F1 | Russian Grand Prix: analysis of the race

After a three-race drought, Mercedes returns to winning ways, interrupting Ferrari's streak of successes. He makes it his own on a track that since its first edition has always seen the German team achieve first place, but if on previous occasions the victory had arrived in a way with a race managed from start to finish, this time it wasn't so simple being able to return home with the most coveted cup.

Lewis Hamilton took first place, doing well at putting himself in a position to exploit every opportunity that presented itself to him to finish the race in front of everyone: undoubtedly the Virtual Safety Car gave him a hand, but the strategy and pace race shown up to that point were two fundamental aspects for the final result, without which the Englishman would probably never have managed to bring home his ninth success of the season. Completing the Mercedes double was Valtteri Bottas, author of a race not at his level here in Sochi, but in which he did well to defend himself from Charles Leclerc in the second half of the race.

Ferrari returns to Maranello with a sad third place, the result of bad luck and race management that left much to be desired. The team orders already on the sixth lap, among other things in an extremely delicate moment of the race, the incorrect management of the pit stop and pit window phases, as well as yet another reliability problem, meant that the Red Maranello was unable to go beyond the last step of the podium, although in reality in the first laps the situation seemed to be going downhill. Sebastian Vettel has had his first retirement of the year, caused by a problem with the control unit on his single-seater which caused the MGU-K to KO. The German up to that point had seemed extremely competitive even compared to his teammate, and if it hadn't been for the team orders and the technical problems, it's not difficult to imagine that they would most likely have finished the race ahead of everyone like two weeks ago .

It wasn't a particularly simple weekend at Red Bull, but it can be seen rather as a sort of preparation for the Suzuka event, the home Grand Prix for motorsport partner Honda. Both the parent company and Toro Rosso, in view of the Japanese event, have decided to go for broke, fitting a new spec Power Unit. 4 combined with a new petrol, as confirmed by the drivers, which should come in handy in view of the next round of the world championship. For this reason, all four Honda-powered riders had to pay a five-place penalty on the starting grid, which undoubtedly did not work in their favor.

It was an extremely positive weekend for McLaren, once again capable of winning the title of "best of the rest", finishing ahead of everyone in the midfield. Both riders of the Woking team had an excellent performance, finishing in sixth and eighth place. Sergio Perez also shone, once again decisive for Racing Point, despite the race situations not working in his favor. Concluding the top ten were the Dane from Haas, who did well to finish in the points despite a penalty, and Nico Hulkenberg, penalized by some of the team's choices in terms of strategy. It wasn't as exciting a day for Toro Rosso, Alfa Romeo and Williams, all out of the points.

Ferrari and the secret of the control room

In retrospect, the Russian weekend for the Maranello team cannot help but be seen as a wasted opportunity, because the ingredients to achieve the fourth consecutive success, a result that had been missing since 2008, were all there. Thanks to Charles Leclerc's pole position and Sebastian Vettel's third place on the grid, the race seemed to be on the right track, especially after the German had managed to take the lead at the start, bringing the two SF90s ahead of everyone. And instead it happens that in the space of a few laps the world turns upside down, and that race that seemed to be almost in the safe becomes a defeat. This was also the case in Russia, where a questionable strategy and a natural problem with Sebastian Vettel's car gave Mercedes the chance to turn the race around and take home the entire spoils. On Sunday Ferrarista we saw a bit of everything, starting from the team orders imposed in the very first laps, passing through questionable decisions up to that control unit which, for the second time in the season, decides to give everyone the boot, depriving Mattia Binotto's team of another prestigious result.

Proceeding in order, however, the race of the two Ferraristi begins before the race itself, in the briefing held on Sunday morning. Sochi is a particular track and starting from pole position - in certain situations - can almost prove to be a disadvantage rather than something in favour, given its long straight which allows those behind to follow in the slipstream and attack the corners 2. Considering the result of qualifying, in which Charles Leclerc managed to take first place, while Sebastian Vettel was unable to go beyond third place, thanks to Lewis Hamilton's excellent lap which earned him the second row, the The strategy at Ferrari was clear: the objective was to ensure that the Monegasque made himself available to the team by providing a wake for his teammate, so that the German could overtake Hamilton and take the lead. The priority, therefore, was to be able to get both cars ahead of everyone, a factor that would certainly have facilitated Ferrari's race from a tactical point of view, also considering the different choice made by Mercedes to start with the mediums, an option that certainly provided more elasticity in terms of strategy. Once this was completed, positions would be exchanged in the race, so as to return the favor to Leclerc himself.

And during the first lap, in fact, everything goes as planned. Vettel gets off to a good start, immediately moving into second position, also taking advantage of Hamilton's bad start, following in the wake of Leclerc, who in turn, after looking at the mirrors, stays on the left to help his teammate, who takes the lead race. But it is precisely from this agreement and from this situation that all the misunderstanding arises which will then see the two Ferraristi as protagonists in the race and in the post-race. In the classic interviews everyone then gave their own different version regarding what the agreement was made before the race and perhaps for this reason it is more useful to report directly that of the team principal: "We had asked Charles to give the slipstream to Sebastian, because it was the best way to try to be first and second on the first lap. At that moment, however, it was a natural slipstream, because Seb had already overtaken Hamilton. Maybe we should have been even clearer with the guys before the race, but we will learn from this too,” commented Mattia Binotto.

