After losing ground on Mercedes in the last couple of races, Ferrari’s championship expectations had dimmed. It seemed that their main battle was now with Williams, who had caught up in the standings and, more importantly, in car performance. Ferrari were hopeful that they could put on a good show to a record crowd, many of them fans of the Italian outfit, especially Kimi Räikkönen, whose prospects of maintaining his drive for 2016 was a major talking point after Austria.
2015 British Grand Prix Ferrari Review
Following the incident involving Sebastian Vettel’s pit-stop in the last race, Ferrari changed their wheel-nut system, under the orders of team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene. He also mentioned, in the aftermath of the Austrian race, was the false competitive times that the practise sessions seem to be giving. The feeling was that Ferrari should fuel their cars similar to the Mercedes, to give a more representative sign of where they compared to their Silver Arrows competitors. That seemed the case in FP1, as they were over a second behind the Mercedes. In FP2, they were a lot closer, splitting the Silver Arrows. In FP3, the Ferraris were once again off the pace of the Mercedes, but were still ahead of the rest of the pack. The most telling factor was that Räikkönen was quickest in all three sessions over his German team-mate, and it looked he was on a mission to silence his critics and prove a point.
The Ferraris set the pace in Q1, with Räikkönen fastest, and Vettel third. This wouldn’t last, and in Q2, they found themselves off the pace again to the Mercedes. The most worrying factor was that both Williams seem to have the beating of them. This was confirmed in the final part of qualifying, with the Ferraris only able to make it onto the third row of the grid. Fifth-placed Räikkönen was 1.331 seconds off pole-setter Lewis Hamilton, with Vettel 0.178 seconds off the Finn, in sixth-place.
At the start, the Force Indias made a lightening start, with Nico Hülkenberg demoting Räikkönen to sixth, and Vettel dropping to ninth. The Finn was the first to pit, on lap 13, and Vettel followed a lap later. After the first round of pit stops were complete, the Ferraris were back in fifth and sixth, with the Räikkönen leading his German team-mate. There was a considerable gap between the Ferraris and the front four battle of the Mercedes and Williams. Rain was forecast, and it came on lap 33, in light drops. Six laps later, Vettel overtook Räikkönen, who was struggling for traction. The Finn took a bold gamble and decided to be the first driver in the field to pit for intermediate tires. It proved a few laps too early, as the rain seemed to subside, and the Räikkönen fell to ninth place. On lap 43, with the rain falling harder by this point, Vettel pitted for intermediates and jumped both Williams to gain third-place. The German held on till the finish, to collect his sixth podium of the season. Räikkönen gained eighth-place, after Force India’s Sergio Pérez went off the track at Becketts.
Drivers’ Standings
1 Lewis Hamilton 194 points
2 Nico Rosberg 177
3 Sebastian Vettel 135
4 Valtteri Bottas 77
5 Kimi Räikkönen 76
Constructors’ Standings
1 Mercedes 371 points
2 Ferrari 211
3 Williams-Mercedes 151
4 Red Bull-Renault 63
5 Force India-Mercedes 39
A mixed result for Ferrari then. Another podium, their seventh of the season. It was only achieved, however, after the rain had came. They never threatened the top battle of the Mercedes and Williams before at that point. Also worryingly was the decision to put Räikkönen on the intermediates, a clear four laps before the track was wet enough for that option. The consecutive pit-stop errors and the performance deficit, to not only the Mercedes, but now the Williams, will have people in Maranello scratching their heads. As the season is at the half-way point, Ferrari will need to seriously improve in the second half if they had to consolidate second-place in the championship, and push for two race wins that was set out in the expectations at the start of the year.
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