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Max Makes It Two Out Of Two In Miami
Red Bull’s lead driver and favourite son, Max Verstappen came from ninth on the grid to win the Miami GP for the second year running.
Although Charles Leclerc had created the perfect starting grid for Sunday’s race after he crashed on the final run of Q3, pretty much ruining everyone’s last attempt for a better grid position, this didn’t seem deter Verstappen much as he stormed through the field to take pole.
I’m in Miami b*&£# His race was as close to perfect as you would like, well if you include being giving the better strategy and all the information about his battle with Sergio Perez, whilst there was radio silence on the Mexican’s side of the technical box. Let’s not forget he’s driving a rocket with extra zip in the form of the DRS advantage, it doesn’t get easier than that.
For what looked like a tricky street circuit, there were no major incidents in the race and all 20 cars made it to the chequered flag for the first race since the Turkish GP in 2021 where Red Bull also spotted a once off livery. In that race, Perez also finished behind Verstappen but it was a second and third place finish for them.
The Miami livery looked good! Hate or love them, okay we don’t really hate Red Bull as a whole. They did deliver a bang awesome livery for Miami.
The Team Battle Is Heating Up?
It’s safe to say once you’re the team’s favourite, life for you will be very easy. We see it all the time with Verstappen and whoever he is teamed up with, heck it’s something Red Bull are notorious for. Then again every team does it, Mercedes did it with Valtteri Bottas and Sir Lewis Hamilton although it wasn’t to Red Bull’s extent. McLaren did it too with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, and the list is endless.
No love lost? Just like Perez’s victory in Jeddah, the Orange Army lead by Jos Verstappen must have been fuming when Perez out performed the Dutchman when he kept the lead thanks to the safety car and his fine driving in Baku. Now to make it fair for Verstappen, Red Bull couldn’t be bothered to help Perez which he started in pole and was already pulling away from the competition by the second lap.
Verstappen made easy work of the field, which is the way things have been so far this season. You see the Red Bull in your mirrors and you half heartedly fight because you know an overtake is inevitable. Perez succumbed to this when on fresher mediums, Verstappen overtook him and got the fastest lap as well for good measure. Difference is when Verstappen is ahead, the team will do everything to get him to the front but when it’s Perez, the graveyard is a noisier place. I guess the goal really is for Verstappen to be the one to break the seven world championships record, no matter the cost.
All The Fun Is Behind The Red Bulls
Miami was a weird weekend for the three teams involved in the race for number two on the constructor’s championship. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had a torrid time in qualifying on Saturday, failing to make it out of Q1. His teammate and what now seems like mentor and biggest cheerleader Fernando Alonso (who would’ve thought but we heard comment on Stroll’s overtake), had a better qualifying as he lined up in second for the race.
Russell got his man Sainz Same thing for Aston Martin’s engine suppliers Mercedes. Fastest in FP1 (thanks to the final run on low fuel and fresh softs), they suffered for pace in qualifying with Hamilton failing to make it to Q3. The Ferraris also had an up and down weekend, especially for Leclerc who crashed into the same Turn 7 barriers in Q3 as he had done in practice.
When it came to the race, the pace wasn’t there for Leclerc who where he started in P7 having being passed by a better performing Hamilton in the latter stages of the race. Hamilton was also running on fresher medium tyres and was also ambitious enough to ask if he could try get the fastest lap (cute but we’re not quite there yet champ). George Russell was too far from Alonso to trouble him for a podium but he drove a superb race to get past Carlos Sainz and not need to worry about the Ferrari’s 5-second penalty for spending in the pitlane. Alonso had a lonely race in third, I’m sure he would have wanted more action as is his renewed fighting spirit in the AMR23.
Crashing twice in two days definitely wasn’t part of the script. Stroll finished out of the points in 12 which meant he couldn’t help the team stretch their lead at second on the constructor’s. Mercedes is hot on their heels six points adrift while Ferrari are fourth with 78 points and 18 points behind Mercedes.
The Rest Of the Pack
Looking at the constructor’s table, you can see that the other teams have a had a completely different and difficult start to the season. After five races, McLaren sit in fifth with only 14 and are tied with Alpine who seemed to finally have some rhythm after a disastrous Australian GP and a troubled weekend in Baku.
How the teams fair after 5 races Pierre Gasly looked good all weekend and was a bit lucky to start in fifth though he showed good pace. The French team were happy for a eighth and ninth place finish as Gasly edged out fellow countryman Esteban Ocon.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had to drive with nerves of steel to finish in the points although he had a surprise fourth place start. He’d be happy to get points after teammate Nico Hulkenberg has looked like the more in for driver.
There are some serious problems at Alfa Romeo and McLaren as both can see to turn around their season just yet. Bottas struggled to keep his points position even after showing some good pace and driving the tyres off the car but it wasn’t good enough. McLaren have issues with their car and the Ricciardo juju is working overtime. As for AlphaTauri and Williams, the junior Red Bull team just isn’t doing well. Christian Horner doesn’t seem to want to share the tricks of the trade with the juniors.
Verstappen increases his lead on Perez Yuki Tsunoda has had a consistent season thus far with three 11th place finishes and two 10th place finishes. As team leader, he seems to be trying to up his game and score points more often. Nyck De Vries can give him a run for that lead driver seat with the skill we’ve seen him display.
Williams looks to have some good pace and Alex Albon is trying his best with what he has. Continuing where Russell left off. It’s only a matter of time until luck shines more on them.
A break from the fun and we meet again at the  Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for the Emilia Romagna GP for the beginning of a busy triple header.
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Checo The Hero Of Azerbaijan!
The first Sprint race weekend came with a twist as the FIA switched up the format which confused a million and one fans but that was only the beginning of the tale as Sergio Perez fought off Charles Leclerc’s superb qualifying performances to win race formats.
The carnage central Sergio Perez scored his second Baku victory which was less dramatic to the first in the 2021 season that saw Max Verstappen crash out and Sir Lewis Hamilton run out break himself after a red fag restart. To be fair, the Azerbaijan GP didn’t have the same excitement as previous years.
We all know the streets of Baku are filled with debris from the cars because of its tight corners but the barriers were only left with tyre marks from all the close shaves, especially in turn 15. I don’t advocate for red flags or for cars to crash, definitely not. I want to see all the cars finish a race but it’s Baku. Wait, does this mean this track is only exciting because of the carnage?
New Formats And More Racing Fun?
As if all the rules and decisions weren’t causing us to scratch our heads and shout out in dismay, we have a Sprint Shootout which is the qualifying session for the Saturday race. And it has isn’t own set of rules like everyone has to use new medium compound tyres for the first two qualifying sessions and, you can only use a brand new set of softs to participate in Q3. McLaren’s Lando Norris used up all his softs during Friday’s qualifying for the main race and thus didn’t take to the track when it came to Q3 of the shootout.
The sprint race had a lot more action with the safety being brought out after Yuki Tsunoda crashed out. It’s been an expensive weekend for AlphaTauri as Nyck De Vries crashed in Friday’s qualifying and again in the main race. Nikita Mazepin, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi must have been looking at them with some envy.
De Vries on Friday As for the race itself, Perez made the most of the Red Bull’s pace and passed Leclerc on the main straight to take first place and never looked back from there. Leclerc did enough though to keep well ahead of Verstappen and managed to the line in second. Not a bad return for the Ferrari driver who was the fastest in qualifying for both formats.
