It’s time to see who are our winners and loser of Styrian GP weekend.
Winners
Hamilton and Mercedes
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are clear winners of Styrian GP. After taking Dominant pole in soaking wet Red Bull ring on Saturday,The Six time champion registered his first win for the season and 89th win of his career on Sunday.
The Brit created another record on Sunday, the only driver in Formula 1 history to win at-least one race for each season he raced in F1. Hamilton Made his grand debut in 2007 with Mclaren, 2020 season will be his 14th year in F1.
Mercedes registered their second win of the season in as many races and Another 1-2 finish for World Champions.Mercedes leads constructor standings with 80 points and their Both drivers leads drivers championship standings 1-2. It’s up-to their rivals to catch them but as things stand Mercedes are favorites to run away with record 7th double at end of the season.
Lando Norris
Mclaren driver Lando Norris takes second spot in our winners list for second week in a row. Even severe back pain couldn’t able to stop Norris late charge to come home in P5,The young Brit gained three places in last two laps to jump from P8 to P5, thanks to Prerz’s broken front wing.Norris currently holds P3 in drivers championship standings with 26 points in two races
Racing Point and Sergio Perez
Racing Point along with Sergio Perez are our third winners of Styrian GP weekend.After dropping out of Q1 in eventful Saturday wet Qualifying, Perez started race from 17th on the grid, his pink Mercedes looked Racy on dry Red Bull ring during Sunday race.
The Mexican made so many overtakes on track to reach P5 in final stages of race before making contact with Red Bull driver Alex Albon in the final lap.His heroics rewarded with Driver of the day award.
Lance Stroll come home in P7 for Racing point after starting from P13 on the grid.It’s not the final positions of Racingpoint drivers turning the heads in the paddock , the pace of those pink Mercedes cars and the ease with which both cars were able to chase down their opponents is worrying their rivals.
After the Race, Renault launch an official protest about the legality of the 2020 Racing Point car. But Racing Point not bothered by their rivals complaint and they are confident that FIA will soon clear them of any wrong doing.
Red Bull’s Team Principal looked a worried man after witnessing Perez’s charge against Albon and he declared “Every one in the paddock including Mercedes should be worried about Racing point’s pace”
Losers
Ferrari and it’s drivers
Ferrari’s season went bad to worse in a week time. After Struggling for pace in the season opener, The famous red team brought forward partial upgrades to Styrian GP originally planed for Hungarian GP to salvage their reputation and to make progress with their car.
But the Italian teams efforts went in vain when their both cars famously crashed out of race in the very first lap. Ferrari’s golden boy Charles Leclerc went from hero to zero when he made an ambitious lunge on his teammate at Turn 3 and causing Vettels rear wing damage.
Leclerc not only caused double DNF with his stupid move, in the process he cost Ferrari a rare opportunity to validate their updates on a same race track in similar conditions within a week time.
Though the Monegasque driver issued public apology to his Team and Vettel for his costly mistake. The outcome will not help his teammate vettel in any manner, who needed a good race after forgettable season opener.
Sebastian Vettel need couple of really good races to make impression in his last year with his dream team and to leave the team he loved most on high note.
Ferrari arguably 6th best team on the current grid just ahead of their struggling engine customers and Williams.If Mattia and his team doesn’t get their act together faster, they will feel Tifosi wrath, who lost confidence in him if not lose their jobs.
Red Bull
Yes..Red Bull is second loser of this weekend.Max Verstappen and Red Bull won 2018 & 2019 Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring, but this year they managed just P3 and P4 from two races. They don’t have out right pace to fight with Mercedes this year, their RB16 is 0.4 second slower than Mercedes W11 over a lap.
As team principal Horner suggested in his post race interview, they are even slower than pink Mercedes. Unless they get their act together from Next weekend , it will be hard for them to fight those mighty Black Arrows.
Fans and Formula 1
We just finished second race of the season and it’s too early to draw any conclusion about end result.But based on past experience and current form its easy to say that fans gonna witness another boring season where Mercedes will be dominating in all fronts.
Since new regulations are postponed to 2022 , there is a maximum possibility of Mercedes domination in 2021 also.In any Sports, fans doesn’t like one team domination for years together, F1 is not an exception to it.
It will be a big blow to F1, if fans want to move away from more predictable F1, in search of more exciting and unpredictable sports.
George Russell
George Russell is our final loser this week, it’s nothing to do with his performance on track.It’s more to do with Autosport breaking story about Valtteri Bottas agreed in principal for 2021 season to drive for Mercedes.
The young Brit is a product of Mercedes driver academy, after spending two seasons with Williams, he was hoping for Mercedes seat next year.
Now with Bottas extending his stay at Mercedes for another year, Russell has to spend one more year at Williams. And there is no guarantee that Mercedes will give him seat even for 2022.So it will be interesting to see what future holds for young talented Russell.
