The German Grand Prix was one of Formula 1’s most chaotic and unpredictable races in years, as mixed weather conditions wreaked havoc. Motorsport Week takes a look at how the drivers wound up where they did on a startling day for some and a miserable one for others.
A not-so-vintage performance
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Mercedes sponsored the race, had its own grandstand, celebrated 125 years of motorsport competition, dressed up, and finally allowed Netflix cameras into its inner sanctum. The producers probably could not believe their luck as the team suffered one of its worst races since it emerged as Formula 1’s hybrid era powerhouse. For Lewis Hamilton it was a rare off-day, though such was the crazy nature of the race that it is easy to forget the unwell World Champion still controlled the opening 29 laps. His error prompted a prolonged pit stop that bordered on the comedic, as Mercedes had Valtteri Bottas’ tyres ready, then put on slicks, before finally attaching the correct Intermediates. Such was his advantage through the Safety Car period that Hamilton still held fifth and would still have been in firm podium contention without the time penalty for the bollard transgression. Race Director Michael Masi later confirmed that the investigation into Hamilton driving too slowly was scrapped after it was revealed that an anomaly within the system flagged up the alleged transgression. A subsequent high-speed spin thwarted Hamilton further and few could recall a grand prix in which Hamilton made two critical errors. He nonetheless still extended his title lead to 41 points courtesy of Alfa Romeo’s penalty and Valtteri Bottas letting a chance slip through his grasp. Bottas has rarely appeared a contender in mixed conditions but still had a strong chance of a podium when he dipped a wheel on the slippery Turn 1 exit kerb and wound up nose-first in the barriers.
“I made a mistake myself, for sure the team also told me to push harder and I was pushing as hard as I could to get to the podium,” said Bottas. “Obviously I pushed a bit too much in that corner, lost the rear-end. It was my mistake and maybe I should have tried to stay more calm and take my time but maybe if I didn’t try that hard maybe I wouldn’t have reached the podium, but at least I could have got some points, which would have been important.” A potential 24-point gap to Hamilton grew to 41 – and recovering that sort of ground will be a huge challenge.
Leclerc emerges, then errs
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For Charles Leclerc the German Grand Prix was a case of what-might-have-been, though half of the field could probably say the same. Leclerc started from 10th position but made gains straight away and quickly emerged in fourth spot, though lacked pace on Intermediates compared to the leading trio. An inspired call from Leclerc during the Virtual Safety Car phase for Daniel Ricciardo’s stoppage meant he was on fresh rubber, having minimised the time loss in the pits, and started taking seconds out of the leaders. By the time Verstappen came in for Mediums Leclerc was just three seconds in the mirror. Verstappen stopped, and spun, Bottas stopped, while Leclerc came in just as a VSC period was called when Lando Norris halted. That left Leclerc second. But his good work was soon undone as a second mistake through the penultimate corner – after his earlier slide – left him helplessly slithering into the barriers. The expletive-laden radio message underlined his anguish and he trudged away from the wreckage to contemplate what might have been. Leclerc rued the slippery run-off but clarified his comments after being stung by mis-leading headlines. “I said [the comments] saying I didn’t want any headlines that I was blaming the track for the mistake but the first thing I have seen on social media ‘Leclerc is blaming off for slippery track’, it’s not the message I wanted to give. It was very slippery off track. but the mistake I did it myself, I’m very sorry for the team and the people supporting us this weekend. It’s a shame as it’s a great opportunity.”
Luck meets skill
To call Max Verstappen’s German Grand Prix lucky would be a gross oversight, considering the pace he showed through the race. But whenever a driver makes a mistake the consequences can often not be equal to the crime. 12 months ago Sebastian Vettel’s title bid began to collapse with the most marginal of lock-ups at a corner where run-off was minimal. This year Lewis Hamilton made an error. Valtteri Bottas made an error. Charles Leclerc made an error. Verstappen also made an error – only at the conclusion of his he found himself pointing in the right direction, still on the track, and with no visible damage to the car. Somewhat ironically Verstappen’s mistake, and the subsequent errors elsewhere, prompted him to return for Intermediate tyres, finally jumping Bottas, after which he was utterly peerless. Verstappen stretched away from the rest of the field at a rate of several seconds per lap and never once looked like being threatened. He had previously put in eye-catching displays in wet-weather races and, with Hamilton erring, profited to bring home a second win in three grands prix. Team-mate Pierre Gasly, though, had a miserable day. Both Red Bull drivers made a slow start, thought to be related to an engine setting that may be linked to Verstappen's tardy Austrian getaway, but from there his day unravelled. A wheel nut problem at the first pit stop left Gasly near the back, from where he raced competitively but made three errors at Turn 1 on consecutive laps before running into Alexander Albon. It was not a good day at the office.
