![Prost International [PINT]](https://prostinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/PINTtFontLogoRoboto1536x78.jpg)
The 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix was an eye-opener to many, especially Red Bull. There were split strategies, on-track overtakes and action throughout the field, here are a few key takeouts from this weekend’s Grand Prix.
A new Alpine
The French team found themselves behind where they expected to be after the first two race. Ferrari, McLaren and AlphaTauri looked like having better packages at the start of the year than the newly formed team. With two-time world champion Fernando Alonso returning to the team, everyone’s hopes were high ahead of the season.
However, this weekend Alpine brought substantial aero upgrades to their car, the upgrades were meant to be on the car pre-Bahrain but the team opted to not rush ahead when they were behind schedule. It feels like this weekend we have for the first time seen the real Alpine car.
It looked like a shadow of the car we saw on track just two weeks ago with Esteban Ocon and Alonso confident with the car underneath them as a few eyebrows started to be raised throughout practice.
At the end of FP3, it was apparent that the French outfit had made substantial gains compared to their rivals as Ocon put his car in fifth, Alonso’s lap time would have been good enough for third if it wasn’t invalidated.
Qualifying came around and Ocon impressed again as he finished fifth, Alonso failed to hook his lap up and was eliminated in Q2 but it didn’t quite tell the whole picture.
On race day, both cars were placed firmly inside the top 10 as the Frenchman finished seventh behind Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, a drastic improvement compared to two weeks ago. The two-time world champion recovered from a poor qualifying on the alternate strategy as he beat Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly to finish eighth.
The Enstone-based outfit have made steps forward this weekend, as we head to Spain next week it would not be a surprise to see the team within the top eight yet again. They will be keen to get some good results under their belt with rivals Ferrari and McLaren having superior starts to the season in 2021.
Mercedes are ahead
Throughout the first two rounds of the championship, no one has known who’s in pole position to take the championship this year. After an awful pre-season testing from Mercedes, eyes were glued on Red Bull and more importantly Max Verstappen.
It seems that Mercedes are not on top of their 2021 challenger, but Portugal confirmed to a neutral that Mercedes are ahead of Red Bull by the smallest of margins. Lewis Hamilton was able to navigate his way past both Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas to claim victory without much fight.
Although the car looks like it can often be a handful to drive, its raw pace is undoubted especially when it comes to the Sunday on higher fuel loads and harder compound of tyres.
It is for sure not what many fans want to hear but Hamilton is in prime position to collect an eighth Drivers’ Championship at this current moment in time. Red Bull are working hard to deliver upgrades, helping Verstappen challenge the seven-time world champion but right now it seems the dominance of Mercedes could be set to continue for another year.
Is Norris McLaren’s main man?
Lando Norris has been the standout performer of 2021 thus far, it continued this weekend as he finished best of the rest behind both Mercedes and Red Bull cars. Only last week, the Brit secured a podium at Imola after battling the Mercedes of Hamilton as the McLaren finished in third.
The Woking-based outfit have made a good step this year and the gap to the top two teams has significantly decreased but Norris has been in scintillating form compared to Daniel Ricciardo. The Aussie is still adjusting to the machinery underneath him, but for a driver tipped by many to become a world champion, it’s his younger teammate who is constantly proving people wrong.
He has demonstrated at Imola and Portugal that he has the patience, race craft and mindset to become a winner in the sport.
This weekend, even though McLaren were not as strong this time around, the 23-year-old still delivered a whole host of points for the team. He qualified seventh but progressed past Ocon and former teammate Carlos Sainz on Sunday to finish fifth.
He is currently third in the Drivers’ Championship and this is by no coincidence, McLaren have a driver on their hands that has everything to become a World Champion.
The second Red Bull seat
Questions will start to be asked if Sergio Perez is unable to perform at Red Bull this year with the Mexican a race-winner and highly respected across the paddock. Yet the questions won’t be to Perez. For the third consecutive time, the second driver at Red Bull has not been able to extract the same raw pace as Verstappen.
The Dutchman is one of the quickest drivers to grace the sport in this current generation, but you’d expect more from a second driver especially when you look at the job Bottas can produce at Mercedes.
The driveability of the car doesn’t seem to be the issue while Christian Horner mentioned that both Verstappen and Perez have the same driving style. So why is one able to fight for a championship while the other is lingering nearly 20 seconds off the race win at stages of the Grand Prix.
These results do make the likes of Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly look better when an experienced Perez is witnessing similar issues. It’s a matter of time until Perez starts to showcase his potential in the Red Bull car, otherwise, the hierarchy will receive scrutiny that three drivers are unable to extract lap times from one of the quickest cars on the grid.
Aston Martin’s struggles continue
Aston Martin continued to struggle this weekend despite bringing upgrades to Lance Stroll’s car. It looks all doom and gloom for Lawrence Stroll’s team at the moment, for sure expectations have not been matched but how much of it was down to them?
Aston Martin were so successful last year as Racing Point, but it is evident to everyone that they have potentially been affected the most when it comes to the regulation changes. Cutting nearly 30% of the cars rear downforce away, a lot has been made about their low rake car as they continue to threaten to take F1 and the FIA to court.
It’s safe to say that it won’t end well for Aston if that happens with team principal Otmar Szafnauer calling for mid-season regulation changes but this is something that would never happen in the sport.
It went from bad to worse for the team this weekend when Stroll’s upgrades seemed to have little impact on the car as he finished 14th behind teammate Sebastian Vettel who had the old spec car underneath him.
It will surely be only a matter of time before this well-run team make their way up the pecking order but thus far it has not been the start that anyone wanted when it was announced that Aston Martin would be returning to Formula 1.
Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt
