The Mercedes drivers were the surprises of the French GP. Valtteri Bottas and Alfa Romeo, who failed at the start, had a quiet weekend.
The victory of the Formula Ones in the French GP was practically decided on lap 18, when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc fell from the top position to a driving error and rolled into the tire barrier.
Leclerc’s worst rival, Red Bull Max Verstappen took advantage of the Monaco’s interruption and gassed to an overwhelming victory ahead of the spiritedly performing Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Verstappen leads Leclerc in the World Series by 63 points already with ten races to go.
Sports expert Jukka Mildhin according to Leclerc’s suspension could be significant for the championship.
– It was a big disaster for Ferrari and the driver. It may have big effects. Now we are in a situation where Ferrari may lose the drivers’ world championship at this point. At worst, even the stables’ world championship.
The Ferrari driver has to pull himself together quickly, because the F1 circus continues already next weekend in Hungary.
– Leclerc is now in a pretty tough mental hole. He is a strong athlete, but this mistake was really expensive. Leclerc needs a lot of mental support. He must be able to leave these behind and focus on what is essential.
What are we talking about?
According to Mild, Leclerc’s driving mistake is the most talked about case of the weekend. The Monaco native has dominated qualifying sessions on Saturdays, but has not fared as well on race days. Sunday’s suspension was the Ferrari driver’s third of the season.
– He beat himself up quite a lot today. Maybe for a reason. He made it clear that if such things happen, he would not give the championship.
Mildh stresses that Leclerc should know how to use Ferrari’s strengths to his advantage. Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s cars were set up for the French race in a completely different way. Red Bull counted on straight line speed. Ferrari, on the other hand, invested in cornering speed.
– It sounds sad that even though the car was well adjusted for the curves, the exit happened specifically in a fast curve, where the Ferrari should have been very strong.
Ferrari’s previous World Drivers’ Champion is still the 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen.
According to Mildh, however, Leclerc has the skills to be number one in the F1 series. Ferrari has developed with its car and Leclerc also has a really strong teammate Carlos Sainz, who rose from the back row in Sunday’s race to third at best. In the final results, the Spaniard was fifth.
– Yes, Leclerc has great potential to win the world championship. But I don’t know if it’s time yet. Leclerc showed at the beginning of the race that he can fight against the reigning world champion Verstappen.
Mercedes surprised
Red Bulls and Ferraris have dominated the F1 races recently, but in France, the Mercedes drivers took Verstappen to the podium.
– It is a good proof that the team is coming back to the top. Mersu’s race pace was surprisingly good. The stable has been falling apart little by little all the time.
Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton is getting the hang of driving again. The team has also improved its early season problems related to the bottom of the car.
– Ferrari and Red Bull have found much better solutions for this, but Mercedes has caught up with them.
Especially at the end of Red Bull by Sergio Perez covered George Russell received compliments from Mildh.
– Russell did a great job. He made really smart performances.
The Brit put pressure on Perez at the end and passed him as soon as the virtual safety car came out with three laps to go. Russell withstood Perez’s attacks and brought his car to the finish line in third.
What about Bottas?
Got a new clutch for his car Valtteri Bottas started the race from grid 11. The Finn started the race with hard tires, while most of the drivers chose medium bikes. Bottas’ departure failed. He got stuck and dropped to 16th place. He finished on the tail of the crowd. In the end, the ranking was second last among those who reached the finish line, 14th.
– As Bottas himself stated, the car has absolutely no speed. The start was a complete failure. Team mate Guanyu Zhou too had to interrupt.
– If the car doesn’t run or work, the driver won’t be able to fully perform either. Bottas did what he could.
According to Mildh, it seems that Alfa Romeo has fallen behind other teams in development. The difficulties may be due to the stable’s finances. Alfa Romeo, like some other teams, is fighting with the cost ceiling.
In the F1 series, a spending cap of around 132 million euros came into force this season. It determines how much money garages are allowed to spend on car development and repairs.
– In some areas, the budget has already been exceeded at this stage. It’s not just about going over the money limits allowed in the rules. It could be that there is simply no more money available.