Nico Rosberg managed to bounce back in dominant form around the tight and twisty confines of the brand-new Baku city circuit, securing victory ahead of Ferrari racer Sebastian Vettel and Force India’s Sergio Perez.
Despite Rosberg’s pace on race day, team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton look set to continue from where he left off in Montreal last time out.
The British racer ended all three practice sessions fastest for Mercedes, before making contact with the wall during qualifying and destroying his chances of a front-row start.
Meanwhile Force India showed that their podium around the streets of Monaco last month was no fluke, with both Perez and Nico Hulkenberg enjoying a thoroughly competitive weekend.
Despite incurring a gearbox penalty after hitting the wall in final practice, Perez persevered and gallantly rose from seventh on the grid to secure third and yet another podium.
Although the race failed to deliver the excitement and mayhem many predicted, especially after the frenetic GP2 Series support races throughout the weekend, there’s still lots for Grand Prix Times’ Andy Young to digest.
1. Radio ga ga. Should the radio restrictions between team and driver be abolished?
There was a sense of irony with Hamilton’s complaints over the team radio during the Europe Grand Prix, especially after the reigning world champion slammed his fellow racers at the beginning of the weekend for complaining about safety fears regarding the new Baku circuit.
After starting from a lowly tenth on the grid the reigning champion was understandably eager to begin scything through the field, with team-mate Rosberg making himself comfy in the lead. The German fully expected Hamilton to join him at the front, despite the nature of the Baku circuit.
Although Hamilton managed to make several overtaking manoeuvres throughout the early stages of the race, the Briton was suddenly plagued by an issue on his steering wheel.
As it transpired a similar issue had materialised on team-mate Rosberg’s car, however the German managed to rectify it quickly without losing too much pace while leading. Meanwhile Hamilton became locked in a heated discussion with his team, as he pleaded with them to advise him on how to fix the issue.
However, the team were restricted from assisting the Briton, with new radio regulations preventing teams from advising their drivers on how to drive their cars throughout a race weekend.
"Can I not reset this thing?” asked Hamilton, just over halfway through the race.
"The problem appears to be with the current mode that you're in,” was his race engineer’s response.
"I don't know what you mean man. I don't know what's wrong,” came Hamilton’s frustrated reply.
“This is ridiculous guys. I can't keep looking at my dash every five seconds trying to work out what switch is in the wrong position,” continued the Mercedes racer several laps later.
And quite right he was! There’s absolutely no denying that the new radio regulations currently enforced in Formula 1, which restrict how much information a team can pass on to their drivers, is causing highly comical and embarrassing scenes such as the one witnessed with Hamilton.
Hamilton wasn’t the only driver frustrated by the radio restrictions implied, with Raikkonen in the Ferrari also losing his temper with his race engineer when the information he required during the race was unavailable to him under the new rules.
With many drivers and team personnel up and down the paddock highly frustrated with the regulations in question, there is a strong backing for the them to be abolished altogether.
After all it is a team sport and above all exceptionally dangerous to have drivers racing in-excess on 200mph whilst fiddling with the various buttons on their steering wheel and trying to read the tiny screen on the dash.
Admittedly it is important the sport remains technologically advanced, however the serious danger in drivers taking their eyes off the road is monumental.
Imagine if football suddenly banned managers from barking orders to their players on the touch line during matches? It would become a farce with the eleven football players looking over at the bench with an air of uncertainty, with the fourth official keeping a watchful eye making sure the manager doesn’t give away any tactics he is not allowed.
It would immediately become unpopular, much the way the current radio restrictions have become in F1. Since being introduced to the sport, all they have done is slash the amount of radio communications between drivers and the pit wall, something which was of great intrigue to may hardcore fans in the past.
2. The pendulum swings once again in favour of Rosberg, but can he maintain it?
After the first four races it seemed Rosberg was in full control at the top of the drivers’ championship, after the German stormed to back-to-back victories in Australia, Bahrain, China and Russia, opening up a fearsome lead in the championship.
