3 things we learned from Silverstone: Lewis Hamilton hits all-time high
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Updated 07/07/2015 at 13:50 GMT
Will Gray tells us the three things he learned from Silverstone, as Lewis Hamilton enjoyed arguably his best ever Formula One weekend.
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team's British driver Lewis Hamilton walks with the trophy in the pits
Image credit: AFP
Lewis Hamilton defied the British weather to take a memorable win on home soil but while the title favourite inched away there was plenty of intrigue off track as well as on.
HAMILTON HITS ALL-TIME HIGH
Hamilton’s confidence is sky high and once again Silverstone could well be a key point in his championship charge. Last year, after some early season struggles, his run to the title got going with a win on home ground as Rosberg retired. In 2008 he clocked the highest winning margin in over 10 years to take the championship lead and never let it go.
He is now 17 points ahead of Rosberg, an advantage that would be much more were it not for the Monaco mess-up. But it was his ability to turn a potential banana skin into one of the best Grand Prix weekends of his career, and his brazen belief in himself, that shows he could now rise to yet another level.
A ride height problem on Friday made much of the learning from practice irrelevant, leaving Hamilton potentially exposed. But he came out all guns blazing on Saturday, claiming his eighth pole in nine races without even setting a final flying lap. This one was far more significant than all the others, as it took him past Sebastian Vettel’s tally to make him the most successful man on one flying lap in the current era.
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Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team's British driver Lewis Hamilton runs as champagne is uncorked after a team photo in the pits after the British Formula One Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit in Silverstone on July 5, 2015
Image credit: AFP
In the race, Hamilton was slow off the line and dropped to third, then spent the first stint behind the Williams pair. After an early bout of aggression, where he rather riskily (given their previous) challenged Felipe Massa for the lead, he stayed “chilled” in the cockpit, fully confident he would lead after the first set of stops. But it was his call when the rain came that showed the difference between Hamilton present and Hamilton past.
He himself made the decision to come in for intermediates earlier than his key rivals, giving up his lead on the assumption that the pace gain would be enough to give recover the pit time loss quickly.
Rain calls are always a risk, but when you are in control the safe choice is to go onto the tyre that suits the conditions rather than gamble on the conditions drying out quick enough to avoid a tyre stop. When the rain is stop-start that call is made far harder. Hamilton called it right, gained 10 seconds and sealed the victory.
With a dominant pole lap, some hard driving and spot-on tactics, he was in a different class. It was one of Hamilton’s best but he signed off with an ominous warning: “Generally in my career the second half of the season has been the stronger for me...”
CONSERVATIVE WILLIAMS DROP THE BALL
All was not well on the Williams wall. When Rob Smedley arrived from Ferrari as performance chief he was hired to drill down on race process and procedures and instil some of his old Italian team’s tactical magic to turn the team into a genuine front-runner. Despite this, it seems Williams are still struggling with strategy.
Last season they were criticised for being too conservative in Austria and it seems a year and a bit later they still haven’t learned. The strong start gave hope that Williams might tackle the might of Mercedes at Silverstone, but with Massa and Valtteri Bottas running one-two, they first told them to hold station then told them to race.
Team tactics is opposite to what everyone wants in F1, but it’s what Ferrari did so well – and in truth Smedley should have told his old steed Massa to move aside for the sake of the team. Bottas claimed to have half a second a lap on his team-mate, and that advantage would potentially have prevented Hamilton achieving the undercut at the first stops that put him in control of the race.
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Williams' Felipe Massa in action ahead of Williams' Valtteri Bottas during the race
Image credit: Reuters
That could have put them in with a fight for victory. But instead, in the late race rain, they got a tricky call wrong and switched to intermediates one lap after Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, pushing both cars off the podium.
According to Pat Symonds, it is “the Williams way” to let the drivers race. But winning used to be the Williams way – and perhaps a sharper and more self-centred tactical approach is needed to get that back...
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ASTON MARTIN?
It seems Aston Martin wants a piece of F1 – but how and why? The secret was leaked at Silverstone that the luxury car manufacturer, having recently concentrated their motorsport activity on the World Endurance Championship, is nosing around at a return to Formula One.
First, according to reports, it was with Red Bull, then Williams and Force India. Then it was revealed Adrian Newey, through Red Bull Technologies, is working with the brand on a new road car project. Not, it was claimed, that there is any link between that and F1.
The whole concept is an odd one, though. Led by the man who signed off the Infiniti sponsorship of Red Bull, Aston’s apparent approach to F1 follows the recent trend for car manufacturers to sponsor teams without supplying the engine or constructing the car.
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Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. CEO Andrew Palmer addresses media during the first press day ahead of the 85th International Motor Show in Geneva March 3, 2015.
Image credit: Reuters
Lotus Cars is only a sponsor of Team Lotus, which is run by Genii, with no technical crossover. Infiniti gives some technical support to Red Bull, but it is neither a constructor nor engine manufacturer.
It is believed Aston wants to join the sport to stand up against road car rivals Ferrari and McLaren – but doing it this way could achieve the opposite. By branding a team rather than getting stuck in as a manufacturer, does it not send the message that while Ferrari and McLaren are thoroughbred racers, feeding technology from F1 into their road cars, Aston is an impostor with a sticker on someone else’s car?
Maybe times have changed, and luxury car sales are more about brand than substance, but if Aston is to come back to F1, then for the sake of its heritage it should only be as a genuine constructor.
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