions since last April's Bahrain GP - compared to just seven occasions when Rosberg and Hamilton haven't shared the front two starting berths.
It is a run of dominance that shows little sign of abating and while critics will say they are making the sport boring and predictable, there is no doubting the brilliance of their engineering and driving talent.
Mercedes qualifying one-twos
2014:
Bahrain: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Spain: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Monaco: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Bahrain: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Spain: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Monaco: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Canada: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Belgium: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Italy: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Singapore: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Japan: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Russia: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
USA: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Brazil: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Abu Dhabi: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
2015:
Australia: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
China: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Spain: Rosberg 1st; Hamilton 2nd.
Monaco: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Canada: Hamilton 1st; Rosberg 2nd.
Could Ferrari be a spent force?
On the face of it, Ferrari’s engine-token spend ahead of the Canadian GP didn't buy any performance gains in Montreal as the Scuderia were comprehensively beaten by Mercedes by the hefty margin of 45 seconds. Instead of moving forward, they appeared to take a step back. But there’s still hope.
The size of their defeat was exaggerated by Kimi Raikkonen’s peculiar spin and Sebastian Vettel’s qualifying calamity. Without those setbacks, the latter of which was particularly penal given the German has consistently outpaced the Finn this term, Ferrari may have given Mercedes a run for victory in Montreal – or at least run them close enough to pressurise one of the Silver Arrows into a race-costing mistake.
Asked after his victory whether he could feel more confident about Mercedes’ advantage In the wake of Ferrari’s engine upgrade apparently amounting to naught, Lewis Hamilton was quick to spot the flaw in the argument.
“I think it’s pretty much impossible to come to that conclusion because Kimi spun so we didn’t really get to see his true pace in the race,” the world champion countered. “Also, Sebastian wasn’t there and obviously Sebastian has generally been the quicker of the two so far this season so we didn’t really get to see Ferrari’s true pace this weekend - and in the next race we will.”
Ferrari’s remaining engine development tokens are likely to be held back until September’s Italian GP, another power-hungry circuit which also happens to host Ferrari’s home race.
In the meantime, it remains a racing certainty that the Scuderia will remain Mercedes’ closest challengers – although just how close remains to be seen. Even though the McLaren MP4-30 will be fitted with a new ‘short nose’ this weekend, their principal weakness remains the underpowered, unreliable and thirsty Honda engine.
Meanwhile, Red Bull are believed to be contemplating a tactical professional foul this weekend and forsaking any prospect of respectability at their home event by introducing a fifth engine that would demote their cars to the back row at a circuit where they don’t believe they can challenge for points. Engine circuits could become engine-change circuits for the fallen superpower for the rest of the year.
In the interests of a good fight, we’d best hope that Ferrari really did spend wisely then.
Can Red Bull avoid a 2014 repeat?
A year is often considered a long time in the fast-paced world of Formula 1, but not it seems in Red Bull and Renault’s increasingly frustrated attempts to make a breakthrough in this Mercedes-dominated turbo era. It was, of course, 12 months ago on F1’s return to the hills of Austria after more than a decade – at the renamed Red Bull Ring no less – that the then reigning four-time champions suffered one of their most embarrassing weekends of recent years.
After losing one car early on, and then finishing a lap down on Mercedes in eighth place with the other, Christian Horner let rip at their beleaguered French engine suppliers: “The situation just isn’t improving. The reliability is unacceptable. The performance is unacceptable.” Fast-forward to June 2015 and, while Renault have at least improved their finishing record recently after a woeful start to this term, their power unit arguably remains as far adrift of the Mercedes as ever.
Relative comfort for Red Bull last year came from the fact that they were at least still second to Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship and had actually just won the previous race in Canada, even if it was rather fortuitous. But it’s a low-key fourth in the standings now and there was certainly no such repeat joy in Canada, with Horner even conceding that Daniil Kvyat had produced “the maximum we could achieve” by finishing only ninth.
The omens for any so-called ‘home comforts’ in Austria this weekend don’t look promising either. While Dietrich Mateschitz’s energy drinks firm have footed the bill for F1 to return to the beautiful and pleasantly revamped Spielberg venue, the layout of the undulating 4.3km track is arguably more power-dependent than even Montreal. The irony that the company’s own circuit is likely to heap yet more misery on their team just sums up where Red Bull – and Renault’s – form and fortune are right now. JG
Another strong summer in store for Williams?
With Williams having secured their first, long-awaited, podium of the season in Canada, they now return to Austria, where Valtteri Bottas claimed the first podium of his F1 career 12 months ago. Last year’s race at the Red Bull Ring will live in the memory for the wistful, dare we say it, romantic sight of an all-Williams front row – Felipe Massa heading Bottas - even though they were gifted it rather after Lewis Hamilton spun out of qualifying, with the subsequent yellow flags scuppering Nico Rosberg’s own chances.
Rosberg passed Bottas at the start of the race and went on to claim victory, although the sight of the Finn powering right back past the Mercedes up the long drag up to Turn Two also lingers as a sort of two-fingered salute - in the best possible way, of course - from the customer team. Normal service was resumed soon enough and although some thought Williams weren’t ambitious enough in taking the fight to the Mercs, they were in fact forced to rein themselves in.
“We couldn’t run full energy deployment because of various temperature problems,” said Pat Symonds, referring to how their car's ERS, straining to deploy its full power on the three long, mainly uphill straights that start the lap, also struggled to harvest sufficient energy through the rather paltry total of eight corners that comprise it. The Silver Arrows were similarly marginalised but because their car was so far ahead of the rest, they were still able to claim a 1-2 finish. As far as Mercedes were - and are - concerned, their ability to rub rivals’ noses in it is a matter of degree.
We saw the same sort of car management last weekend in Montreal; the sort that’s giving the sport a bad name in some quarters. Not that Williams will have complained after their latest result, although one suspects this weekend will see normal service resumed so far as Ferrari are concerned. Even so, last year’s Austrian GP ushered in a strong summer for Bottas, Massa and co. after a hesitant start to the season; perhaps the pattern can start repeating itself 12 months on. MW