In short, everything seems to revolve around this small but fundamental detail: did Leclerc provide the lead or did Vettel earn it himself? At this point it is useful to go and listen to the drivers' team radios with the team during the second lap at a time when the Safety Car had come out for the accident involving Romain Grosjean at the start. Both Vettel and Leclerc had been informed that the "start performance" was the same for both, therefore, according to the data available to the team, the two had started from their respective boxes in a comparable way. The problem arises not so much in this situation, but rather in what happens a few meters immediately after the start: to overtake Hamilton, who had not been the protagonist of an exceptional sprint given the lower grip offered by the medium compound tires compared to the soft ones of the two Ferraris, Vettel had not had the need to exploit his teammate's slipstream, but had finished it all alone without external help. Having therefore already taken second position and having already moved ahead of his Mercedes rival, at that point the road was clear for Sebastian and the logical conclusion is that in any case, even if he had not been helped by Leclerc, the German would have gone on to however, take the trail in a natural way, as confirmed by Binotto himself. In a situation without agreements, at that point the Monegasque would have had to try to defend himself by moving to the right to cover the inside, which however would have penalized him in the approach to Turn 2, giving Vettel the possibility of having a better entry from the outside to then subsequently lead the attack into turns 3 or 4, as we saw many during the Grand Prix. In short, from Vettel's point of view, the help of his teammate was completely irrelevant, because even without it, he would still have managed to overtake his Mercedes rival.

However, we must judge the situation from two points of view, also putting ourselves in Leclerc's shoes. From his perspective, the fact of having or not having overtaken Hamilton at the start was outside of what were the agreements, and for this reason Charles still made himself available to the team by providing the slipstream to his teammate without offering resistance, also because despite trying to resist , it would not have been very easy to maintain the position. For this reason it is clear that in a subsequent phase of the race, at least from his point of view, the Monegasque would have actually expected the agreement to be respected, exchanging positions in order to regain the lead of the race which he had gained with pole position, so much so that already during the first lap the Monegasque had raised the issue via radio: “Just for me to understand. The situation was pretty clear, right?” [“Just for me to understand. The situation was clear, correct?”, Ed.], were his words. A few seconds later from the garage it was confirmed that the situation was clear and that they would be in touch at a later time to discuss what to do: “Yes, we will come back to you. Everything is fine,” Leclerc's race engineer, Xavier Marcos, said via radio.

But this raises many questions. If Hamilton had had a problem on the grid or had stalled, how would the situation have evolved at that point? Could the two drivers have fought freely or would they have had to maintain their positions while also trying to protect each other, in order to maintain the lead of the race with both cars? Is it possible that all these scenarios were not taken into consideration, hearing the words after the race? In short, as stated by the Ferrari team principal, perhaps there would have been a need to be clearer about the possible scenarios that could have occurred and how to act in this regard. From this point of view, there was a lack of organisation, and it is something that the Italian team will pay dearly for in the rest of the race.

Nonetheless, at the red wall the initial reaction, given that the performance starts were the same, was to respect the agreement, and for this reason, again during the Safety Car period on the second lap, it was confirmed to both drivers that the team he was actually thinking about swapping positions. Also because, very frankly, considering the words we heard after the race and what happened in Singapore, it would probably have been complicated to explain a reverse decision to Charles, with all the possible controversy that this could have generated. There is no particular contraindication from the Monegasque in this regard, basically the situation he expected was emerging, while as regards Vettel the message was slightly more cryptic: “Copy. I was ahead in or after turn one, so your call.”. In short, from the German's point of view, what actually mattered was precisely the fact that he had overtaken Hamilton already before turn 1, as can be seen from the reconstruction above, so what would come next was all a given and natural, regardless of the fact whether Charles had resisted or not. For this reason, Vettel, having made his point of view known, decides to leave the decision on the matter to the team with that "your call". It should not be seen as a refusal in itself, but rather as a clarification and clarification regarding what perhaps had not been foreseen. The race continues under the Safety Car and the wall continues to remind you to manage the tires and brakes as best as possible and to maximize the full throttle zones on the restart.

Finally the race resumes after the neutralization period during the fourth lap, in which Sebastian Vettel immediately makes the difference as in Singapore, managing to gain those meters that would have protected him from a possible attack. This, however, clashes with the bad restart of his teammate, not particularly brilliant especially in the final part of the track: in the stretch that separates the penultimate and the last corner, in fact, the Monegasque ends up wide, ending up with the wheels on the external part where there is a plastic insert that offers less grip. A behavior to keep in mind because it will recur later in the race.

