Well here we go then. It was always going to happen eventually.
Hamilton and Verstappen fought hard for the lead on the first lap of the British Grand
Prix, ultimately coming together with Max spearing off into the barrier and Lewis getting
away reasonably unscathed and winning the race.
Hamilton was given a ten second time penalty for the collision, which hampered him slightly
but not enough to keep him from victory. So let’s do our usual: what happened, what
the rules are, who’s at fault and does the punishment fit the crime within the framework
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So, interestingly, for the first time, this race followed a sprint qualifying race the
day before in which Verstappen snatched the lead from Hamilton at the start but Lewis
appeared much stronger down the Wellington Straight and into the Brooklands/Luffield
complex. So Hamilton gets a run on Verstappen into
Copse and goes for it around the outside. He’s behind, so backs out, and Verstappen
holds the lead for the rest of the sprint. But, lessons learned for the Race.
So come lap 1 on Sunday, once again Hamilton seems the stronger car down the Wellington
Straight and almost makes a move into Brooklands. He once again enters Woodcote a little wider
with the aim of out-powering Verstappen down into Copse.
He knows that if he doesn’t get track position in this early fight, then Verstappen has the
opportunity to control the race - we saw this already in the Sprint - this time we have
information about how the race could go. It’s tricky to overtake here at Silverstone
but Hamilton has a car advantage, the swell of the home crowd and - quite importantly
- he is 33 points behind Verstappen at this point and both he and Mercedes know the need
to beat Max today to get the momentum back in their camp after 5 straight victories from
Red Bull. So, Hamilton takes a wider entry onto the
old pit straight for better acceleration - and it works.
By halfway down the straight he’s already caught Verstappen.
Hamilton holds left as a very passive kind of dummy, and Verstappen moves across to defend
the inside, just as he did the day before. But, surprise! This time, Hamilton dives further
inside, positioning his car in the narrow space between Verstappen and the wall.
Verstappen then moves back across to the outside for a better line into Copse, giving Hamilton
a bit more space. Hamilton also shuffles across a bit towards
the outside as the more room the merrier for widening his own line through Copse to hold
as much speed as possible. Then, as Verstappen turns in, Hamilton is
still very much in the middle of the track - in fact he’s understeering at this point,
having probably gone in a little faster than he’s really got the grip for. This would
normally be fine as he can correct this mid corner, but not if there’s a Red Bull also
occupying that part of the track. JCVD: Same matter cannot occupy same space.
I’m still kicking. I must be on Broadway. Nooooo!
Hamilton then clips Verstappen’s rear wheel, spinning him out and into the barrier, where
luckily he got away without injury. So, lot’s of mess to clear up here then.
Initially, Hamilton said over the radio that he was ahead. But he never was. He corrects
this over the radio to ‘alongside’, which he very much was a certain points.
Hamilton was in fact 80-90% alongside Verstappen at corner entry and probably about 70-80%
alongside as they begin to turn in. But - Hamilton is on the inside so will naturally
have to brake earlier and will have to go slower through Copse than Verstappen can manage
bombing it around the outside. So even if you are alongside-ish at the approach,
it is very optimistic to assume you’ll still be alongside through the corner. Which, he
wasn’t - he fell back. Verstappen was able to hold noticeably more
speed and moves his car from a position where his fronts and Hamilton’s fronts are kind
of aligned, to his rears being alongside Hamilton’s fronts as they turn in.
So did Verstappen just chop across Hamilton? Well, kind of but I think he’s slightly
surprised Hamilton is still there to be honest. More on that in a second.
Verstappen does indeed have a lot of space on the outside and Hamilton also has a fair
amount of space to his inside. So I find it hard pressed to say either driver didn’t
give the other any room. I think Hamilton probably wanted to go in
tighter but with the loss of aero performance and hot tyres from hanging in Verstappen’s
wake he had a little less grip than he needed and instead of taking this line through Copse,
he understeered out, never really threatening the apex of the corner at all really.
