F1 | Turkish GP: analysis of the race

After the Nürburgring and Imola, during this championship Formula 1 made its return to another historic circuit of the category, the Turkish track of Istanbul Park. A welcome return for an event that had been missing from the calendar for several seasons now due to financial problems, which had led the track to be used for other purposes with reduced use, also reducing maintenance inversions. After the necessary inspections, this had pushed the organizers of the event to take action, resurfacing the track only a few weeks before the Grand Prix took place, making it particularly slippery due to the oils that oozed from it. A real challenge for the riders, who since Friday had been complaining about the lack of grip provided by the track, with times that were about ten seconds higher than the teams' forecasts. The rain on Saturday, however, had represented a further complication to an already complicated situation, putting the teams faced with the need to review the set-ups and components of the cars: the low temperatures, combined with the reduced speeds in such conditions, they had caused the tires to experience less stress than expected and the brakes needed to be warmed up rather than cooled.

In one of the most complicated Grand Prix of the season, the talent of a Champion like Lewis Hamilton could not fail to stand out, who, thanks to the victory obtained at Istanbul Park, managed to win the seventh world title in his career, equaling another legend of sport, Michael Schumacher. He did it with a top-level performance in variable conditions and there couldn't be a better way to celebrate this latest milestone. A perfect day, unlike that of the only remaining contender in the race for the world championship, Valtteri Bottas, who was hit by accidents and spins outside the points zone. Accompanying the Englishman on the podium were two other protagonists of last Sunday's race, Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel, capable of making the most of a first part of the race in which they had laid the foundations for a result that had eluded them on other occasions , especially for Mexican. Although the two had very different strategies, the fight for the podium was resolved only in the last lap, with an arrival at the tenth of a second in which Charles Leclerc was also involved, author of an error in the decisive phase despite a beautiful comeback. An important result especially for the Anglo-Canadian team, which allowed it to extend its lead to reach third place in the constructors' championship at the expense of Renault and McLaren. The French team, in fact, only had to settle for one point thanks to Daniel Ricciardo's tenth place, while his teammate, Esteban Ocon, was unfortunately involved in some accidents during the first lap. The glass is half full for McLaren, fifth and eighth at the finish line with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris: placings which, from a certain point of view, however, leave a bad taste in the mouth considering the pace shown by both cars at the end of the race, which could have guaranteed him an even better finishing position if it hadn't been for an extremely negative initial stint.

The Red Bulls divided the two MCL35s of the English team, finishing sixth and seventh respectively at the checkered flag. One of the most disappointed cannot fail to be Max Verstappen, who missed out on the opportunity to take the stage win due to an unfortunate start and a bad spin while he was in the podium area, as was Alex Albon, author of several errors precisely in the crucial phase of the Grand Prix. Only a ninth position for the poleman of the weekend, Lance Stroll, author of a colorless second part of the race after having held the lead of the race for a long time and deservedly.

It wasn't a positive weekend for AlphaTauri, never really fighting to bring home a significant result due to the difficulties in terms of grip and tire management encountered since Friday: the additional penalty in the pre- the race that forced Pierre Gasly to start from the back of the grid certainly didn't help, but it was clear that the AT01's problems went far beyond this simple factor. A somewhat complicated race also for Haas, forced to retire with both cars. A regret especially for Kevin Magnussen, slowed down by a long pit stop while he was fighting to win some championship points. Different story for Alfa Romeo, which in qualifying had managed to get both cars into Q3, reaching the top ten for the first time in the season with both single-seaters. The Italian-Swiss team's Sunday, however, had already taken a bad turn in the pre-race, when Antonio Giovinazzi ended up in the gravel during the deployment laps, damaging the front wing of his single-seater: despite having managed to start of the race, the Italian then had to retire following a gearbox problem, while Kimi Raikkonen was unable to go beyond fifteenth place due to difficulties in making the tires work in the correct operating range. To conclude the ranking was Williams, whose race had not started in the best way due to an accident by George Russell in the pit lane, in which he damaged the front wing of his car. This had pushed the team to make an important decision, keeping both cars in the pits, in order to make some changes and give them the opportunity to try a different strategy from that of their opponents, starting on the intermediate compound. A decision that unfortunately did not pay off as the engineers expected, also due to the withdrawal of Nicholas Latifi after a contact with Romain Grosjean.

