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Lewis Hamilton gets out of his damaged Mercedes after colliding with Max Verstappen in Monza
Photo:
ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP
It was no surprise that Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton crashed for the second time this year at Monza. The championship fight between the two drivers, who ultimately move in a world of their own, is far too close from the rest of the competition. The rivalry between the young challenger and the world champion who is over ten years older is also too great, who was no longer used to serious competition in recent years and is now suddenly faced with an opponent in an equivalent car. The two best drivers in the field go to the limit for success - and sometimes even beyond.
The emotionally charged relationship between Mercedes sports director Toto Wolff on the one hand and the Red Bull management duo made up of team boss Christian Horner and motorsport coordinator Helmut Marko on the other also plays an important role in this duel.
All those involved certainly want their own team to be successful first of all, but standing in front of your rival is also very important.
The fact that the Fia imposed a three-place penalty against Verstappen after the race for an incident that most experts and drivers from Fernando Alonso to Daniel Ricciardo to Martin Brundle and Ralf Schumacher classified as a normal racing accident will not help, to smooth the waves.
At Red Bull, one has had the feeling for a long time that the world motorsport association would be more on the side of Mercedes in case of doubt.
Because of the Monza penalty, Red Bull will probably take the chance to change Verstappen's engine at the upcoming race in Sochi (September 26, live ticker SPIEGEL.de, TV: Sky).
In Formula 1, every driver is allowed to use three of the different elements in the drive unit over the course of a season and the Dutchman - like Hamilton - has reached the limit.
After installing the fourth unit, the drivers are set back on the grid, which could be a good fit in Russia with the long straights, where overtaking is a little easier than on other tracks.
Where did Red Bull catch up?
The fact that the fight for the title has become so close this year and that Red Bull was able to work through a large part of the Mercedes superiority of recent years is due to various factors.
Firstly, the aerodynamic rule changes for this season, which, at first glance, were not that massive, harmed Mercedes more than the Red Bull competition.
This is due to the different concepts of the cars: The Mercedes has a very flat angle of attack, which means that the ground clearance is almost the same at the front and rear, while the Red Bull is significantly steeper.
In practice, the specified restrictions on the diffuser in the rear meant that Mercedes lost significantly more downforce than the competition.
Part of it could be made up for with appropriate development work - in contrast to the Vettel team Aston Martin, which was also a victim of the new rules - but not everything.
Second, engine partner Honda has made up some ground over Mercedes - even if improvements are only allowed in the area of reliability for cost reasons. The Honda engines do not have more power available, but higher reliability also means being able to call up the theoretically available power more often and over a longer period of time without fear of damage.
Thirdly, the successful Mercedes team, which has dominated Formula 1 since 2014, is making unforeseen mistakes that have not been made in recent years.
Both with the team in terms of strategy or pit stops, as well as with Hamilton, such as in Monza with the botched start in the sprint race.
Hamilton was even lucky several times, for example when he slipped in the rain in Imola, when the following crash between his team-mate Valtteri Bottas and George Russell resulted in a red flag and brought him back into the race.
Verstappen could be even further ahead
Unnecessary bad luck is more likely to be found on Verstappen's side anyway. Even if you leave out the first collision with Hamilton at Silverstone, which was more the responsibility of the Briton: the tire damage in Baku, the shooting down by Bottas at the start in Hungary - without these incidents the Dutchman would be much clearer in the World Cup ahead than by just five points.
Before the Monza weekend, Red Bull had said that Mercedes was definitely the favorite, that it was all about limiting damage. In fact, the black Silver Arrow was still a little faster, "but only a maximum of four tenths instead of one second in 2020," said Marko. However, the poor sprint qualifying and the crash in the race ultimately ensured that the "damage control" even expanded the lead for Verstappen by two points.
An outlook for the rest of the season shows that the fight for the title may well remain tight and exciting until the last race in Abu Dhabi. Sochi is considered a Mercedes track, where Hamilton should go into the race as the favorite, also because of the transfer of Verstappen. Unless Mercedes is also forced to change Hamilton's drive unit, then the rivals could start the race together from the back of the field. On the rest of the upcoming courses, the conditions should be more balanced - with perhaps slight advantages for Red Bull in Mexico and Brazil - also because the altitude there has been better coped with in recent years. However, it is not at all certain whether this advantage will take effect. The corona pandemic has already mixed up the racing calendar several times.
One can only hope that Verstappen and Hamilton will concentrate more on their own races than on their competitors in the upcoming races. Without Halo, the accident in Monza could have ended very differently.
