After a week of hype that Red Bull Racing had gleaned a Mercedes weakness and was ready to go for the jugular, Lewis Hamilton dominated the Spanish Grand Prix in typically demoralising style to take a stronghold on the championship race.
Mercedes had genuine concerns for its ability to keep the tyres alive after severe blistering lost it the race last week and tyre failures almost cost it victory two weeks in the British Grand Prix. Toto Wolff even singled out Max Verstappen as the favourite for the race win despite the Dutchman qualifying third behind polesitter Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Hot weather has long been a weakness of the German marque, and the step in downforce taken in 2020 combined with the sport sticking with 2019-specification tyres means the Pirellis suffer more significantly in the heat.
Mercedes has comfortably locked out the Spanish Grand Prix front row, but the team doesn’t consider itself favourite to convert pole to victory.
It’s been a complicated month for Mercedes. The W11 is obviously extremely quick over a single lap, but this unusual season, with races run in the height of summer, when teams are normally on break, the car is showing signs of weakness over a race distance.
At the British Grand Prix his manifested in tyre blowouts at the very end of the race. Admittedly the final stint was ambitious long, but only one other car suffered similar issues.
I review the action from the 2020 70th Anniversary Grand Prix with Jack Nicholls from BBC F1.
It’s hard to believe only a week after three tyre blowouts marred the end of the British Grand Prix that we’re praising Pirelli for spicing up a race, but little in 2020 has gone according to expectation.
Whereas previously the soft tyres seemed destined to only increase the requirement for tyre management, instead it forced teams to consider multiple stops, and the combination of softer compounds at higher pressure and the warm, high-energy circuit meant not everyone got their thinking correct.
Mercedes, so dominant last week that Lewis Hamilton won on three wheels, seriously misjudged the tweaked conditions. Using only one set of mediums during practice and saving both hards for the race, the reigning constructors champion didn’t sufficiently grasp the effect high pressures would have on tyre life.
You wouldn’t have guessed after the triple failure one week ago that tyres would be the saviour of the second race at Silverstone, but at the F1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix the sport owes a great deal to Pirelli for spicing up the race.
Pirelli some time ago made the decision to bring a set of tyres one set softer to the second race at Silverstone, in part addressing concerns that back-to-back races at the same venue would be a recipe for repetition.
At first glance the extra step seemed unlikely to make much difference, but not much in 2020 is going to plan.
By lap 49 of 52 the British Grand Prix, having long settled into a rhythm of tyre management and pace control, seemed headed for a predictable Lewis Hamilton-led Mercedes one-two finish.
Then all hell broke loose.
As Valtteri Bottas crossed the line to start his lap 50 his front-left tyre collapsed, handing Max Verstappen second place. The next lap Carlos Sainz suffered the same Pirelli blowout, and on the final tour the identical fate befell Hamilton.
But the Briton had only half a lap to go and a 40-second buffer to Verstappen. He was able to limp home and retain the lead with a five-second margin to record perhaps the most dramatic of his seven home-race wins.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are absolutely peerless at Silverstone, the Briton taking pole by 0.3 seconds from teammate Valtteri Bottas and the next-closest constructor more than a second adrift.
The British Grand Prix was always likely to be something of a bloodbath on the evidence of the German marque’s impressive pace so far this season. The Silverstone Circuit has become increasingly power sensitive as downforce has ramped up during this regulatory era, and Mercedes has taken a massive step forward in the motor stakes this season.
But the advantage isn’t solely down to power, with the Mercedes W11 strong in just about all facets. Only in the heat does the car appear unbalanced, as was the case during Friday, but even then the team’s propensity to run with much reduced power during practice flatters to deceive.
I review the action from the 2020 Hungarian Grand Prix with Ben Edwards from Channel 4.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes have long exhausted the range of superlatives available to describe their various weekends of domination, and Anglo-German pairing dealt another sobering blow to those hoping for a close title fight at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was flawless throughout the weekend. His pole time was a new track record, his lap having squeezed the maximum from his W11, as evidenced by the almost full second gap between him and the closest non-Mercedes challenger, Racing Point’s Lance Stroll.
His race was similarly masterful. He grew his advantage to more than three seconds on the damp opening lap, and once he was on slicks he was untouchable, quick enough to even make a late stop for softs to take the point for fastest lap.
For the second week in a row Formula One is experiencing a weather-disrupted weekend, which means for the second week in a row the forecast for the race remains shrouded.
The Hungarian Grand Prix has faced a variable forecast from the beginning of the weekend, with heavy showers arriving between Friday practice sessions and washing out FP2. Rain threatened Saturday running but stayed away, and now on Sunday again the risk of showers is high.
One suspects several on the grid would embrace a variable race as an opportunity to make good on paltry weekends to this point.
I review the action from the 2020 Styrian Grand Prix with Laurence Edmondson from ESPN.
Lewis Hamilton opened his 2020 victory account by converting a superlative wet-weather pole into a comfortable win at the Styrian Grand Prix to confirm Mercedes’s place at the head of the field.
Hamilton was absolutely peerless in the saturated qualifying conditions, and though Max Verstappen started alongside him on the front row of the grid, the Red Bull Racing driver never quite had the pace to challenge for the lead, and by the time of his pit stop on lap 24 that his strategy had become defensive rather than progressive.
Off the podium the battle for fourth went down to the wire, with the front of the midfield tightly matched after different strategies brought Racing Point, Renault and McLaren together in the battle for points.
Mercedes may have a new all-black livery, but its superiority over the field remains stubbornly unchanged, as Valtteri Bottas’s dominant pole so aptly illustrated at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.
Not even a trip through the gravel and a clumsy spin on the grass in his second run could keep Bottas from pole and a new track record with a time of 1 minute 2.939 seconds. It was enough to pip teammate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.012 seconds.
The margin between the quickest Mercedes and the next-best car, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, was a foreboding 0.538 seconds. The Dutchman said the gap was exacerbated by balance problems aboard his RB16, but even was forced to admit the Mercedes is simply in a different league.
I review the action from the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix with Stuart Codling from GP Racing.
The Austrian Grand Prix, Formula One’s first race back from its COVID-19 hiatus, was everything the sport could have hoped for after a 200-odd-day break.
The race featured plenty of passing, clever and clumsy driving in equal measure, unpredictable unreliability and a battle for the podium that lasted until the very last lap.
Valtteri Bottas took away 25 points from a track around which he’s typically been strong, and with title rival Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth and Red Bull Racing failing to score, he’s stolen an early match in his fourth championship campaign with Mercedes.