Mercedes: Hamilton is increasingly confirmed in history

Over the course of the season, the Mercedes W11 proved to be undoubtedly the most competitive car, winning the constructors' title and helping Lewis Hamilton win his seventh career world title. A superiority resulting from a competitive single-seater in every aspect, from the power of the Power Unit to tire management, but faced with the asphalt of Istanbul Park, the engineers found themselves faced with a new challenge. The little data available from the track, combined with particular conditions that had arisen, had meant that the technicians no longer had to rely on what had been extrapolated from the simulations, but rather on the actual work on the track, improving the set-up of the single-seater day after day. Having a lot of data available regarding the behavior of the W11 obtained during the season, naturally the team did not start from a blank sheet of paper, but being able to extract the most from the package would not have been easy. Since Friday's tests it had become clear that on this occasion the single-seater did not seem like a steamroller like on other weekends, but needed hard work on fine-tuning to make the tires work as best as possible and bring them into the correct operating range. An aspect that was highlighted above all in qualifying, where it is important to extract the maximum in a short period of time and not over the long distance. Difficulties that James Vowles, Mercedes Strategy Director, tried to explain by providing an accurate analysis of what the weaknesses were in those specific conditions: “We simply couldn't generate the energy and temperatures in the tires in a single lap. It's all about the energy it manages to put into the tyres, the engine will produce energy and make the tires work by generating slip, the brakes will generate energy which will then be transferred to the tyres. But obviously the track was wet and the rain takes some of that energy away from the tires all the time, so it's all about being able to provide more energy than it takes away. The faster you go in some areas of the track, the more you will be able to generate energy which will increase the temperatures, but in this respect we were not at the level of the leaders, we were not able to reach the required level of performance,” declared the Englishman.

In view of the race, however, it was reasonable to expect an improvement, not so much in the very first laps, where Mercedes would still have struggled to get the tires in quickly, but more in the later phase of the race, therefore coming out over the long distance. Despite a disappointing qualifying which had relegated him to sixth place, Hamilton had managed to redeem himself immediately at the start, gaining several positions thanks to an excellent sprint when the traffic lights went out: the terrible start of the two Red Bulls had also given him a big hand, which thus gave the Englishman the opportunity to find himself with the innermost line completely free and launch the attack on the two Renaults in turn 1, thanks to which he managed to climb up to third place. As in Portugal, however, in conditions of such poor grip and with tires not yet up to temperature, Hamilton had wisely shown himself to be very cautious in driving, trying to limit as much as possible the number of errors that could have irremediably compromised his pursuit of the championship. seventh world championship. Despite the care in managing the car, however, Hamilton was the protagonist of a long turn in turn 9 after a correction on entry, losing position to both Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

Obvious difficulties, which were also noticed in the subsequent passages where, due to some small errors, Lewis had lost contact with the group in front of him, remaining a few seconds behind. A delicacy at the wheel that could also be appreciated in the use of the gearbox, very smooth when downshifting to avoid dislocating the rear, and when braking, where he tried not to force excessively to avoid locking up. Only towards the seventh lap did the situation progressively begin to improve thanks to the increase in temperatures on the front axle, but at that point it was already time to make a choice: return to the pits to fit a new set of intermediate tires or remain on the track and cover a few more laps with the full wet. The increase in temperatures at the front axle, also due to the use of the DAS which had been briefly used on the straights, combined with the amount of water on the track that the drivers could perceive, had pushed Lewis to think that making a pit stop on that moment would have been useless and that, on the contrary, the best choice would have been to stay on the track waiting for a subsequent improvement in conditions. However, the times set by those who had previously stopped to mount the intermediate had pushed the Mercedes engineers to force the strategy, recalling Hamilton at the end of the eighth lap precisely to switch to the compound which at that moment seemed to give the best results. comforting on a chronometric level. A decision which, however, went beyond the simple choice of the single compound. If, in fact, during the first stint, the Englishman was the only one on the grid together with Alex Albon and Valtteri Bottas to start on a completely new set of full wet tyres, for the second part of the race the situation would have changed upside down, given that Lewis had adamantly asked to switch to a set of used tyres. A choice that is certainly not unusual, so much so that drivers often tend to "run in" even the dry tires by completing the installation laps during the free practice sessions.