Things start to get interesting starting from the end of the fifth lap, the one in which Vettel receives the first communication regarding letting his teammate pass. As the wall had already made clear via radio in the previous rounds, the choice made was still quite clear: regardless of how the situation had evolved, the priority was to respect the agreement, putting Leclerc back in front. However, there were some small complaints from the German, once again underlining his point of view regarding the departure: “Do you know that? But I would have got him anyway”. In short, Vettel's intent was to underline once again how Leclerc's help in itself had not been decisive in overtaking Hamilton and that, consequently, the attack on his teammate would have taken place anyway. But what is even more interesting is the immediately following communication uttered by Vettel himself, that "but let's break away for another two laps, let me know". Why is this communication essential? If on the one hand it can undoubtedly have a "selfish" meaning, in the sense that I am ahead and I want to stay there (at the end of a champion you cannot take away the pleasure and pleasure of being in the lead, hammering out times unattainable for anyone), on the On the other hand, it is important to read how the situation was evolving at that time. Sebastian led, followed by Charles just over a second, who in turn had a lead of around two and a half seconds over Lewis Hamilton. And the four-time world champion knew this, because the times and gaps from the Englishman had also been communicated to him via radio. From this point of view, the German driver was very smart and intelligent on a tactical level, because exchanging positions at that moment would have also been detrimental to the Reds themselves, as this would only have given Hamilton the opportunity to get closer. In fact, if we hypothesize a situation in which the plan actually went ahead according to Ferrari's prerogatives, then Sebastian would have had to find the ideal point in which to slow down that second and a half enough to let Charles pass and at the same time he would also have had to try to stay as much as possible. as close as possible to his teammate. Having said that, the problem is that following this line Hamilton would probably have found himself more or less a second behind Vettel: of course, the German would have maintained second place, but at the same time, if Charles' pace had not been sufficient to create a significant gap, then Sebastian would have found himself stuck in a situation in which not only would he have ruined his tyres, but in which he could have even given the DRS to Hamilton. And this was absolutely to be avoided, because in this way it would have favored the rival precisely in his main weak point, not to mention that this would have allowed Lewis to contain the gap despite being on medium tyre, which could have brought a considerable advantage in terms of strategy later in the race.

The objective at this point was simple: take up space and try to gain as much as possible on Hamilton, the exchange was not feasible. And it is no coincidence that already during that same sixth lap, the four-time world champion set record split times, setting the fastest time of the race. History repeats itself during the following lap, with the team again radioing Sebastian to give up the position, adding to the gap between Leclerc and the Silver Arrows driver. Even in this case, however, Vettel's response was negative: “Negative. Tell him to close up.” [Negative, tell him to come closer, ed.]. Indeed, paradoxically Sebastian himself continued to take up space, placing record laps repeatedly, as can be seen from the table above. At the same time, however, Charles received another communication: as in the previous lap, in this round too the Monegasque driver was told that the Heppenheim driver would let him pass, which did not happen. Following Vettel's communication, the wall opened the radio again to Leclerc to tell him to close the gap and that the exchange would take place in the following lap. At this point, understandably, number 16 opens the radio in turn, making it clear that closing the distance would not be easy: “You put me behind. I respected everything. We will speak later. But now it's difficult to close the gap, obviously” [You put me behind, I respected everything. We'll talk later. But now it's difficult to close the gap obviously]. But why couldn't Charles get closer? The first reason is Vettel's pace, who was undoubtedly not sparing himself, the second is that in those few laps in which Leclerc had tried to stay behind his teammate, he had ended up overheating the tyres, thus being forced to lose in terms of absolute performance.

The situation is also repeated during the eighth lap, in which Sebastian is told “Starting to close the gap. Let him by. He's 1.4 behind”, to which the German will not actually respond. As in the previous lap, the wall communicates to Leclerc that he will have a clear path on this lap, a situation which also did not occur in this case. It is important to underline that, however, Leclerc's advantage over Hamilton had remained almost constant up to that moment, so if thinking of reversing positions during the sixth lap was almost utopian, it certainly had not become a viable solution only 3 laps later late with a similar gap. The cards on the table change, however, during the ninth lap, when Vettel is told that he is on plan C, while Laurent Mekies, the Ferrari sporting director who was already a protagonist in Singapore, speaks again on Leclerc's radio: “Charles we will do the swap a bit later on. Lewis is a bit close and we want to push now. We will do it later. Just focus on your race. Thank you.” [Charles, we'll do the swap later. Lewis is close and now we want to push. We'll do it later. Focus on the race. Thank you., ed.]. It is clear that even in Ferrari they had finally understood what Sebastian had arrived at a few laps earlier, namely that making the exchange at that moment of the race was a counterproductive and risky choice, postponing everything to another phase of the race, probably the pit stop. For his part, Leclerc, unlike Singapore, remained rather calm, explaining the situation from his point of view and advising the team to focus on the management itself: “I completely understand. The only thing is that I respected, I gave him the slipstream, no problem. Then I tried to push at the beginning of the race but I overheated the tire. But anyway, it's no problem. Manage the situation. “ [I completely understand. The only thing is that I respected (the agreement), I gave him the slip, no problem. Then I tried to push at the start of the race but I overheated the tyres. But anyway, it's not a problem. Manage the situation, ed.]

