The Bahrain Grand Prix was another fascinating chapter in the unfolding 2017 championship fight between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
The German’s desert victory put him atop the drivers championship standings with a seven-point advantage over the Briton while the sport’s 18 other drivers languish a distant 30 points from Vettel’s lofty early-season standard.
Ferrari now holds a similarly slim points margin over Mercedes in the constructors standings too, with the two powerhouses separated by three points courtesy of Sunday’s win.
But aside from the blockbuster fight for victory in 2017, most interesting about the Bahrain Grand Prix and its extrapolated meaning for the rest of the season is that it can be described without reference to any other driver – including Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen.
Mercedes’s and Ferrari’s *other* drivers played minor roles at Sahkir, which is especially disappointing considering Bottas claimed his first Formula One pole position this weekend.
Indeed the most influence Bottas had on Sunday’s proceedings was with his slow first-stint pace – admittedly due to a team problem setting tyre pressure – which allowed Ferrari to undercut his race lead with an early stop for Vettel and ultimately win the race.
Doubly disappointing for Bottas was that his most significant input thereafter was to twice move aside for Hamilton to give the Briton a chance to chase down Vettel.
Meanwhile, Kimi Räikkönen, who after three rounds is fast becoming Ferrari’s forgotten driver, after two typically unimpressive first stints livened up towards the end of the race as he chased down Bottas’s podium place – but even this brief excitement occurred 22 seconds behind the battle for the lead.
The disparity between teammates at the sport’s leading constructors gives the season a fascinating complexion. Assuming Vettel and Hamilton continue trading wins, Räikkönen and Bottas will become bit-players – their points hauls will decide the constructors championship, but their performances will be potential annoyances to Sebastian and Lewis in the fight for the lead.
For Ferrari the headache will chiefly be the former – ensuring Räikkönen, who has been by far the worst performer of the top four drivers to date, scores enough points to keep Ferrari in the constructors title race.
However, the trouble is trickier for Mercedes. Bottas is quicker than Räikkönen, but only by enough to get in the way of the top two – he couldn’t compete with Hamilton in Bahrain despite starting from pole, which ultimately deprived Mercedes of victory and dropped it to second in the constructors standings.
As a result the team had no choice but to force Bottas aside in the race to help Hamilton pick up the pieces.
“It’s an awful call you need to make,” team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports after the race. “But after a certain stage you have to decide: are you losing the race or are you making a call that is not a nice one?”
The issue going forward is Mercedes’s longstanding preference for equality between its drivers after three seasons managing Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Whereas between 2014 and 2016 Mercedes the constructors title was guaranteed and the drivers title was fought exclusively in-house, in 2017 Ferrari is contending for both championships, in part because all the Scuderia’s resources will inevitably end up behind Vettel’s most credible title bid.
Faced with Ferrari’s performance parity, Mercedes will be forced to choose between allowing Hamilton and Bottas to take points off each other, with knock-on effects for the team’s own points tally, and backing Hamilton as the faster driver to spearhead both campaigns.
“I’d make that decision tonight, I’m afraid,” Sky Sports pundit Pat Symonds said after speaking to Wolff. “That’s not to say they’re not going to allow them to race – of course they are – but the upper hand must be given to Lewis now.
“It’s early in the season, but they’ve got a hard championship to fight, and sentiment has to come out of this now.”
It’s a difficult decision to make so early in the year, but with the championship narrative already set as a straight fight between Ferrari and Mercedes, a fourth-straight championship will be a surer prospect if the Silver Arrows competes on equal terms with the Scuderia.
Wolff, however, was unconvinced.
“I don’t want to even discuss it yet, because it’s not fair towards Valtteri,” he said. “It’s a very tough call. I don’t want to make it yet.”
But to extrapolate Wolff’s own decision-making from the race, after a certain stage you have to decide: are you losing the championship or are you making a call that is not a nice one?