Immediately after the stop, thanks also to a small error on the part of Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton managed to get back into the lead of the German from Ferrari, potentially demonstrating that he had a good pace on his side for the rest of the Grand Prix. Being able to overtake the four-time world champion as quickly as possible would have been fundamental, not only to protect himself from those who were coming up behind him, such as Alexander Albon, but also to maintain the pace of Max Verstappen, who after the during his pit stop he managed to strategically overtake the Cavallino standard bearer and find himself on a clear track, ready to start the chase for the two Racing Point drivers. The temporary deactivation of the DRS by the race direction, however, had made overtaking on the track extremely more complicated and, to attempt an attack, it would have been vital to make the most of the long straight and the subsequent braking zone. An opportunity that Lewis had created immediately after the conclusion of the Virtual Safety Car on the fourteenth lap, moving in the wake of the Ferrari driver and attempting an attack at the braking point at turn 12, which in reality was not a real attempt: despite the Englishman had moved into position on the inside, the still cold brakes and tyres, combined with a still wet line, had pushed Hamilton to desist from sinking, thus anticipating the braking point. Despite the evasive maneuvers he took, Hamilton still couldn't avoid almost locking up his tyres, finishing wide and leaving the opportunity for Albon to complete the overtaking and move into fifth position. In turn, the Anglo-Thai of Red Bull had not taken long to get rid of the rival of the Red Bull, thus once again bringing back into vogue the challenge between Vettel and the standard bearer of the Stuttgart team, whose differences in terms driving were clearly evident. The German maintained a very rounded line, useful not only to preserve the tyres, but also to maximize corner exit, while the driver from Stevenage had opted for an exactly opposite approach, maintaining more internal lines on entry and travel which would allow him to cover as little ground as possible. Thanks to several long runs in turns 1 and 4, two of the most treacherous areas of the track, where there was still a lot of water and where it was easy to lose the rear as it was a downhill section, combined with Vettel's increase in pace, Hamilton had started to suffer a gap of several tenths on the lap, up to a gap of around four seconds from the standard bearer of the Scuderia di Maranello.

Having reached the thirtieth step, the time had come to understand what the next step was to take, to choose which direction to go. While on the one hand the engineers' hope was to delay the second stop as much as possible while waiting for the track to dry and allow the transition from intermediate to slick, the same could not be said for the drivers, who had repeatedly expressed their doubts regarding the fact that the track conditions could drastically change before the conclusion of the race. Therefore, the indications that arrived between the two parties were also different: the engineers asked Lewis to save the tires as much as possible, also going to the wettest areas along the straights, in order to lower the surface temperatures and prevent the rubber from degrading. , while Hamilton considered the only option according to which, in the case of a second stop, the only valid alternative would be to fit a second set of intermediate tires with which to get to the end. What changed the situation, however, was Sebastian Vettel's pit stop, which in reality Mercedes had not expected as confirmed via radio, also because at Ferrari they had probably missed by a few laps what would have been the ideal window to return and take advantage of those few laps of advantage in terms of performance that the new tire guaranteed over a more used one. This had changed the cards on the table, because from a situation in which the German team expected to have to remain behind the German for a long time, we had moved on to one in which Hamilton finally had a clear track and could push at his own pace as much as possible. that, having also overtaken Albon, who had ended up spinning in turn 4, it was Lewis himself who asked the pits to stay on track and avoid a second pit stop, continuing his re-competition against the two Racing Points, which were then only caught up a few rounds later. Thanks to the difference in pace and the help of the DRS, Lewis was also able to quickly get rid of Sergio Perez, taking the lead in the thirty-seventh lap. Precisely this choice to stay out, combined with excellent tire management, was the move that had guaranteed him success in the stage. To understand why, however, it is important to make a brief introduction to what the alternatives were in play for the English champion and why this strategy worked so well in his case.

First of all, as we were saying, Vettel's pit stop had clearly shifted the strategy towards delaying the pit stop as much as possible, hoping for dry conditions and, with hindsight, this choice also seemed to be supported by the times, which had clearly dropped once Hamilton had finally managed to run in clean air. Remaining on the track with an already visibly worn intermediate, the main concern was that, if the asphalt continued to dry, over long distances the tire would reach a level that would compromise not only its durability, but also its stability. of the same, accelerating its degradation and decreasing its performance, perhaps experiencing those unhealthy vibrations that could have compromised the integrity of the tire itself. A problem that could have completely changed the cards on the table and that perhaps would have forced Lewis to make a pit stop in an unfavorable window, causing him to lose several positions. But why didn't this happen and what are the factors that allowed the Englishman to get to the checkered flag without major problems? First of all, one aspect to take into consideration was the track conditions. For the entire duration of the Grand Prix, the engineers had asked their drivers several times to provide feedback on the conditions of the asphalt, in particular at what point it would be ready to switch to slick tyres. Towards the middle of the race, however, the riders had indicated not only that the track was still too wet to immediately fit dry tyres, but also that it would certainly still take a lot of passages to get to that point, given that the asphalt was progressing a lot. slowly. This had represented a fundamental element in the Englishman's strategy, because if the track had dried out quickly, the house of cards built up to that point by Lewis would have quickly fallen. The intermediate tyre, in fact, is designed to give its best in light rain conditions, when there is generally still a bit of water on the track which can keep the tire itself in the correct temperature range, avoiding the overheating that it would otherwise experience. on essentially dry asphalt. This is because the compound of this particular tire is extremely soft, in order to help riders bring it into the correct operating window as quickly as possible, especially in those situations where there is a lot of water on the track and, consequently, both the temperatures that the energies involved are much lower than what the teams would be used to under normal conditions, risking graining. On a track that is progressively drying out, however, the situation is reversed and the risk is to overheat it excessively, accelerating its degradation and worsening its performance, which is why it is not unusual to see riders literally move from the ideal line to go up those areas where there is still a lot of water, in order to reduce the temperatures on the outermost part of the tire as much as possible. A phenomenon also accelerated by the fact that in wet track conditions the teams tend to use higher pressures, in order to maximize the tire heating process on a reduced footprint, which would instead be detrimental in a dry situation, where the tire would end up slipping, increasing temperatures even further, as in a vicious circle.