With team-mate Hamilton running into issue after issue and never really managing to usurp the German, even dropping to third in the championship after the Spanish Grand Prix following his collision with Rosberg, many were sensing a change of the guard if you like within the Mercedes camp.
But of course they were wrong, when Hamilton returned from the disastrous race in Barcelona he wasted no time in showing the F1 fraternity that he was still a threat and stormed to one of the best victories of his career in far from perfect weather conditions.
Hamilton won again in Montreal, closing the gap to his team-mate significantly with Rosberg only managing to finish seventh and fifth respectively in Monaco and Canada.
However, after a far from perfect end to the Europe Grand Prix weekend, Rosberg has gained the advantage once again with victory number five and a 24-point lead in the drivers’ championship.
Admittedly Hamilton could still head to his home race at Silverstone in July atop the drivers’ championship, but that would require victory for the Briton next time out in Austria with Rosberg retiring or finishing outside of the points – not entirely out of the question but unlikely nonetheless.
Essentially all Rosberg needs to do is continue finishing on the podium and he will remain as a strong title contender, even if he finishes second to team-mate Hamilton on several occasions.
But as has been witnessed already this season, such simplicities are far from easy. It’s totally feasible that Rosberg’s advantage could be whittled away in the next few races as Hamilton bounces back and closes the gap.
Therefore the question is do we have a season ahead of us which will continue to be one featuring a constant ebb and flow between Rosberg and Hamilton. Admittedly we have had such a season before, but each time Hamilton has by far been the most comfortable driver, which is clearly evident with his two consecutive championships for Mercedes.
The intriguing thing for many members of the paddock and fans of the sport alike is whether Rosberg will be able to defend his lead in the drivers’ championship from his more decorated team-mate?
Only time will tell, but if Rosberg experiences another blip such as the one between the Spanish, Monaco and Canadian Grands Prix, then expect Hamilton to waste no time in taking full advantage, especially as the F1 circus nears ever close to his home race at Silverstone.
3. Force India show that Monaco was no fluke with second podium finish of 2016
Force India are no strangers to the podium, with Giancarlo Fisichella securing their first podium finish way back in 2009. However it wasn’t until 2014 before the Silverstone-based outfit returned to the rostrum thanks to Perez at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Since then the Mexican racer has secured a handful of impressive podiums, but none more so than his third place at the Europe Grand Prix in Baku.
Throughout the entire race weekend Force India had been a strong force to be reckoned with. As early as practice two on Friday Perez ended proceedings third fastest, before Nico Hulkenberg did likewise in final practice the following day.
Although Perez entered qualifying fully aware that he would incur a five-place grid penalty for the race after requiring a new gearbox following his hit with the wall in final practice, the Mexican racer showed no signs of being held back and fully capitalised on the freneticism caused by Hamilton’s collision with the wall to qualify a mega second on the grid.
For the race Perez started from seventh due to his penalty, but wasted no time in scything through the field, rising up to fifth by the end of the opening lap.
During the latter stages of the race he found himself in fourth position, with Kimi Raikkonen in third set to incur a post-race time penalty after crossing the white line at the pit entry earlier in the race.
This didn’t stop Perez from wowing his mechanics and many fans across the world, as the Force India racer stormed ahead of Raikkonen on the track with only a handful of laps remaining at Turn 1.
Throughout the race weekend Force India were adamant they had the second best long-run pace on the grid behind Mercedes, and they showed that with a terrific result by Perez.
The podium finish marks the first time the team has managed to secure two podium finishes in one season, and shows just how valuable the Mercedes engine is in the back of their car.
With high speed circuits looking like their forte, it is entirely feasible that Force India could maintain their current momentum next time out in Austria, around the relatively high-speed and undulating Red Bull Ring.
