Season opener AustrianGP provided much needed relief to motor racing fans to see F1 cars on track again, after Australian GP cancellation in the final hours. lets look back and analyze winners and losers of season opener.
Winners
Fans
Yes Fans are biggest winners. After waiting nearly three months for season to kick-start,F1 is finally back with a bang. Austrian GP provided perfect entertainment for fans, who needed something to cheer and enjoy in these tough times caused by covid-19 disruptions.
Fans should be really thankful to Drivers,Teams,Broadcasters and finally F1 & FIA for bringing F1 back in these tough times. It’s pity that fans can’t go to Tracks to see live action but it’s important to mindful about seriousness of covid-19 impact on peoples health.
Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes:
Bottas and Mercedes are second biggest winners of Season Opener. Though Mercedes are favorite to win AustrianGP after their strong show at Barcelona testing, it would have been complete sweep(finishing 1-2 in each and every session) by silver arrows without Hamilton’s race & qualifying penalty.It’s up to rivals, to stop Mercedes winning their 7th double championship this year.
After spending nearly 3 years as Lewis Hamilton’s teammate. The Fin knew, he has to perform at highest level to beat his six time world champion teammate. Bottas did same thing at AustrianGP, on top of his game all the time. He took pole on Saturday with fastest time ever, ahead of his teammate. On Sunday he drove fault less race from start to finish, he was able to keep his faster teammate behind for most of the laps before Hamilton was given 5 second penalty for colliding with Albon.
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari man Charles Leclerc is our third winner of the season opener.After disappointing Barcelona test, everyone thought Ferrari is again third best team behind Mercedes and Red Bull.But Saturday’s qualifying results shown how far Ferrari fell in the pecking order. They were really 5th or 6th best team on the grid, behind likes of Racingpoint,Mclaren and even Renault.
After securing disappointing P7 in qualifying, Leclerc drove arguably one of his best races in his short F1 career to secure P2 on Sunday.Though So many retirements ,three Saftey car and Lewis Hamilton 5 seconds time penalty helped, one can not deny his composure to bring home that draggy SF1000 with 18 points.
Lando Norris
Our final winner of Austrian GP is Mclaren young dynamite Lando Norris. The ever smiling young Brit secured his maiden podium in Formula 1 on Sunday, after a spectacular P4 in qualifying.
As insisted by Norris post-Qualifying, his Mclaren is not faster in race trim compared to Saturday’s. After losing couple of places at early stages of the race , he pulled a mega lap from no where on final lap of the race to secure his first ever F1 podium.His 1:07.475 final lap earned him not only podium but Fastest lap of the race also. With 16 points, Norris is in top-3 championship standings for the fist time in his career.
Losers
Red Bull
Red Bull is no.1 loser of the weekend.With 2020 season kick-starting at their Home turf, The energy drink team started their campaign with a double DNF.
In a shorten season like this, with just 8 races confirmed so far, each and every race is gonna be important for Championship fight. Red Bull were second best during Barcelona pre-season testing, many expected them to mount serious challenge on Champions Mercedes this year.But Red Bull already trailing Mercedes in Constructor championship 37-0.
Max Verstappen won 2018 & 19 Austrian GP for Red Bull and he was better placed to register Hat-trick before his RB16 lost power in spectacular fashion after completing just 10 laps. Reliability will be a big concern for Milton Keynes based team after their engine partner Honda, introduce new upgraded power unit this year.
Ferrari powered teams
Ferrari powered teams are second in our losers list. After blasting past their rivals during 2019 season on Straights, 2020 season opener provided complete contrast results.All Ferrari powered cars losing around 0.7 seconds on Straights including Works team.
Ferrari engines were considered as benchmark by it’s rivals during 2019 season, they were leading their rivals with 9 poles before FIA started investigating their engine fuel flow sensors.
After agreeing private settlement with FIA over their engine investigation, FIA brought in new measures to clampdown any further exploitation. Now the famous Red Team and their engine customers down on straight line speed. Though Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto blaming wrong concept for their early season struggles, no one is buying his reason.
Lewis Hamilton
The six time champion and Mercedes man Lewis Hamilton is our third loser of AustrianGP. Hamilton was outperformed by his rejuvenated teammate during both qualifying and Race.
Record equaling seventh title in his sights, Hamilton started his 2020 campaign on back foot. Stewards handed 3-place grid drop and two penalty points on his super license for not slowing down during yellow flags in final qualifying session. And again Stewards handed 5 second time penalty and 2 penalty points on his super license during race.
His total super license penalty points stands at 7 , Brit will be facing automatic race drop if he reaches 12 penalty points with in 12-month period.