What played a fundamental role in the English driver's strategy was therefore precisely the fact that the track had never properly dried out and, above all, it had not done so quickly, thus giving the intermediate time to wear out evenly and transform into a sort of slick, distributing the heat and a greater footprint on the ground. Even though the tire had seen some degradation, as confirmed by the team, the performances had nevertheless remained stable, so much so that the times of the seven-time world champion had not suffered an evident deterioration, but on the contrary, they continued to be extremely competitive even with the passage of time. of laps. Clearly, however, as much as he was in a favorable situation, there was always a limit point not to be reached, a point of no return, which required constant monitoring on the part of both the driver and the team, so as not to excessive stress on the tires and bringing them to a situation where a further stop would have been necessary. A concern that at Mercedes had reached about fifteen passes from the checkered flag, above all due to the progressive increase in vibrations from the tires, which were pushing the Anglo-German team to consider alternatives to reach the finish line in full safety. Among these there was also the possibility of stopping a second time, partly to protect the tyres, partly because in the event of a second downpour, the intermediate ones - now slick - mounted on car number 44 would never have been able to guarantee support necessary to finish the Grand Prix without difficulty. For this reason, first of all, about ten laps from the end, the Mercedes wall had opened the radio to understand how much Lewis was pushing and whether he could find those tenths useful to have the necessary seconds on his side to stop again and rejoin anyway before all. For his part, Hamilton had been quite clear that, even though he was trying to save the tires to get to the checkered flag, increasing the pace would not have been a practicable solution, but rather would have only ended up damaging the tires which in the final stages they had also seen those vibration phenomena previously felt worsen. With the possible arrival of rain at the end, Mercedes had rightly decided to take precautions, calling Hamilton back to the pits with two laps to go, so as to be able to guarantee him a set of tires that would keep him safe even if the track got further wet . A choice which, although it may have been acceptable, Lewis had decided not to follow, preferring to remain on the track: in addition to the fact that there were only a few passes left before the checkered flag, it was to be taken into consideration that the pit lane was extremely slippery and was there was a lot of stagnant water left, so the risk of hitting a wall even at low speed was always around the corner.

Before the Turkish event, the only driver left capable of worrying Hamilton on a mathematical level in the race for the world title was his teammate, Valtteri Bottas. The ninth place achieved in qualifying, however, certainly did not represent the ideal position to keep the fight for the world championship open, even if starting from the cleanest part of the grid could certainly have given him an advantage. In fact, the sprint when the lights went out was particularly positive, so much so that it allowed him to recover the position on the two Red Bulls and immediately move into the wake of the Renaults. What the Finn could not expect, however, was the fact that he would find himself in a situation where he would not have had the opportunity to approach Turn 1 with a more internal line, given the numerous cars present, which had forced him to extend the detached and ended up on the dirty and even wetter part of the track. Esteban Ocon's spin in Turn 1, due to contact with his teammate, had not helped from this point of view, because at the moment Bottas had applied the brakes to avoid the Frenchman, with the little grip available in there was nothing the Mercedes driver could do in that area of ​​the track to avoid ending up in a spin himself and, thus, in last position.

