The Day After: A Hollow Victory for Mercedes

Perhaps more than any year in recent memory, 2018 has been a year full of races that showcased F1 at its best – Sunday in Sochi saw the sport at its worst.

Whatever the situation, whatever the reason, team orders that decide the outcome of a race are never going to be easy to stomach, and that was particularly true on Sunday. Valtteri Bottas did everything right, and yet because Mercedes felt Lewis Hamilton needed an extra seven points to bolster his comfortable championship lead, he goes home a loser.

Sure, you can say the scare Sebastian Vettel gave Lewis after the first round of pit stops was reason enough to make the switch, but it's another thing not to make the switch

back when that threat had clearly abated.

Toto Wolff may argue it was necessary to preserve Lewis' lead in the driver's championship, but when he would've left Sochi with well over a DNF's-worth of points between himself and Seb either way, it rings a bit hollow.

Credit to Valtteri for handling it so well, but at the same time it's understandable why so many fans aren't. Even setting aside the question of whether this cements Valtteri as an unofficial "no. 2 driver", it just feels like we're all being punished for Seb and Ferrari's spirited championship challenge for most of the season. It's strange to think about, but if the competition hadn't been so fierce in the first-place, such an anti-competitive practice would've never been needed.

Hopefully if they find themselves in the same spot again this season, or Lewis is in a position to return the favour, Valtteri gets the win he earned here. He may not be on Lewis' level as a driver, but he's better than what the records currently show of his 2018 season.

Another year, another unnecessary mid-race cutaway to Vladimir Putin. At least it kind of made sense when his mate Bernie was in charge, still doing it in year two of the Liberty era makes me think it's contractually obligated.

Speaking of Bernie, u/louisrobbins pointed this out on reddit a few days ago, but it really is uncanny how his much he now looks like an older Richard Hammond.

Happy 21^st Birthday to Max Verstappen, who made short work of the midfield in coming through to fifth. Forget F1, LeBron James is the only sportsman in recent memory I can think of that has excelled to such an extent at such a young age. The next 15+ years are going to be very special indeed.

Charles Leclerc: Starting behind a Haas and a Force India, the Frenchman managed to finish best-of-the-rest, and was also the only car outside the top-6 not to be lapped. Sauber needed some points, and he certainly delivered.

Mercedes: Maybe the easiest call I'll ever have to make, giving Lewis the win over Valtteri when he was 43 points up in the championship anyway is as un-sporting as it is overly-cautious.