BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX - CONTRASTING OUTCOMES FOR TEAM MERCEDES AND TEAM RED BULL!

 

A Very Big Congratulations to George Russell, for winning his first Formula 1 Grand Prix in the penultimate race of an exceptionally bleak season for Team Mercedes and their racers, Hamilton and Russell.  

Similarly, a Very Big Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, not only for making it to P.2, but also for any intentional constructive role he has played in facilitating his Team Mate winning the race. 

Now, it is the case that I do not know if Hamilton had heard and considered the message Russell posed for Team Mercedes, just prior to the pitting of the Safety Car on the last episode of its intervention. 

Namely George asking his Team if he and Hamilton were expected to race each other for the remaining several laps of the race, or whether they should just continue and finish it in their then current placing.  

The reply form Team Mercedes was that they were to race. Now, let us imagine that Hamilton was listening to that exchange between his team mate and their team, what might have been his thoughts? 

With Hamilton, not having won a race during the 2022 Season, it would have been reasonable to expect him to race Russell as hard as he could.  

Giving him not quarters, as it were, in what could have transpired to be a ruthless attempt to win the race. 

However, a more thoughtful and philosophical, more considerate Hamilton might have quickly considered the issue.  

And come to the view that more was to be gain, probably on most counts, by him not engaging or even attempting to engage his team made in a no-holds barred attempt to overtake him. 

That it would be a better outcome for him to 'assist' his team mate in him, Russell, winning his first Formula 1 race. 

In doing so, Russell winning is a bigger and more significant victory than if Hamilton has won the race, with him having already achieved 7 World Championships. 

If my supposition is correct, then, contrast it with how the present World Champion, Max Verstappen, has treated his team mate, Sergio Perez.  

By refusing to comply with his Team's request that he, Verstappen, allow Perez to overtake him, so as to increase his chances of becoming the runners-up in a season which Max has already won.

A Very Big Congratulations, also, to Carlos Sainz, for racing his way to P.3. 

There is a saying that, 'a change is as good as ...' And so it was that, the dynamics and outcomes of the Brazilian Grand Prix of the 2022 Formula 1 season will have been welcomed by many Formula 1 fans. 

As we await the final race in Abu Dhabi, many of us can but relish the idea of the 2023 Season being more 'open' and less predictable than the current season. 

In that it should and will not be a mostly 'one Team' event, with Team Red Bull and the still Indomitable Max Verstappen being effectively unchallengeable from the beginning to the end of the season. 

After all, as dominant as Team Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton had been upto during the 2021 Season.  

My recollection is that, just one year of Team Red Bull and Max Verstappen's dominance, seems to surpassed the accumulated despondency and fatigue which had or might have impacted the the industry during the past Mercedes-Hamilton years.