Not the day that Mercedes hoped for!
This was clear evidence, that so much can change in racing in just 24 hours, as we saw a very different result to the race we got on Friday, despite the dominance of Mercedes earlier on in the day. It also wouldn’t be a race weekend without the FIA making a mess of the event!
The one good thing that would come from Mercedes having a dominant powertrain, would be the fight they would get from Venturi, and that came into fruition in Race 2. Both of their cars were able to conserve energy behind De Vries in the first part of the race, and then undercut him using attack mode. Once they had got to the lead, Mortara used his last moments of attack mode to get the lead back from Di Grassi, and was never stopped. They didn’t have it easy in the closing stages, with threats from Frijns, but it sounds like they were just taking it cautiously. The team might have to be careful though, as although Mortara is a cool calm character, if Lucas starts to try and lead the team, things could get unhealthy at the team. That duo of two experienced drivers, could be a potent combination all year on the other hand, and won’t make it easy for Mercedes at all.
I will admit I underestimated Envision in my preview, as they came out so strong in the first weekend. Cassidy had a pretty good run in Race 1, and in Race 2 Robin did even better, nearly taking the win. A big part of their pace is the Audi powertrain, which they have kept running after Audi left the sport. If we think back to last year, that powertrain brought Di Grassi some wins last year, and is clearly still stacking up well now. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see another season where Frijns is just consistently in the points all year, the question will be if that is enough to bring home a title for him.
After it all went south for Porsche in race 1, they somehow were able to get to the bottom of the issue overnight, and stay in the lead pack all race. This does suggest that it was a software issue, and not a hardware problem in the car. Lotterer once again outshone his teammate massively, which is not what we would have expected after Season 7, where his future was in question. There was the usual hard racing from the German, however, it seems that he has learnt to tone it down a bit. Wehrlein too had a better second race, but as I said, the gap to his teammate is not one he would like to see, especially given how hyped up he was 5 or so years ago. Porsche could be a dark horse for this championship if they find a bit more raw pace.
The day didn’t look to be going well for Dennis after qualifying, as the team didn’t find the same gains in pace for the second day as others did. From 8th though he was able to climb a few positions, and if it had stayed green to the end, may have had a chance to climb up further. He is right in the title fight, so watch out for him in Mexico. Vergne had another alright day, yet it is still not where they want to be, and suggests it might be another underwhelming year for them.
Vandoorne was the best Mercedes in 7th, which speaks volumes about their day, after a 1-2 in the first race. Given he has the fastest lap of the race, they didn’t lose any pace overnight. Vandoorne lost it all in qualifying, where he ended up 12th, after not maximising the cars potential, from there, it is hard to fly through the field in a championship this close. Stoffel needs to start executing if he wants to win the title. As for De Vries, it was all going perfectly, until they didn’t react to the attack mode undercut behind them, which meant they were overtaken. What Mercedes probably didn’t account for, was how much momentum he would lose by being overtaken, as in four corners he lost 6 places, and was soon outside the top 10. That wasn’t the only issue though, as he was down on energy too, which is surprising as it worked so well on Friday. Mercedes therefore still has a lot to learn ahead of the next race.
Rowland was able to finish this time, and give Mahindra some points to start the year. There is a large amount of pace in the car, they just need to extract it fully, and he is destroying his teammate Sims. It was also the right move to leave Nissan, you can undeniably say. Askew did another solid job, it wasn’t the points of Race 1, however, he moved forward again in the race, and is showing real promise for future races, if he can qualify better, points should be a more regular occurrence.
Da Costa got shuffled back in the first part of the race, maybe as a result of lack of pace or conserving energy, and could never recover from it, which ended a horrible weekend for him. Nissan as in Race 1 were not able to get near the points, Guenther may be ruing leaving Andretti. Jaguar meanwhile had the worst day of all, as their pace once again was well inside the top 10, but both drivers hit the wall in qualifying, leaving them well down the grid, where points were near impossible. Evans nearly made the points, but couldn’t get it done. Cassidy crashed in practice, which ruined his whole day, he has the pace though which is good.
To touch on what I mentioned at the start of the review, the FIA’s handling of the Safety Car was not good, it was the right call to end the race under Safety Car, but it was a mess otherwise. Firstly, they very nearly caused a pile up when the Safety Car stopped seemingly without warning anyone else. This is one of the issues with street circuits, and the FIA needs to be on top of it, and not surprise the drivers, who were lucky to only lose the odd bit of bodywork. The other bit of stupidity was seeing the car of Sims flailing around as the other cars were basically driving under it, as they tried to put the car behind the wall. It was dangerous for the drivers and the marshal who was trying to control it, and wasn’t a good look at all. If you are going to make a tight street track, ensure there are enough spaces where it isn’t tight, for the marshals and tractors to reach the accident scene, otherwise you get this farce. This trend of mistakes is starting to become worrying.
Putting the last part aside, it was a brilliant weekend of action to start Season 8, which has shown that it won’t be a runaway season for Mercedes, and that there are other powertrains out there which can put them under pressure. We return to Mexico City next, and the Foro Sol stadium, where the atmosphere will be electric, as will the on track racing be too hopefully.
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 