Fortunately for the Finn, the group in front of him had not taken off, so a few bends would have been enough to regain contact and start his comeback. Already in turn seven, in fact, Bottas was able to overtake both Lando Norris, who came wide following an error, and Romain Grosjean, thus moving behind Charles Leclerc, who despite himself was the author of a terrible start when the traffic lights went out. In an attempt to overtake the Ferrari driver too, the Mercedes driver had made the most of the turn eight, taking the inner trajectory for the braking turn nine, one of the best overtaking points on the entire circuit. An understandable move in itself, but which in reality would have paid a heavy price: although Bottas had actually lifted his foot off the accelerator rather early, braking at a point where the track was still so dirty and wet he had almost immediately locked up of the right rear tyre, essentially losing control of his car and coming into contact with Esteban Ocon, who was a few meters ahead of the Monegasque of the Red. Clearly, at the moment in which Valtteri had thought about that attack, his objective was not to overtake even the Frenchman from Renault, who was too far away to think of such an aggressive move, but having reached the tire lock so soon, there was no there was a lot he could have done to avoid the accident. In addition to the spin, two elements had further complicated his race: due to the contact, in fact, the steering system had been slightly damaged, causing the car to point to the left even on the straights. Furthermore, on the left side of the front wing, it could be seen how the footplate had been damaged, then getting stuck for a few turns in the bargeboard area. A significant problem for number 77, who, although he still managed to catch up with the rear of the group, like other drivers found himself essentially blocked due to the difficulties in completing overtaking without the aid of the DRS. Precisely for this reason, after a few laps the Finn opened the radio to ask for a change in strategy, anticipating the stop to move to the intermediate and complete an undercut on those in front of him.

A decision that had borne fruit and which had allowed him to recover some positions, but which would have only been the prelude to a disastrous afternoon. In fact, failing to get the tires up to temperature, Valtteri had struggled to find the rhythm and the multiple spins, six in total, had certainly not helped, especially for the latter they had occurred not so much due to a problem with the management of the car, but simply because in some race situations he either ended up on a very external and dirtier line, where the grip was less, or on one of those puddles of stagnant water, especially at the exit of turn 1. Errors, therefore, avoidable in themselves and which certainly do not reflect the Finn's skills even in these conditions, where in the past he had often proved competitive. At the end the team had also considered the opportunity to take a gamble and switch to dry tyres, but decided against it for various reasons. First of all, it was necessary to take into consideration which compounds Pirelli had brought for this weekend: expecting much more important performances and greater forces, the Italian manufacturer had brought the hardest compounds available in the entire range, which would have made it very complicated to bring them into temperature with asphalt so slippery and temperatures so cold, triggering graning. The second reason concerned the race situation: before the last stop, Bottas was still in fourteenth position, almost thirty seconds from the points zone and, most likely, even if the dry compound had given a performance margin, it would not have been enough to close that gap, so the game wasn't worth the candle. A bad day for the Finnish driver, one of the worst in recent years, but he will immediately be able to make up for it next week, when Formula 1 moves to the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, a track where Valtteri has often proven to be fast.

Racing Point: a two-sided race

After eleven years, Racing Point was finally back in front of everyone, taking pole position in the Turkish Grand Prix thanks to a fantastic performance by Lance Stroll, who has always been skilled at extracting the most from the package, especially in extremely wet situations. . First and third positions represented an excellent starting point on which to build a race that could see them not only fighting for a podium position, but also on the top step if all the pieces fell into the right place. A sensation that at Racing Point could also be felt immediately after the start in which, taking advantage of the clean side of the track, both Stroll and Perez managed to maintain the lead of the race, quickly gaining a quick advantage over their rivals. As in qualifying, also on Sunday the RP20 seemed at ease in the very first laps, especially in terms of tire warming, thus guaranteeing the opportunity for the drivers to find a better feeling and be able to dare both in cornering and braking, areas where in reality the opponents encountered greater difficulties. This was seen above all with the Canadian, who at the end of the first lap could count on an advantage over his teammate of almost four seconds, while his closest rival, Sebastian Vettel, was in third position but around eight and a half seconds . An advantage which, especially in the very first passages on cold tyres, constantly increased, until it reached steadily around fifteen seconds, when the group behind them had also begun to bring the tires into a good operating range and pick up the pace.

This proved to be extremely important for the strategy of the Anglo-Canadian team, which would thus have had plenty of time to analyze the times of the others and better understand what would be the ideal moment to stop and mount the intermediate. With Lance Stroll, this phase had arrived during the ninth lap, but the main concerns were not so much with the Canadian, but with his teammate. After Sebastian Vettel's pit stop, Max Verstappen finally had a free track to try to impose his pace and begin his comeback against the pacesetters. If the progression of the times of the Racing Point drivers had been positive, it had nothing to do with that of the Dutchman, who in just a few laps had managed to recover several seconds from the leading duo, much to worry the engineers of the Anglo-Canadian team, who had preferred to take precautions and also call Perez back as soon as possible, also asking him to push in the first moments on new tires and providing him with more aggressive mappings which would also have helped in the warm-up phase. Fortunately for the Mexican, the choice of the wall had paid off, allowing him to maintain second position despite the Dutchman coming out almost alongside him. From his side, there was also another factor: up until that moment, in fact, the use of DRS had not been enabled by the race direction, so any overtaking would have to be completed without the aid of the wing mobile. This clearly made Verstappen's job much more complicated, not only because the Racing Point Mexican tended to be extremely competitive in the traction phase, but also because the slight advantage in terms of top speed on the straights guaranteed him a little more safety . In fact, although the Red Bull rider tried to invent internal lines and intersections that would allow him to cover as little road as possible and to get closer to the one in front of him, in the crucial areas of the track, Perez always managed to build a little treasure that put him to protect themselves from attacks by those behind them.

