British former professional racing driver from England, Damon Hill, who won the 1996 Formula One World Championship, feels that if Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes would be able to recover the deficit pace against the championship favourite, Red Bull, then Formula 1 could be in for some very exciting races as he believes that drivers such as George Russell and Carlos Sainz could have a important advantage over their team-mates, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc respectively.
In the latest round of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign, which was held at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, the two Mercedes drivers had a great start and overtook Max Verstappen for the race lead in the first few laps of the race. While George Russell was unlucky due to the strategy attempted by his team, who called him in for a tyre change under the Safety Car which was deployed on lap 7 of the Australian Grand Prix following Alex Albon’s crash, Lewis Hamilton was left out on track as Mercedes tried to split the strategies between their two drivers.
However, after just one lap things completely changed as the Australian Grand Prix was red flagged and therefore all the drivers that did not pit had the opportunity of changing the tyres without losing time, which sent George Russell in seventh place and also affected the race of Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz, who was outside the top ten when the races resumed.
George Russell’s race would eventually end after just a few more laps due to a power unit technical failure, with Lewis Hamilton going on to take second place, but without the pace to challenge Max Verstappen for the race win, as the Dutchman overtook the Mercedes W14 with his “insane” DRS advantage and easily secured another race win.
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Damon Hill wanted to point out the interesting strategy which Mercedes attempted to use in its battle with Red Bull, a situation that had not been seen since 2021 when the two teams battled for the titles:
““The thing about Melbourne to point out, it was interesting the shoe was on the other foot a little bit because Mercedes had the option, they had two drivers threatening Max. But Max was all alone because he’d lost Sergio, Sergio was down the back with his own battles, so they couldn’t do this game where you go ‘Okay, well, one of our guys is going to do one thing, and the other guy is going to do the other thing’ so now you are covered. The guy in front hasn’t got the option of the luxury, let’s say, of choosing his tyre choice so he’s sort of stuck with whatever the guy who is nearest to him has got.” – the 1996 F1 world champion said, in a discussion for the F1 Nation podcast.
“So that was interesting that they had that option, they played that card, and I think Mercedes were very threatening in the sense that tactically they were astute, and they were using both their drivers and they had the luxury of having two extremely fast, brilliant drivers in their team. So that gives a strength to them. I’m not saying that Sergio is not. I’m saying in that particular race Sergio had his issues in qualifying and was out of the frame. So things will get really interesting if you get Sergio back up the front. And let’s not forget Ferrari. They will sort this out, somehow they’ve got to find out what they’re doing wrong. I mean they’re not that bad, they shouldn’t be where they are but it’s conceivable that they could find a way forward and join the fray.” – Damon Hill continued.
In case the Maranello team will indeed be able to recover the performance gap to Red Bull’s RB19 at least in the second half of the season, Damon Hill feels Carlos Sainz can count on a key aspect that may provide him in advantage over his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc: his authority over team radio.
It’s worth recalling how during the previous season, Carlos Sainz insisted with his race engineer on a particular strategy that he felt was better, while Charles Leclerc adopted the strategy that Ferrari suggested, which cost the Monegasque driver several race wins in 2022. This was the case on the streets of Monte Carlo, where Carlos Sainz secured second place after insisting there was no need to pit for intermediates, while Charles Leclerc came in when he was informed of the call only to stop again after just three more laps for slick tyres, sending him from P1 to outside the podium.
Damon Hill reckons that’s a key feature that Carlos Sainz shares with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen, just like George Russell and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
“And then it becomes really interesting. When you’ve got races where teams choose to put drivers on different strategies, and it can always be immensely frustrating to drivers, particularly if they’re in the latter stages of a championship because a team might say something which is detrimental. So this is what happened with Charles Leclerc at Ferrari where he was not given preference, where he was given the wrong strategy, or the strategy that benefitted or covered the team from a competitive point of view. But it actually, from his point of view, put him at a disadvantage to his team-mate because you got this lovely contradiction in our sport where you have two championships going at the same time and the teams run everything. So the drivers have very little control.” – the former Williams driver explained.
“And this is why you have Max who is so forceful. And I’ve heard this, I’ve heard a similar thing coming from George Russell as well, which is he’s very forceful. You might even say Carlos Sainz at Ferrari, they direct to the team. And of course, Fernando Alonso. These drivers they direct the team from the cockpit, they can swing it, if the team is not bothered either way then it’s possible to get what you want for your strategy for a particular race, but you have to think quickly.” – Damon Hill concluded.
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