De Vries on Sunday Verstappen wasn’t happy with the battle he was involved in with George Russell. He was forced wide by the young Brit and there was contact in the second corner, and that had a negative impact on the Dutchman’s race. Verstappen was not pleased at all with the tussle and we all got an earful of it.
Fernando Alonso benefitted from the safety car restart as he passed Hamilton for sixth while fellow Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll fought off Alex Albon for the final points spot. Having started seventh, the Williams driver was the biggest loser as he collected no points from the race.
Perez Breathing Down Verstappen’s Neck
Funny how it was Verstappen trailing Perez in both races but the Mexican has cut his Red Bull teammate’s lead in the championship to six points. It would have been five but Russell stole the point for fastest lap at the end of the race.
The safety car helped a lot of drivers but it was Hamilton and Verstappen who lost out the most. By the fourth lap, Verstappen had gotten the better of Leclerc and then he was called into the pits as the yellow flags were being waved for Nyck DeVries’ crash. Soon after he came back onto the track, the situation had turned into a full safety car and this gave everyone else a faster pitstop and he fell behind Perez and Leclerc. He could only manage to pass Leclerc as his teammate drove a superb race, leaving no inch for Verstappen to exploit.
Hamilton wasn’t so lucky as he dropped from fifth to tenth at the race restart. He did get past Russell soon after and spent the rest of the race chasing after Carlos Sainz in fifth. Hamilton was in DRS range for the majority of the race but the Spaniard held his own and brought in the much needed points for himself and his team.
Hey Max, Perez is on your back! His teammate Russell had an eventful race on Sunday. Having started 11th due to a less than impressive qualifying performance on Friday. He pulled one of the best overtake of the season during the safety car pitstops. Can he do that? The answer is yes because Stroll had to slow down a lot more to allow Aston Martin to double stack. Russell drove into the pits alongside him, and because the Mercedes garage is before the Aston Martin one, he got ahead of the Canadian. Stroll was able to get seventh back and Russell gave up the chase long after he couldn’t keep up with Stroll, opting to take a late stop for softs. The reward was the fastest lap.
The Midfield Battles
The fight for points for the last two points scoring positions was quite an interesting one as Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg started from the pits after making changes to their cars. They ran almost the whole length of the race on the hard tyres they started on and hoped for another safety car or red flag so that they could get a free pitstop.
Battle for second is going to be interesting Unfortunately for them, Baku wasn’t the wreckage fest we’re used to. The Haas driver had frustrated Lando Norris for most of the race, keeping him behind him until his tyres started to fail him. Norris got past him in the 46th lap and that lead to the rest of the field overtaking him before he had to make his mandatory pitstop. Ocon on the other hand, didn’t give up hope of a free pitstop until the last lap which he pitted on. Alpine wanted to replicate Alex Albon’s last lap pitstop from the 2022 Australian GP but such is the pace of the track that he couldn’t build a gap to the cars behind him and ended up finishing 15th and out of the points.
Valtteri Bottas had a torrid weekend and had no pace. His race on Sunday was ruined after contact from Oscar Piastri on his left and Kevin Magnussen twice from behind in the same corner. He was a regular in the pits (no pun intended, well maybe just slightly) after that and ran last throughout the race.
Off to the Miami International Autodrome for the Miami GP. After no racing action for three weeks, we get a double header and another one in the month of May.
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Verstappen Wins A Carnage Filled Australian GP
The Australian Grand Prix gave a whole new meaning to the word crazy. That race had nearly as many red flags as my past relationships and I was just as relieved that the race finally came to an end when it did.
The race was packed with incidents and overtakes, and more incidents. There were good battles all throughout the race but ultimately it was one battle too many as we ended the race with only 12 cars and had it not been the final lap, we might have had 11 cars finish as Nico Hulkenberg’s car only had enough steam to make it to turn two after the chequered flag had been waved.
The fact that Michael Masi was in the paddocks in Melbourne could explain some of the decisions the FIA took in the race including the final red flag and the ultimate race grid. Every point behind Sir Lewis Hamilton was and will remain contentious to each team principle and respective fans alike. One thing’s for sure, someone always profits for chaos.
Destruction Derby
It’s been a long time since we last saw all 20 cars finish an F1 race. Not since Japan in 2015, did we get to see all the runners classified even if Filipe Nasr’s car gave out two laps before the flag, but it has become such a rarity that you can’t keep track of the cars off the track. Every race we hope to see all cars take the chequered flag, though the drama of a technical problem makes the race interesting.
I’d say Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc started hings off when he got beached in the first lap but I think the carnage honour goes to Sergio Perez who failed to get out of Q1 on the Saturday. The crashes on Sunday changed everypne’s strategies. Sure Leclerc getting stuck in the gravel meant a safety car, which in turn helped Max Verstappen who made a hash of his race start and lost to the Mercedes duo. He was lucky to not get passed by Fernando Alonso as well after the first red flag restart. The starts weren’t his thing on Sunday.
The Alex Albon red flag was disputed by some but I guess it was touch to get the gravel of the track with the cars coming around at a reduced speed behind the safety car. By lap 19, we were down to 17 cars after George Russell’s Mercedes became a flamethrower. I had so much praise for Mercedes’ reliabilty before the race and now I’m stuck with the commentator’s curse feeling.
All the excitement of the race seemed to have moved to the middle order of the field as Verstappen had taken the lead from Sir Lewis Hamilton on the 12th laps and now the battle from sixth to second was all about tyre managment and when to push. We were all gearing up for the final push but with four laps to go, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen did what Haas drivers do best, piss of Guenther Steiner and crash the car. Thanks to him kissing the wall on the exit of turn two, we got a second red flag because there was too much debris on the track.
Third time a charm? Not for the French connection at Alpine, nor was it a good one for Williams’ Logan Sargeant and AlphaTauri’s Nyck DeVries who were pushed into the gravel during the kerfuffle at turn two. It was chaos and I feel the FIA should have just allowed the cars to go round and finsh the race under a full safety car, but then there were obvious risks to Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon after their crash into each other and the wall.
I for one wanted it to end the way it was because a lot of people benefitted after making mistakes and they didn’t suffer any consequences for those mistakes. I know Fernando Alonso fans are looking at me with red eyes run now but truth of the matter is, restarting that race without the Alpines because of their track positions wasn’t fair. Gasly was battling Carlos Sainz for fourth but because he had a heavy hand in the carnage that ensued, he got a five-seconds penalty that dropped him all the way to 12th and the last car classified.
For drivers who drove off into the gravel, lost places for spinning, heck Perez and Stroll had now lost out due to mistakes but their postions were reinstated by the fourth restart. It wasn’t fair on Sainz as it seemed he was the only one punished. The rules to the FIA world are super dicey and it showed on Sunday. I think after every race and decision, we sit back and think, “is this sport fair at all?”
It just feels like there are too many lobbyists from all the teams trying to get something out of a decision. If it ain’t the teams then it’s the higher ups and the owners of the money that goes into the sport, the money we don’t see. If we keep going down that rabbit hole, we might find more skeletons than our feable motorsport loving hearts can handle.
