We’ve reached the point in the season where the teams and drivers can relax and take a brief vacation after a busy first half of the season. Although all of the teams and drivers surely need a break to rest, there are three parties who need the summer break the most.
Despite an early lead in the World Drivers’ Championship, Nico Rosberg has somehow managed to forfeit that lead and allow his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, to take the top spot in the World Drivers’ Championship title battle. A recent string of poor races is likely to blame for the German’s decline and the high stress and tension within the Mercedes team is likely to have an impact as well.
The summer break couldn’t have come at a better time for Rosberg, as he can now use this month without Formula One to rest and compose himself so that he can hopefully have a good final half of the season and provide Hamilton with a championship title that will come down to the wire.
For a season in which we were promised a World Constructors’ Championship challenge from Ferrari, we sure haven’t had a lot of Ferrari success this season. With no race victories this far in 2016, catching Mercedes is simply out of the question and the Italian based team now needs to set their sights on Red Bull. Red Bull has made some great progress on the car performance and has managed to overtake Ferrari when it comes to car development.
Since Ferrari is always under such a great amount of pressure to uphold their superior reputation, the tension within the team has been extremely high and is starting to boil over into the media, with stories like the Ferrari president holding a team meeting and James Allison leaving the team hitting the press. Ferrari needs to use this month off to gather their team members and sort out their issues so that they can fix the car and get back to a strong form to finish the season. Unfortunately for Ferrari, no official work can be done on the car over the summer shutdown period, but there are other ways that the team can use the summer break to increase the performance of the team and staff.
It has become evident that Daniil Kvyat’s mistake at the Russian Grand Prix has destroyed his Formula One career. He has been demoted to Toro Rosso, which would have been a very depressing situation, and now rumors have emerged that Kvyat will not be resigned to a contract for 2017. This leaves a frustrated and understandably upset Kvyat without a racing seat for next season.
The summer break will give Kvyat a chance to campaign sponsors and meet with various teams and companies in a hope that a team will offer him a contract. The month without racing will also give him a chance to improve his emotional state and repair any doubts that he may have about his talent. If Kvyat doesn’t increase his performance for the second half of the season, it is highly likely that we won’t see him in a Formula One car next season.
Do you agree with this list? Can you think of another team or driver that is in great need of the summer break? Please share your opinion in the comments section below.
