It was only going to be about this pair. The understeering Hamilton had been badly dropped in that first stint and had fallen back into the clutches of Russell and Verstappen. Besides which, he’d been awarded a 5sec penalty for moving before the lights so was always going to be passed by that pair at the first stops (which duly transpired). Russell later punctured and pitted and was back behind Hamilton. So he stayed out at the Verstappen safety car as the Ferraris pitted to emerge back ahead but apparently doomed on his old mediums.
Ferrari though was WAY better than anyone – including itself – had been expecting off the back of its lacklustre, under-powered Austria performance. On such a power track surely it’d struggle here, went the thinking. But no. Hindsight tells us that the power shortfall in Austria was about the conservative way it had to be run because of the overheating of the electricals in the thin altitude – and the big opening out of the bodywork to disperse the excess heat hurting rear downforce enough to destroy the rear tyres.
Each race fills in the puzzle a little better but as Leclerc said, “On the Thursday meeting here, they were telling us we were going to be five- or six-tenths off. We were much better than expected.” So this was the first true reading of the upgraded PU and it was indeed a significant upgrade. Still not quite as strong as the Mercedes but with the greater momentum the car could take into some key corners, there was less deployment needed.
But it wasn’t Antonelli Mercedes fast. In the eight laps between Leclerc’s switch to new tyres and Antonelli coming in, the Merc lost only around 4sec. He rejoined on lap 38 (with 14 laps to go) 7sec behind and lapping at a completely different rate to the leader. But no sooner had Leclerc said, “It’s not looking good, is it?” than Antonelli was heading for the pits with a severe lack of front grip. A front wheel shield had come adrift and was directing the air upwards. Leclerc was off the hook and it played out the way it did.
Ferrari’s early lead looked vulnerable to Antonelli’s pace
Steven Tee/Getty Images
Verstappen’s rear wing – with its bendy pylon (introduced in Austria) and huge Macarena gap – didn’t re-attach its airflow fast enough into Stowe (just as in Austria qualifying) and his trip to the gravel brought out the safety car with just over five laps to go. With a tractor and marshals busy at the scene it always seemed likely there weren’t going to be enough laps to go through the correct procedure (just as in Abu Dhabi ’21) but this time they followed the sporting regulations to the letter. It was unsatisfactory but correct, though a red flag and a restart would have been equally valid. Unsurprisingly, Hamilton was reluctant to be drawn on the parallels afterwards.
Two fast Ferraris, a troubled Red Bull and Verstappen (“Unbelievable, this car,” he said in a way which must make the Red Bull management nervous about the prospects of keeping him), a flying Antonelli in a slightly delicate Mercedes and a team-mate looking for answers. There’s a lot still to come in this story.