An Upside Down Chequered Flag
It’s hard to focus on the expectional driving that took place in that race because of the chaos, but it was good to see Lando Norris drive the tyres off his McLaren and they were the biggest benefactors of the final restart with both cars finishing sixth and eighth.
It sucks that the next race is at the end of April in Baku because yet again, the Chinese GP is cancelled. Why not just take it to a circuit where it will be guaranteed they can host until the Chinese can recover and sort out their health pandemic issues. South Africa is waiting for the return of F1.
Oh well, till Baku it is then.
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Jeddah Saw The Crowning Of A New King Of The Streets
I think Max Verstappen and his father Jos were the only two who weren’t overly elated when Sergio Perez won the Saudi Arabian leg of the Formula One championship at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
The major takeaway from the race is that the Red Bull’s DRS advantage is ungodly. Had it not been Perez in first, Verstappen would have easily caught up and taken pole.
Oh wait, I stand to be corrected. There were two major takeaways from the weekend and I don’t know if I can say the FIA have outdone themselves with the penalty mess ups or are they just trying to add more excitement to the races like they did in Abu Dhabi in 2021?
Red Bull’s DRS Is The Bigger Winner
Verstappen’s mechanical problems in the second qualifying session set the stage for the rest of the field to get one up on him and Fernando Alonso certainly did as he overtook Perez into the first corner of the race.
Our excitement and surely his was short lived as the DRS advantage that the Red Bulls have proved too much for the Aston Martin driver whose race really was with the Mercedes and the Ferraris behind him. Perez made easy work of passing Alonso, just like what his teammate was doing in the middle of the field.
The Verstappen/Hamilton battle we all thought we were going to see wasn’t as entertaining as a couple of seasons ago, for Verstappen coasted past Hamilton like he was parked on the side of the track. It would be a sad state of affairs for Mercedes but they’ll take consolation from the fact that the Red Bulls were breezing past every other car on track.
Verstappen’s job was made a whole lot easier by the full safety car deployment which really wasn’t necessary as Lance Stroll had managed to get his car off the track after facing mechanical problems. This gave everyone a free pitstop but was a major advantage for Verstappen who was yet to make his first pitstop and had gained lots of ground when the majority of the field had pitted.
The only car it seemed he could not catch was that of Perez who drove a superb race on the desert street circuit. He certainly has a knack for street circuits making this his fifth pole on the streets. Of course Verstappen wouldn’t let Perez have the fastest lap and he also did try and go faster than Perez by rejecting team orders to maintain a certain pace. At least Red Bull let him defend his position…for now I guess.
Mercedes Power
Yes this is about the Mercedes power unit which had three cars in the top five. The only problem is the Aston Martin version which is almost as fast as the Red Bulls, isn’t as reliable as the Petronas Mercedes compatriots.
George Russell did drop the ball for both Mercedes cars as Sir Lewis Hamilton was lapping faster than him and trying to get past Russell to battle Alonso in the hope of a podium. Russell’s response to team orders was to unleash the pace he had in reserve and left Hamilton in his wake and was almost rewarded with a podium place after the Alonso penalty.
Whoever was in charge of penalties on Sunday must have been a Michael Masi fan because they decided to issue a second penalty to Alonso for the rear jack touching his car before the initial end of his first penalty during a pitstop. What Esteban Ocon suffered from, Alonso seemed to be replicating but I guess the FIA finally came to their senses and parity was restored.
It wasn’t a bad result for the Mercedes duo and also Alonso. The Aston Martin garage will be worried though after the Stroll retirement as reliability seems to be a constant thorn in their side.
At Least They Finished
I hoped that Ferrari would have gotten their house in order before the start of the season and it somewhat looked like they had but Bahrain showed that there are still a lot of kinks to sort out.
So much so that we have to celebrate both cars making it to the finish line. Sounds like a McLaren wish and although they aren’t as bad as the papaya team, their race pace left a lot to be desired as Hamilton passed Sainz after the safety car period. Hamilton pulled away and wasn’t troubled by any of the Ferraris thereafter.
For now, getting to the end of the race is vital. The performance will come, hopefully. Sixth and seventh wasn’t a bad result though fourth on the constructor’s championship isn’t where they expect to finish. More work to get the best of the cars has to be done.
The Rest Of The Grid
The two Alpines of Ocon and Pierre Gasly put in a sound performance and finished eighth and ninth. Haas’ Kevin Magnussen rounded off the top ten edging out AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who finished 11th for the second race in a row.
Tough start to the season still for McLaren but thankfully they had both cars finish even though they were nowhere near where they need to be. Valtteri Bottas looked to struggle in Alfa Romeo, finishing 18th but last of the running cars. Nyck De Vries was the pick of the rookies as he crossed the line in 14th ahead of Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargent.
The Australian GP at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit is going to be a totally different ball game with its testy corners but we’re all looking forward to the action down under.
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Verstappen And Red Bull Get The Ball Rolling With Victory In Bahrain
Well, I guess winter testing wasn’t just a one-off speed test for all the teams. Those that had pace showed it and those that struggled continued to do so.
Alonso is back on the podium! At this point it looks like Red Bull can’t be stopped, I said this same thing about Ferrari last year and we all know how that ended. So I’m hoping this commentator’s curse will hold strong.
Hate or love them, Red Bull have continued where they left off last season and the biggest surprise has to be the performance in Aston Martin’s AMR23s. I guess the glimpses of speed they showed last year were just a tease for what they had instore for us.
The Race
All eyes were on Charles LeClerc for the beginning of the race as Ferrari opted to only give it one go in the final qualifying session on Saturday. The plan was for LeClerc to start on brand new tyres and get a jump on the Red Bulls at the start.
He managed to get ahead of Sergio Perez who has a slower start off the grid but didn’t seem to have the race pace to stick closer to Verstappen. By lap 26, parity had been restored as Perez on fresher soft tyres overtook LeClerc on hards. Red Bull had tried the overcut with Perez but an on track overtake was a lot easier to complete.
You gotta feel for LeClerc The only other action the front three were involved in was when LeClerc’s Ferrari gave up on him during the 41st lap. Ferrari must spend a lot of money on therapy because such disappointment isn’t easy to overcome. After the retirement, it was easier sailing for the Red Bulls as they completed a comfortable double podium.
“Yes, let’s go!”
You wouldn’t be chastised for thinking the race was boring. Upfront, it didn’t have the epic battles we had hoped for and most of the fun was in the mid-field and downwards.
Apart from Esteban Ocon’s unending penalties, we had to rely on the Aston Martins for entertainment and boy did they put on a show for us. We were slightly disappointed by Alonso’s qualifying place of fifth and when teammate Lance Stroll unintentionally tagged him on the first lap, it opened the door for the Mercedes duo of Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to overtake them.
All hopes of challenging for a podium seemed lost but the AMR23s showed a lot more pace than their Mercedes counterparts, and Alonso was able to make ease work of Russell on the 13th lap. Hamilton proved to be a harder customer, but the shear brilliance of Aston Martin’s development helped Alonso show off his skills and get back fifth after 38 laps. By lap 45, he was past Carlos Sainz and sealed the third and final podium position.
