Apologies it is a little bit late due to other commitments, but finally here is the Race Dissertation for the Turkish Grand Prix, where I go through 5 of the main pointers that I have taken from this weekend.
Hamilton secures seventh world title
Lewis Hamilton is now a 7 time Formula One World Champion, and he now stands shoulder to shoulder with Michael a Schumacher as the most successful driver in Formula One history. I have said all I needed to say about Lewis and his talent, but I really think 2020 has been his strongest year. He had a scrappy opener but from then on he has looked unstoppable for the most part. And it is fitting that he secured the title with one of the drives of his career. The Mercedes was nowhere near the fastest car in the tricky conditions. However his pace on worn intermediate tyres was superhuman. Whilst others could not make them last he effectively turned his into slicks. And he took an unlikely win. But his success hasn’t just been on track, it has been off track. The way he has led the push for racial equality has not just had an impact in Formula One and motorsport, it has had an impact in the outside world as well. It is clear this year belongs to Lewis Hamilton, having dominated the season and won in style.
Stroll proves he is more than just a pay driver
After a 5 race points drought, a lot of it through no fault of his own, Lance Stroll this weekend proved more than any other weekend that he means business, and he is here to compete rather than be just a pay driver. Since arriving in F1, he has received criticism and had the dreaded pay driver tag. However people are forgetting that he dominated the Euro F3 series in 2016, beating many highly regarded drivers. And from 2017-2019, when he was quick, he was really quick, as we saw in races such as Azerbaijan and Italy in 2017. The issue is this wasn’t frequent enough. However now he is delivering consistently. Yes he’s come off the back of a slump but as mentioned much of it wasn’t his fault, and this weekend in Turkey he duly put his Racing Point on pole and kept a cool head when out in front, it was a real shame he suffered that front wing damage that reduced his front downforce and resulted in him dropping to ninth, without that I believe he could’ve been second. Perhaps if he had gone into this year off the back of a solid F2 campaign rather than 3 lacklustre years in F1, he’d be seen as the next big thing rather than a pay driver.
Slippery track brings out the best in the drivers
It can be said the drivers got a bit of a shock when they ventured out on track for the first time on Friday and found out just how little grip the recently resurfaced track offered the drivers. This is not uncommon, as we saw in Portugal but it is uncommon that the track is still not up to optimum grip at the end of Free Practice 2. It was seen as disappointing for those who wanted to see the cars at maximum velocity around this thrilling circuit, but we wouldn’t have seen that anyway as rain on both Saturday and Sunday threw another spanner in the works, and adding rain to an already slippery surface made things so sketchy for the drivers. But they showed why they are the best in the world, putting on a great show for the fans. There was the odd spin here and there but the drivers kept things relatively controlled. And unbelievably despite the tricky conditions there was no safety car period. The closest we got to that was a virtual safety car after Antonio Giovinazzi stopped with mechanical troubles.
Sergio Perez shows to the world why it would be a travesty if he dropped out of F1
Sergio Perez equalled his career best finish with a solid second place and pulling off similar strategy heroics to Lewis Hamilton. Perez once again showed he is a master of working the tyres adequately. He almost lost second place on the final lap but he pulled through and was able to defend the position. It was one of the drives of his career and it really makes you annoyed that he right now doesn’t have a seat for 2021 and realistically if he doesn’t get the drive at Red Bull he is unlikely to find a seat. But as I said in my past article, he is an extremely dependable driver and he really is one that Red Bull could do with at the moment considering the recent struggles of Max Verstappen’s team-mates.
Max Verstappen’s main weakness is his temper and patience
We have seen so many times Max’s temper get the better of him when it shouldn’t, particularly during practice sessions where he says a few expletives about fellow drivers not responding to blue flags. However he displayed this weakness a lot during the race at Istanbul. It can be said as he was attacking Sergio Perez’s second place that he was the favourite to win the race at this stage. However his lack of patience cost him as he went for the move in a place where he shouldn’t have in a risky manner, and he lost it at high speed, destroying his tyres and ending his winning chances. He would then go on to make more mistakes throughout the race. Mistakes are rare for him but sometimes he runs out of patience and more often than not when he makes a mistake, it gets to him and sometimes a spate of errors follows, as it did in 2018 at the start of that year. He is among the best drivers on the grid right now, and he is pretty much the complete package and is clearly capable of winning many titles, but if he doesn’t fix this weak point, it could cost him a title in the future.
The championship picture
Of course the drivers championship is now done and dusted as Lewis Hamilton has secured a seventh world title. A 110 point gap with 3 races to go is unassailable. However Valtteri Bottas’s second place is not certain, despite his issues, Max Verstappen did take advantage of Valtteri’s bad day by bringing the gap down and it can be said that without his unlucky DNFs in Austria and Imola, he would likely be ahead. Sergio Perez has now moved up to fourth in the table whilst Racing Point and McLaren have now moved ahead of Renault in the constructors.
Here are the standings;
RaceWeek 