Formula 1 world champion Damon Hill believes that Mercedes-Benz is coming under more and more pressure. The 60-year-old Englishman says: “Red Bull Racing has now smelled blood when it comes to the championship fight.”
The Monaco Grand Prix was perhaps trend-setting: for the first time since Silverstone 2018, Mercedes-Benz was neither among the drivers nor the designers in the championship lead. At that time the world championship leaders were called Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, now they are called Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing-Honda.
After a crushing defeat in Monaco, Mercedes was unable to win in Baku either. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull Racing RB16B Honda were comfortably in the lead, Lewis Hamilton planned damage control in third place.
Then everything went haywire: Accident after a blowout by Max Verstappen, racing stopped, restart with the monumental brakes from Lewis Hamilton, Pérez victory.
Formula 1 champion Damon Hill points out in the F1 Nation podcast: “The Indy 500 recently took place. There they drive 350 in an oval. But the GP drivers in Baku drive 350 on a street circuit, and when a tire breaks it is really scary. Stroll crashed into the wall on the left after his tire blown, Verstappen, further ahead, turned right. On the left, at the height of Max’s accident, the pit lane entrance would have been, and if his car had hit this entrance, we would have had a really bad crash. I think Formula 1 got away with it with a black eye. “
The 22-time GP winner Hill is following the world championship duel between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing-Honda, or between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, with excitement. The Englishman thinks: “We are experiencing something that has never happened before in the turbo hybrid era: Mercedes is really under stress. The team is only second in power and has to catch up again. That puts the racing team under enormous pressure. They weren’t good in Monaco, they weren’t good in Baku. “
«Mercedes cannot afford to focus on next year against the background of a superior car – as in previous years. I can imagine, however, that they expected that 2021 would be quite light and that they therefore may not have developed the 2021 car as intensively as would have been necessary. I wonder if there wasn’t a mistake. “
“Red Bull Racing, on the other hand, smelled blood when it came to the championship fight. This team mercilessly seizes every opportunity. They feel that there is a real opportunity to become world champion again for the first time since 2013. In general, the pressure is increasing, and the past has shown that this is conducive to failure. “
Of course, the drivers also play a role. Lewis Hamilton showed nerves in Baku, accidentally pressed the magic button https://www.speedweek.com/formel1/news/176639/Lewis-Hamilton-Chance-wegen-Bedienungsfehlers-futsch.html, he slid with an incorrectly set brake balance straight ahead shortly after the restart and came out empty-handed.
Damon Hill smiles: “Back then we had four buttons on board, and yet every now and then I managed to press the wrong one. Today there are an incredible number of controls on a modern Formula 1 steering wheel, and it must be dangerously easy to make a mistake. Lewis may also have been a little surprised by how aggressively Pérez defended himself after the start. “
Azerbaijan GP, Baku
01. Sergio Pérez (MEX), Red Bull Racing RB16B-Honda, 1:39:40,034h
02. Sebastian Vettel (D), Aston Martin AMR21-Mercedes, +1,421 sec
03. Pierre Gasly (F), AlphaTauri AT02-Honda, +2,865
04. Charles Leclerc (MC), Ferrari SF21, +3.995
05. Lando Norris (GB), McLaren MCL35M-Mercedes, +4,918
06. Fernando Alonso (E), Alpine A521-Renault, +6,604
07. Yuki Tsotaka (J), AlphaTauri AT02-Honda, +7,063
08. Carlos Sainz (E), Ferrari SF21, +7,936
09. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS), McLaren MCL35M-Mercedes, +9,132
10. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN), Alfa Romeo C41-Ferrari, +10.021
11. Antonio Giovinazzi (I), Alfa Romeo C41-Ferrari, +10.727
12. Valtteri Bottas (FIN), Mercedes W12, +11,748
13. Mick Schumacher (D), Haas VF-21-Ferrari, +14,018
14. Nikita Mazepin (RUS), Haas VF-21-Ferrari, +14,615
15. Lewis Hamilton (GB), Mercedes W12, +17,789
16. Nicholas Latifi* (CDN), Williams FW43B-Mercedes, +13,052
* 10-second stop-and-go penalty converted into 30-second time penalty (pit lane not used during the yellow phase)
Out
George Russell (GB), Williams FW43B-Mercedes, gearbox defect
Max Verstappen (NL), Red Bull Racing RB16B-Honda, tire damage, accident
Lance Stroll (CDN), Aston Martin AMR21-Mercedes, tire damage, accident
Esteban Ocon (F), Alpine A521-Renault, Motordefekt
World Championship stand after 6 of 22 races
01. Verstappen 105 Punkte
02. Hamilton 101
03. Pérez 69
04. Norris 66
05. Leclerc 52
06. Bottas 47
07. Sainz 42
08. Gasly 31
09. Vettel 28
10. Ricciardo 26
11. Alonso 13
12. Ocon 12
13. Stroll 9
14. Tsunoda 8
15. Raikkonen 1
16. Giovinazzi 1
17. Schumacher 0
18. Russell 0
19. Mazepin 0
20. Latifi 0
Constructors Championship
01. Red Bull Racing 174 Punkte
02. Mercedes 148
03. Ferrari 94
04. McLaren 92
05. AlphaTauri 39
06. Aston Martin 37
07. Alpine 25
08. Alfa Romeo 2
09. Haas 0
10. Williams 0
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