The joy the Aston Martin brings Stroll was also having a fantastic race, only two weeks after his biking accident and surgery. The undercut worked well for him even though Russell emerged out of the pits ahead of him, he had warmer tyres and better grip. This helped him get past Russell and sixth was where he would finish. The AMR23 is performing like a Brawn built car, much like how Jenson Button drove the wheels of the Brawn-Mercedes to win the 2009 championship. I’m not saying Alonso will win a championship with Aston Martin, but he’ll have a lot of fun this season. Oh and Stroll too, hopefully his talent will show.
How they finished Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon completed the top ten. Their solid drives earning them and their respective teams some valuable points. Alpine will be happy for the Gasly performance especially after he started in last and also after Ocon received a five-second penalty for an incorrect position on the grid. He then received a 10 second penalty for starting work on the car before the five seconds had been fully served. Another 10 second penalty came his way for speeding in the pitlane. His race ended where he spent the most time, as he retired a couple of laps after LeClerc.
He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Like Ricciardo!
Fans of ex McLaren and now Red Bull’s reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo would have been elated by the troubles the papaya team were facing. Neither Lando Norris or rookie Oscar Piastri could make it into the top ten after qualifying and their weekend went from bad to worse.
Piastri had to retire with mechanical issues early on in the race and Norris spent as much time as Ocon in the pits, if not more as he had to make a total of six pit stops through the race. Norris’ MCL60 had a pneumatic systems issues and had to be refilled with air after every ten laps.
That’s how the cookie crumbles Norris joked and said that the race was good pit stop practice for the team but this isn’t where Zak Brown envisioned they would be. Not to say the McLaren looked to have any exciting performance ratings after testing. They have gone backwards and look way worse than the Williams which had a good race for both drivers.
As a Ricciardo fan and birthday twin, I have no sympathy for McLaren. Well at least for the first three or so races, but after that, I definitely want to see them fight not to finish last.
After Bahrain There’s a lot of work needed for all the teams and the first two races don’t really determine much. 22 races and 6 sprint races to come. Next up is Saudi Arabia at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
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It’s Green Lights For 2023
And we’re back, with the Formula 1 season kicking off in Bahrain.
The Bahrain International Circuit was always the first race of the season, the honour of that belonged to the Australian GP but since the Covid-19 pandemic, the race in Melbourne has been shifted to third on the calendar.
The first ever race in Bahrain was held in 2004 with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, of which Ferrari have won seven races at this circuit with Charles LeClerc taking pole as well last season. Mercedes share the same tally of wins with Ferrari, their first victory at the circuit archived by Jenson Button in 2009 when they were still Brawn Mercedes and Sir Lewis Hamilton has the record for most wins at the circuit with five. The last of these came in the 2021 season.
Raring To Go
Last season didn’t really go as I had planned with coverage of the races, much like many of the teams but I’d liken my efforts to Ferrari’s season. I started of strong and kinda fizzled out during the season.
I won’t lie, it’s difficult to be a fan and a social commentator of the sport. I stopped watching out of the pure pleasure of the sport because I need to pause every two seconds to take down notes so that when I write I don’t miss any of the big talking points.
This year, I hope to create a better balance and give my two cents as much as possible and maybe a name change for the blog. There’s always so much to talk about and last year we had loads of drama from Red Bull’s cost cap scandal (bending the rules pays its weight in championships) to the musical chairs in driver and team principle swaps.
Will Sergio Perez play second fiddle again to Max Verstappen or will we finally see red Bull support their number two driver for the first time in history? Will the new bloods in Nyck De Vries, Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargent cause a stir in their debut seasons?
The Grid
Preseason testing or Winter testing has come and gone and we have a bit of an inkling as to what the season will look like. There definitely will be upgrades to all the cars as the season progresses, so even if your favourite team and driver aren’t standing on the podium Sunday, they’ll be 22 other races to do better and catch up.
Oracle Red Bull Racing
Drivers: Max Verstappen (Reigning Champion) and Sergio Perez (3rd last season)
Team Principle: Christian Horner
Car: RB19 (Honda RBPT power unit)
Change isn’t in the Red Bull DNA. The reigning champions don’t seem to have been affected much by their cost cap scandal penalty and they looked the strongest during testing. They definitely are the team to beat this season and if the other teams don’t get their act together, they’ll win but I’m saying Verstappen will come second or third this season.
Scuderia Ferrari
Drivers: Charles Leclerc (2nd last season) and Carlos Sainz (5th last season)
Team Principle: Frédéric Vasseur (former Alfa Romeo)
Car: SF 23
The Ferrari red we all love! We all hope that the Italian giants have left all their errors and problems of last season the same way they let go of former team principle Mattia Binotto. I don’t think the drivers no the fans can stomach another heartache season and they were lucky to not have let it slip in the constructor’s championship but Sainz definitley will feel hard done, losing a top four spot to George Russell who was in an inferior Mercedes. If Hamilton doesn’t win it this season, then LeClerc will. I’m sure he has learnt from his mistakes. Sainz will win a race or two.
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team
Drivers: Sir Lewis Hamilton (6th last season) and George Russell (4th last season)
Team Principle: Toto Wolff
Car: W14
Back to black!!! At the end of last season Toto Wolff said they would display the W13 in the lobby so that it reminds them of the mistakes they made and to do better. The W14 looks a lot more competitive than its predecesor and they seem to have solved ther porposing issues. everyone is more positive this season and hopefully Hamilton can rewrite history and they won’t steal another title from him. Russell will win a couple of races and give Hamilton a lot to think about but we all hope he can play the supporting role of a number two driver when need be. All round consistency and performance will be key.
BWT Alpine F1 Team
Drivers: Esteban Ocon (8th last season) and Pierre Gasly (14th last season)
Team Principle: Otmar Szafnauer
Car: A523 (Renault)
It will be all pink for the first three races of the season. Alpine have lost Fernando Alonso, a two time F1 champion and now the most experienced driver in the history of the sport to Aston Martin. They also lost their huge young talent investment to McLaren but beating them for fourth in the constructor’s championship was definitely a high for them. Where do they go from here? Well they have a competitive car that can challenge upfront and most importantly, they have to young/middle-aged drivers who have had a taste of a race win. Gasly won his first race in Italy in 2020 and Ocon won in Hungary in 2021. Can they do it again? Yes, if the car is up for it. All we can hope for is that the two Frenchmen have resolved their differences and they’ll be no fighting on track.
McLaren F1 Team
Drivers: Lando Norris (7th last season) and Oscar Piastri (rookie)
Team Principle: Andrea Stella (You thought it was Zak Brown huh)
Car: MCL60 (Mercedes power unit)
Not all that exciting, not without Ricciardo too. Whilst Zak Brown isn’t the guy you see in the pit box calling the shots, he still his the big dog at McLaren and he orchestrated the Oscar Piastri steal from Alpine. A ballsy move and we’ve seen this before when he lured Daniel Ricciardo from Renault, and now he’s gotten rid of one our most loved drivers. The irony with it all is that Ricciardo delivered McLaren’s only win thus far and Brown has a tattoo of it, and with the way the car looks, it’s going to be a long while before we see the papaya car on pole. Where do they finish this season? From fighting for fourth, I think they’ll be fighting for sixth this season. Norris has the talent and experience but the rookie might struggle, but they’ll score points.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake
Drivers: Valtteri Bottas (10th last season) and Zhou Guanyu (18th)
Team Principle: Alessandro Alunni Bravi
Car: C43 (Ferrari power unit)
Oh yay, stunning. Although Alfa Romeo don’t really want to call Alessandro Alunni Bravi team principle and prefer the term ‘team representative,’ he is the man in charge. He was brought in from McLaren after Ferrari promoted Frédéric Vasseur to be their team principle this season. What can you do when big brother asks for you help? His successor Bravi is a safe pair of hands. He has worked for McLaren and also was team principle in Formula 2. The 2022 season didn’t go as planned, though they had a good start with a pretty fast car. Reliability was a major issue and that stems down from Ferrari’s factory where the power units were dodgy. Sixth was a very good return for the Swiss based team and if they have a good enough car, we’ll get to see Bottas’ mullet on the podium.
Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
Drivers: Lance Stroll (15th last season) and Fernando Alonso (9th last season)
Team Principle: Mike Krack
Car: AMR23 (Mercedes power unit)
Last year’s livery looked better. This might just be Aston Martin’s season. For what, I’m not to sure but there is a lot of excitement at the Silverstone base that they could have their car on pole at the end of a race. They’ve just swapped experienced talent for more experienced talent and I think I see Lawrence Stroll in Alonso. They have the same bullish go-getter mentality. Maybe Lance Stroll will finally learn something and not crash into Alonso since their now teammates. Lance has the talent but I don’t know if he’d have survived this long in the sport if it wasn’t for his father. Then again, I think he’d do much better without the pressure of carrying the family name forward. If the car is reliable, they’ll be challenging for fourth and just maybe, third on the constructor’s championship. Top 10 finishes for their drivers.
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
Drivers: Kevin Magnussen (13th last season) and Nico Hulkenberg (22nd last sesaon)
Team Principle: Guenther Steiner
Car: VF-23 (Ferrari power unit)
I really like the black takeover. Another team that could have done more had it not been for the reliability issues that came with the Ferrari power unit, coupled with the fact that they had the massive expenses of Mick Schumacher’s crashes to cover. I think both him and the team are better off having parted ways. Too much pressure was on his shoulders to be like his dad and make Haas great. Now comes the ultimate super sub in Hulkenberg. After losing his seat at the end of the 2019 season, he was back in a car in 2020 as sub for Vettel and has been substituting since. He’s finally back in a seat of his own and hoping to prove his worth just like how Magnussen did when he was brought back last season. In all honesty, I think they’ll be battling for seventh and not closer to eight like they were last season.
Scuderia AlphaTauri
Drivers: Yuki Tsunoda (17th last season) and Nyck De Vries (21st last season)
Team Principle: Franz Tost
Car: AT04 (Honda RBPT power unit)
It’s a looker. AlphaTauri didn’t have a good season last year and to cap it off, they lost their most experienced and successful drive in Gasly. A lot more weight is going to be on the shoulders of Yuki Tsunoda who we all know can be a bit temperamental. We hope he has put this past him because De Vries doesn’t look like he’s going to be waiting around in the rear view mirrors of Tsunoda. The former Mercedes reserve driver was given an opportunity to sub in for Alex Albon in the 2022 Italian GP and scored points in his debut race. He did it in a Williams, what more in an AlphaTauri that actually wants to prove its worth. Both divers will score points and maybe the battle for seventh will be more interesting.
Williams Racing
Drivers: Alex Albon (19th last season) and Logan Sargeant (rookie)
Team Principle: James Vowels (aeiou)
Car: FW45 (Mercedes power unit)
Not too shabby yea. There was improvement from the Williams team last season. Their looked faster and competitive but it just wasn’t good enough, and no I’m not talking about Nichola Latifi (aka Goatifi). They went into the season after losing Russell to Mercedes and brought on Albon. This season they have a rookie driver in Logan Sargeant. The American driver has proven his worth in the lower leagues after finishing in the top three in F2 last season. They also have a new man at the helm in James Vowels, who knows what it takes to win races and championships, having been a part of Mercedes during their dominant years. Realistically, they will be fighting to not be last again this season.
Predictions
We have 23 races this year since the Chinese GP is out again (rolls eyes). Just bring it to Africa already and not because Verstappen was quoted saying it early on this year.
There are going to be six sprint races this year in:
- Azerbaijan – Baku City Circuit (April 30)
- Austria – Red Bull Ring (July 2)
- Belgium – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (July 30)
- Qatar – Losail International Circuit (October 8)
- USA – Circuit of The Americas (October 22)
- Brazil – Interlagos (November 5)
That means more extra points and a lot more maths to do for the championship points. It’s going to be a closer season that it was last year because Ferrari will sort out their mentality and performance kinks, Mercedes will improve and we’ve seen the evidence with Brazil last year. Aston Martin and Alpine will throw in a few surprises.
Therefore:
- Hamilton
- LeClerc
- Verstappen
- Russel
- Sainz
- Perez
- Bottas
- Ocon
- Alonso
- Gasly
- Norris
- Stroll
- Magnussen
- Hulkenberg
- Zhou
- De Vries
- Tsunoda
- Albon
- Piastri
- Sargeant
Let’s go racing!
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Perez Takes Pole In Singapore
Again, to be completed in due course. Don’t run away, the wait will be worth it.
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Verstappen Wins In Monza
To be completed soon, sit tight
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Verstappen Dominates With Victory On Home Turf In The Dutch GP
Max Verstappen won his tenth race of the 2022 Formula 1 season with a victory on home turf at Circuit Zandvoort. The Dutch Grand Prix victory was the Red Bull driver’s fourth in a row, taking his lead to 111 points over his teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who are joint second in the championship.
The Dutch fans were out in their numbers, and the Red Bull strategists didn’t fail to help Verstappen pick up pole in qualifying and convert that advantage into a race win. Qualifying had a few ugly moments when some overzealous fans threw their flares onto the track, causing a red flag at the beginning of Q2. Lucky, the one that was thrown onto the track during Q3 rolled off and fizzled out without triggering more than a yellow flag for a few moments. The organisers had asked all fans to hand in their flares as they entered the circuit grounds, but some didn’t, and I guess every sport has a few bad apples to deal with.
The Dutch flare. The good thing is everyone behaved, well when I say everyone, I mean the fans. A lot more can be said about the AlphaTauri and the Ferrari teams with some of the calls they made during the race. The human errors in the sport always add to the drama, and for what was billed to be a difficult track to overtake on, we saw some risky and exceptional overtakes on the 4.7km racetrack. It was an exciting and eventful race with a virtual safety car (VSC) and another full safety car deployment that turned many race strategies upside down.
Can Anyone Stop Max?
I had to choose the title carefully because last week, I had said it would be up to Red Bull and Verstappen to lose both championships. Well, with Perez taking a step back in his performance this weekend, only the constructor’s championship might have a glimmer of hope for the chasing pack. As for Verstappen, circumstances keep playing in his favour, and this year, he has more composure to let his talent shine better. We can’t leave out the amazing Hannah Schmidt and the other Red Bull strategists helping bring home the silverware.
If you want to be bald and throw in some conspiracy theories, then you could say AlphaTauri are playing the perfect support role for the senior team. In Hungary, it made sense for Yuki Tsunoda to take on some extra power unit components and have work done to his car after qualifying so that he wouldn’t start in 13th but from the pitlane. This gave an extra spot on the podium and fewer cars to overtake. Again this weekend, there were dodgy calls by AlphaTauri after Tsunoda had reported a loose tyre and stopped on the track but was asked by the team to start again and come to the pits for a change of tyres. Four turns after returning to the track, Tsunoda stopped on the side of the road, triggering a virtual safety car.
Five-second penalty cost Sainz fifth. Tsunoda’s two incidents caused yellow flags and a VSC, all in the space of two laps from lap 48. At this point in time, Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were running in second and third because Leclerc had pitted at the end of lap 45 for hards. The two Mercedes had only had one stop and were on hards and had good pace because they made their first stop later than the other front runners who started on softs while the Mercedes pair started on mediums. The VSC allowed Verstappen to come in for a new set of softs to get him to the end of the race, but Mercedes reacted and double-stacked their cars for mediums. Both teams gained an advantage here, with the majority of the teams choosing to pit for faster tyres as well.
The major argument at this stage of the race is that the Mercedes had good pace on the hards, which were fresher than Verstappen and Leclerc’s mediums, and they were catching up to the two, hence why Leclerc pitted. Had there not been a VSC and technically a free pit stop for Verstappen, would Hamilton and maybe Russell not have gotten an overtake on the Red Bull? That’s the contentious view that has been floating since. It is mainly because AlphaTauri didn’t have to send Tsunoda back onto the track if they knew something was wrong with the car unless they did it to engineer a faster stop for Verstappen.
Softs For The Win
The advantage was with Verstappen after the VSC stops, but there was still a glimmer of hope for the Mercedes drivers because the softs on the Red Bull would wear out quicker than the mediums, and if the Mercedes kept close enough to Verstappen, they might have had a chance to overtake for the victory.
Alas, another Ferrari engine would fail, but this time in the form of Valterri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo. The Fin stopped on the main straight, a few hundred metres before Tarzan corner (first corner) and a safety car had to be deployed on the 56th lap. Verstappen took the opportunity to pit at the end of the lap for another pair of softs, but the Mercedes team decided to keep their drivers out, and with that, Hamilton inherited first, and Russell was promoted to second.
Where better to win than on home soil. The stage had been set for a thrilling race to the end, with Russell offering some cover for Hamilton from the charging Verstappen and the pack behind him on softs. Verstappen would need to do a lot more work to get past both Mercedes, which might damage his tyres, giving the Brits an advantage. It wasn’t meant to be as Russell made a snap judgment call to pit for softs as the cars drove through the pitlane whilst they recovered Bottas’ car on the track. This left Hamilton vulnerable on the restart as Russell dropped to third during his pitstop. Verstappen made little work of passing Hamilton at the restart, and by turn one, he had regained pole, and that’s where he would finish.
We have seen how having a faster car doesn’t mean you will easily beat the rather quick Red Bull. You need a strategy that works, and we have seen Ferrari bottle it on many occasions, so this was Mercedes’ turn to prove to us that they know better. I guess they are still making the same mistakes as they did last year with the strategy.
The only downer on the weekend was Perez’s spin during the final run of Q3, though it helped ward off the challenge of those behind him as he ruined the rest of the field’s final run. He started in fifth, and that is where he finished while his teammate scoped all the weekend awards, including the fastest lap and driver of the day.
Not Enough Team Play At Mercedes
The rhetoric this weekend was, “if that had been Bottas who made that individual call, he would never have been allowed to pit.” I can’t argue with that much, and we saw Bottas play the ultimate wingman for the majority of last season and parts of the 2020 season as well.
Bottas misses a reliable car, and Hamilton misses the wingman. On Sunday, Russell was meant to play that role, but he wanted more, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s good to be ambitious and assertive, but his side of the garage sacrificed a double podium for an attempt at victory for him that was a huge stretch given the pace of the Mercs to the Red Bulls. Sure, his call was for protection from the rear, but the battle with Verstappen could have bought him some time, the same way it eventually did for Hamilton, who finished five seconds ahead of Sainz. It’s just like they say in football, get the ball into the box and create an opportunity for a mistake from your opponents.
Best result this season for Russell. Mercedes didn’t do that, and we can understand why Hamilton felt so hard done because he was left all alone in the end. He was vocal about it; anyone would be. Yes, he can get some slack for not having the best of restarts, but the team let him down. They should have pitted both cars or not pitted at all. They clearly had the skill to pull off a double stack on a cramped pitlane which even the commentators thought would be impossible earlier on in the race. Strength is in numbers, especially when you don’t have the fastest car, and this is the same thing Fernando Alonso did for Esteban Ocon last year when the Frenchman won his first race.
Ferrari Strategists Deserve All The Plaudits
If Ferrari were a football team, the strategists being the coaches, would have been fired a long time ago. I know I’m making a lot of references to football, but it is all with good cause. Too much has gone wrong in the hands of the strategists this season.
On Sunday, the two Ferraris were doing a good job in second and third place. There was a little scuffle between Hamilton and Carlos Sainz on the first lap, but luckily they avoided a collision that could have damaged the cars. Come the end of the 15th lap, Sainz was called into the pit to swap his softs for mediums. We all thought it would be a routine stop until we saw his car stationary and on the jacks for a whole 12.7 seconds. It turns out the pit crew was not ready for Sainz, and the strategists made a rash call to bring Sainz in. The result was that not all four tyres were ready to be put on and everyone waited for the rear left tyre to be retrieved and put on. The crew on the left rear also left their spare gun in Perez’s path, and he ran over it as he took off after his pitstop. A comedy of errors left 9th and behind Perez, who had been 18 seconds behind Sainz. Hamilton and Russell benefited from the Sainz mistake as they kept the position they gained from Sainz when they, too, pitted 15 laps later.
Maybe Ferrari should try out a three-wheeler next race. Sainz’s afternoon would go from bad to worse, though he drove well to rescue positions and points during the race. During the safety car laps, Sainz pitted for softs, but when he came out, he almost collided with Alonso’s Alpine. He received a five-second penalty for that, and although he finished fifth, he was demoted to eighth place. That is the second time in successive weekends that a Ferrari driver has gotten a pit-related penalty and lost places due to this. Hopefully, Ferrari will get it right on home turf at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for their home race, but I won’t hold my breath if I were a Ferrari fan.
On the other hand, Leclerc benefited from Mercedes’ lack of coordination as he managed to get past Hamilton on faster soft tyres for third place, which is where he would finish. He was unlucky to have taken his second pitstop just before the Tsunoda incidents and lost places to the two Mercedes when he stopped for softs and then made up for it with another stop for softs during the safety car period. With his third-place finish, he is now level on points with Perez with 201 points.
The Rest Of The Field
Perez, Alonso, and McLaren’s Lando Norris all benefited from Sainz’s penalty and got the jump on the Ferrari driver by finishing within the five-second penalty period. Alonso would feel vindicated after being almost taken out by Sainz. Alpine was also thrilled with getting ahead of Sainz after he was allowed to keep the position he gained when overtaking Ocon just before the yellow flags that were being waved in front of both drivers. It was tricky, but I guess there was enough for him to keep the position.