In hindsight, it’s very clear Hamilton was never going to overtake Verstappen, had they
both got through cleanly and if Hamilton had known that at this point, he probably would
have backed out. But in real time, Hamilton had to try and
Verstappen had to keep his foot down. Remember this is all happening incredibly quickly in
splits of splits of seconds while balancing a heavy, sliding car at its limit while only
being able to focus on one of the track ahead, your periphery and the mirrors at any point.
As a driver you have to make an instinctual decision quickly and decisively. And honestly,
for drivers of Max and Lewis’s calibre - most of the time it works out. But not here.
Penalty wise, stewards had just handed out 4 penalties for drivers on the inside boffing
the car on the outside - three in Austria as already discussed and on to Russell in
the Sprint for understeering into Sainz. In this case, the Stewards cited the ‘Code
of Driving Conduct’ article in the International Sporting Code, specifically paragraph 2 d),
which talks about ‘causing a collision’ and ‘the appearance of a lack of control
over the car’ which both apply to an extent. This is slightly different to the Austria
penalties which cited 2 b), which regards allowed overtaking manoeuvres, but is identical
to the rule used against Russell. One thing we do have to note is Verstappen’s
steering wheel movements, which are subtle but interesting.
As they turn in, Verstappen begins to steer into the corner. As he seems to spot Hamilton,
he hesitates and very momentarily backs out but within a fraction of a second recommits
to taking his line through the corner. This does suggest he knows Hamilton is there
but has decided to claim the corner (while leaving room of course) and giving Lewis the
decision to back out. This is very similar to how they excluded
Schumacher from the 1997 championship, noting that when he crashed into Villeneuve, he made
two steering wheel movements, the second after knowing there was a car on his inside.
This isn’t heinous like that, but still interesting to note.
There is something about the mentality of “Ok I’m just going to take this corner
and you, the other driver, have to decide if there’s an accident”. Both drivers
do it. It’s bold, it’s risky, but to a certain extent it’s how you win championships.
And the stewards have to decide if this gauntlet throwing is being done safely.
For me, on the balance of it being somewhere between completely Hamilton’s fault or completely
Verstappen’s fault, I still would say it falls within the racing incident bracket with
more of the blame towards Hamilton. The size of this bracket will vary from person
to person or, if you’re the FIA, depending on how you want to define appropriate driving
conduct. Either driver could have avoided an accident
by being a bit better, but they are fighting for a title here and you can’t blame them,
really, for not giving a millimetre to the other.
A couple of extra things, quickly: Some people say Hamilton wasn’t really punished
as he still won. This isn’t true as he definitely got a ten second penalty. He won despite that.
There’s an argument to be made over whether this was punishment enough, but this argument
must be centred over the incident itself, not over where people ultimately finish. Stewards
never punish in this was. Max said Lewis’s penalty didn’t help Red
Bull at all, but again, that’s never what penalties are about. They only punish the
rule breaker, never help the aggrieved party, no matter how frustrating it may be.
If you’re blocked in quali or run off the road in the race, the stewards can never give
you that time back. As to the scale of the penalty, I wouldn’t
have been surprised is Hamilton got a drive through, but I also wouldn’t have been too
surprised if it was just five seconds. I don’t think it’s the worst possible driving error
ever, nor do I think he made no error there. He clearly made a mistake that tipped another
driver out. I DO think it makes sense to scale penalties
based on the danger of the corner, though. So mistakes in Copse carry far more danger
than mistakes in turn 4 in Austria, so if stewards want to give beefier penalties in
more dangerous locations to send a message that drivers need to manage their risk appropriately,
then yes I’m all for this. So it seems we’re through the looking glass
here. The dynamic of the championship has changed and the gloves are off. The gap in
the standings has closed up so neither can be complacent and I fully expect neither of
them to give an inch to the other going forward.