However, it seems a coincidence that both of their podiums so far this season have come on street circuits, and if it is a trend then the Silverstone-based outfit could be forced to wait until the next street race in Singapore in September.
4. Tyre woes strike Red Bull as temperatures soar in Baku
After qualifying on the front-row of the grid Daniel Ricciardo was a firm favourite by many in the paddock to enjoy a competitive race and even challenge the mighty Mercedes of Rosberg for victory at the front.
However, several laps into his opening stint of the race Ricciardo and then Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen were struck with a sudden case of high degradation on their rear tyres.
While the front runners around them remained on a one-stop strategy as expected, both Verstappen and Ricciardo were forced to return to the pits on Lap 20 and 22 respectively.
The extent of their degradation woes were made clear to the everyone when both drivers switched from the soft tyre compound to the medium tyre compound – the hardest compound brought to Azerbaijan by Italian tyre supplier Pirelli.
For many the medium tyre compound was not scheduled to be used, especially by front runners such as Red Bull, with many teams expected to deploy a one-stop strategy.
Before the race comments were raised with regards to the sweltering heat, with track temperatures remaining in excess of 50 degrees even after one third of the race distance.
Even Pirelli seemed surprised with the high ambient and track temperatures.
Interestingly, we thought this would be an obvious one-stopper, but in the end we’ll see a mixture of one and two stops #europeangp
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) June 19, 2016
While those rather high track temperates would have been the same for all of the teams during the race, it seemed to affect the Red Bulls more than any other team, destroying any chance they had of nailing down a competitive result.
With the next race set to take place on home soil in Austria around the Red Bull Ring, the Milton Keynes-based outfit will naturally be eager to ascertain why exactly they struggled so much with tyre degradation, especially considering their usual competitiveness in hot climates such as those experienced in Malaysia and Singapore.
5. F1 drivers learn from GP2’s mistakes with surprisingly clean race
As with most races in Europe, the F1 race was supported by the GP2 Series for the inaugural race in Azerbaijan. The feeder series, which has produced the likes of Hamilton, Rosberg, Perez and Romain Grosjean, has a reputation for having wild and frenetic races.
The two races throughout the Europe Grand Prix weekend was no exception, with the Baku City Circuit proving exceptionally tricky for many drivers up and down the GP2 grid.
At the start of the feature race on the Saturday utter carnage ensued with a multiple car pile-up, while during the sprint race the following day mayhem was caused when Nobuharu Matsushita initially overtook the Safety Car before the Safety Car line, before then accelerating and braking in a highly erratic manner during another restart behind the Safety Car, which in turn caused a concertina-effect further back and drivers to collide with each other.
With this in mind many expected the F1 race to feature similar mayhem, particularly at Turn 1 at the start and during any restarts follow Safety Car periods.
However, the majority of the fans and paddock were mildly surprised when the 51-lap race ran completely incident-free, albeit except for minor collisions during the start towards the rear of the grid between several drivers, including Esteban Gutierrez.
All four retirements from the race were caused by mechanical issues, and not even the Virtual Safety Car was called upon, such was the clean manner in which the field negotiated the race.
There’s no denying that the GP2 Series races earlier in the weekend would’ve prove invaluable to the F1 drivers, especially during the feature race on Saturday morning as it was the first time ever that a race of any kind had taken place around the Baku circuit.
With carnage ensuing throughout, any F1 drivers watching the race would have been able to take mental notes on what parts of the track were more notorious than others when it came to racing conditions.
The GP2 Series sprint race the following day would have shown the F1 drivers how not to perform a restart, with the enormously long pit straight proving tricky for the GP2 drivers to know when exactly to put the foot down, especially with the pit entry just fading to the left as it did.
All in all the F1 drivers showed quite clearly that they are 22 of the best motorsport drivers in the world, with the likes of Rosberg and Hamilton even becoming IT engineers during the race after being struck by their steering wheel glitches.