Temporarily free from the team orders, the two Ferrari drivers continued their race, with Vettel continuing to set record times that were unattainable for his opponents, especially for his teammate, over whom he ended up taking a significant advantage. To testify to the fact that the German had a gear at that moment there are two situations: the first is the time table, which clearly shows how Sebastian, even at the moment when Charles was told to push (lap 16) via radio, always had maintained an important pace, which only Hamilton managed to equalize towards the end of the stint in conjunction with the drop in tires on the number 5's car. The second comes from the onboard cameras. It is in fact interesting to note how in the first part of the race the roles were reversed compared to qualifying: if with empty tanks the one who suffered and who often ended up wide was Sebastian, with full tanks the situation was reversed, given that Charles was the one who ended up more frequently in the outer part of the track, going on that plastic part that provides less grip. In short, the 4-time world champion was driving in a significantly cleaner manner at that stage of the race, and it is no coincidence that Leclerc was then told to improve his speed at the apex of the corner on the very track where he was riding. suffering in terms of output.

The race continues until the 22nd lap, when Ferrari decides to call Leclerc back to the pits to implement the exchange between the two drivers. The tactic was simple: call the number 16 back to fit him with a new set of tyres, let him manage to close the gap suffered in the first stint with the split times and, only at that point, call Sebastian back for a stop, letting him naturally go out behind his teammate. team, but with a reduced gap, in order to give him the chance to fight for success on the track. And in fact the subsequent laps follow precisely this script. It should be underlined that in reality the new tyre, given the little degradation found, was not making a clear difference compared to those who remained on the track, especially in the first and second sectors, with the only and last intermediate time representing the possibility of earning substantially, so much so that it took Leclerc four laps to be able to get back into his teammate's pit window. For his part, Vettel did not make any major complaints over the radio regarding the decision taken by the team, limiting himself to saying that at that moment his rear tires were starting to wear off, perhaps as a subtle request to stop, even though he did not specifically request it.

Acceptable choice or not, this remains what Ferrari has decided. The problem is that in itself the Maranello team, in making this decision, did everything that was possible to do wrong in its management. To address this discussion, however, we need to ask ourselves a question: what did they want to do at Ferrari? Protect a certain victory with Vettel or put everything at risk for a possible double with the roles reversed? It is clear that the Maranello team chose the second option, but by doing so they exposed themselves to all the risks involved during the pit stops.

Naturally the Maranello team, in order to facilitate the exchange of positions, decided to recall Leclerc first, although generally priority for stopping is given to whoever is in front, unless particular situations such as the one that arose in Singapore . At that point, however, Vettel would never have been able to return to the pits for two reasons: the first is that there was simply the need to wait for Charles to complete the undercut to the detriment of his teammate, while the second is that there was still the need to go and cover on Hamilton, who at that moment, it is worth remembering, was on a strategy that allowed him greater flexibility. So far nothing bad in itself. The problem arises when Ferrari decides to recall Sebastian, as soon as Leclerc had managed to get into the pit window and secure his position: clearly the wall decided to recall him at the first useful moment in our opinion to ensure that at the moment to which he would then exit the pit lane, Vettel would have found himself close enough to be able to play his chances of victory anyway. A sort of restitution for what was taken away. By doing this, however, Ferrari did exactly what they shouldn't have done, i.e. outsmart Hamilton and expose themselves to the risk of losing track position. Because at the time of Vettel's stop, Leclerc had not yet managed to re-enter what was the pit windows in case of VSC of the English Mercedes champion. What does this mean? That if, after Sebastian's stop, a Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car had entered the track, even if not caused by one of the two Ferrari drivers, then Lewis would certainly have rejoined in front, taking the lead of the race. And it is a serious mistake, because in reality Leclerc really lacked a handful of seconds to be able to get back into that window and maintain first position in the event of the entry of an SC.

At Ferrari they perhaps committed a sin of presumption, thinking they already had the race in hand when in reality they didn't. They sinned by arrogance by trying to achieve a complicated double with the roles reversed, exposing themselves to all the risks involved, rather than taking home a certain victory. A mistake paid dearly, because exactly on the same lap comes the episode that turns the race on its head: Sebastian Vettel is forced to stop due to a technical problem on his car, causing the Virtual Safety Car to come into play. In this way Hamilton was able to stop and save precious seconds on his stop, a factor that allowed him to return to the track ahead of everyone, even ahead of Leclerc. The Monegasque still managed to maintain second position, but the damage was already done. It is a good rule in situations like these to first secure the victory and only then stop. To do this, Ferrari would have had to leave Sebastian out for a couple of more laps in order to maintain track position, and then call him back to the pits only when Leclerc had closed the pit window on Hamilton. In all of this it is worth pointing out that there would have been no particular problems for Vettel, as at that moment he still had a good advantage over Lewis and the pace was actually still good, two factors which would also have allowed him to avoid a possible undercut precisely on the part of the Englishman. Obviously, however, this would have clashed with Ferrari's need to have the German champion return immediately behind his teammate after the stop, given that wanting to secure the victory first, Sebastian would then return to the track with a gap probably around or above five seconds, losing any chance of victory. The problem is that this is exactly the situation that Ferrari themselves have been looking for, needlessly complicating their lives to do something extremely complicated about a deal that no one agreed on, rather than securing a safe and comfortable victory.