The home hero
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Vettel’s miserable 12-month period reached another low on Saturday with the scarcely-believable development in qualifying, when an intercooler problem left him with a power loss. In race trim he was rather anonymous through the first stages of the race – in the wake of a rapid first-lap – as he spent much of the time battling towards the lower reaches of the top 10, unable to keep pace with the Alfa Romeo of Kimi Raikkonen. “The first 15-20 laps it wasn’t anything special,” said Vettel. “I made good progress at the very beginning, first lap, and once the spray came down I was able to see more and couldn’t make any progress. I just didn’t have enough pace, I was racing and battling with Kimi and he was two seconds ahead, I think I damaged the tyres fairly early, that didn’t help. But still the pace wasn’t great, I couldn’t go with the pace the leaders had at that time.” Vettel took the third Safety Car restart from the final points-paying positions but swept past Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly, profited when Bottas crashed, and then surged from fifth to second in just four laps after the final restart. From last on the grid, and still only at the foot of the top 10 late on, it was a breath-taking recovery and a shot in the arm for his critics.
The comeback comeback comeback kid
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Daniil Kvyat’s career: promoted to Toro Rosso, promoted to Red Bull, demoted to Toro Rosso, axed from Toro Rosso, a year in a Ferrari development role, re-signed by Toro Rosso. And that’s all happened in a five-year spell. A few seasons ago, as Kvyat felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, he looked alarming close to breaking point as he tried too hard to re-assert himself in the sport. In 2019 he has appeared a different character: refreshed, mature, and ready to grasp an opportunity many – including himself – thought might never arrive. His drive on Sunday was not especially extraordinary, as he was near the back, but the final tyre call was done to near perfection, and third spot was a just reward for a driver who epitomises the much-worn ‘never give up’ mantra. It was also a huge reward for Toro Rosso, which made the call to switch Kvyat to slicks late on.
“It was an incredible few years in my life,” said Kvyat, whose podium was not even the most special event of the weekend, following the birth of his first child. “A lot of realisations in my life because there were sometimes tough times, and I thought maybe Formula 1 was over for me, and especially podiums, I would never, ever, ever be again. But life just proves if you work hard and never give up, things are possible. And I think this is exactly what happened today. Even the race today, I managed to keep it cool. All these three difficult years just felt like they crashed from my shoulders finally now. This changed today. It was hard work to reach this moment, and hopefully it can send a message out there that I’m ready now to fight for these kinds of moments on a consistent basis, and there is no stronger message than a podium like this.”
Better call Stroll
Lance Stroll has a knack for being competitive in low-grip conditions but for much of Sunday’s race he cut a relatively anonymous figure. That ultimately proved to work in his favour as, with nothing to lose, he and Racing Point gambled on slicks just as the tipping point was being reached. Stroll was at the back of the train when the Safety Car peeled into the pits but as his rivals all stopped – under restart or full racing conditions – he was lifted to the front of the pack, albeit briefly, and hung on among the front-runners to secure a stunning fourth place.
“We got it wrong four out of the five times,” laughed Stroll. “We went on slicks, then it started raining, then I spun twice in one lap, so I was limping back to the pit lane. We fitted the Inters, and then it was dry, and it started to dry up, so we fitted another set of Inters because we were destroying those Inters, and then we fitted the slicks at the end.”
The better STR driver?
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Prior to the German Grand Prix formation laps Alexander Albon had never driven a Formula 1 car in wet conditions. That he avoided the drama that befell others, kept a wise head while his rivals lost theirs, and came home slightly disappointed with sixth, spoke volumes about his natural ability and attitude. Albon thrust his way into contention for the podium and was so rapid that he had to try and stop himself from passing Hamilton – which cost him time – and only truly lost out through the late stage switch to slicks. He was, perhaps, most deserving of a podium among those outliers in the rostrum-chasing group. It was a brilliant performance from someone so inexperienced – having had to rely on a bit of assistance from the team.
“When they said when do you want to pit? Is it time for dry tyres? I was like, I have no idea," said Albon. "You guys are going to have to help me out! Tell me everything because I had no clue when to pit or anything! But the guys did an amazing job. It is a testament to the team. Really hard work and two cars in good points positions. We were running in the top five and I thought this really is our pace – we were not losing out to the guys in front, and the guys behind were dropping back,” he said. “So I was really happy with how it was going, and I thought three-quarters through the race as long as we just finish where we are, we are sorted. Unfortunately, there was a restart. I got caught with Lewis. It was the last thing what I expected. I did not want to overtake him. But I was forced into the position so I had to try it. We lost a bit of ground. The guys on the slick tyres undercut us quite severely.” Toro Rosso was able to gamble on slicks with Kvyat and it paid off for the elder of the pair. Albon, though, impressed many on Sunday.