Thanks to the various strengths of the two cars and the stalemate situation that had arisen at that moment, the only hope for Verstappen to actually attempt an attack that could make him gain was that the Mexican would make a mistake, perhaps in a specific area of ​​the track which would then open up a window for him to invent an overtaking move. An opportunity that had been created during the eighteenth lap, in which Perez had arrived slightly wide in turn nine after touching a puddle of water, thus losing the opportunity to make the most of the exit and bring more speed onto the straight following. In an attempt to stay in the slipstream, however, the Dutchman ended up spinning, thus leaving room for the Racing Point number 11 to momentarily take a breather. A situation which, however, only lasted a few laps, because just a few laps later a new threat appeared behind the Mexican, named Alex Albon. After overtaking Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, in fact, the Red Bull driver seemed to have found excellent confidence with his car, as also demonstrated by the times obtained, one second faster than his direct rivals, which had allowed him to quickly return to the exhaust of Perez's car. Even in this case, however, the same scenario that had been seen with Verstappen seemed to be repeated: the Racing Point representative made the most of the top speed of his RP20 and interpreted lines that guaranteed him maximum performance at the exit, while Albon, despite did everything he could to get close, he was never close enough to actually attempt a lunge at turn twelve. Fortunately, after a few laps under siege, a small mistake on the part of the Anglo-Thai had once again given Sergio the opportunity to come up for air and recreate a small treasure to manage for the future.

With a track that was gradually drying out and with a margin to manage, around the thirtieth lap it was time to do a recap of the race and understand what the next steps would be to take from there. To stop or not to stop? It was Perez himself who feared the possibility of a second stop, asking if there was the possibility of fitting a new set of intermediates. An eventuality that in reality they had already discussed in the pits as part of a broader plan, which would have seen the best chance being to wait for the track to dry and then switch to slick tyres. Initially, the Mexican himself had seemed rather negative about this possibility, but during the thirty-third pass, something had changed. From a strategy that until a few laps earlier seemed like a gamble, Sergio had opened the radio to tell his pit wall to take dry tires into consideration as a serious and valid alternative for the rest of the Grand Prix. A very delicate phase of the race, because in the meantime Perez had also managed to close the gap on his teammate, who was suffering significantly from front graining due to damage to the front wing of his car. Undoubtedly, having remained behind the Canadian for a few laps had negatively impacted the pace of the other Racing Point standard-bearer, also allowing the return of Lewis Hamilton, who was arriving with a pace unattainable for anyone. Stroll's pit stop had given Perez a clear track, but at that point the situation was already compromised: thanks also to the help of the DRS, which had been activated towards the middle of the race, it had been simple for the Englishman from Mercedes to get rid of the rivals and take the lead. Having lost his position over his rival, the doubt continued to be the same: stop or stay out. An important reference regarding the decision to be made on this decision came not only from the words of the Mexican previously pronounced, but also from his teammate, who had made a second stop only a few laps earlier: despite having just mounted a second set of intermediates, Stroll had started to show graining phenomena, which prevented maximum performance from being extracted from the car. Driven by these motivations, and by the fact that Max Verstappen was in their pit window at that moment, the Anglo-German team had decided to stay on track, hoping to be able to defend second place in the standings until the end. With the progressive wear of the tires becoming more and more evident, the only weapon in Perez's hands was to be able to manage the tires as much as possible, especially in turn eight, which is very harsh on the tyres.

After having done a great job throughout the race, it would have been a real shame to miss out on the podium in the last kilometres, which would have required a perfect lap. Unfortunately for him, however, a mistake in turn nine after slightly touching the patch of water that remained at the entrance gave Charles Leclerc the opportunity to overtake him and Sebastian Vettel to close further behind him. A challenge that was not over, however, because Perez was able to catch the Monegasque's slipstream and set his "trap", with a move thanks to which he demonstrated, once again, why many consider him a great rider. Approaching the braking point, Sergio had intelligently moved towards his right, on the driest trajectory and which would have guaranteed him greater grip, effectively preventing Leclerc from making the same move, thus remaining further inside, in a section in which outside from the ideal line there was still some stagnant water. A crucial choice which, like that of lifting his foot from the accelerator and anticipating braking, had led Leclerc to delay braking in turn, doing so in a more internal area where it would have been easy to lock up, as was then the case. actually verified, coming along. Thanks to an excellent move, Perez had managed to regain second place, but the threats behind him were not over yet. Thanks to the duel between the two, in fact, Sebastian Vettel had managed to close in on the Racing Point driver's exhaust, getting close enough to have a chance, albeit extremely limited, exiting the last corner. Precisely in these circumstances, Perez had made the difference for the second time, placing himself in the center of the curve as a sort of obstacle, which allowed him to go on the accelerator only with the car completely straight, reducing rear slip and maximizing traction phase. Two authentic driving gems that earned him a well-deserved second place despite an all-defensive finish.

