Boring Spanish Grand Prix highlights F1's deep-rooted problems that will not just disappear

[ASFN Admin]

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“I was just in a daze out there.” Lewis Hamilton said he was not aware he had taken the chequered flag in his crushing Spanish Grand Prix victory on Sunday. Anyone still watching at home would have been excused for “zoning out” whilst Hamilton “zoned in”. A race like this at this track is nothing new and boring races in Formula One are not novel, either. You do not need to look for very long in the F1 history books to find more dominant wins and far worse races. The Spanish GP being won comfortably is a problem in isolation but the bigger issue is that it underlines persistent problems with F1. The first and largest is the lack of serious competition for Hamilton. For the championship to be interesting there needs to be a fight at the front. At the moment, the Mercedes is the only car really in contention, with the brilliant Max Verstappen occasionally making himself a factor. Valtteri Bottas, in the sister Mercedes, is not driving terribly but a combination of a gap in ability and some poor luck has ended not just his hopes of winning the championship but of even being a realistic contender. The Finn now sits behind Verstappen in the standings, which says it all. The only man capable of holding a candle to Hamilton is in vastly inferior machinery. This current pairing suits Mercedes perfectly. Bottas is amiable and quick, just not as quick or consistent as his six-times world champion team-mate. This partnership is great for Mercedes, great for both drivers but thoroughly unsatisfying for F1. Bottas cannot do what Nico Rosberg did, on or off the track. In their four seasons together, Hamilton won 32 races to Rosberg’s 22, a ratio of around 1.45. In a comparable number of races, Hamilton has won 35 times to Bottas’s eight, meaning 4.38 victories for every one of his team-mate’s. That is almost exactly three times worse than Rosberg. Bottas is able to push Hamilton without being a genuine championship threat.

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