But what happened to the four-time world champion and why did he have to retire? Already in the first meters after exiting the pit lane it was evident that something on the SF90 number 5 was not working properly, so much so that the German remained in seventh (not even on the limiter) until the end of the straight, a sign that there was probably a problem in the hybrid or thermal part. Sebastian immediately tried with great clarity to identify the problem, concluding from his brief analysis that the support of the MGU-K was missing: for this reason he also tried to activate the hybrid boosts with the K2 and the K1 Plus, in order to understand when the situation was serious and if it could be resolved, but this is a stalemate. He then decides to immediately notify the wall, which had naturally also noticed the malfunction. But a few laps later came the communication that no one would ever want to hear from Ricciardo Adami: “And box. Stop the car now. Stop the car now.” At that point, well aware of what the problem could be, the only thing Vettel could do was look for the safest place to sadly park his Lina. Mattia Binotto gave some more information on the reasons that forced the Ferrari driver to retire in the classic interviews: “There was a problem with the Power Unit control unit and we lost the isolation of the single-seater. For safety reasons we must stop immediately,” were the words of the team principal. In the post-race there was a long discussion about whether the German could or could not bring the car back to the pits avoiding the Safety Car coming out: the answer is absolutely no. In cases like this, where a malfunction of the electrical part of the single-seater is involved, the team always pays great attention to the safety of the drivers, requiring them to stop the car immediately, as Ricciardo Adami did. The safety of the drivers comes first of all, so much so that it is up to the engineer himself to instruct the driver on how and when to get out of the car: a similar episode could be the one in which Daniel Ricciardo was the protagonist in Bahrain, where following a malfunction of the MGU-K, the wall had asked the Australian to stop immediately and wait for confirmation from the engineers regarding when and how to exit. Vettel himself knew very well that it was a problem that could have involved the electrical part and one cannot joke about safety, given that, as far as the engineers and the driver himself knew at the time, there was also the risk of taking the shock, so much so that Sebastian himself was asked to jump from the car in a "safe" way, i.e. by making a jump with his feet together. The single-seater itself also confirmed the danger of the situation, as can be seen from the red-lit LEDs near the roll bar, which indicate to the engineers and stewards whether or not it is safe to touch the car: red represents the highest risk level. high, and to intervene you have to wait for them to change color. Vettel followed the procedure to perfection, parking near an escape route as required by the regulations: it should also be noted that the four-time world champion was also considerate towards the stewards themselves, instructing them to wear gloves and to pay attention to the condition of the car.

Ironically, however, it was precisely the retirement of the number 5 that gave Mercedes the opportunity to take the lead by taking advantage of the entry of the Virtual Safety Car, thus returning ahead of Leclerc. The Monegasque, who had only stopped a few laps earlier, found himself at that point in a complicated situation: given that he was sure of losing position to the Englishman anyway, the choice had shifted to rejoining again to fit a new set of soft tires to catch up with the Mercedes drivers in terms of compound but losing the position to Valtteri Bottas, as had initially been proposed by Charles himself, or maintain second place but on medium tyres, therefore at a disadvantage in terms of compound but with the certainty of maintaining the track position. At first the team's choice was to stay on the track, but on the following lap the situation was reversed. The wall decides to ask his driver again what his intentions are, stop with the knowledge of ending up behind Bottas, or stay on the track. After the request for some clarifications regarding exactly how many positions he could have lost in the event of a stop, the number 16 is convinced, communicating via radio: “Yeah maybe we should take the risk.” Leclerc returns to the pits, thus losing second place to the Mercedes Finn, but with the advantage (on paper) of being on the soft compound and not the medium. A move that in reality did not pay off, given that the young talent of the Red team was never able to actually attack the rival of the "Silver Arrows", remaining blocked until the checkered flag. But why was Charles never able to make himself truly dangerous, despite having all the hybrid boosts at his disposal? Sochi is a strange track, which although on paper could offer numerous overtaking opportunities, these do not always turn into real opportunities. The first point at which to actually attempt an attack is at the braking point of turn 2 at the end of the long straight: the problem is that that same stretch is preceded by the third sector, the most technical one of the track, made up of numerous 90° bends where the Mercedes throughout the weekend he made the difference compared to his rivals. And it was precisely at that point that Leclerc lost a lot of time, often ending up making various errors, such as blocking and long runs, also due to the dirty air coming from the car in front. So when he approached the last corner, the one that leads onto the long straight, the Monegasque already found himself with that small gap which, despite the help of the DRS, did not allow him to get close enough to the braking point to attempt concretely an attack. A similar argument can also be made for the second DRS area, where, although the confirmation of the curves is different, the number 16 always ended up having that small gap at the beginning of the area in which it was possible to activate the mobile wing which, despite the difference in speed, it didn't really make it possible to attack.

From a race that seemed within reach, Ferrari returns home with a miserable haul, a third place which cannot represent a satisfactory result given how the race was going. The Red had all the cards to play for the victory, even a double with a "normal" race, but it wanted to try a dangerous game for which it paid the consequences, doing exactly everything it shouldn't have done wrong. Call it arrogance, presumption or naivety, but at the end of the day what matters is the final result, which clearly hasn't arrived. Was it more important to win or put everything at risk to implement a strategy, which, although correct towards the agreements made in the debrief on Sunday morning, could mean losing everything? If in Singapore the Cavallino team had managed everything perfectly, knowing how to perfectly choose the moment in which to stop, knowing how to impeccably read how the race was evolving, especially with Sebastian Vettel, in Sochi the wall was not at the same level , paying heavily for mistakes that could have been avoided. The positive aspect is that the SF90 also proved to be very competitive on the Russian track, taking pole and completing an extremely positive first part of the race. This is an extremely encouraging sign, which confirms the progress also on a different track from those previously addressed. Nonetheless, there is clearly a lot of bitterness about the final result, especially considering the path of evolution shown in recent events. The next commitments will be a real litmus test for the SF90, with two very technical circuits like that of Suzuka, especially the first sector, and the high-load one in Mexico City, at high altitude, where the differences between the Power Units terms of maximum power become thinner.

