Attention will be on Hamilton, but not only for his driving, as the Mercedes driver is yet to sign a new contract with the team and speculation has linked him with a possible move to Ferrari. PHOTO: FILE
After three wins in four races, the 30-year-old Briton has built a strong early defence of his crown in near-flawless fashion that has left his rivals trailing and many paddock observers lost in admiration.
Earlier this week, his Mercedes team director and three-time champion Niki Lauda said he felt the Englishman was driving like a man “from another planet”.
That may also be how his one-time teammate and local hero Fernando Alonso feels as he returns to compete on home soil looking for his first race win in two years after leaving now-resurgent Ferrari for the struggling McLaren-Honda outfit.
While Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg bids to match the leader in equal machinery, Alonso will be in forlorn pursuit.
He will merely hope for a points finish behind Ferrari, Williams and the rest while his successor in the scarlet scuderia, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, looks for his second win this year.
Rosberg will be hoping he can translate his speed from pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya into a winning performance for the first time since last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix and so prevent Hamilton’s juggernaut-like run of triumphs.
Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff has no doubt that Rosberg can mount a serious title challenge, despite appearing well beaten in four successive qualifying sessions and races this year.
“If you look at their performances in qualifying in China, for example, there were just four-hundredths between them,” said Wolff. “That is not someone who is clearly beaten.”
For Wolff, Mercedes and Hamilton, however, the most serious threat to their supremacy appears to come from Ferrari. “I think it could go to the wire with Ferrari,” he said.
If it does, as many others forecast, it may signal a continued long period of winless frustration for Alonso and his McLaren teammate Jenson Button.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2015.
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