If Sergio had managed to convert the starting position into his first podium of the season, the same could not be said for Lance Stroll, author of a two-sided race. If in the first part of the race the Canadian had been essentially perfect, immediately finding the rhythm and building a good advantage on which to manage the rest of the race, something had changed around the twenty-fifth lap, which would have represented the beginning of the decline. In reality, already in the previous laps, Stroll had highlighted a slight decrease in pace, but over the radio he had reassured the wall by saying that he was in a management phase. A situation which, however, a few laps later had begun to take a different turn, because although the times were still competitive, on car number 18 an annoying understeer began to be felt which, although initially it seemed to be manageable, as entered the rest of the race, it became an increasingly cumbersome problem. During the twenty-fifth lap, in fact, Lance had asked for clarification on what could be the reasons that had led to this understeer, receiving the answer that it could be a question of both consumption and temperatures, with the front tires starting to drop . Precisely for this reason it was also suggested to the Canadian to be a little more incisive in certain areas of the track, such as more aggressive braking in turn 1 or do less lift in turn 8, two sections where greater aggression could have helped maintain higher temperatures in the tires. In the following laps, the situation continued to become more and more serious, even though, for his part, Lance was following the instructions from the pits, especially for the graining on the front right. The wall's hope was to continue for as long as possible, until it would be possible to stop and fit a new set of dry tyres, for which continuous updates on the track conditions were requested, but the insistence on the part of of Stroll in reporting the difficulties with the car and asking for action to be taken had pushed the team to recall him early on the schedule. Initially, the Canadian himself, despite finding himself in a particularly difficult moment, seemed reluctant to follow this choice, asking to stay on the track, but on the following lap a new request from the wall convinced the driver to return. Hence the second stop to fit a new set of intermediates which, however, after a few laps seemed to return to having the exact same problems as the first set in terms of graining due to the impossibility of making the tires work in the correct temperature range , especially at the front, so it would have been inevitable to lose several positions, as actually happened. Given the first part of the race and the pace maintained by his teammate throughout the Grand Prix, it was reasonable to wonder how Stroll could have encountered such pronounced difficulties and whether something could have negatively influenced his performance. During the post-race checks, in which the technicians had the opportunity to check the car in detail, it was found that one of the "strakes" in the lower part of the front wing had moved from its ideal position, going affect the load generated in that area. It is worth mentioning the fact that, according to what the team declared, the element had not been completely damaged, so it would have been difficult to see it even externally from the images, but had simply moved, alternating the balance of the car. This would also explain why in real time it would have been difficult to understand the possible problem from the data, exactly like a few weeks ago in Imola at Mercedes, where initially the team was unable to fully understand the reasons for that loss of load despite the numbers available.

Ferrari: Vettel on the podium again

After a good performance at Imola in the race in terms of performance and tire management, the Turkish Grand Prix would have represented an important opportunity for Ferrari to compete on a circuit with characteristics more similar to others on the calendar. In the first three free practice sessions, with a slippery but still passable track, the Red team had proven competitive, making the most of the conditions to perform well, but the disappointment in qualifying, with both drivers out in Q2, had left much more than some doubts about what the chances of a comeback could be for the two standard bearers of the Maranello team on Sunday. It would therefore have been essential to make the most of the first laps, to hit the right moment to change compounds and make as few mistakes as possible.