Mercedes: fortune favors the bold

Strategy, pace and luck. These are the three key words that characterized the Russian Grand Prix at Mercedes. Well aware of not being able to compete with the Ferrari on the flying lap, the German team focused on a different approach, favoring the strategy for the race. This is why both drivers opted to start on the medium compound, a compound that could have offered greater flexibility regarding strategies or that could have lent a hand especially in the case of the entry of a Safety Car, despite at the same time Mercedes were also aware that it wouldn't be easy to keep up with the two Reds, especially in the first stint given the tire disadvantage.

A choice that naturally didn't pay off at the start, where Lewis Hamilton, thanks to a less than perfect gap, was immediately overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, losing that second position deservedly achieved the day before. The Englishman immediately tried to close the door on his German rival, also trying to follow in the wake of Charles Leclerc to defend himself, but everything was in vain and Vettel managed to complete the overtaking already before turn 1. Lost second place , the greatest danger at that moment was once again behind him, because Carlos Sainz Jr. had managed to exploit the trails in front of him to come alongside and overtake Hamilton on the straight. Only a good braking by the English champion meant that Lewis managed to maintain his third position, while his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, had to settle for losing his position at the first major braking to the detriment of the Spaniard from McLaren. The Finn will only manage to recover fourth place on the seventh lap, but by then his gap to the lead will be around nine seconds.

The race continues and in the first part of the stint exactly what was expected happens: the Ferrari, especially in the hands of Sebastian Vettel, is very fast, which allows it to create a small gap, although not enough to consider itself completely safe, especially considering that the Maranello team's idea was to make an exchange between their two standard bearers. The situation begins to change around the 7th lap, when the average starts to work and Lewis manages to significantly lower his pace, remaining slower than Vettel, but equaling Leclerc's times. An error in the second sector of the tenth lap, however, slowed down his run-up, causing him to lose over a second: however, it remains clear that Lewis seemed to have a better pace than the Ferrari's Monegasque, continuing to recover a few tenths at each lap. Towards the end of the stint the English champion also managed to set times similar to those of Vettel, a fundamental aspect for the continuation of the race.

But it is in the laps following Leclerc's stop on lap 21 that we can appreciate why Mercedes chose to start with the medium. Vettel's times began to rise slightly, while those of the two standard bearers of the Anglo-German team remained almost constant. Most likely the pit wall of the "Silver Arrows" was expecting a greater degradation of the soft, similar to what was seen on Friday, but the improvement of the track combined with the care with which Vettel managed his tires in the first stint , meant that although there was indeed a slight degradation, this was not as marked as many expected. The choice to start with the average gave Mercedes a triple opportunity: to maintain more constant times, to be ready for excessive degradation by shortening the second stint, without taking into account the most important one, namely the possibility of staying out longer by running on a acceptable but with the hope that an SC or a Virtual Safety Car could come out. And this is a choice that paid off, because right after Vettel's pit stop, the German had to stop due to a technical problem, causing the Virtual Safety Car to enter the track. This allowed the two Mercedes drivers to take advantage of the opportunity and return to the pits to make their stop: as we had previously explained, Ferrari made the big mistake of not being ready for such an eventuality, leaving the VSC window uncovered precisely of Hamilton. In this way the Englishman was able to return to the track ahead of everyone, taking the lead in the race on the soft tyre. The decision of the Scuderia di Maranello, together with that of the driver, to recall Leclerc for an additional stop at a later time, meant that Valtteri Bottas also had the opportunity to overtake the Monegasque, taking himself to second place.

From that moment on, the race was all downhill for Mercedes, who were able to put their cards on the table and play according to their own terms. On the restart after the Safety Car, Lewis Hamilton did well to immediately take off, gaining those vital seconds to protect himself from a possible attack by Leclerc if he managed to overtake Bottas. This small but significant advantage meant that the English champion was also able to better manage his tyres, arriving in the final stage of the race with tires still in excellent condition, enough to set an impressive record lap, unreachable even for Ferrari . Valtteri's contribution was also fundamental in all of this, as he actually played a subpar race by his standards in Sochi, which was strange given his score in Russia. After the Safety Car, the Finnish driver was the protagonist of a good defense on Charles Leclerc, making the most of all the strong points of his car, especially in the third sector: Bottas thus managed to bring home a good second place, completing a Mercedes one-two that seemed impossible after a few laps.

