In only the second month of the championship, some of the stories of the season started to emerge. April saw the end of knockout qualifying, two ERS problems for Hamilton, and the start of a chain of events that would be pivotal for one team and two drivers.
It may still have been the start of the championship, but we already got a glimpse of what the future of F1 will look like. First came Stoffel Vandoorne, who was filling in for Fernando Alonso at Bahrain after the Spaniard’s collision in Australia. It wasn’t a spectacular race for the 2015 GP2 champion, but Vandoorne managed to finish the race 10th, becoming the first driver to score a point for McLaren since the US GP last year. Jenson Button would retire from the same race.
Drivers wouldn’t be the only thing changing in 2017, as news about the new tyre format also came in April. Ahead of the Russian GP late in the month, the FIA agreed with Pirelli on changes to the tyre testing schedule. The new rubber, which was yet to be seen on an F1 car, would be vastly different from their 2016 counterparts, meaning the testing would be ‘essential’ to development.
Another debut of a possible future F1 star came in Russia. We’d already seen Mercedes’ ‘halo’ head protection design on track. Now it was Red Bull’s turn as they fitted their ‘aeroscreen’ to Ricciardo’s car in FP1.
Ricciardo described his installation lap with the device as ‘drivable’ as vision wasn’t hindered, but more testing was needed.
The news that all Formula One fans had been waiting for came on April 11th: the dreaded knockout qualifying system had been dropped ahead of the Chinese GP. The system had not worked quite in the way that organisers had hoped and had left teams confused and fans disappointed. The qualifying system used in 2015 was reintroduced.
One of the most controversial things to arise from this season has been the apparently short life span of components on Lewis Hamilton’s car. The Brit’s first troubles came after the Bahrain GP, where he collided with Valtteri Bottas at the first corner and dropped back through the field. Though Hamilton was able to recover, finishing the race third, the team discovered the accident had damaged his gearbox.
Mercedes opted to change the champion’s gearbox ahead of the Chinese GP, resulting in a five-place grid penalty, as overtaking opportunities in Shanghai would allow Hamilton “to get the HAMmer down!”.
Things went from bad to worse during qualifying, though, as a problem with Hamilton’s Energy Recovery System meant he was unable to set a lap in qualifying, putting him at the back of the grid. Meanwhile, Rosberg took a decisive pole position with a qualifying time half a second faster than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo who would join him on the front row of the grid. Now Hamilton really was going to need to get the hammer down if he wanted to challenge his teammate.
Hamilton made his way through the field in a race made even more challenging by the fact he had to pit a total of five times through the 56 laps.
The problem hadn’t been solved, however. The ERS problem re-emerged during the final part of qualifying ahead of the Russian GP, meaning he wasn’t able to take part in the session and he would have to start the race from tenth.
Whilst Hamilton was having a disaster of a month, things weren’t going quite as badly for Rosberg. The German took wins in both Bahrain and China, before taking another pole in qualifying in Russia, putting him in the perfect position for the race that would take place on May 1st.
It hadn’t all been easy for Rosberg. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was set to pose a serious threat in China, stealing the lead of the race going into the first corner, but a puncture forced the Australian to pit and Rosberg retook the lead. From then on, the rest of the grid couldn’t challenge the Mercedes.
Nobody knew it at the time, but the Chinese race would be a key part of the season for one team and two drivers, and it all started with poor getaways for the Ferrari duo.
Ferrari hadn’t had the best of starts to the season. It had looked as if they might be able to put up a fight in Bahrain at the start of the month, after finishing 1-2 in the final practice session, but they couldn’t repeat the feat in qualifying – which was still in the revolutionary new format at this point. They did manage to lock out the second row of the grid, and Sebastian Vettel believed they might be able to push their way past on the opening lap. The German, however, retired from the race after an engine failure on the formation lap.
In China, the Ferraris locked out the second row again, but both drivers were slow off the line and Daniil Kvyat spotted an opportunity. The Russian moved down the inside of Vettel going into the second corner, surprising the man he replaced at Red Bull. Sebastian moved into the path of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, sending the Finn into a spin and dropping Vettel down through the field. The German fought his way back up through the field in the mixed up race to eventually finish second, only just pipping Kvyat to the runners up position.
April ended with Rosberg top of the championship, with nearly twice as many points as Hamilton, and in pole position for the Russian GP. Hamilton was only three points ahead of Red Bull’s Ricciardo, who would also be on the front row of the grid.
It may have only been the second month of the championship, but the stories of the season had already begun.