Action-packed race! Ocon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounded off the top ten. For Stroll, that’s another tenth-place finish this season. He hasn’t finished higher than tenth yet this season. Stroll was unfortunate not to participate in Q3 even though he made it into the final round, but his car had other plans for the afternoon. Technical issues meant he could not participate and finished where he started. He had a quieter race than his teammate Sebastian Vettel who had an interesting duel with mentee Mick Schumacher with the young German squeezing his way past his senior countryman. Vettel also caused some stress for Hamilton and Perez when he ignored blue flags and got into the way of the two who were jostling for third on lap 38. He received a five-second penalty for that.
The rest of the grid just tried to adapt to the change in strategy that was brought forth by the VSC and safety car. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well for those who tried to run long on the hards and had to switch onto the softs so as not to lose any ground with the other cars. Daniel Ricciardo was one who pitted five times but to no avail. He couldn’t get past the 17th position he started at.
The battle for second is heating up! For all the talk and whining about gaining an advantage and pitting during the safety cars. We only want to complain when our favourite driver loses out. It is a chance for drivers and teams to adapt their strategies. You can not be static with your strategy. This is where you earn your badges as a good strategist.
On we go to the Italian GP and the final race of this post-summer triple header. Fingers and toes crossed for all Ferrari fans.
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Max Points In The Red Bull Camp For The Belgium GP
It’s all becoming a little too easy for Max Verstappen as he came from 14th place to win the Belgium Grand Prix by almost 18 seconds over his teammate Sergio Perez. The Red Bull duo completed the team’s fourth 1-2 finish and their fifth overall double podium finish (Monaco P1 and P3) of the season.
A dry Spa! Man, it had been a long three weeks of no Formula One action. After squeezing four races into July, we had three weekends of no racing. Thankfully, there was a lot of “DRAMA” happening in the backrooms and factories, including the most obvious announcement that Daniel Ricciardo would leave McLaren at the end of the season.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg as the silly season, and scuffle for the very few drivers’ seats continues. It was good to have a race again and let the drivers talk where it really mattered, and this time the weather at Spa-Francorchamps allowed for a race. Penalties for seven of the drivers, including the championship leader and his main challenger, Charles Leclerc, made for an interesting qualifying Saturday and an even more interesting race.
Some good news for all fans of the Belgium GP, the FIA and the higher-ups in charge of Spa have agreed to extend the contract for Spa to host more races, which means we get to see more races at this historic circuit from 2023 onwards. The previous contract lasted till 2022. Not sure yet what that means for the Kyalami GP in South Africa next year, but fingers and toes crossed, it will still be on the 2023 race calendar.
Red Bull’s Championship to Lose
Verstappen was one of seven drivers to take on new engine components this weekend, but only six drivers were sent to the back of the grid because Valterri Bottas only had a 20-place penalty. As long as you have an actual number of penalty places, you will start ahead of those sent to the back of the grid.
The good news for Verstappen was that Leclerc was one of the drivers who were sent to the back of the grid, so all he had to do was qualify ahead of him. Verstappen was miles ahead of the field in qualifying, and secured pole with his first go in Q3. Unlike Leclerc, Lando Norris and Esteban Ocon, Verstappen didn’t go out to aid his teammate by giving him a tow for a better grid position. I’m not sure if he thought Perez didn’t need it or Red Bull just wasn’t interested, but one thing is for sure, had the roles been reversed, Perez would have been out there for Verstappen’s sake. Perez qualified third and would start second with the starting grid reshuffled to include the penalties.
A strong one-two from Red Bull On Sunday, Perez had a terrible start to the race losing three places to Fernando Alonso and the two Mercedes Benz cars after trying to block off Alonso. He regained his position after the Alonso and Hamilton incident. Meanwhile, Verstappen, who started on the soft compound tyre, was up into ninth place when Sir Lewis Hamilton stopped and had passed Lance Stroll for eight before Bottas was forced off by a spinning Nicholas Latifi on the second lap.
From there, it was all about gaining places as fast as possible, and Verstappen did just that, picking off drivers one by one. By lap eight, with DRS deployed, Verstappen got past George Russell for third. Although the Red Bull could have done the overtake without DRS, such is the pace of the car this year. When Carlos Sainz pitted on lap 11 into 12, Verstappen got past his teammate and came out of the pits ahead of Perez on the 16th lap.
Come lap 18, and Sainz had no answer for the pace of Verstappen and the added DRS speed, giving up first place to the championship leader. From there on, the rest of the battle for positions was fought behind Perez because, by lap 24, the two Red Bulls were first and second. That’s how the race ended, and Verstappen bagged the extra point for fastest lap and the Driver of the day award.
Better from Perez this weekend after some worrisome races where he has been out of sorts and hadn’t finished on the podium since the British GP, where he also finished second. That moves him into second on the championship table and five points ahead of Leclerc. For Verstappen, it’s all becoming too easy. He is a good driver, there’s no doubt about that, and the car is amazing, but Ferrari just keeps handing the title to him on a silver platter. Verstappen is 93 points ahead of Perez and 98 points ahead of Leclerc with eight races left this season. Unless Red Bull has serious car issues, both titles are going to Christian Horner’s team.
Summer is Done, So is Ferrari
In all honesty, that sounds a bit cruel, but it is true. How much more pain and suffering does the Italian outfit want to put its drivers through, especially Leclerc? I really do wonder what Ferrari was doing all summer long.
To be fair, they seem to have sat their strategists down to try a better job. We saw them get creative during qualifying. The operative word here is “try.” Leclerc took on a fresh MGU-K and energy store and new control electronics, which meant he needed to beat Verstappen in qualifying to have a chance of beating him in the race. Unfortunately, Verstappen was in a world of his own and couldn’t be touched in terms of qualifying pace, so Ferrari decided Leclerc should give Sainz a toe so that they could secure second and pole for the race start.
Your top ten. Mistakes were still rife in the Ferrari camp as Leclerc came out on brand new softs during Q3 when he was meant to be on older tyres as the plan was to give Sainz a tow. On Sainz’s final run, Leclerc came out in time, but it just didn’t work out, and Sainz was slower in that sector. Come the race, the double stack by Ferrari was good, but they were off the pace all weekend. Something happened during the summer break, which has taken them backwards. Sainz did just enough to keep ahead of Russell in fourth, but third was all he could muster.
Leclerc’s race was hampered early on when a tear-off got stuck in his right front brakes. Thankfully, the team managed to pit during the safety car and change from softs to mediums. Before his second stop, Leclerc and his team were brainstorming strategies, with the ultimate goal being fifth. Having been passed by Russell on lap 16, keeping ahead of Alonso was easy until Leclerc decided to pit on the 43rd lap for softs to try and take away the fastest lap from Verstappen. He was overtaken by Alonso when he came out and had to do some extra bit of work to get past him on the final lap.
Ferrari drivers running away from their strategists, haha. Panic averted as he crossed the line in fifth but didn’t do enough to take the fastest lap, and to add insult to injury, Leclerc was given a five-second penalty by the stewards for speeding in the pitlane during his last stop. This was all due to a faulty speed sensor, which relegated Leclerc to sixth. The only saving grace for Ferrari is that they were able to increase the gap between them and Mercedes by 41 points, but they are now 118 points behind Red Bull.
Strong Drive For Russell As Hamilton Records First DNF
The most telling thing about Mercedes this weekend was their lack of pace. Hamilton was a whole 1.8 seconds away from Verstappen in qualifying, and this result has baffled Toto Wolff’s team, who have been making steady progress over the season and especially in the last few races.
