Five minutes of racing and then two strong coffees, arabica blend, to stay awake until the end. Formula 1 decides to gift itself a track close to the center of Madrid, it does so with a spectacular facility reserved for a select few (better 45 thousand paying at high prices, with hospitality like Trumpian tycoons, rather than 100 thousand passionate and rowdy fans who might also cause damage) but in the end the show is not there because overtaking is impossible and so nothing happens from the fourth lap to the end.
Read more Antonelli legitimizes strokes of luck: Ferrari, a gamble without alternatives
A depressing spectacle in which there is one clear note and one off-key. The one that makes the most noise is the eighth victory of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, absolute protagonist and expected winner from the start. The one that makes you drop your arms is the unfair way in which the race direction elegantly took away from Lando Norris a very possible and also deserved win. Antonelli himself was honest and fair during the cool-down lap when he declared he had been lucky.
The race director did not deliberately choose to penalize Norris when he displayed the Virtual Safety Car signal at the moment the McLaren champion had just passed the finish line, but certainly favored Antonelli and Verstappen, respectively 6 and 12 seconds behind, who were instead able to head to the pits to change tires. At that point Norris hoped that the Virtual Safety Car, due to Stroll’s stop, would remain out for another lap, but just as he was entering the deceleration lane to fit the Pirelli Hards, the VSC was withdrawn. A double mockery and so Norris had to resign himself to third place, because trying to overtake Verstappen would have been an excessive gamble, for someone like him who has good reasons to fear Max’s reactions.
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Antonelli therefore achieved his eighth win, which brings him even closer to the title, thanks to a stroke of luck? Not at all. He simply found himself, as often happens to champions, in the right place at the right time. And he acted accordingly. “It’s not the way I would have wanted to win“, he commented with a genuine burst of sincerity. But when it was time he had the pace that made the difference. His very fast last laps raise the suspicion that Norris, beyond the injustice, would not have had an easy life with such a determined Kimi behind him.
Read more Antonelli master of the World Championship, Wolff slows down: “The opponent is reliability”
The incredible thing is that Antonelli for over 30 laps stayed in the slipstream of an unyielding Charles Leclerc who still had to make the tire change and was traveling great with the harder Pirellis. “Stay behind at a safe distance to avoid ruining the tires and risk overheating the brakes“, they told him from the Mercedes pit wall. He complied and in the meantime was caught by Verstappen and Norris. Just at that moment Leclerc came into the pits to fit the Softs and ended up fourth, slowed by problems he did not want to explain: and Kimi was finally able to accelerate. Lucky yes, but with his own merits, make no mistake.
Ferrari was therefore virtually in command for most of the race, hoping that a Safety Car would materialize to make the big move, which also highlights the limits of the Prancing Horse. In reality the SF26 is an excellent car but in Madrid it was seen once again that the team has limits, lacking rigor and many other things to aim high, starting from the strange brake failure immediately suffered by Hamilton to go to the sore point of qualifying, where a tenth is enough to find yourself back on the grid, without hope for the race. Leclerc’s gap from Antonelli, 29.1 seconds, explains the situation better than many words.
Back to the race, many compliments to Madrid which set up a superb facility, but the limits of a narrow track, without run-off areas and with zero overtaking opportunities should have been noticed in advance. Instead of continuing to praise itself, flaunting record numbers and revenues to the four winds, this F1 should maybe also pay attention to substance. Useless talk: today more than ever revenues count, the rest are complaints from nostalgics who still think that the show worth the ticket comes from the courage of the drivers and their feats. It’s not like that, but we do not give up. And in the meantime, down another coffee!
Read more Vasseur: “Unlucky, with a Safety Car we could have fought for the victory”
