Spanish GP: Red Bull gives you wins

The youngest ever F1 winner, one Max Verstappen. In his first race for his new team. After barely a week to acclimatise. Oh, and the Mercedes lads taking each other out.

Nurse, more oxygen.

Lots of headlines from the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, and this is definitely a race to keep in your collection. But there was much more to take from this race than just the headlines. For example…

Who’ll be getting the concrete shoes at Ferrari?

Props to the Spanish organisers for finding an old C60 with the Dutch national anthem on it, because the Dutch have, until now, always been too busy with the Oranjeboom substitute at F1 races to ever bother actually winning one.

But Ferrari should have won this race. And, no, second and third is nothing for them to be proud of.

If the Mercedes pair hadn’t taken each other out, Ferrari would have been missing from the Spanish podium completely, and the Maranello Mafia will be seething about this.

To put this in some context, last year Ferrari grabbed pretty much every opportunity they could to win races – in Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore.

This year, not so much… they dropped the ball in Australia and, here in Spain, they watched Max Verstappen make F1 history and they could do not a thing about it.

Slower than Verstappen in the corners, not fast enough to take him on the straights, less than convincing on their strategy, Ferrari did nothing to show that they deserve their special treatment by the world of F1.

Asked if he could have won on a two-stop strategy, Vettel said simply: ‘Yes.’ Then he said he didn’t blame his team but, of course, he did blame his team. Completely.

As for Kimi, well, he said the ‘really scary thing’ about the weekend was that he used to race against Verstappen’s father, Jos.

The Finn finished second but he was his usual downbeat self – poor start, keep sliding, downforce problems, yada-yada. The Iceman is, remarkably enough, in second place in the championship and keeps outscoring Vettel but he has the look of a beaten man.

I bet Ferrari wish they’d tried harder to grab Verstappen. And I bet plenty of people at Ferrari are wondering who will be sleeping with the fishes in the months ahead.

The 2016 season is even more about the 2017 season now

Red Bull’s decision to promote Verstappen to the top team has been vindicated, totally and completely. But bear in mind that Max was taken on board to blood him at the very top in time for the 2017 season.

At Mercedes, the need to work out what shape the team will take for 2017 is going to become more and more of a distraction.

There have been rumours that Hamilton could take a ‘sabbatical’ next year, and other rumours that Rosberg has already signed for next year.

No one is saying that Mercedes aren’t still stick-on favourites for both this year’s titles but team boss Toto Wolff will already be suffering 2017 headaches.

As for Ferrari, see above. No change is not going to be acceptable to the Tifosi or, indeed, to those who wield the real power at Ferrari.

Further down the grid, Carlos Sainz’s management team should already be laying the foundations for a move out of Toro Rosso. Unless Red Bull lose Daniel Ricciardo to Ferrari next year, Sainz has no way of progressing in the Red Bull F1 family.

And let’s not mention Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

Overtaking: Be careful what you wish for

The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix will be remembered for many reasons, but good, clean overtaking will not be top of the list.

Failed overtaking? Oh yes, thank you very much Lewis and Nico.

Failure to overtake? Oh yes, thank you very much Ferrari and Red Bull.

The fact of the matter is that the last portion of the race was exciting not because the leaders were overtaking one another, but because they were close enough to pose a threat to one another.

With the top four cars within five seconds of each other, and two different tyre strategies being used by both Red Bull and Ferrari, there was everything to play for.

Frankly, if the chasing cars had been able to swallow up Max Verstappen with Mickey-Mouse DRS passes, we would have been denied the sort of excitement that F1 needs so desperately.

In football, great games don’t have to include a huge number of goals; likewise in F1, great races aren’t necessarily marked by a huge number of overtakes.

Dear Renault, lots of love. From Red Bull.

Remember the row between Red Bull and Renault about how rubbish the French engines were? Come on, you can’t have forgotten already – the row that ended with those engines branded as Tag-Heuer units?

Well, the Renault unit that powered Verstappen to victory in Spain may not yet be up to Mercedes standards but, coupled with the RB chassis, it embarrassed Ferrari.

And here’s a thing: there’s a huge upgrade expected for a bit later in the season, so Verstappen and Ricciardo should get stronger as the year progresses.

Renault’s announcement that they’re happy to keep supplying Red Bull isn’t much of a surprise but Red Bull must be pleased at the progress that has been made.

It’s certainly put a stop to the moaning and threats from Red Bull that they’d quit F1 if they didn’t get their way.

Talking of whingers…

Vettel, enough now. The first time I came across Vettel, at his maiden win for Toro Rosso at Monza in 2008, he was a breath of fresh air.

A young German with fantastic ability behind the wheel and a love of Monty Python, his 2008 victory had members of all teams celebrating, perhaps even moreso than the celebrations surrounding Verstappen in Spain.

Fast-forward to 2016, Spain, where Verstappen takes the record for youngest F1 winner off a grumpy Vettel.

How grumpy? On lap 59, Ricciardo launched a cheeky and, ultimately, unsuccessful overtake on Vettel, who was straight on the radio complaining that he’d had to take avoiding action.

Yes. That’s part of what you’re paid to do, Seb. Other drivers will try to pass you, they will be aggressive and, when you or they get it wrong, well, go ask Lewis and Nico. They’ll explain about that.

Martin Brundle was wonderfully dismissive, saying simply: ‘Stop whining.’

Afterwards , Ricciardo – who was himself a tad more tetchy than normal, what with his team-mate winning, a late puncture and some issues with strategy conspiring to pour warm Foster’s all over his weekend – gave an unprompted reaction to Vettel’s gurning.

He said: ‘I heard Seb was on the radio saying I was a bit aggressive. Typical.’

Ouch.

Still, nice to see the harder side of Ricciardo coming to the surface. He also had a pop at every other driver out there, saying: ‘Unlike 99 per cent of the guys on the grid, I actually tried to make an overtake. A lot of them are content sitting behind and not actually having a crack.’

The tussle between him and Verstappen will be fascinating and, if it doesn’t break one of them, it will drive both of them to be even better.

And that is great news for fans. Onwards to Monaco, then, a circuit that should suit the Red Bulls and which could give us a better indication of just how much in-team rivalry is brewing there.

As F1 has shown so often, the best battles are often between team-mates: come on, Red Bull, you can do this…