F1 British GP 2020 Winners And Losers

If you claim to have predicted how the 2020 F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone ended, then maybe you are the right person to tell us when exactly the COVID-19 pandemic will end. High track temperatures and drivers pushing hard led to left front tyre failures for Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, McLaren-Renault’s Carlos Sainz and Bottas’ teammate and race winner Lewis Hamilton. Pirelli’s decision to go soft on its tyre compound choices led to the unexpected result. A strategic call that looks bad in hindsight cost Red Bull Racing-Honda’s Max Verstappen a victory. So who aced a race that appeared to be dull until the finish and who came up short?

Winners

Charles Leclerc - Even if Bottas’ tyre had not delaminated, the Ferrari driver was on course to place a solid fourth despite Ferrari looking way off the pace. Of course, the Monegasque now has two podiums in the first four races of the season. Despite Ferrari’s pace being so far off the leaders’ that many predicted them to be mired in the midfield. The midfield is exactly where Leclerc’s far more decorated teammate ended up and Bottas’ troubles were the only reason he came away with a point.

Lewis Hamilton - Yes, he has the fastest car (by far) on the grid. Yes Mercedes’ stranglehold on F1 since 2014 is unprecedented. And yes, as is evident, his luck is pretty stellar too. Red Bull Racing’s decision to go for an extra point for fastest lap meant Max Verstappen was too far back to catch Hamilton when his left-front tyre delaminated. Prior to that of course, Hamilton’s pace made sure that he was in the best possible position in the event of such a turn of events. 

Daniel Ricciardo - trouble for Bottas and Carlos Sainz meant that the Aussie scored an unlikely fourth place finish. He wasn’t far behind Leclerc either as his gap to the Ferrari driver was just over a second at the finish line. Imagine if he had gotten on the podium! Given that the works Renault team have not been fast enough to score a podium on merit since coming back to F1, it would have been a hell of a result.

George Russell - His time will come one day. But until Russell eventually makes it to Mercedes (as is commonly believed) he is continuing to score impressive results for the languishing Williams-Mercedes. Twelfth place means he was just two positions away from scoring a point. The 22-year-old has time on his side to do much better one day. 

Losers

Max Verstappen - This is very harsh, because the Dutchman certainly does not deserve the tag of a ‘loser’ based on his performance in the race. Given the pace advantage that Mercedes had and the pace advantage he had over Leclerc, the decision to pit with a lap left in the 52 lap race appeared to be a good one. The intent was to set the fastest lap of the race and gain an extra world championship point. Of course, such is the strategy element of F1 today that those on the pitwall appear to have forgotten that anything can happen so long as one keeps pushing till the end. Verstappen came out of his pit stop over 34 seconds behind Hamilton and fell just under six seconds short. Instead of the 19 points he scored he could have had 25. 

Sebastian Vettel - It is hard to believe that the German is a former four-time world champion who is two years younger than Lewis Hamilton. Vettel was completely outshone by Leclerc all weekend and was fortunate to score a point today. Then again, knowing that Ferrari basically booted him out and the uncertainty around his future, you can’t blame him for being a little demotivated.

Romain Grosjean - It is cruel that the hapless Frenchman gets to keep racing in F1 because he has the finances to do so while Nico Hulkenberg has to wait for outside chances. In an ideal world, Grosjean would have gone the same way as Pastor Maldonado, even though he has not been that reckless. He tried in this race, though. On two different occasions he moved on the driver attempting to pass him while in the braking zone. This was something that Max Verstappen was given a lot of grief for when he first started in F1. What made it even worse was that the replays appeared to show Grosjean looking in his mirrors and moving for the block once he saw an overtaking attempt coming. 

Nico Hulkenberg - Much like Verstappen, ‘The Hulk’ is in this category through no fault of his own. Racing Point-BWT Mercedes were unable to get his car’s power unit started as the cars headed to the starting grid. This left the German high and dry and having to watch the race from the pitwall. He gets a second chance to race next week as Sergio Perez - who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday - is likely to be forced to quarantine for at least ten days.