We all expected Mercedes to challenge for their first race victory this season with the top two drivers relegated to the back. That wasn’t to be with AMG celebrating 50 years over the weekend, and the Silver Arrows got a livery upgrade.
Both Mercedes cars had a great start off the line, with Hamilton and Russell getting past Perez to occupy third and fourth, but that good start didn’t last long as Hamilton was launched into the air when he squeezed out Alonso into the Les Combes chicane on lap 1. That caused damage to Hamilton’s car; he was the only driver who had finished every race this season. He seemed to have gotten a bit too overzealous and tried to get past the master of defence Alonso as soon as he could.
Fly W13, fly! Hamilton apologized for causing the incident, but Alonso had something to say for his former teammate, saying, “Yeah. What an idiot! Closing the door from the outside. I mean, we had a mega start, but this guy only knows how to drive and start in first.” The F1 community was quick to remind Alonso of the number of times Hamilton has won a race not starting from pole as compared to his own stats.
With Hamilton out of the race, Mercedes hopes were all in Russell’s hands, and he did well to keep his record off, only finishing out of the top five once this season. His only DNF was after the crash at Silverstone. DRS helped Russell gain that extra bit of speed on the straight to get past Leclerc on the 16th lap, and from there, he was chasing down a podium place. Towards the end of the race, he got within 2 seconds of Sainz, but that’s as close as he could get, and he finished fourth. He is fifth on the championship table, one point behind Sainz and only 16 behind Leclerc. Like Verstappen, he has benefitted from Ferrari’s mistakes.
Double Points for Alpine
Alpine played the team game well this weekend, with Ocon giving his soon-to-be former teammate Alonso a toe during Q3. This advantage gave Alonso a P3 start on Sunday. He was lucky to escape the incident with Hamilton without any damage and continued to fight in a rather quick Alpine.
He must have been thanking his ancestors when he was told that Leclerc would be pitting and did all he could to get past him, but with Leclerc on fresher tyres, it was only a matter of time before Leclerc regained fifth position from him. He finished close enough to Leclerc to benefit from the Ferrari driver’s late penalty and scored more points for fifth. That equals his best place finish from the British GP this season.
Befitting gift to Alonso. No love lost… Ocon produced some of the best overtakes of the weekend. Twice he got past two cars in the same overtaking sequence. Having started 16th, thanks to his back-of-the-grid penalty, the Alpine proved to be the faster of the mild order cars in the best of the rest battle. Towards the end of the lap, Ocon overtook both Ricciardo and the Williams of Alex Albon to take 9th place at the bus stop chicane.
If you get something right, why not do it twice? And that’s the advice Ocon took; when on lap 35, he was involved in a three-way battle for seventh. Sebastian Vettel got past Pierre Gasly for seventh, with Ocon running tenth, but once on the straight, both Gasly and Ocon had DRS, which enabled them to overtake Vettel on either side of the Aston Martin. Ocon was the braver of the two drivers, braking late and gaining the much coveted seventh. He was unlucky not to gain from the Leclerc penalty, finishing 1,5 seconds from the Ferrari driver. A good race ran nonetheless.
Vettel, Gasly And Albon In The Points
Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel failed to make it out of Q1, losing out to Haas’ Mick Schumacher by 0.010 of a second, but he would start in 10th thanks to the penalties. Vettel had a great start off the line, which saw him climb up to fifth after the Hamilton/Alonso incident, doing well to get past and keep ahead of Ricciardo.
A few changes in the standings! The great early start and some good overtaking, most notably against Gasly when the German managed to retake a position from the French man after being passed by him and Ocon. Eighth was a good result considering the lack of pace Aston Martin continues to have, and this will be a boast to Vettel’s confidence in his final stint for the British team.
Well, it’s about time AlphaTauri scored some points. Pierre Gasly’s ninth place finish on Sunday was his first points since Baku and also the Red Bull junior team’s points six races ago and what better time to do so than in your 100th GP race for the Frenchman. The team has not performed anywhere near their potential or close to what they achieved last season.
By this same time last year, Gasly had won his maiden GP and AlphaTauri would go on to finish sixth overall with 142 points. This year they have only amassed 29 points and it doesn’t look they will break into the hundreds with the way their going. More needs to be done because they have one of the most talented young drivers in Gasly, who deserves a better drive.
Spa is proving to be a good hunting ground for Williams. Last year, George Russell got his first podium with a brilliant qualifying performance and this year Alex Albon didn’t need wet weather nor the aid of grid penalties for the other drivers to get into Q3 and earn himself a top ten grid start. He qualified in ninth and was promoted to sixth for the start of the race.
Albon made some good overtakes during the race. Early on after losing out at the start, he got past Ricciardo for seventh in the sixth lap and when Ocon came past him and Ricciardo on lap 17, he fought back for him position. Towards the end of the race, Albon lead a DRS train which involved himself in tenth and the other drivers up until Ricciardo in 15th. All of them were gunning for the final points scoring position, to which he held of all the competition and earned his third points of the season.
The Rest Of The Pack
McLaren has decided to part ways with Ricciardo and all we ccan think of are the bitter yet emotion filled words of former Renault team principal Cyril Abiteboul, who said Ricciardo would regret his move away from the French team to join the papay British outfit.
Yes, there might be some regret by the honey badger, but he still is the only driver to deliver a race win for the team since 2012. For all the slack the team has thrown at him, a lot more responsibility for the lackluster performances should be shouldered by the team. A bad call to pit Ricciardo for a second time off the hard tyre and onto to the mediums, saw him get stuck in a DRS train that start with Albon in tenth. 15th is where he finished after starting seventh and his teammate Lando Norris didn’t have a good outing either. Stuck in the same DRS train whilst in 12th position and that’s all he could do after having started 17th due to grid penalty for new engine parts.
The two Haas cars were missing all weekend long, the only reference we had was the interviews with team principal Guenther Steiner and the fact that Schumacher was one of the drivers to take on new engine components and would be starting from the back of the grid. They were off the pace, and although they were a few interesting battles with other drivers during the race, Kevin Magnussen (16th) and Schumacher (17th), as well as Nicholas Latifi, were the only ones to be lapped by the race winner.
Red Bull’s championship to lose. Latifi’s only major contribution this weekend was to spin out of control after having gone onto the gravel will trying to defend against Ocon. His trip on and off the track resulted in him forcing Bottas wide as he was trying to avoid a collosion with the Williams. Latifi also gave the Alfa Romeo as slight nudge in the rear which caused Bottas to spin and get beached in the gravel, thus ending his race on his birthday. Bottas had also ended his long stretch of 148 qualifying session in which he made it out of Q1 when he failed to do so on Saturday. It wasn’t really important since he would start 13th no matter where he qualified on Saturday.
Bottas was actually meant to start in 14th but Red Bull played the team game well and Yuki Tsunoda started from the pit lane. There is a plausible explanation but the one that sits better in our head is that Red Bull asked a sacrifice of their sister and junior team to clear up the grid so that Verstappen would have less of a struggle to get to first place. Tsunoda hasn’t come to the party much in terms of points scoring performances this season.
Next up is the Dutch GP at the CM.com Circuit Zandvoort, where we shall be drowned in a sea of orange for the second race in this triple header. What a way to end the summer break!
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