The Sunday Times April 24, 2022 13Formula One
A
fter a torrid few days in
Imola, Lewis Hamilton has
conceded that he is no
longer fighting for the
championship this year.
And the weekend is not
even over yet. A dismal
qualifying on Friday even-
ing, when he qualified 13th and Mer-
cedes failed to get a car into the final
qualifying session for the first time in
ten years, led to a forgettable sprint
race yesterday afternoon in which he
finished 14th.
So dire was the performance by
Mercedes that Toto Wolff, the team
principal, declared the whole week-
end a “write-off ”. The sprint at Emilia
Romagna Grand Prix was the first of
the season — 21 laps with no pitstops
and teams free to choose whatever
tyre they want, which led to the
rejigged schedule.
Max Verstappen had started on
pole and finished victorious to start
today’s race at the front. His champi-
onship rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc,
will start alongside him on the front
row after finishing second to extend
his lead to 40 points. Leclerc had been
leading into the first corner but was
passed on the penultimate lap after a
great duel.
It was only four months ago that
Hamilton was fighting for the champi-
onship. That is now a distant memory
as he languishes out of the points on
race day and is already 50 points
behind Leclerc — the equivalent of
two race wins and seemingly insur-
mountable given Ferrari’s form.
Formula One is only halfway
GRID FOR EMILIA ROMAGNA
GRAND PRIXDriver Team Pts
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 78
2 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 38
3 George Russell Mercedes 37
4 Sergio Perez Red Bull 36
5 Max Verstappen Red Bull 33
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 28
7 Lando Norris McLaren 20
8 Esteban Ocon Alpine 20
9 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 14
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 13
Constructors’ championship
1 Ferrari 116
2 Red Bull 69
3 Mercedes 65
4 McLaren 31Driver Team Time
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 30min 39.567sec
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +2.975sec
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull +4.721
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +17.578
5 Lando Norris McLaren +24.561
6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +27.740
7 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo +28.113
8 Kevin MagnussenHaas +30.712
9 Fernando Alonso Alpine +32.278
10 Mick SchumacherHaas +33.773
11 George Russell Mercedes +36.284
12 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +38.298
13 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +40.117
14 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +41.459
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +42.910
16 Esteban Ocon Alpine +43.517
17 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +43.794
18 Alexander Albon Williams +48.871
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams +52.017
20 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo –CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
through the fourth weekend of the
record-breaking 23-race season, but
already the seven-times world cham-
pion knows he will not be winning his
eighth this year.
He was realistic in his assessment of
his situation: “Ultimately, we haven’t
got it right this year. We’re not fighting
for this championship but we’re fight-
ing to understand the car and improve
and progress through the year. That’s
all we can hope for now.
“We stick together, we try to moti-
vate everyone and this is the situation
that we are faced with but everyone
has their heads down, everyone is
working as hard as they can.”
When Hamilton emerged from hisVerstappen will start today’s race from pole after winning the sprint duelcar on Friday evening he was caught
on camera having an animated discus-
sion with Wolff.
Wolff was adamant last night that
there was no simmering tension in the
team. The heated exchange was, the
Austrian said, a “shared frustration”
of “the same point of view and just
sheer anger”.
He did, however, reduce the previ-
ous odds he had given of retaining the
title from 20 per cent a few weeks ago
to virtually zero.
“We are four races in and probably
today marks the low of these first four
races,” he said. “It’s obvious that we
are not anywhere near the fight at the
front. It would be pretty unrealistic toHAMILTON WAVES WHITE FLAG
claim to have a slot among the
frontrunners fighting for the champi-
onship.”
With Hamilton starting 14th and
team-mate George Russell 11th, Wolff
said the “minimum” the team were
aiming for was points. But after so
many years of dominance, he con-
ceded there would be little more than
single-digit points to enjoy.
“Points-scoring needs to be the
minimum, but this is not where we set
our expectations and therefore this
weekend is a write-off,” he said.
Both Hamilton and Russell have
expressed optimism that Mercedes
can find a solution to their problems,
which include insufficient drag,
issues warming up tyres and porpois-
ing — the violent bouncing of the cars
on the straights.
It means the drivers are struggling
to overtake the midfield cars, an expe-
rience that Wolff described as hum-
bling, while Russell said they lacked
speed in a straight line.
Mercedes have struggled with the
regulations that came in over the win-
ter but, with the rules in place for
years, they have little choice but to
keep going with their car.
Wolff said they knew what the
issues were but that fixing them was
an issue in itself.
“We have a direction where we
know we can unlock the potential of
the car but at the moment we haven’t
got the key,” he said. “So we have to
continue to grind away and rely
on the science and physics, before spi-
ralling into some kind of negative
momentum.”
Today holds the promise of more
woe. However, with rain forecast,
anything is possible. In all likelihood,
though, with Red Bull and Ferrari
moving further clear at the front,
Mercedes’ predictions of a trophyless
season appear to be the only thing
they have got right at the moment.REBECCA
CLANCY
Motor Racing Correspondent, Imola
ON TV
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
12.30pm Sky Sports F1, race at 2pmANDREJ ISAKOVIC