Again, Formula 1 headed back to the blue and red striped circuit in Le Castellet for the French Grand Prix. The Circuit Paul Ricard was sweltering this weekend as Summer started in the South of France. This created some interesting strategies during the race, although there was a lack of action during the race. Overall this was a quiet race that will hopefully not be forgotten.
To start the season, Ferrari came in with the best engine on the grid. The power that it produced would surely put them ahead of Mercedes, but the Mercs have been quicker all season. Mercedes followed the regulations well and were able to produce a car that has a very good aero advantage over the Ferraris. Because of this, it was likely that the Ferraris would struggle during the weekend.
During the free practices, some of the drivers had trouble finding grip in the tyres. This is likely due to the hot track temperatures in the South of France. A couple of drivers actually found themselves slipping off the track onto the colorful stripes. In FP2 Hamilton found himself going wide off track, then almost causing a collision with Verstappen while trying to rejoin the circuit. Throughout the weekend it was also the Mercedes that topped the free practice charts.
Qualifying didn’t produce any surprises during Q3. Both Williams and Stroll went out. Kvyat went out too but would be starting from the back after replacing parts of his engine. It was a horrifying session for Grosjean at his home Grand Prix as he only qualified in P17. Jumping to Q1 it was another homeboy, Gasly, who underperformed. He was only able to finish P9. This is another disappointment for Gasly who hasn’t been performing at Red Bull. After a P4 qualifying in Canada for Ricciardo, he could only manage P8 in Renault’s home Grand Prix. Both of the McLarens showed great pace to qualify fifth and sixth with Norris edging out Sainz. This was a fantastic showing for McLaren who have shown serious improvement over last season. It was also the fifth front-row lockout of the season for Mercedes with Hamilton snatching pole. The big surprise of qualifying was Vettel who could only qualify in P7. During Q3 drivers usually, have two attempts to set their best lap time. On Vettel’s first attempt he aborted his lap, which put more pressure on him for his second go. It was a shame for fans who wanted to see another Vettel Hamilton fight, but I would say fans got something better; a Vettel McLaren fight. Now it was time for the race, and time to see which Mercedes would win.
It was Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton won the race. Now the time it took you to read that was about as long as it took for everyone watching to tell who was going to win the race. The top four starting the race were the first four to finish the race, and they finished in the order they started. Sebastian Vettel also got past the McLarens to finish in a predictable fifth. This seems to be the way it is for some of the races on the calendar. But, while there wasn’t a lot of action going on at the front there were nice midfield battles going on. The midfield battles were quite interesting because there were many drivers who could grab points and there were also differing strategies between the teams.
At the start of the race, Ricciardo got a poor start and ended up behind Gasly and Giovinazzi. Ricciardo, needing a good result in his first French GP for Renault, was able to get by Giovinazzi before he would pit. Dannyl Ric and Renault tried for an undercut on Gasly who was ahead. This is when the driver behind will pit first, hoping to get faster lap times on fresh tyres to overtake the driver in front. Ricciardo was able to successfully complete the overtake and got past Gasly. This is concerning for Red Bull because Gasly has the better car and seems to be struggling at his new team. Speaking of struggling, Giovionazzi struggled the rest of the race after Danny Ric got by, having to pit twice and finishing P16.
The other good midfield situation was with Raikkonen, Hulkenberg, and Lance Stroll. Because each of these drivers got knocked out before Q3 they were allowed to choose which tyres they wanted to start the race on. Most of the drivers starting ahead of these three were starting on the medium tyre, while these three chose to start on the hards. The track temperatures were high, which meant that a medium and hard tyre strategy would be best. The drivers starting on the mediums started the race better but had to pit early and were on old hards at the end of the race. Kimi and Hulkenberg seemed to have pitted at the perfect time as they were able to catch up to Norris and Ricciardo. Stroll was unlucky and pitted too late to get up to the pack fighting for points, but he did gain four places in the race. It was very interesting to watch the different strategies play out in the race. Ricciardo, Gasly, and the McLarens were the ones fighting at the beginning of the race, but Hulkenberg and Raikkonen were able to fight at the end of the race. To many, this was a boring race, but I rather enjoyed this one. There was a good battle in the midfield, and seeing different strategies makes the races more interesting. The races are long and sometimes you just have to let the strategies play out and be patient, and that’s what happened here. I suggest to anyone watching the races to pay attention to the team’s strategies and try to learn more about what they are doing. Race strategies are fascinating and they make the races more fun to watch.
At the end of the race, there was a fantastic bit of fighting between Norris, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, and Ricciardo. With Norris’ tyres struggling Riccardo decided to take a risky move on the outside of the chicane on the back straight. Ricciardo ran wide and ended up getting by Norris, and a poor entry back onto the track by Ricciardo ended up dropping Norris behind the charging Nico and Kimi. With Kimi ahead of Ricciardo, Danny Ric decided to try one up the inside of Raikkonen. I loved this move just because it was pure racing. I mean Danny Ric just went full nutsack and sent it up the inside. But, he wasn’t even on the track when he made the pass on Kimi! Don’t worry though you Iceman fans because Ricciardo got a penalty, but I’ll get more into that later.
Like now. It is time for my take on the race. To start I thought the two 5 second penalties for Ricciardo for the incidents on the last lap were fair. The racing by Ricciardo was the best part of the entire race! Now to me what’s important here is that it is clear for fans to see why there should be the penalties for Ricciardo, but it is not something that fans want to watch. It was great to see Ricciardo being aggressive and pushing hard on the last lap. That is exactly what I want to see during the race. I know that he was off the track when he passed, but there really wasn’t anything to stop him. There used to be grass, and that would’ve stopped Ricciardo from making that move. Drivers race and lines on the track won’t stop them, but grass will. All I really want to say is nice racing Ricciardo, and Paul Ricard looks like shit. Unfortunately there now seems to be a complacency for penalties in F1. This deters drivers from being aggressive and actually racing! But penalties don’t look like they’re going away.
Folks will say France was boring (I will strongly disagree as I eat my kwa-son (croissant)). Well, let’s pray the teams push the FIA and stewards for looser restrictions on racing and 2021 regulations that will make the racing on track fairer.
Well, thank you for reading all the way to the end. Please if you enjoyed that follow me @ArtOfKimi on Twitter. Now here are your full results:
- Hamilton (Mercedes)
- Bottas (Mercedes)
- Leclerc (Ferrari)
- Verstappen (Red Bull)
- Vettel (Ferrari)
- Sainz (McLaren)
- Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
- Hulkenberg (Renault)
- Norris (McLaren)
- Gasly (Red Bull)
- Ricciardo (Renault)
- Perez (Racing Point)
- Stroll (Racing Point)
- Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
- Albon (Toro Rosso)
- Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
- Magnussen (Haas)
- Kubica (Williams)
- Russel (Williams)
DNF. Grosjean (Haas)
Art Of Kimi 