An indication that Sebastian Vettel had fully understood, making himself the protagonist of his best start of the season, an aspect in which this year in reality he had often not particularly shone. An excellent release of the clutch from the clean side of the grid, as well as a good sense of positioning, had allowed the German to climb up to fourth place after very few corners, also putting Lewis Hamilton in his sights, who, as in Portimao, in the first Giri seemed to have chosen a very cautious approach. An error by the Englishman when braking into turn nine, however, had given the German the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and virtually move into the podium area, despite Max Verstappen proving to be a tough rival to manage behind him. In the early stages of the race, in such changeable and difficult to manage conditions, the objective was above all to keep the cars on the track and, from this point of view, Sebastian had been perfect, committing the least number of errors possible thanks to driving particularly cautiously: the same, however, could not be said for his opponents, in particular for Verstappen who, due to a long turn in turn twelve, had lost contact with those in front of him. Regardless of the mistake, the Dutchman had proven to be very competitive and, with particularly aggressive driving which led him to take corners a lot and try to cover as little road as possible, it had not been difficult to get back into Sebastian's exhaust, before the latter returned to the pits during the sixth lap to make the switch to intermediate tyres. The very first meters on the new compound had not been the simplest, especially due to the difficulties in carrying out the tire warm-up phase: a crucial aspect, because in reality it was a crucial phase for his strategy, given that Verstappen he had remained on the track to try to carry out an overcut on the German, which would then have succeeded when the Red Bull driver would have returned. An opportunity that also came from the fact that Vettel himself was engaged in another duel, the one with Lewis Hamilton, who after the stop had once again closed himself to one of his toughest rivals in his career, highlighting in particular the difference in terms of driving style between the two. As in the first stint, in fact, the Ferrari driver aimed for much more rounded lines, which not only put less stress on the tyres, but which also favored exit traction, essentially accelerating with a straighter single-seater, while, on the contrary, Hamilton maximized entry and travel, with much more internal and aggressive trajectories.

The entry of the Virtual Safety Car had meant that another driver could regroup behind them, namely Alex Albon, who was proving to be extremely competitive not only in terms of times, but also in his feeling with the car, especially when braking. This element had represented a fundamental point, because after the safety car returned to the pits, the Anglo-Thai driver had managed to overtake both Hamilton, thanks also to an error by the Englishman, and Vettel: in particular, with the latter Braking had made the difference, given that in turn seven he managed to brake to the limit without locking up. A confidence that had allowed him to take off quite quickly, while behind him the fight between Sebastian and Lewis would continue for a long time to come. If initially Vettel seemed to suffer a bit from the comparison, as the laps passed his pace slowly began to progress, until, towards the middle of the stint, he made a notable change to his race, increasing his pace and peremptorily leading Hamilton. behind his back. A pace among the fastest on the track which also demonstrated how the tire management work in the first phase had paid off: despite the favorable moment and despite the fact that he was managing to close the gap to those in front of him, the Ferrari team had reached time to make some calculations and understand what the path to follow would be shortly thereafter. Continue for as long as possible in the hope that the track could dry out to move onto slicks, or stop again and fit another set of slicks. The indications, in this case, came precisely from the German, who not only had underlined that it would most likely still take many steps before the asphalt dried, but who had also personally proposed the passage on a second set of intermediates. . A suggestion that, initially, had not been followed by the team and which, in reality, had cost the German several seconds, which could especially be appreciated in the comparison with Leclerc. If before the latter's stop, Vettel was around twenty seconds ahead of his teammate, by the time Sebastian stopped a few laps later, that gap would have dropped to just seven seconds, demonstrating that those extra laps which he had remained outside, despite requests to stop, had penalized SF1000 number 5 quite a bit. All this, of course, beyond the slow pit stop which had cost around three seconds longer than normal. While it is true that the idea was to wait for dry tyres, it was clear that fitting a second set of intermediate tires would still guarantee a certain level of security in terms of getting to the checkered flag without problems, so It would have been worth perhaps anticipating the stop, perhaps also trying to take advantage of that small window that had been created on Max Verstappen. Beyond that, the choice had now been made and the time had come to push again, taking advantage of the opportunity to overtake Lance Stroll who, for a few laps now, had started to experience major tire problems. . Although Sebastian had managed to get rid of the Canadian, the fight had also given Charles Leclerc the opportunity to rejoin and get into a useful position to attempt an attack on his teammate, who would only arrive a few laps later. With around twenty laps left, the situation was certainly not negative, given that he was in a good position and could even be fighting for the podium with a bit of luck, so in that phase it would have been very important to manage the tires were better, as Sebastian had also done in the first part of the second stint. A management that had paid off, because towards the end of the race, Sebastian had managed to lower the pace again, lapping at times that neither Sergio Perez nor his teammate were able to maintain.

An opportunity that had arrived thanks to a long shot from Perez in turn nine, which had thus given Leclerc the opportunity to approach and attempt an attack. The Monegasque's subsequent mistake, however, left the door open for Vettel who, as an excellent opportunist, didn't let it slip, slipping into the other SF1000 and taking a nice third place. After such a complicated season, in which, often having to start in traffic, he was unable to demonstrate his potential, reaching the podium in a race where he was finally able to show off his skills once again certainly represents a great satisfaction and a injection of confidence.