Russian Grand Prix: Five key Talking Points

At the end of an eventful Russian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has all but sealed the title and Nico Rosberg’s woeful run continues. Congratulations for Force India securing their second ever podium finish and McLaren-Honda for their second double points finish.

Here are the major talking points from the race :

1. Nico Rosberg’s poor form

Ever since Mercedes introduced their new engine upgrades at Monza the outcomes have been mixed. For Nico, it’s now 2 races without points. While today can be attributed to the mechanical, he has been the only Mercedes-powered driver to have engine and other mechanical issues since then. With his second no-points finish in 4 races, he has lost 50 points on Lewis Hamilton, and at the rate his luck is continuing, he might end up finishing 3rd overall in the Drivers Championship behind Vettel who now finished on the podium 11th.

Nico, considering his excellent qualification at Russia, will be wanting to know what exactly went wrong, as this was the first time he beat Lewis at the start (where he normally loses the race), since the new start regulations were implemented.

2. Mercedes End of race issues?

At the end of every race it seems that there might have been a minor issue with the Mercedes car. While it’s not serious enough to really harm their form in the next race, as they always seem to blitz the competition in the practice and qualification and at least 70% of the race (exception is Singapore), but in Italy and Russia, Lewis was told to back down a bit due to tyre pressure and issues with the rear wing respectively.

Sebastian cut 6 seconds of the 14 second lead of Lewis towards the end, with both Ferrari’s taking the fastest laps of the race. If by chance a slow pit stop or another incident was there, Lewis might have been challenged much earlier, and would not have the benefit of DRS as his team advised him not to use it during the latter stages of the race.

Mercedes really, for both their drivers sake, will need to re-check their cars as Ferrari and Williams showed good pace.

3. The Sochi Barriers and Marshals?

Following the crash of Carlos Sainz at FP3, many drivers expressed their concerns over the shock-absorbing barriers that have been installed.

While Sainz wasn’t harmed, the Barriers did take much longer to replace and during the race, Romain Grosjean who slammed into the barriers early in the race,  left a lot of debris from his car and the barriers on the track which led to a prolonged safety car period.

The organizers would really want to evaluate the choice of the barriers used, especially given how long it takes to remove a driver during a heavy crash scenario.

Also, the Marshals are a bit daring, as one nearly avoided being hit by Sebastian Vettel when running back to his post after picking up the panel of the rear wing of Carlos Sainz during the race. Until the Marshal (for his own safety and of the drivers), is in the enclosed area, the yellow flag of the sector should not be removed.  A nasty incident was nearly avoided today.

4. Battle of the Finns

It seems those who thought Kimi is becoming complacent, may not be saying that anymore. The Finn was aggressive in the race today, having jumped Bottas and Vettel at the start and was battling with his teammate in the first half of the race, not letting him through.

In the second half, following the pitstops Kimi was on the tail of Bottas and was just keeping pace, waiting for his move. Once he got clear of Riccardo (who had been passed by Bottas prior), he made his move. Both the Finnish drivers passed the then, 3rd place, Force India of Sergio Perez, both of them going at full power.

However, an aggressive move on the last lap saw Kimi crash into Bottas, knocking the front wing of his car and ensuring Bottas would not finish the race. He dragged his car into 5th (later getting a penalty and finishing 8th), but nonetheless, his actions would not go down well with Bottas. But to see such aggressive maneuvers, that does make the sport thrilling!

5. Time is running out for Red Bull

Everytime Red Bull felt something went wrong, they would blame Renault. Now, with the divorce papers signed between the two parties, there seems to be no solution in sight for Red Bull.

Today’s race, Daniel Riccardo suffered a suspension issue that forced him out of the race (that for sure cannot be blamed on their engine) and Kyvatt was well off the pace.

With Ferrari now refusing to supply a factory team par engine to the Austrian team, Red Bull currently have no engine for 2016. They are not willing to accept a slightly downgraded Ferrari Engine which is not helping the situation either. Unless one party compromises or Bernie Ecclestone comes in to fulfill his promise of there being 22 cars on the grid, this is a major political standoff that is going to go down to the wire.