The German team returns home with heavy points, but aware that there is still work to be done to beat this Ferrari: it is important to underline how, however, in reality the W10 has not fared badly in the last few outings, on the contrary, often in the race it has also proved to be faster than the SF90, but what continued to pay was the toll in qualifying, strategies and race situations, which on the contrary proved to be fundamental for success in Russia. Even though the results don't prove it, the German single-seater has always maintained a high level of performance. For this reason, as confirmed by technical director James Allison, a new aerodynamic package should arrive shortly which will further refine the creation of the Stuttgart team, relaunching the challenge to the Red on a track on which in recent years the "Star" cars have they always won.

The challenge in the middle of the group

While there was no shortage of surprises in the top positions, the battle in the center of the group was also quite lively, offering various insights. Undoubtedly the one who emerges victorious from the Russian event is McLaren, capable of taking home a sixth and an eighth place despite the Virtual Safety Car having played more against them than to their advantage. It was also a positive day at Racing Point, where the usual Sergio Perez once again made the difference by taking a very precious seventh place, useful above all for the constructors' classification, while his teammate, Lance Stroll remained on the fringes of the area points. In the top ten, however, the name of Kevin Magnussen appears, lucky in the entry of the Safety car which helped him from a strategic point of view, but also good at managing to score points despite a penalty at the end of the race for not having rejoined in a suitable way. safe on the track. At Renault, the Russian event feels like a wasted opportunity, thanks to the accident involving Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and a negative strategy that didn't allow Nico Hulkenberg to get the car where it deserved. Black day for Toro Rosso, Alfa Romeo and Williams, all outside the top ten.

Undoubtedly the news of the weekend for McLaren cannot fail to be the confirmation of the transition from the Renault Power Unit to the Mercedes ones in 2021. A choice that can be shared, given that we are unlikely to see the Woking team fighting for the world championship anytime soon, so at least it makes sense to obtain the best Power Unit available (difficult to think of being able to see a Ferrari-powered McLaren) while remaining a customer. It is important to underline that, however, in the next season the English team will continue to receive the engines of the transalpine engineer, and then only in 2021 make the switch to those of Mercedes: a supply agreement that will not concern the gearbox, which will continue to come Made in Woking. Returning to the race, it is worth mentioning the excellent sixth place of Carlos Sainz Jr., who did well to exploit the slipstream at the start to overtake Valtteri Bottas and move to fourth place in the first laps, before the Finn returned the favor a few laps later late. The Spaniard remained steadily in fifth position until Max Verstappen, who started with a 5-place grid penalty due to the engine replacement of his car ahead of the Suzuka round, was unable to take it away from him with an overtaking move with the DRS at the braking point of turn 2. The exit of the Virtual Safety Car undoubtedly penalized the color bearers of the Woking team, given that both drivers had already stopped previously: it was above all Lando Norris who paid the price, who until at that moment he was having an excellent race, but which saw him lose a position to Kevin Magnussen, also favoring the return of Alexander Albon, who started from the back after an error in qualifying. From there to the flag the young Englishman had to fight with Sergio Perez and the Anglo-Thai Red Bull driver, but lost both duels. However, he managed to keep Nico Hulkenberg behind him for a long time, before launching the decisive attack in the final laps, also thanks to some more aggressive mapping, which allowed him to gain a few meters and get to safety. At the end of the day a precious eighth place was achieved, especially useful in view of the constructors' championship.

One of the drivers of the day is undoubtedly Sergio Perez, who once again did well to make the most of his Racing Point and finished in the points. At the start the Mexican was lightning fast, proving agile in exploiting every little space on the track to gain four positions compared to the starting grid, thus moving up to seventh place, immediately behind the two McLarens. Sergio was the protagonist of a good battle with Nico Hulkenberg, before the latter passed him on the 15th lap. As happened for other drivers, the exit of the Safety Car had a significant impact on the Racing Point driver's race, causing him to lose position to Kevin Magnussen and favoring Alexander Albon's comeback. Once the safety car returned, Perez was the protagonist of several duels, including two nice overtakings on Lando Norris and Kevin Magnussen, taking home a vital seventh place for the team. As for his teammate, Lance Stroll, the Canadian also made a good start, although in reality he never managed to get into the points before his rivals' pit stops. In the case of Stroll, however, the Safety Car gave him a big hand, bringing him right into the top ten and providing him with a concrete chance to bring home a good result: but precisely at the moment that saw the conclusion of the Virtual Safety Car and the As the Safety Car entered, Lance was caught by surprise and lost position to Nico Hulkenberg, which would mark his race. The Canadian tries for a long time, trying several times to stay close to the French team's car, but at the end of the race it will be a stalemate and Lance will have to settle for eleventh position.

However, Kevin Magnussen managed to finish in the top ten, author of a good performance. After a dark qualifying, in which he missed the opportunity to enter Q3 due to an error in his fastest lap, the Dane redeemed himself in the race, immediately moving into the top ten, unlike his teammate, Romain. Grosjean, victim of an accident that put him out of action in the initial stages. Also in this case, the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car worked in his favour, allowing him to reduce his stop time and recover some positions. Naturally, the difference in pace compared to more highly rated opponents then played against him, seeing him slip in the rankings. The most important moment is perhaps the duel with Sergio Perez during the 44th lap, where to defend himself from the Mexican's attack, Kevin went wide when braking at turn 2 and ended up on the escape road. In the "event notes" drawn up by the race director, it is indicated that if a driver finds himself in a situation similar to the one in which the Dane was the protagonist, then he would then have to return to the track safely following a pre-established route , staying to the left of the polystyrene signs. Where is the problem? In that specific situation, Magnussen had already passed the apex of the curve and having to follow the route imposed by the race direction would have meant widening completely to the left, slowing down significantly to be able to follow the first signpost and at the same time staying away from the wall, thus wasting a lot of time.

