Faster Mercedes cars suffering high tyre degradation
Race Analysis: 2020 70th Anniversary GP
Max Verstappen won the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday, overcoming the challenge of the mighty Mercedes. Pole man Valtteri Bottas slipped to third and a late electric charge saw Lewis Hamilton finish second. Verstappen became the first non-Mercedes race winner this year.
New Delhi, 10 August 2020: As expected, Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in qualifying, this time Bottas in pole and Hamilton starting in P2. Nico Hulkenberg put in a solid lap, out-qualifying his teammate Lance Stroll and Verstappen. He started P3 and Verstappen P4. Stroll was in P6 and Verstappen’s teammate Alex Albon lined up in P9, behind the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Daniel Ricciardo put in a mega lap to start P5, Pierre Gasly was in P7 and Lando Norris completed the top 10. Sebastian Vettel lined up P11, after a 3-place grid penalty applied to Esteban Ocon for impeding George Russell in Qualifying meant that he started P14, alongside Russell in P15. Second McLaren of Carlos Sainz started in P12 and Romain Grosjean gave Haas the highest grid position of the season in P13. Daniil Kvyat’s mistake in qualifying meant he could only achieve P16, behind him were the second cars of Haas and Williams. Alfa Romeo locked out the last row of the grid. Contrasting to the first-ever Formula 1 race held at the same venue in 1950, where Alfa Romeo’s started P1, P2, P3 & P4 on the grid. Get in touch with Jeep Dealership, if you need to buy such cars.
Important to note that Verstappen was the only person to start on hard tyres in the top 10. This was the first race since Pirelli became the exclusive supplier to Formula 1, that no car started the race on the softest tyre available.
This weekend’s tyres were one step softer compared to last weekend and with hotter track temperatures. This meant that there would be high levels of tyre degradation. Optimum predicted strategy was a two stops, with one set of medium tyres and two sets of hard tyres.
The race start was uneventful apart from Vettel spinning at turn 1 and falling to the back of the grid. Hulkenberg had a poor getaway and Verstappen stole P3 running behind the two Mercedes cars. It looked like the two Mercedes cars on medium tyres would pull away from Verstappen, who was on hard tyres. Albon was the first driver to pit on lap 6, to get out of traffic and dirty air of other cars. Gasly followed suit a lap later.
Around lap 8, both Mercedes cars started to show blistering on their tyres and were radioed to warn them about tyre temperatures. By lap 11, Verstappen was all over Hamilton, lapping faster than the Silver Arrows. Bottas pit for fresh hard tyres on lap 13, Hamilton did the same one lap later, releasing Verstappen in the lead to manage his own pace.
As the Racing Points and Leclerc pitted, Bottas and Hamilton emerged in 2nd and 3rd respectively. They were unable to make inroads into Verstappen, as the gap between them kept increasing, even though the Mercedes drivers were on fresher tyres. As soon as they tried to push, the tyres were overheating and blistering making them back off. Verstappen lapped faster on older tyres. He pitted on lap 26 emerging just behind Bottas, but by turn 7 overtook him and bolted off. Red Bull and Verstappen had pulled off a great overcut on the Mercedes cars.
Lap 29 onwards the midfield cars started pitting for the second time. McLaren’s Norris was the first one to do so, trying to undercut the cars in front of him. Stroll, Hulkenberg and Albon covered Norris by pitting on lap 30 and 31. Ricciardo had an uncharacteristic spin which dropped him out of contention for points as he had to pit again.
At the front, after only six laps on the mediums, Verstappen pitted with Bottas on the same lap, both going for hard tyres. Meanwhile, Hamilton was left out in the lead to take an advantage if the safety car emerged. Hamilton on his blistering and worn tyres, maintained a gap to Verstappen of around 10 seconds. At one point, it looked like he would try and go to the end of the race. Ultimately, he pitted on lap 41, as Mercedes did not want to risk tyre failures similar to last week.
Bottas could not keep up with Verstappen as he was overheating his tyres when pushing them. Meanwhile, Hamilton’s pit stop meant that he emerged in P4. Ahead of him was Leclerc who had pit only once, and his teammate Bottas. Using the fresh tyres, he overtook Leclerc and then Bottas with two laps to go. In the process setting fastest lap of the race. Hulkenberg pitted for a third time due to vibrations on his set of tyres. He bolted on softs, the only driver to use them for the race. His teammate Stroll, was overtaken by Albon on the penultimate lap.
Verstappen cruised to victory, Hamilton finished second and Bottas in third. Leclerc miraculously pulled of a one stop strategy – one of only three drivers to do so. He finished P4. Albon had a good recovery drive after disappointing qualifying as he finished P5. Racing Point got a double points finish in P6 and P7. Ocon was in P8 and Norris in P9. Their teammates finished out of the points. Alpha Tauri’s Kvyat completed the top 10. Vettel finished a disappointing P12. Williams, Haas and Alfa Romeo were unable to score points. There was no safety car appearance in the race and only one retirement of Kevin Magnussen.
Mercedes struggled with tyres in the hot conditions. They had unexpected blistering on medium and hard tyres. Also, the minimum tyre pressure increase by Pirelli meant that it was difficult to manage overheating. Mercedes is still class of the field as they qualified almost a second faster to the nearest team. Mercedes were at the worst end of the spectrum regarding tyre blistering. It could be due to their car being much faster than last year, therefore, increasing the load on the tyres, which are 2019 specification. Red Bull have worked on the balance of their car, as both drivers showed good race pace and tyre management. Red Bull did not suffer any blistering issues on the tyres. Verstappen qualifying on hard tyres was an advantage as he was able to go longer in the race and overcut the Mercedes cars. Ferrari still lack qualifying and race pace as they only managed to qualify in P8. Leclerc made the one-stop strategy work to get P4 but his teammate was way behind outside the points.
Racing Point looked the strongest behind Mercedes and Red Bull. Ferrari’s one stop strategy, Albon’s recovery and an extra pit stop for Hulkenberg meant they were unable to finish higher than P6 & P7. Ocon, similar to Leclerc pulled off a one stop strategy to finish in points. Renault and McLaren showed similar race pace, though in qualifying McLaren seemed to lose out to their Anglo-French rivals. Behind them is Alpha Tauri as they were the second team apart from Mercedes to struggle with heavy blistering. Williams once again in the hands of Russell showed good qualifying pace. Both drivers were happy with the balance of the car but still lacked the pace to compete with their rivals in the race. Haas too showed promise in qualifying but withered away in the race. Alfa Romeo looked to have improved their race pace but to capitalise on that they need to qualify higher, which is their current Achilles Heel.
*Malhaar Khaladkar is an intern with INDIAinF1 and will be writing on F1 and technical aspects of the sport. The passionate student is also a keen student of the sport. This is his third article and you can read the first and the second articles here. We invite your comments below.
As always, a brilliant read.