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Niki Louder
Guest
I don't think Lewis has ever had any problems getting past riciardo. In qualifying or races.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I think this is what Hamilton suggested he'd do over radio — but, to be fair to him, his chased Vettel until the end of the race, by which point he was too far ahead of Bottas to swap back. I think deals like this, and maybe agreements to hold station after a certain number of laps, will be the way Mercedes goes so that both drivers continue having chances to get ahead.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
Most likely yes, but it's certainly put it in their minds. Bottas's first stint was related to tyre pressures, but his pace in later stints was a bit more ambiguous in reasoning. In any case Bottas has struggled more with race pace so far this season, so pole position, while an important milestone in his acclimatisation, doesn't suggest he should've been there during the grand prix.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
Probably less a testament to Ferrari, more to Raikkonen's lack of pace. Had Raikkonen also been involved, they'd either both be troubled equally, or it wouldn't bother either team so much as the championship picture wouldn't already be so well formed. I think Toto will be clever about the way he goes about managing his drivers from this point. As you rightly say, it's not as if Bottas is doing that badly. I imagine more a situation whereby the order is set at a certain point in the race, or perhaps after qualifying. A clear number-one and number-two might be too big a leap after years of managing his drivers equally.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
I'm not sure if I buy that it's already happening behind closed doors. Don't forget Toto used to be part of Valtteri's management team. I'm not suggesting any sort of favouritism for Bottas — Wolff is no longer involved with Bottas's career in that sense — but it wouldn't make much sense for him to bring in a guy he rates highly just to shove him into the number-two role. I think talks will certainly be happening behind closed doors about what to do next time it happens, though. Equality won't cut it anymore, there'll have to come a predefined point in a race after which the order of preference is set to ensure maximum points. If only Alonso and Vettel were teammates! That'd make for a pretty spectacular season.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
He did say he would... But, as you point out, he chased Vettel pretty much to the very end of the race, so it was hard to pull off. I suppose some solace in terms of championship justice can be sought in the fact that Hamilton probably would've gotten past Bottas eventually in that last stint.
Michael Lamonato
Expert
Yeah, it's hard to imagine Hamilton following a team order to his detriment — Hungary 2014 springs to mind, when Hamilton didn't let Rosberg through. To be fair to Lewis, on that day he was just quick enough to mount that argument, and likewise pretty much throughout his career he's never been in a position to have team orders imposed upon him, so whether or not Hamilton would play the team game in this sense is somewhat hypothetical.
Chancho
Roar Rookie
getting on to the team orders question; if I were the team manager and wanted to allow my drivers to race, which Wolff has declared many times in the past few seasons, then I would have stipulated to Hamilton that if he couldn't get within 'x' seconds of Vetel and Bottas was only 'y' behind then you have to give the spot back to Valtteri
Chancho
Roar Rookie
I also think that more needs to be made of Hamilton holding up RIC in the pit entrance as I believe it had a significant outcome for the race, because Lewis would have then been behind Ricciardo and would have needed to get past him too.
Chancho
Roar Rookie
I don't quite agree with the assertion that Hamilton was faster and therefore had some right to have his team mate allow him past. Remember when the second call to let him past was made it took a few laps to catch Botas, I even seem to recall Hamilton coming on over the radio saying he couldn't catch him. Overall though, I think Bottas made a good decision being the team player, it will work to his advantage in the longrun within the team and he gets a few credits in the bank
Simoc
Guest
It's to early yet. If the situation is the same in the next three races maybe. But Bottas got pole, then they stuffed up his tyre pressure causing him to be slow.
Bayden Westerweller
Roar Guru
It's testament to the Scuderia that Mercedes is already faced with this situation, when Bottas realistically isn't that far behind Vettel and Hamilton - certainly not as far as Raikkonen, on outright pace at least. One poor result and some adverse circumstances have opened the door for Hamilton to be prioritised, which is harsh though the Silver Arrows' best bet so long as Vettel continues to knock. Mercedes will take solace that his supremacy over Raikkonen at this stage holds them in adequate stead for the constructors which suits them just fine following previous seasons.
armchair expert
Guest
Yep, have to agree, its already happening behind the closed garage doors. Bottas' pole was an unexpected spanner in the works. did it ultimately cost Hamilton the race? probably. Wouldn't it have been an interesting year if Alonso was still in a Ferrari along with Vettel.
bill
Roar Rookie
its a good point. After the race the other night I wondered if they should have made lewis give the spot back after he couldn't catch Vettell (obviously it all happened too late for that - but in reality he was gifted P2 so bottas is now on the back foot in the championship...)
Dutski
Roar Guru
Hamilton will follow team orders if it's to his benefit and ignore them if it isn't. Once again you see the second driver screwed over. Tyre pressure issue? Would never happen to Hamilton... Perhaps the first team order they need to produce is one saying "don't incur penalties by being a tool ". Although it would go against every fibre of Hamilton 's being to not be a tool.