The Dane considered that all this was dangerous given the speed and rapidity with which the situation evolved and therefore decided to cut the first polystyrene sign, which also allowed him to have a quicker return to the track. For this infringement, the stewards decided to give the Haas driver a five-second penalty which no one took well, including the team principal, Guenther Steiner, who expressed his disappointment in the post-race team radio. In the final laps Kevin pushed hard, also supported by more aggressive mapping, in order to gain those seconds that would have allowed him to succeed and enter the top ten despite the penalty. In the end, the Dane only lost position to Lando Norris, still gaining an excellent ninth place.

The Russian Grand Prix at Renault smacks of mockery. After both drivers had managed to enter the top ten on Saturday, the French team expected to be able to confirm the result also on Sunday, bringing both cars to the points. Instead, from the first lap, it became clear that this would be an extremely complicated objective, thanks to the accident involving Daniel Ricciardo in turn 4. The Australian was involved in a three-way collision with Romain Grosjean and Antonio Giovinazzi , coming out at the back of the group with a punctured left rear tire. A more cautious start for his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, who still remained in the top ten. In the subsequent stages of the race, the German was the protagonist of a nice overtaking on Sergio Perez, before getting stuck behind Lando Norris despite the feeling that he had a better pace on his side. At this point the French team, to get rid of the Englishman and try a sort of undercut, makes a bad decision, calling its driver back to the pits very early. Anticipating the stop, however, he was sure that Nico would go out into traffic, even behind Giovinazzi, so in hindsight it is still difficult to understand the reason for this decision. To further complicate things, there was also a disastrous pit stop, in which many seconds were lost. All of this was most likely caused by the green light of the traffic light turning on for an instant, which pushed the man with the trolley to lower the car when in reality the left front tire had not yet been removed. The traffic light, which can be seen at the top left in the image, has in fact two sides, one that points towards the driver and one that points towards the mechanic with the jack: it is precisely this that signals whether or not the pit stop has been completed, which is why it is plausible to imagine that the error of the trolley operator is essentially due to the malfunction of the system.

This meant that time was wasted in getting the car up on the stands again, having the missing cover on the left side removed and waiting for the mechanics to put the new one on, with everything that this situation could mean in chronometric terms. The combination of these two factors meant that if before stopping Hulkenberg was just over a second behind Lando Norris, after the stop the gap became well seconds, causing him to also lose the position to the detriment of both Racing cars. Point, thanks to the entry of the VSC. But it is precisely here that the driver from Emmerich am Rhein makes the difference, taking advantage of the short period between the conclusion of the Virtual Safety Car and the entry of the Safety to take Lance Stroll by surprise and overtake him in turn 13, bringing himself back into top ten. An overtaking that was actually useless, because shortly after the team decided to call him back to the pits to make a further stop, sending him back onto the track again behind the Canadian from Racing Point. Nico then managed to overtake him for the second time on lap 37, but from then on his race presented no sharp details, as he was again stuck behind Lando Norris for a long time until the checkered flag.

Extremely complicated day for Toro Rosso, Alfa Romeo and Williams. As far as the Italian team is concerned, unfortunately it is worth highlighting the unlucky weekend of which Daniil Kvyat was the protagonist in front of his home crowd: twice in free practice he was forced to end the session early due to a problem on the Power Unit, which then also prevented him from competing in qualifying, in which he would have started last in any case due to the replacement of some components of the Power Unit on his single-seater in anticipation of the Suzuka appointment. In the race, despite him starting from the back, the Russian actually put in a good performance, also taking advantage of the strategy of being the only one to start on the hard tyre. After even getting back into the points, overtaking his teammate and keeping Alexander Albon behind him for a long time, the Virtual Safety Car gave the Russian the opportunity to stop and make his stop, coming out right on the edge of the top ten. But in such an unlucky weekend, Daniil's race couldn't have another twist: all the efforts made up to that point became in vain when the pit wall had to recall its driver to the pits due to a problem to the set of tires fitted only two laps earlier. This caused him to sink back down the rankings, compromising his chances of getting a good result. Moving on to the Alfa Romeo-Sauber, after a good qualifying, all expectations were shattered during the first lap: Kimi Raikkonen was the protagonist of a jump start, which made him end up at the back of the group when he tried to recover the clutch by starting paradoxically late, while Antonio Giovinazzi was the unwilling victim of an accident in turn 4, sandwiched between Daniel Ricciardo's car and that of Romain Grosjean.

The Italian driver thus found himself with a damaged front wing, forcing him to make an early stop which dropped him to the last positions. However, as regards Williams, unfortunately there are no particularly positive words to say, but only a portrait of the situation in which the Grove team finds itself: George Russell ended up on the wall following a technical problem on the front wheel, while Robert Kubica had to end his race early in order to preserve the parts mounted on his car for the next events.