The causes of Lewis Hamilton’s unfortunate problem pose a big threat to formula one – expert even talks about security risk

The eighth formula weekend of the season, run on the Baku street track, ended with a Red Bull party. Dutch Max Verstappen drove his fifth victory of the season to Mexico Sergio Perez was second in the competition. Third, the UK was driving a great debut season with Mercedes George Russell.

For Ferraris, Sunday’s race became a disaster. He left the pile and made excellent use of the virtual security car in Monaco Charles Leclerc had to be suspended for a breakdown. Leclerc’s Spanish teammate Carlos Sainzin the competition ended earlier with a machine failure.

The race in hot conditions was too much for Ferrari’s engines. As many as four of the six drivers using Ferrari’s engines had to stop. Alfa Romeo had to drive along the track Valtteri Bottas chinese teammate Zhou Guanyu and the Danish driver of Haas Kevin Magnussen.

For Valtteri Bottas, the weekend in Baku was the hardest of the season. The Finn, who started from box 15, managed to rise to 11th place, despite the interruptions that took place above.

Verstappen leads the World Cup by 21 points to Perez and 34 points to Leclerc. Bottas remained eighth on the leaderboard despite a quiet weekend.

Sports F1 expert Jukka Mildh analyzes the most talked about events of the Baku race weekend.

The 24-year-old Leclerc has excelled this season as an excellent time driver, as Saturday’s pile was already his sixth season and 15th in his career. Leclerc’s pace of one lap tells him he went to third place in Ferrari’s all-time pole position stats with his latest top bet. The above are only Michael Schumacher (58) and Niki Lauda (23).

However, given the number of pole positions, Leclerc has surprisingly few wins, four. On the other hand, in the last race, the Monaco player has had a lot of misfortune.

In the sixth race of the season in Barcelona, ​​Leclerc’s overwhelming lead also failed in an engine failure. In Monaco, on the other hand, the chance of winning super talent plunged the team into the wrong tactical solution during depot stops.

At the start of the latest race, Perez, who left in the second box, acknowledged the Monaco pass. Shortly thereafter, Ferrari and Leclerc demonstrated tactical wisdom during the virtual safety car by making an early stop.

Thanks to a virtual safety car, Leclerc only lost his place in the depot, and when the Red Bull drivers came to the depot after their own stops, he momentarily took the lead before the breakdown.

However, according to Mildh, the race settled at Red Bull’s top pace. Perez in particular was in a great mood all weekend. For Verstappen, the victory meant the first prize on Baku’s fascinating street track.

– Both cars were equally fast. They got a double lead in the drivers series and up to an 80 point lead in the manufacturers series. It’s a significant loss for Ferrari, although there’s still a lot to drive through, Mildh recalled.

Before the Red Bulls’ depot stops, the Austrian stable made a stable order. Perez, who was leading the race, still had to let Verstappen, who was holding a harder ride. Red Bull wanted to react with the new tires to Leclerc, who had been toasting during the hard times.

– He gave Verstappen a very favorable path so that he could drive for victory. With no resistance from Mercedes at any point, Red Bull was even able to save the car for almost the entire race.

It was driven for the sixth time in Baku. The track has often seen interesting races and a lot of crashes, but this time the scrap rally was missed.

According to Mildh, the biggest topic of conversation was Ferrari’s reliability.

– With only two of Ferrari’s six cars running to the finish line, it’s a staggering statistic. According to preliminary data, Ferrari’s engine failures are related to the internal combustion engine or electric power side. The Sainz car had hydraulic problems and the Leclerc engine completely broke.

Also in Barcelona, ​​the Ferrari engine was in trouble in hot conditions.

– The problem with Ferrari now is that Leclerc has already used three turbochargers allowed by the rules. This means that Ferrari needs to prepare for the introduction of extra engines earlier when replacing an engine. That in turn causes starting screen penalties.

Mildh wants to highlight that too Lewis Hamilton, who suffered from back pain in Baku over the weekend. Teammate Russell has also had back problems. The physical problems stem from the hard bouncing of the Mercedes car that has been my grief in the stable all season.

– The car bounces so hard. I hope this does not become a big problem for Mersu or any other stables, because the problem affects everyone. When the bottom of a car hits the asphalt really hard at those speeds, it can cause major health problems for the driver. At worst, a car can change direction unexpectedly, which would be a big safety risk for everyone. This needs to be addressed in the future.

Baku became surprisingly difficult to check for Bottas, who rode well this season. Before the weekend, it was believed that the track would have been a perfect fit for Alfa Romeo, whose engine has run on long lines. There are such things in Baku.

Bottas was therefore 11th in the race.

Mildh didn’t find the actual flop driver on the Baku weekend, but the worst underperformer in the stables was Alfa Romeo, who was fifth in the manufacturers ’World Series before the eighth weekend.

– Yes Alfa Romeo was badly lost in this race. I wouldn’t say it was a flop. It was more that things did not go as planned.

What makes surprising Alfa Romeo’s agility is that the stable received new upgrade parts from Baku, which it used for the first time on Saturday.

– It would seem that those parts did not succeed in the same way as before in the simulator. There is always a risk of making some big changes on a demanding track like Baku. Alfa Romeo has had a good upswing season, but now they were completely lost.

Mildh rejoiced at Zhou Guany’s improved pace. Bottas’ Chinese teammate has only brought Alfa Romeo one point so far.

In Baku, however, Zhou’s pace was good. In the first section of the time trials, he was sometimes sixth and was faster than Bota for the first time. The 23-year-old driver was caught in the last points before his breakdown.

However, Mildh raises Aston Martin as the biggest surprise of the weekend Sebastian Vettelin, who finished sixth in the race. The four-time world champion drove long in the early days of the race.

Vettel’s motivation has been questioned throughout the season. On Sunday, however, he showed good fighting spirit by fighting hard against Alpine, for example Esteban Oconia against.

– Vettel’s performance was a significant boost. He’s clearly getting on top after a difficult start to the season. He took good risks in overtaking situations early in the race. Vettel had to drive the car out once and turn it over, where he lost a lot of investment. Sixth place is great on the Aston Martin.

The F1 season will continue as early as next week, when the Canadian Montreal track will run for the first time since 2019.