A frustrated Hamilton, a perfectly working symbiosis in Red Bull or a reborn McLaren or what did the Emilia Romagna VC show?

Red Bull Racing dominated the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, showing that they are still a force to be reckoned with in the title battle. In any case, the race in Imola once again offered a lot – the frustration of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, a great performance by Lando Norris or a gross mistake by Charles Leclerc in the fight for the all-important championship points.

The fourth race of the season was dominated by Red Bull, led by Max Verstappen, who, thanks to Leclerc’s mistake at the end of the race, reduced the Ferrari driver’s lead at the head of the championship to twenty-seven points.

So what does the drivers’ championship standings look like after four races? Leclerc is still in the lead, Norris has leapfrogged Hamilton, and Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas are doing a great job.

Red Bull Racing – a dominant weekend and a perfect symbiosis

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix showed where Red Bull’s strength currently lies. An experienced pair of drivers who form a truly perfect team, greater balance and great tyre work – this is what proved crucial in the race at the Imola circuit.

Even after qualifying, Leclerc was able to see for himself what Verstappen’s front tyres looked like – this is what made the difference in times between the Red Bull and Ferrari driver and was also the reason why Verstappen was simply the better driver from qualifying onwards.

The Dutch driver’s tyres were also in better condition in the sprint, while those on Charles Leclerc’s car were struggling with crumbling.

Red Bull also adjusted the front wing parameters and redesigned the brake cooling system. However, this is also the answer to where Red Bull found a little more power and top speed again. This is quite convincingly documented not only by Verstappen’s clear victory, but also by the fact that Leclerc was unable to overtake Sergio Pérez in the final laps of the race, even with the use of DRS.

The perfect symbiosis between the two drivers is then another reason why Red Bull achieved a double after almost six years. Pérez has simply become accustomed to the Austrian stable and, thanks to the entry into a new era, he has a car that is fast and that he needs.

And while many might expect Pérez to somehow fight hard for the team’s number one position as a result of entering a new era, it currently looks like that is happening, quite the opposite in fact. And that is something that is quite rare in Formula 1, whereupon it may be a factor that will help Red Bull significantly in the title chase later in the season.

A disastrous weekend for Ferrari

The balance of power seems to have completely reversed for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Compared to the race in Melbourne, Ferrari had problems with the balance of the monoblocs, which eventually led to tyre shredding and an even worse performance.

As we write above, Leclerc was consequently unable to get close enough to Sergio Pérez to not only launch an offensive on his position, but to split the Red Bulls on the podium.

Instead, Leclerc’s huge mistake came at the Variante Alta corner, where the kerb literally threw him into the clock. Leclerc was subsequently able to resume the race, but due to the damage to his Ferrari he had to go to his mechanics.

Leclerc found himself in ninth place after the pit stop, but was able to make it to the finish of the race in at least sixth position anyway.

His teammate Carlos Sainz was also very unlucky, first spinning out in Friday’s qualifying and then starting Saturday’s sprint from tenth. Although he improved six positions in the sprint, he was shot down by Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 3 in Sunday’s race and the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna was over for him.

But that’s not all, Sainz had a new power unit fitted. In addition, the Spanish driver brought virtually no data to his team. The Italian team, however, is waiting to make any major upgrades, after which they will bring a larger technical package to Miami and Barcelona, according to the latest information.

In conclusion, the differences between the two teams are still minimal. However, it was mainly the car set-up and tyre work that separated the two stables in Imola.

Amazing work by McLaren

“It was a great race, we fully deserved it. The team has really done a great job since Bahrain. We’ll continue to work hard, of course, but I love these conditions and I’m happy for the podium,” Norris said of his car and team’s performance in a post-race interview.

McLaren has shown a really big improvement in a month and a half. After testing in Bahrain and the first race of the season (also in Bahrain – ed.), it looked like this season was going to be a bust.

Performance, downforce and brake cooling issues also plagued McLaren in the second race of the season at Jeddah. But then came the Australian Grand Prix, with McLaren drivers finishing fifth and sixth.

Indeed, it was at Imola that McLaren pulled off a stunning turnaround, with Norris claiming his first podium of the season, beating sixth-placed Hamilton in the drivers’ championship. But it is the highly talented British driver who is taming high expectations, at least for the next few races.

He says McLaren need to continue to work hard, both on performance or top speed, and to focus on slow corners, where the MCL36 car is still slightly behind the others.

A bigger question mark then hangs over Ricciardo. The Australian driver finished the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in eighteenth place, continuing his performance from last year. McLaren boss Zak Brown himself has made no secret of the fact that the atmosphere is slowly but surely thickening around Ricciardo.

The frustration of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton

Last year he fought Verstappen for the championship, this year he got a lap from him. The seven-time world champion is not in a good situation at all in terms of his mental make-up, and not just because of the performance of his car.

But the hard truth remains that even George Russell’s fourth place in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is a result beyond expectations. In fact, Mercedes is still struggling with major issues regarding porpoising.

Hamilton even compared this year’s W13 car to his 2009 McLaren. But why is porpoising such a problem? It has to be said, Hamilton still hasn’t found the right setup for the car yet, with the ‘rocking’ problem on his car so massive that he has to brake into corners well before the ideal braking point.

Otherwise, his Mercedes encounters significant understeer and the monoposto is very difficult to control. The team even “reached” the worst qualifying result in the last ten years.

Russell noted at the press conference afterwards that he had experienced his worst porpoising yet at the Imola circuit, complaining of chest pains and back problems. Mercedes was also unable to warm up the tyres for one quick qualifying attempt.

“Hello Lewis. I’m sorry for what you had to drive today. I know the car is uncontrollable and it’s not the result we deserve. We’ll work on it, but this was a really bad race,” came from Toto Wolff in the team’s radio communication immediately after the race.

Another indicator of how big the porpoising problems are at Mercedes is the increase in ground clearance. However, even this did not produce the desired result, although yes, Russell was able to finish in a great fourth place.

It was also good to see in second practice how it was literally sparking behind Hamilton’s car, whereas Russell didn’t face that much sparking. This is due to the set-up of both monoblocs, which also allows Russell to run better results than his teammate.

Alexander Albon & Fernando Alonso & Mick Schumacher

He scored a point in the last race, and now he’s put in another great performance. Alexander Albon has become the clear leader of Williams, not only delivering solid results but also providing valuable data for the team based on his driving style.

He finished the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna just outside the top ten in eleventh place. Alonso, on the other hand, is really unlucky. He only finished seventeenth in the last race, although he had a very solid placing on his hands and very solid pace all race weekend in Melbourne.

Well, in the last race, Schumacher took care of his retirement, running into him at turn three and damaging Alonso’s right sidewall. On lap seven, the Spanish driver had to retire due to heavy damage to his Alpina.

However, Schumacher, who could have realistically challenged for his first points of the season, made a mistake again and it was clear from the start of the race that nothing good would come of it. Although fans and experts expected a completely different course before the season, it is Kevin Magnussen who is currently crushing his teammate with his performances.

First points for Aston Martin, solid performance by Cunoda

The Aston Martin team scored its first points of the season. Sebastian Vettel was seventh in the standings despite struggling in the last few races, while Lance Stroll also scored his first point to round off the top ten.

Júki Cunoda in the AlphaTauri also put in an impressive performance at Imola. He knows the Italian circuit very well and his driving showed it. He scored six championship points for his final place.

F1, Motorsport