Lewis Hamilton’s collapse speaks at the F1 depot – expert makes a harsh assessment of the reasons for the landing: “Mercedes has crashed”

On Sunday, the second race of the F1 season, which culminated in a spectacular duel on the street track in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

It was won by the reigning world champion Max Verstappen. The other was Ferrari, the leader of the World Series Charles Leclerc and a third Ferrari Carlos Sainz. Valtteri Bottas suspended due to technical problems.

Sport went through the race as an F1 expert Jukka Mildhin with. What became the topic of conversation? Were there any surprises or flops? What does Bottas’ performance look like?

Finished fourth in the race Sergio Perez started off the pole perfectly and held the top spot until the 16th lap. That’s when the depot gimmick began. Ferrari seemed ready to take in his driver, to which Red Bull reacted and called Perez to the depot. The Ferrari duo continued on the track.

After this Williams Nicholas Latifi drove into the wall and a safety car came on the track, Leclerc and Verstappen got to make their depot stop so they could get back to the track in front of Perez. The first depot stop by Perez ended the Mexican victory battle unfortunate.

However, Jukka Mildh raises Verstappen as the most significant solution at the end of a successful chess game. With 6-7 laps left in the race, Verstappen overtook Leclerc, but Ferrari’s Monaco driver soon made it back to the top. Four laps before the goal, Verstappen struck again and finally rose to the top.

– Ferrari had invested in curves, Red Bull straight. Straighting was a better card. Both have very strong engines, but this was an aerodynamics race, Mildh says.

– In the end, Verstappen made the right tactical moves to get enough benefit from his direct speed. The bypasses had perfect timing. It showed that he was the reigning master. The champion is powerful and Leclerc is the underdog, Mildh paints.

Verstappen also said after the race that the “smart stunts” in the DRS areas, the areas where the retractable rear wing is allowed to be used, were the key to winning. Before Verstappen’s last pass, a tactical game was seen, when neither of the top drivers wanted to go to the main line first. The chaser may use an openable rear wing.

According to Mildh, what mattered was which of the drivers could get off the curves at a better pace. There was no need to seize every opportunity because there could have been more loss in the next turn.

– I would like to sum up that Verstappen played a better game of chess in an even twist.

Mercedes has won eight manufacturers ’championships in a row. Now Saudi Arabia saw confusing moments in time when the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton remained in the first section, ranked 16th in the race George Russell was 5th and Hamilton 10th.

Mercedes is now second in the manufacturers ’points, one point ahead of Red Bull, as the Red Bull duel was suspended in the opening race. However, the pace of Mercedes is really far from where Ferrari and Red Bull go.

– Mercedes has made preparations. That’s when we’re really on the verge of being caught if Hamilton can’t seem to fix the situation at all by hand. It’s a big topic of conversation and a big collapse, Mildh charges.

Both Mercedes drivers have reached the finish line and scored points in both races. In principle, the problems are not in reliability.

– Firstly, the Mercedes engine is not powerful enough. Will they even be able to use all the power from it if the car doesn’t have enough features? If the back of the car is as restless as Hamilton says, it’s a significant difference from the others. The car concept has failed, it looks like it, Mildh notes.

There is reason to believe that Mercedes will improve over the course of the season, but what is it enough for when the difference in speed between Red Bull and Ferrari is huge.

– It even comes to mind if last season’s victory was so important to Mercedes that they have sacrificed something for this year’s project.

– Mercedes’ aerodynamics and car shape are different from others. Is it too much to giggle, Mildh wonders.

Mercedes surprised the other teams before the start of the season in Bahrain’s tests when it became clear that the car’s side pontoons were extremely small.

In time, Hamilton took a lousy performance to its own peak. He said he changed the car’s settings, but the solutions didn’t work. According to Mildh, the settings can include driving height, suspension adjustments, tire angles and tire pressures.

– Ultimately, the driver makes decisions based on his or her feelings. It can go down the beaten track. In Saudi Arabia, other drivers also had problems with the rear tires. Red Bull’s car slipped quite a bit, but Ferrari is doing pretty insanely well, Mildh sees.

Valtteri Bottas was running a great race again. He fought realistically for sixth place. However, the race ended in the 37th round due to technical problems. Bottas himself said that “the temperatures in the plane started to rise little by little, then suddenly a lot.” Bottas interrupted so as not to lose the engine.

– The reason for the suspension was in the end that a decision was made to suspend it in order to avoid a major engine breakdown. The engine heat went up so there was something wrong there. The season is so early that we are still trying to avoid changing the engine, Mildh describes.

In the first race, Bottas rose to sixth, even though the start was extremely poor. Bottas said at the time that there was a problem with the switch. Now he was able to hold his eighth place at the start. Still, according to Mild, there is still rubbing at the start, and the switch or other technology still didn’t work in the best way.

– In the race, Bottas benefited from being Alpine Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso fought with each other. Valtteri stayed well with it. The pace was right. He knows what the car can do. On that track, which is a risk track, he trusted his car. The first two races show that the car concept works, says Mildh Bottas about the pace.

Bottas also said after the race that the car is good to drive in fast corners, which Mildh says is extremely promising.

– Alfa Romeo has been better able to prepare for the season. Now it is important to stick to the plan throughout the season. This also involves saving the engine. These technical faults only need to be eliminated suddenly in order to be able to drive evenly among the top ten.

“The surprise is that these rule changes are working so well,” says Mildh.

It has been seen from the beginning of the season that the new F1 cars will indeed be able to follow another car better and drive closer to the above. This is evidenced by the twists and turns twisted by Verstappen and Leclerc, among others, both in the opening race and now in Saudi Arabia.

– The fact that changing the car has changed the nature of the competition so much – I think it’s surprising. At the same time, the pack is significantly mixed and leveled. This doesn’t tell the story of the 23 more races, but now we’re running with smaller differences and surprising teams will make it, bundles Mildh.

Only 13 drivers survived the finish. Haasin Mick Schumacher did not go to the race at all because he drove out violently in time. More than 30 percent of those who started the race were interrupted.

– I think it is quite brutal that at this stage the unreliability is visible through this.

According to Mildh, interruptions have traditionally been seen since the beginning of the season, but last season, for example, technical failures were minor. Now run on the same engines.

Of course, F1 cars revolutionized the 2022 season due to several rule changes.

– The focus in the stables has been on changing the drafts of cars. There are terribly things involved, such as airflow and cooling. Not all stables have been able to finish the job.

– To the extent of the flop, that with this preparation you should be able to build a reliable car.