Where art thou Romeos?
A promising weekend unravelled post-race for Alfa Romeo as Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi were handed 30-second time drops, in lieu of a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, for a clutch infringement. In effect a setting mistake from Alfa Romeo in the changeable conditions, and with multiple laps to the grid, meant the torque in the clutch at the start did not match the torque demand when the drivers released the clutch within the specified 70 millisecond period. For Raikkonen it was 200ms, for Giovinazzi 300s, and gave the drivers a potential advantage of a more gradual torque application, perhaps resulting in a smoother getaway given the wet conditions. Alfa Romeo is protesting, believing it has the grounds and evidence to overturn the decision, with any outcome crucial in the team’s placement in the Constructors’ standings.
Haas still at a crossroads…
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Haas picked up seventh and eighth in the wake of Alfa Romeo’s substantial penalty but the team still remains at a crossroads with regards to its direction. Romain Grosjean ran the Melbourne-spec VF-19 while Kevin Magnussen used the updated specification, and their various performances outlined that there was no clear favoured route to take. “I think the main thing that follows as a trend is [Friday] was very hot, track temperature was really hot, and on Saturday morning it was very cold [in comparison],” said Magnussen. “And then the car just transformed completely and it became a really, really good car, then in qualifying the temperatures went up a little bit again and we took a step back. I don’t really understand. We can’t say we understand why that is, but it seems to be a trend. You just lose so much grip when it’s hot, so much grip. When it’s cold the car is phenomenal, it’s a completely different car. It’s insane how big the difference was [Friday] to [Saturday].” For his part, Grosjean said: “it’s quite impressive that a car that is that old, it’s not old in general but in F1 11 races is a long, long time and it’s still capable of delivering such a strong result [in qualifying] so it shows that we know which is the quicker car, now we just need to understand what the difference is between the two packages and why Kevin was so competitive and maybe lost some of that competitiveness.” Boss Guenther Steiner added: "We don’t know when the car is fast. If we had come to the conclusion that the Melbourne car is faster then we would change to the Melbourne car, but we haven’t come to that conclusion because in FP3 look at the time from Kevin. It was an amazing time. Where did it come from? I don’t know." Haas will persist with its split car approach in Hungary this weekend.
…in more ways than one
Haas’ result was almost compromised by another clash between the two drivers, which came one race after a first-lap collision that rendered Steiner almost speechless. Kevin Magnussen barged past Romain Grosjean before being told to relinquish the pace soon after. Team orders are now likely to be imposed on a regular basis moving forward.
“I was as surprised as maybe everybody else that after what happened in Silverstone, they do it again,” Steiner said. “I mean, I didn’t speak with them after the race, there’s no point. I will do it before Budapest and find a clear line what to do and what not to do. If they don’t understand what that means, I need to tell them event by event and lap by lap what to do, and I think that will happen. We don’t need any more distractions or loss of points by running into each other or into anybody else as well. It’s one of these stories where I’m baffled in the moment. We will regroup and go again.” The problem when a team has two similarly competitive drivers, as Force India found out in 2017, is that they often want ownership of the same piece of tarmac.
Renault falters again
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In a race of opportunity and potential it was Renault that wound up as one of the biggest losers. Nico Hulkenberg typically thrived in the mixed conditions as he shirked the slick tyre move to vault into second spot, and still preserved fourth once cleared by the Mercedes drivers. But his race haplessly ended when he was one of many to slither and slide on the ice-rink run-off in front of the imposing grandstand. His attempt at extricating the car only left it further nosed into the wall. Not for the first time a strong and promising Hulkenberg display ended in disappointment and despair. It has become a career theme. Daniel Ricciardo, meanwhile, was relatively subdued by his standards until any prospects of a late-race surge were thwarted before they begun when his exhaust decided to no longer function. Renault is now a mediocre sixth in the standings and is surely now too far back to challenge McLaren.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Williams put in another dire performance in Germany as its aerodynamic update package did not propel it significantly forward, but in the mixed conditions Robert Kubica and George Russell at least kept their FW42 out of the gravel and out of the walls while others did not. Considering the lack of grip available from the car in steady and predictable weather it was quite an achievement for the pair. But in staying clear of trouble Kubica profited from Alfa Romeo’s post-race penalty to move into the top 10, and with it claim his and Williams’ first point of the campaign. It was also his first point since finishing P5 at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Russell can consider himself unfortunate to have missed out as he wanted to pit at the same time as Stroll, reckoning Williams had nothing to lose, accepting he should have been more forceful in his request. Russell has been by far Williams’ stronger driver in 2019 but he is now the only driver without a point to his name.
