F1: 5 Talking points from the French GP 2018

Lewis Hamilton cruised past the chequered flag to register his 65th career win at the Circuit Paul Ricard. The French GP started with a first lap drama where Sebastian Vettel made contact with the Finn Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1 damaging his front wing which also led to the Mercedes' left rear puncture. Meanwhile, in chaos, Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly rammed into the rear of Estaben Ocon's Force India taking both cars out of the race and ultimately safety car was deployed on the track. Safety Car was a perfect recovery option for both Bottas and Vettel as they came back into the pits and changed to the yellow soft tires for a longer stint.

The French GP has cleared a lot of doubts and has come back on the F1 calendar with a bang!

So here are 5 key points from the French GP 2018

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#5. Cooling issue and disadvantage of Mercedes in traffic.

Bottas following Vettel after the collision

Mercedes has been struggling with constant cooling issues which has been a trouble for both the team and the driver. Earlier at Australian GP Lewis Hamilton expressed his displeasure with the issue as he couldn’t attack Vettel because everytime time he got close to Ferrari he had to back off because of the turbulent hot air and it's not a new fact that Mercedes are vulnerable in traffic because of the cooling issue.

The Mercedes team reported that the Finn had a defective diffuser causing a decrease in downforce due to which Bottas was struggling to overtake even the midfield cars, however, the dirty air again played its part and Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas had to back off on many occasions.

#4.Important race for Kimi Raikkonen and the fight between midfielders.

Indeed a rare sight to see Kimi smiling

This race happened to be the kind of race where Kimi didn't do his traditional "bwooh" because right from the start Raikkonen had been so busy that he didn’t seem to be bored at all unlike tracks like Monaco and Montreal where he didn’t enjoy driving.

Another good thing was Kimi showed that he is yet not finished after a brilliant and deserving podium finish this weekend. Charles LeClerc who was so impressive this entire weekend has been proving since the start of the season that he can give Kimi a run for his money however after today’s performance Ferrari may have to think again if the Finn starts producing similar results for the Italian team.

As a viewer, a competitive race is always a delight. What many people were calling a “going to be boring race” ended up as being the most interesting race this season especially in midfield group where any position wasn’t permanent for long. Kevin Magnusson scored a brilliant P6 in his HAAS after qualifying P9 and in mid-field, consistent performance from Charles LeClerc has been impressive, a great prodigy and an asset to F1 who ended up in P10. Sadly, both the Force India had to retire otherwise the fight in the midfield would have intensified.

Fans are happy that after so many boring races finally, Paul Ricard offered some good racing.

#3. McLaren went bad to worst.

Not a happy man - Alonso walks back to the pits

Under such high criticism, it was expected from the McLaren paddock to pull some strings to improve their performance however that didn’t go their way as McLaren was seen struggling during the final practices and qualifying.

McLaren failed to get past Q1 despite so many expectations and for Fernando Alonso, the winner of the greatest race 24 Hours of Le Mans a week ago. Fernando’s retirement streak continues after his upset at Canada where he failed to finish on his 300th GP

Alonso was unhappy with the performance of the car as he backed out of any kind of competition because the car was slow and ultimately Fernando had to retire. Stoffel Vandoorne, in the other McLaren, seemed competitive and finished a safe 12th after qualifying 18th on the grid.

It won’t be wrong to say that even with Renault engine at the back, the McLarens are not able to generate enough pace. Recently, they admitted that they didn’t have “the best chassis”.

McLaren has gone from bad to worst this weekend and somewhere Alonso and the young Lando Norris must be thinking about their future if they choose to remain with McLaren.

#2. Overtaking is yet not part of history

F1 Grand Prix of France

The Canadian GP which is known as best track for overtaking failed to deliver much, however, Paul Ricard was full of entertainment and competitive racing.

The race also silenced many accusations about "lack of overtaking". Under such high criticism, a race like Paul Ricard surely gave Formula 1 owners ‘Liberty Media Group’ and the FIA some air to breathe.

It was good to see not just the top 3 teams but also the midfielders were competitively defending and attacking for the position.

Sebastian Vettel was on an overtaking spree despite making a costly error at the start, he made 12 places in 14 laps in his Ferrari. Paul Ricard has shown that wide cars don’t stop overtaking provided enough space is given.

1. Mercedes dominance continues

An elated Hamilton after winning the French GP

Mercedes have surely proved a lot of speculation about its "lost dominance" as they continue to lead the constructor championship. The SilverArrows lost potential podium points following a crash at turn 1 between Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas but quickly recovered even though not substantial but enough to recoup from what was turning out to be a horrible weekend for Brackley based team.

Lewis Hamilton on other hand was maintaining the lead clocking many fast laps and unaffected from any action behind him as he continued to lead.

Mercedes have been fast all weekend and interestingly Lewis Hamilton was faster than anybody on track for this entire weekend except FP3 and there also Bottas went fastest just shows how fast the Mercs are on track.

Montreal showed that the "shield" of invincibility may have been reduced but Mercedes have proved otherwise in this entire weekend that they can never be underestimated.