Don Kennedy on Formula One: Dominant Hamilton wants more of a battle

Lewis Hamilton wants more of a battle for his race wins. Photo / Don Kennedy

Caption photo 1: Lewis Hamilton wants a battle for his race wins. Photo / Don KennedyCaption photo 2: Alex Albon(left) defended by his friend George Russell. Photo / Don Kennedy

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It may have been a genuine statement or else a clever attempt at reverse psychology, but after winning the Hungarian GP for an eighth time, six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has proclaimed he would "like more of a battle".

Based on the way he dominated the race, and in the process equalled Michael Schumacher's feat of winning the same grand prix eight times, his comment is none too surprising. The fact he won so easily is confirmation of not only how good the Mercedes car is, but also an indictment of how weak the opposition is.

When Hamilton secured his 90th F1 pole position and had teammate Valtteri Bottas starting alongside him on the front row, we expected a battle to the first corner in wet conditions, at least, if not a battle for the whole of the race.

But Bottas almost jumped the start, and than stalled momentarily, and entered the first corner in sixth place, while Hamilton cleared off and had a lead of more than 3 seconds after one lap.

It is a sad fact for fans stuck at home watching on TV, wanting to watch a competitive race, that Mercedes are going to dominant the championship for a seventh consecutive season, and Hamilton will equal Michael Schumacher's seven titles.

In the process, he will possibly score more than 100 pole positions, assuming F1 management can put together a calendar that has more than the eight races currently scheduled. And he will in all probability surpass Schumacher's record of 91 victories, a total Schumacher achieved in 2006, and which at the time was almost universally accepted as a record nobody would come close to beating.

But here we are, just three races into a 2020 season that everybody will remember, but a lot would prefer to forget, and Hamilton has won two races and sits on 86 wins, just five away from Schumacher's record. Putting aside Bottas's mistake at the start, from which he eventually recovered to finish 3rd, where was the rest of the opposition?

Max Verstappen, in the Red Bull on a wet track, was expected to challenge the Mercedes, notwithstanding qualifying fifth on the grid. But the enthusiastic Dutchman all but threw away his chances by crashing into a wall on the way to the starting grid. It was a rookie mistake from a driver who has eight wins from 105 starts. However, he earned the driver of the day tag for finishing second when he thought his race was over before it had begun.

The Ferrari challenge failed to eventuate, with Sebastian Vettel coming home in sixth place and so-called wonder boy, Charles Leclerc, blotting his copybook with a dismal 11th place finish. The gap between Mercedes and Ferrari is huge, given Hamilton lapped Vettel. Was Vettel surprised to be lapped, Sky F1 asked?

"No, are you surprised? I'm not," Vettel replied. "It was already pretty clear that they would lap us before the race, so it was not a surprise."

The word in the severely reduced in numbers, F1 paddock, is that Racing Point, which to many is Mercedes team number two, will exercise an exit clause in the contract of Sergio Perez, and replace him with Vettel for next year.

Given Lance Stroll finished fourth in Hungary, and Perez was sixth, if Vettel gets into the team that will be known as Aston Martin in 2021, he could find himself near the front of the grid again, instead of becoming a midfield runner that Ferrari more and more resembles.

Hamilton achieved the F1 equivalent of the trifecta in Hungary. Pole position, the race win and fastest lap. He was so far ahead of Verstappen in the race that he had the luxury of being able to pit four laps from the finish for fresh tyres so he could pick up an extra championship point for fastest lap. Sky Sport commentator Martin Brundle asked Hamilton post-race if his march towards Schumacher's records was becoming a procession?

"Not from my seat, no," Hamilton said. "We are working our a***s off and we are going to continue to do that. Look, I don't know what is going to happen over these next races."

"It was a flawless effort from our team this weekend, and in all areas we delivered so it was difficult for the others to compete. But I enjoy battling other teams, and I am hopeful we still find some challenges up ahead. Would I like more of a battle from the others? Absolutely."

Hamilton added: "In round one I was hit by multiple different punches that I was not ready for. But I refocused and the last two races have been fantastic. I have been on point this weekend. I need to keep it up."

Verstappen clearly lost his focus on the way to the grid, when he went off and hit the wall. He thought the damage was terminal, but the team told him to continue to the grid rather than pitting. It took them 20 minutes to repair the damage to the front wing and the suspension, which they achieved with 25 seconds to spare.

"It was not how I wanted it in the beginning, of course, ending up on the barriers on the lap to the grid," Verstappen explained. "The mechanics did an amazing job to fix the car. I don't know how they did it but incredible. So, to pay them back with second place, I'm very pleased for that."

Red Bull principal Christian Horner was also full of praise for the team.

"The mechanics on that car have done an amazing job today getting that turned around in 20 minutes in something that would usually take an hour and a half to get that result today," Horner explained.

"Max redeemed himself. On the lap to the grid on the inters he did his best to go off, I think he went off three times. Then almost terminally, we made a late call after he managed to reverse it out to drive it to the grid."

Verstappen said, considering he didn't think he was going to race at all: "P2 feels like a victory."

The only driver who can realistically beat Hamilton, is his teammate, Bottas, given the superiority of the Mercedes car. Winning the first race of the season in Austria was a promising start for Bottas, but if he is going to become the word champion, he will have to eliminate all mistakes.

"It was a pretty bad race for me, to be honest," Bottas told Brundle. "Starting second, you aim to win the race. I lost it at the start."

He said he had reacted to a light on his dash that went off, rather than the start light, and got anti-stall, and losing several places at the start made his race difficult, although he almost caught Verstappen on the last lap.

So, it was a Mercedes 1-3 but some might argue it was 1, 3 & 4, as the "pink Mercedes" of Racing Point driver Lance Stroll was fourth. He had started third on the grid, so dropping only one place might seem a good result, but Stroll lamented not making the podium, which looked possible until Bottas recovered from his poor start.

After the Styrian GP, the Renault team protested to the FIA about the legality of the brake ducts on the Racing Point, alleging they had acquired them from Mercedes, which is against the rules. The FIA is still investigating that claim after impounding brake ducts from the Racing Point and Mercedes cars.

Renault lodged a second protest against Racing Point after Hungary, based on the same premise, and in accordance with the rules, Stroll's fourth place and Perez's sixth placing, are provisional only.

Team boss Otmar Szafnauer is adamant the brake ducts are legal.

"It's impossible for them to be illegal," he says. "Brake ducts, just so you know, take a long time to design and make, they are very, very complicated, and we have 886 individual drawings for our brake ducts. They [Renault] protested the brake ducts, and we don't have any other brake ducts, and mainly because they are legal. We have no concerns whatsoever."

Apart from Verstappen's narrow escape and Bottas's recovery drive, another notable performance came from Red Bull driver Alex Albon. He had qualified only 13th, complaining the team released him into traffic, a decision he questioned at the time. His mate, Williams' driver George Russell, was critical of the Red Bull team stating: "He's been made to look like an idiot and he's absolutely not."

Verstappen replied: I think first of all George doesn't know anything about the team so I think it's better he just focuses on his car and his performance instead of speaking for someone else."

It might be best if Verstappen, Russell and all the others, focus on Hamilton and his car. He sent a message back to the workshops at Brackley and Bristowe that read:
"You've built a monster."

And from what we observed in Hungary, there is nobody, Bottas included, who can tame the monster in the hands of Hamilton.