The mid-season break for Formula 1 has begun, and we at Talking Torque are dreading the long wait. Lewis Hamilton capped off a stunning end to the first half of the campaign with another win, but Sebastian Vettel maximised damage limitation by finishing second. Bottas was involved in more collisions than he’d like at the end of the race, and Daniel made the most of a bad situation for Red Bull by finishing P4. Here’s the latest from behind the scenes:
• Red Bull Fuming After Renault-Engine Failure
Red Bull via the unfortunate Max Verstappen suffered another DNF on race day with the cause being the engine supplied by Renault. Christian Horner held no punches as he belittled Renault for their engine failures on-air during the race. Renault have responded defending their product.
• Bottas Friction with Mercedes
Mercedes have compounded the attention last week after their team orders in the final few laps by labelling Bottas a ‘wingman’ to Hamilton following the race at the Hungaroring. Bottas responded saying the label hurts and that he will speak to the team in the break. Many feel for Bottas, saying he doesn’t deserve the second-driver treatment, however others suggest its inevitable when Lewis Hamilton is your teammate in a Mercedes team.
• McLaren Appoint New Technical Director
46-year old James Key will leave Toro Rosso to be technical director at McLaren. It is unclear when James Key will start his role in McLaren. The appointment is in the wake of a clean-out at McLaren which saw the likes of Eric Boullier leave the team.
And that wraps up everything in F1 for this week. Stay tuned next week for more from the F1 Weekly Roundup!