Sky F1's Martin Brundle reflects on a strange and subdued weekend in Sochi as the inaugural Russian GP leaves room for improvement
Tuesday 7 April 2015 13:49, UK
That was a strange and very emotional weekend.
The sadness from the end of the Suzuka race when Jules Bianchi was critically injured weighed heavily on our minds and hearts. Even as I write these words I still can't quite believe the horrible situation he and his family faces. In many ways it felt wrong to leave him behind in Japan. It's a long time since I've felt such an empathy for a young driver who wasn't my son, I simply adore Bianchi's charm and style matched with his speed and skill. I'm hardened to this brutal business after so many experiences, but this situation hurts like hell and it makes you think about walking away. But we won't.
It's all so terribly sad and that emotion arrived with me in Sochi which is probably why I had negative feelings initially about the new venue. It all felt a bit new, square, and soulless. Once I was orientated to the layout, and under relentless blue skies and among the spectacular buildings, I took a walk around the track and enjoyed the spectacle of the braking point into turn 2, the wild 180 degree high speed turn 3, and the almost scary high speed curved arrival into turn 13 with the cars all loaded up in roll and yaw. Then the drivers began to open up, many saying that the track was fun to drive, much more so than on the simulators.
After so much abuse in the past two season Pirelli have been largely conservative in 2014, especially so at this new Sochi venue. Our usual trusted suspects in the paddock on Sunday morning were saying that it was going to be an unexciting race, and they turned out to be largely correct. Maybe that was just what we needed.
After the events of Suzuka, unsurprisingly the FIA were reluctant to deploy recovery vehicles onto a live track and instead ready to fire up the safety car at the first sign of trouble. This was concerning all of the teams in terms of strategy but in the end was not a factor.
One stop seemed to be the order of the day, but Nico Rosberg managed to do all but one lap of the race on the same set of Pirellis. I never expected to write that sentence.
Furthermore, the DRS a was not particularly effective in either of the two zones. We did see some side-by-side action here and there but this was spoiled by cars running wide, many with all four wheels off the track. Quite why a new track wasn't a great opportunity to find a solution to this perennial problem I don't know. It was the same in the supporting GP2 and GP3 races and frankly looked ridiculous on occasions. There must be a solution to deter the drivers from frequently running wide whilst at the same time avoiding high kerbs and race ending gravel traps. Some corners on the calendar work just fine in this respect and I still suggest a penalty lane zone to focus the minds of the drivers nearly as much as the barriers do in Monaco.
Sochi will never have the character of Spa, Monza, Monaco and Silverstone, but few new tracks do. The best new track was Istanbul but we forgot to return there.
Nico Rosberg's first braking zone lock up, just after he appeared to adjust both of his shoulder straps, took the sting out of the race and the championship battle, for now, but his subsequent drive through the field was a pleasure to watch, even if Lewis Hamilton was cruising up front. Congratulations to the Mercedes team for their comprehensive, well deserved and impressive Constructors' title.
We heard so much on the radio and post race about fuel consumption, something I expected much more of in 2014 but thankfully it's been largely secondary until Sunday.
Valtteri Bottas was outstanding once again, and it was great to see Jenson Button on form all weekend for a solid 4th.
It was the strangest grid walk I've ever done. Presentations in honour of Jules at the back of the grid by Marussia were very poignant to say the least. Then a minute's silence by all drivers up front for Jules too followed by a full complement for the national anthem. As my old friend (Sir) Murray Walker would say, 'you could cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump'.
The hospitality and facilities were first class. With racier tyres and less sadness and emotion, hopefully next year's Russian GP will be better. It was a solid start.
MB
