W Series drivers are writing a series of columns for The Race this year, giving their verdicts on what’s going on in Formula 1. This week, Caitlin Wood gives her take on the biggest incidents of the Russian Grand Prix – Lewis Hamilton’s penalties and the messy first-lap crash by Carlos Sainz Jr
Sochi may not have staged the most exciting race of the 2020 Formula 1 season, but the Russian Grand Prix did act as a timely reminder that you cannot take your eye off the ball for the slightest moment.
Great results are built on great preparation and Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team simply failed to do their homework ahead of Sunday’s race.
A typical race weekend for the F1 drivers begins – just as it did for me in W Series last year – in earnest on a Thursday, on the eve of the on-track action commencing, when you sit down with your engineers and plan every session meticulously.
Sainz and his engineers should have taken time on their track walk to really appreciate how tight that chicane is
You then walk the track to get to grips with the circuit, discussing braking points, speeds, lines and kerbs, the latter being particularly important at a street circuit.
Further meetings with your engineers follow before a briefing from the stewards on a Thursday night or Friday morning. This focuses on safety, start procedure, grid markings, pitlane entry, exit and speed limit, and practice start protocol.
There is a lot of information to process and study and it can be quite full-on but that is what we sign up for as racing drivers.
If you are visiting a circuit for the first time that process can be quite stimulating and you tend to be fully engaged. However, if you are visiting a circuit for the umpteenth time it can be easy to take that process for granted and switch off – I have seen many a pair of eyes glaze over in those meetings!
I cannot say if that was the case for Hamilton or his engineers but, attending their seventh Russian Grand Prix and 10th race in 13 weeks, it would be easy to lift and coast and they might be excused if that were the case. Unfortunately for them, this sport is unforgiving.
I understood Hamilton’s frustration as the rule regarding practice starts seemed to be a bit of a nonsense, but it was the same as the run-off area at Turn 2 which put Carlos Sainz Jr in the wall.
Sainz and his engineers should have taken time on their track walk to really appreciate how tight that chicane is. They obviously didn’t because Sainz was carrying too much speed and overshot it. It all comes down to preparation. Failure to do it properly cost Sainz his place in the race and Hamilton, in all likelihood, a 91st career victory.
I suspect that the race win which will allow him to equal Michael Schumacher’s record won’t be far away. Hamilton’s attitude straight after the race wasn’t great but he seems to perform at his best having convinced himself that everyone is conspiring against him.
Similarly, Mercedes mistakes have been few and far between over the last few years and they tend to have the effect of refocusing a team. I expect their meetings in the build-up to the next race at the Nurburgring in a fortnight’s time to be full of energy. Driver and team scorned ahead of their ‘home’ race could prove an irresistible combination in Germany.
Hamilton’s radio exchanges with his race engineer, Pete Bonnington, spared him further punishment in the form of superlicence penalty points and rightly so as they demonstrated that Hamilton was at the mercy of his team over the location of his practice starts.
Despite winning the race, Valtteri Bottas may well be cursing his luck. The Finn capitalised fully on Hamilton’s misfortune, but he remains 44 points behind his team-mate at the top of the championship standings and so, deep down, must already be praying to see ‘DNF’ or ‘DNS’ next to Hamilton’s name on a Sunday afternoon, despite having seven races to run.
Penalty points would have put Hamilton on the cusp of a race ban and thus provided Bottas with reinvigorated hope and the title race with renewed pep. As it is, Bottas will take comfort from his first win since the first race of the season in Austria. Barring that bee on his visor – a new one in the book of driver excuses! – it was a faultless performance and a reminder that Bottas will always do his homework diligently and be prepared to pounce when things don’t go Hamilton’s way.
The last word goes to Charles Leclerc who reminded us of his immense talent too. I was surprised that the stewards did not investigate his opening-lap collision with the rear of Lance Stroll’s Racing Point but, even if they had done, I’d have expected it to have been declared a racing incident.
I’m not sure Leclerc did too much wrong but he certainly did everything right from that point onwards, expertly guiding his car home in sixth place.
His big shunt at Monza at the start of September seems to have acted as a wake-up call for Leclerc. Having competed for race victories last season and secured two surprise podium finishes in the first four races of 2020, Leclerc was pushing hard at Ferrari’s home race in Italy, desperate to be competing at the front.
But he now seems to have accepted the harsh reality that he simply doesn’t have the tools at his disposal to do that right now. He spoke of having ‘maximised what we had’ and ‘improved massively on my tyre management’ after Sunday’s race at Sochi. That shows his mindset has changed, he has accepted that he is fighting a new battle in the midfield and is outperforming the car as a result.
Team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s 13th place finish shows it is harder to teach an old dog new tricks. Leclerc is driving beyond his 22 years and that bodes well for the future. The Prancing Horse was right to back the colt.
Caitlin Wood finished 13th in the inaugural W Series championship in 2019.
The 23-year-old Australian has raced in several series, including Blancpain GT, and has been competing in the W Series Esports League this summer.
