Once again, Mercedes ran rampant in Hockenheim, with Lewis Hamilton taking home the victory to open up a 19 point gap on his teammate, Nico Rosberg. Hamilton, starting from second, stole into the lead almost immediately, relegating Rosberg to fourth where he ultimately finished. Red Bull continued to impress, with Ricciardo and Verstappen claiming second and third respectively, while Ferrari continued to lose the pace on their competition. But as usual, there was just as much drama off the track as there was on it.
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Mother-in-law mayhem
The build up to 2016’s German Grand Prix was overshadowed somewhat after news broke early on 22nd July that Formula One’s eccentric chief Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law had been kidnapped from her home in São Paulo, Brazil, by a gang demanding a ransom of US$36.5 million.
Aparecida Schnuck, the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone’s 38-year-old wife, was snatched in the early hours of the morning, and held captive in an unknown location.
Sao Paulo police undertook a major operation, and after tracing ransom phone calls to a house in a Sao Paulo suburb freed Ms Schnuck and arrested two suspects.
The suspects were led away by masked police officers, without a single penny being exchanged after Ecclestone was advised to stay away from Brazil for fear of causing further incident.
Ms Schnuck, 18 years Ecclestone’s junior, was reportedly kept within a group of five flats, and since being freed has expressed her want for the perpetrators to be jailed.
“I only ask for these bandits to be jailed so that they can’t abduct anyone else in São Paulo,” she told Brazilian media.
Ecclestone, 85, is worth a reported US$3.1 billion and there can be no question that the ransom would represent little more than small change for him. Attacks on him are normally reserved for the whispering dissenters within the Formula One paddocks, but such a low-key, peaceful ending to one of Formula One’s more peculiar off-track stories raises more than one eye brow.
Ferrari firings?
As any hopes of on-track success slips further away from them, it looks as if Ferrari’s off-track team could be in line for more departures.
Ahead of the German Grand Prix, technical director James Allison left the team, and Germany’s Auto Motor and Sport claims that he won’t be the only name out the door.
“Perhaps the engineers who Allison brought with him from Lotus in 2013 will go as well,” wrote correspondant Michael Schmidt.
“The flurry of activity does not feel as though Ferrari has a clear plan for how to get out of this crisis,” he adds.
Allison’s replacement, Mattia Binotto, has claimed that he may only be taking the role on an interim basis, while a pundit for Finnish television channel MTV has claimed that he was by no means the team’s first choice.
And it comes as no surprise that there is growing unrest within the Ferrari camp. At the German Grand Prix the team found itself regularly outpaced by both Mercedes and Red Bull, with Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg closing in on them during qualifying. Drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Vettel sit in fourth and fifth respectively in the driving standings, but neither has won a Grand Prix so far this campaign. The backroom unrest looks set to continue for as long as performances dwindle.
Will Mercedes drive off into the sunset?
It was yet another Formula One Grand Prix where Mercedes ran away victorious. For much of the season, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton have dominated, but rumours began to circulate during the German Grand Prix that, in a shock move, Mercedes could quit the sport all together.
A number of leading Formula One news outlets reported that, on the back of the team’s continued success, it would look to leave the sport after the 2018 season.
The unprecedented rumour was quickly shut down by team chief Toto Wolff, who claimed the reports “border on idiocy.”
“This is pure nonsense,” he said. “This rumour must have come from Mars.”
But it almost certainly didn’t, and every rumour begins somewhere.
For now the team is revelling in the victories, and they go in to the sport’s summer break with a near unassailable lead already. But if such rumours continue, the validity of them will surely grow.
Torro Rosso renewals
After an initial one-race partnership, Formula One team Scuderia Toro Rosso have signed an extended long-term partnership with hybrid cloud data company Acronis.
Last week Acronis signed a one-race sponsorship deal with the Italian team to cover the Hungarian Grand Prix, which included the company's logo featuring on the flanks of the team's cars, driven by Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr.
As a result of the new deal, Acronis livery will continue to feature on the team’s cars and its drivers’ race suits, signifying Acronis’ commitment to the team through providing the latest technology to protect Toro Rosso’s IT infrastructure and enhanced performances during races and off the track.
Toro Rosso will use Acronis hybrid cloud data protection solutions to guarantee available data during races and in preparation for new events. The terms of the deal were not released.