Lewis Hamilton’s tyre strategy, Ferrari vs Mercedes duel: Talking points from Canadian GP

The 2016 Canadian Grand Prix was probably Formula 1 at its best. The race saw two of the world’s most recognizable car manufacturers go head-to-head for victory at one of the fastest racing circuits in the world.

It was a classic Ferrari vs Mercedes duel that saw Mercedes come out on top, but it was after Ferrari admitting an error in their tyre strategy that saw them lose the race whilst in the lead. This was Ferrari’s second such error this season. The first one was at the opening round in Australia.

Lewis Hamilton won the race for Mercedes – his 45th career win and his second victory of the season. The win came at the back of a ruthless opening lap-first corner maneuver on Nico Rosberg and fantastic tyre management aided driving, where he made his soft compound tyres last an unbelievable and unexpected 46 laps.

It was only a fortnight ago that Lewis Hamilton ran a similar tyre strategy to win in Monaco. The reigning World Champion’s apparent weakness has been tyre management, but he’s either worked on this weakness, or the Pirelli tyres are harder than they should be.

It seems that this season, Pirelli just changed the names of their compounds by introducing ‘softer’ sounding compounds that aren’t soft after all. The softest tyre, the ultra-soft, managed 30 laps in Canada – just about half distance. If ‘tyre strategy’ has to play a part in the racing, we need softer performing (and not just sounding!) tyres.

Nico Rosberg, the Drivers’ Championship leader, had an unforgettable race for the second time in succession. Although he made a better start than Hamilton, he lost eight positions on the opening lap after touching wheels with his team-mate that forced him to go off-track to avoid collision. Rosberg’s charge through the field was entertaining as he tried to limit his damage in the championship standings, but the best he could manage was fifth.

A fourth place finish should’ve been in order for Rosberg had it not been for Max Verstappen’s gritty defensive driving and a braking error from Rosberg on the penultimate lap of the race. This was the second race in succession where Rosberg has lost a position in the final stages of the race. In Monaco, he lost a position to Nico Hulkenberg at the last corner of the last lap!

Hamilton’s fifth win in Canada in less than a decade helped him narrow his championship points deficit to just nine points from a mammoth 43 points before Monaco – just what a difference two bad races and a fortnight makes in Formula 1. On form and talent, Hamilton seems to be on course for his fourth Drivers’ Championship title. Along the way, he should also overtake Alain Prost’s 51 career wins to become the second most successful driver (in terms of wins) in the history of the sport.  The Briton dedicated this victory to legendary boxer, Muhammad Ali.

Although, Mercedes would be a little worried – did Hamilton’s aggressive opening lap move on Rosberg cost the team another possible 1-2 finish? Also, had Ferrari’s pit-wall supported Sebastian Vettel’s lightening quick start with a straightforward one-stop tyre strategy, they would’ve probably won. Does this mean that Mercedes was gifted a win by Ferrari? The drivers and the team management have much to ponder upon as they strive to break all records in the modern turbo era of Formula 1.

Ferrari on the other hand needs to think less. Their two stopping strategy seemed overthought and wrong from the outside itself, I wonder how their engineers armed with all the tyre data could make this mistake. Basis Ferrari’s long run pace demonstrated in Free Practice 2 (on Friday), a switch to soft tyres for both drivers could’ve delivered better results. By committing to two-stopper, Ferrari left their drivers to do all the hard work on track – Vettel in particular, who would’ve had to overtake Hamilton to claim victory.

Valtteri Bottas clinched his first podium of the season, while Max Verstappen finished fourth but crucially ahead of this team-mate Ricciardo (seventh). Since performance in Canada relies more on the power unit, the fastest Renault-powered Red Bull Racing car finished 53 seconds behind the winning Mercedes – a huge gap by Formula 1 standards. While the top spot in the Constructors’ Championship seems reserved for Mercedes, a Ferrari vs Red Bull Racing fight for the second spot should keep us engaged throughout the season. In all of this, neither of the Honda powered cars scored in the points.

Force India are slowly cementing fifth place after scoring double points again in this weekend (eigth, Nico Hulkenberg & tenth, Sergio Perez). McLaren-Honda’s no score helped their efforts further. And lastly, Verstappen’s former team-mate and Red Bull Junior driver, Carlos Sainz Jr, probably delivered his best career performance by finishing a strong 7th after starting 20th on the grid. The big question is, how will Red Bull Racing manage the aspirations of three really quick drivers in 2017 with just two competitive cockpits? The F1 silly season might have an answer .