For all the drama of Baku and endless subsequent analysis, it’s time now to move on to the picturesque Red Bull Ring in Austria for the latest in what is becoming an intensely fiery battle up front between Vettel and Hamilton. But who carries the momentum at this stage of the season as we approach the halfway point in a week’s time at Silverstone? In my opinion it has to be Hamilton, despite the fact that he lost a further two points to Vettel last time out and missed out on a certain victory due to the bizarre problem with his headrest.
Vettel’s swerve at Hamilton in Azerbaijan was matched by his belligerence in not owning up at the time, but the subsequent worldwide attention and requirement to appear at the FIA in Paris to talk it through all detract from the intensity of focus that he should be applying to the task in hand. Beating Hamilton to the title will take every ounce of commitment both from him as a driver and from the team to continue updating and improving the car, and although he escaped without further censure, he still had to waste valuable energy on clearing up the mess he caused. Nine points on his racing licence and even more scrutiny from the FIA for the forseeable future mean he’s somewhat on the back foot going into a race in which he has so far failed to achieve a podium result.
On top of that, Hamilton is coming off the back of two superb qualifying performances in both Canada and Baku which demonstrated that both he and the Mercedes team have solved some of the problems they had earlier in the year with regard to making the tyres work effectively. Remember Sochi and Monaco where Lewis struggled to bring the tyres in and where on both occasions he failed to qualify in the top three? Well, in Canada he was on the same Ultra Soft tyres that he used in those races, and which appear here in Austria, and his pole lap was sensational. Then in Baku, when on the slightly harder tyre, he managed to make it work despite having just the one tour to build temperatures and once again nailed the lap. This is the same man who has taken pole position here at Zeltweg for the last two years, and who fought back to win the race on the final lap last year.
Vettel didn’t even get to the final lap here in 2016; he pushed his Ultra Soft tyres to a longer stint than Mercedes but they gave up in spectacular fashion on Lap 26, sending him to the barrier on the approach to Turn 1, so fourth place in 2015 remains his best result in Austria. This is the country that gave rise to two of his greatest supporters; Dietrich Mateschitz and Helmut Marko. Thanks to them he was racing a Formula BMW car here in 2003 at the age of 16 with Red Bull sponsorship, and without them he would never have taken four F1 titles with Red Bull Racing. Whether he can take inspiration at one of his racing spiritual homes and interrupt Hamilton’s momentum is, however, another matter. Lewis is on a roll, he has his home Grand Prix in a few days time where his supporters gain him a tenth or two, and a points lead of just 14 is not much of a buffer for Vettel going into these next two weekends.
Vettel’s swerve at Hamilton in Azerbaijan was matched by his belligerence in not owning up at the time, but the subsequent worldwide attention and requirement to appear at the FIA in Paris to talk it through all detract from the intensity of focus that he should be applying to the task in hand. Beating Hamilton to the title will take every ounce of commitment both from him as a driver and from the team to continue updating and improving the car, and although he escaped without further censure, he still had to waste valuable energy on clearing up the mess he caused. Nine points on his racing licence and even more scrutiny from the FIA for the forseeable future mean he’s somewhat on the back foot going into a race in which he has so far failed to achieve a podium result.
On top of that, Hamilton is coming off the back of two superb qualifying performances in both Canada and Baku which demonstrated that both he and the Mercedes team have solved some of the problems they had earlier in the year with regard to making the tyres work effectively. Remember Sochi and Monaco where Lewis struggled to bring the tyres in and where on both occasions he failed to qualify in the top three? Well, in Canada he was on the same Ultra Soft tyres that he used in those races, and which appear here in Austria, and his pole lap was sensational. Then in Baku, when on the slightly harder tyre, he managed to make it work despite having just the one tour to build temperatures and once again nailed the lap. This is the same man who has taken pole position here at Zeltweg for the last two years, and who fought back to win the race on the final lap last year.
Vettel didn’t even get to the final lap here in 2016; he pushed his Ultra Soft tyres to a longer stint than Mercedes but they gave up in spectacular fashion on Lap 26, sending him to the barrier on the approach to Turn 1, so fourth place in 2015 remains his best result in Austria. This is the country that gave rise to two of his greatest supporters; Dietrich Mateschitz and Helmut Marko. Thanks to them he was racing a Formula BMW car here in 2003 at the age of 16 with Red Bull sponsorship, and without them he would never have taken four F1 titles with Red Bull Racing. Whether he can take inspiration at one of his racing spiritual homes and interrupt Hamilton’s momentum is, however, another matter. Lewis is on a roll, he has his home Grand Prix in a few days time where his supporters gain him a tenth or two, and a points lead of just 14 is not much of a buffer for Vettel going into these next two weekends.