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Verstappen Wins Emotional US GP Against Hamilton Seeing 2021 Rivals Locking Horns Again

In a phenomenal US Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, Verstappen took his 13th win this season, dedicated to Red Bull’s co-founder, after an 11 second pitstop and an epic 2021-esque duel against Hamilton in the final laps of the race.

In what looked to be a dull race in the first half, the US GP saw an action packed, nail biter finish, seeing Verstappen win the race and Red Bull confirm themselves as the winners of the constructor title after another disappointing race for Ferrari.

However, it wasn’t a win without sadness for the team after the sudden news yesterday before qualifying that Red Bull’s co-founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, 78, had passed away after fighting a long-term illness.

Verstappen, interviewed post-race said: “We gave it everything out there today of course and it was a very difficult weekend for us so this one is definitely dedicated to Dietrich himself. [For] what he has done for everyone, the only thing we could do is win and even though after the pitstop it was not looking great, I gave it everything out there and I pushed to the limit to come back.

Max Verstappen and Helmut Marko on the podium celebrating another win and the constructor’s championship.

With Charles Leclerc taking an engine penalty and starting 12th after qualifying second, all hopes for Ferrari relied on their pole man, Carlos Sainz, who off the line saw his lead taken by Verstappen, unable to defend him coming up the inside.

However, that was the least of worries, as in a move to do a switchback, Sainz went into the path of George Russell’s Mercedes, who took too much speed into the first corner and ultimately collided with Sainz, spinning him and leading to his retirement after a water leak.

Commenting on the incident in the press pen, Sainz said: ‘driver mistakes are driver mistakes and the problem is the I pay the price again and it follows a bit of a trend of the whole year with our lap one that doesn’t allow me to do the race or fight for the win or doesn’t allow me to keep learning from the car which is extremely frustrating and disapointing’. The incident saw Sainz’ fourth retirement on lap one this season and comes especially sore after Japan, seeing him spin the car into the wall on the first lap in the race’s extremely tricky weather conditions.

Moment of impact: Russell going into the side of Sainz, spinning him and leading to his retirement.

With Russell given a five second penalty for the incident, the race momentarily calmed down before lap 18, when Valterri Bottas spun into the gravel, releasing the safety car, boosting Leclerc up several positions, having not pitted when the other cars did, putting him in for a chance to win.

The green flag was waved again on lap 22, bringing Hamilton back into the race after Verstappen was able to slip his grasp but, half a lap later, a giant incident occurred after a late defence from Lance Stroll on the back straight sent Fernando Alonso into his rear left tyre, lifting his car into the air and tapping the wall, narrowly avoiding a race ending collision.

With debris all over the track and several cars taking avoiding action to not hit the flying pieces and Stroll’s Aston Martin in the middle of the track, the race saw itself back behind the safety car until lap 26. Many were quick to criticise Stroll, including F1 reporter Will Buxton, leaving a scathing review of Stroll’s defence in a tweet he later deleted, which said: "Idiotic from Stroll. Utterly stupid,”.

In the press pen, Stroll defended himself, saying: “it’s a shame, we were having a good race, I left him plenty of room on the left, it was a big difference in speed, I was kind of judging where he was behind me and I moved based on where I thought he was behind me but, yeah, he got really close to me and, yeah, we just made contact, so, frustrating”

From lap 26, all attention was turned to the front of the grid as Hamilton and Verstappen escaped the pack while Perez and Leclerc duelled for third, seeing on lap 30 a extremely late move by the Monegasque, squeezing through on the corner at the end of the back straight.

Maintaining a gap around 2 seconds to Verstappen ahead, Hamilton was the first to pull the trigger pitting lap 34, trying to undercut the Red bull. In doing so, both Verstappen and Leclerc went to cover off the Mercedes driver the following lap, seeing Verstappen have an 11-second pitstop, losing position to not not only Hamilton but also Leclerc, meaning, to win this race, he would have to do two more overtakes than he would have wished for.

Coming out of the pitstop, Verstappen was heard on the team radio saying: “beautiful, f*****g beautiful.” It didn't stop him though.

In a stunning drive, Verstappen pushed Leclerc, taking him on lap 39 before going to deep into the first corner, allowing Leclerc to do the move Sainz originally tried on the first lap, pulling off a switchback and retaking the position. In the end though, Leclerc had to give up the position later on that lap as Verstappen took him where Leclerc had earlier taken his teammate.

Verstappen after taking the lead, holding to the race finish, denying Hamilton his first win this season.

Once Leclerc was out the picture, it became a two horse race, with Verstappen slowly, but surely, reeling Hamilton in until lap 50 where the slower Mercedes could do nothing but let Max through, eventually seeing him fade into the distance, taking another rememberable win for Red Bull.

Putting him level with the most wins in a season and with 3 races left, it almost seems inevitable Verstappen is going to break another record. Securing both the driver’s constructor’s titles for the first time since 2013, Red Bull’s dominance continues and in a fitting way to the same weekend their founder passed, the US GP almost seemed to be an allegory of Red Bull’s story, seeing them having to fight their way to the top, getting there no matter the challenges thrown at them.

R.I.P Dietrich Mateshitz. A true legend of the sport

Perez Takes His ‘Greatest Win’ Among Chaotic Singapore Grand Prix

Sergio Perez takes his fourth win in an eventful Singapore Grand Prix pushing the championship battle on for another race with Verstappen struggling all weekend.

While Perez was able to celebrate his race win, arguably his most dominant race, his teammate Max Verstappen seemed to struggled all weekend, having a tough qualifying after having to bail out of his final lap due to fears of being unable to provide a fuel sample, something every driver must provide to avoid a penalty.

From here, things only seemed to get worse; starting from eighth, the defending champion almost put his car into anti-stall, coming away very slowly off the line, leading to him fighting even harder to have any hope of winning the race and championship off the line.

Max Verstappen pushing on first lap trying to pass Kevin Magnussen and stuck behind Lance Stroll.

However, all hopes were lost for the Dutchman when trying a late move on Norris, locking up his tyres and going off into an escape road. coming back on the track in eighth but needing to pit bringing him back out in last.

Fighting valiantly, Verstappen brought the car back home in seventh after a last moment move to take Vettel after overtaking Lewis Hamilton a few laps beforehand when putting himself on the wet side of the track, sliding him nearly into the back of Vettel and having to take a wide line, allowing Verstappen through.

Charles Leclerc and Ferrari struggled to bring home the win and get a grasp on the championship again seeing Perez take the lead on the very first corner of the race.

Slippery when wet: Sainz struggles with pace throughout the race, taking home third after fending off Hamilton and Norris.

Beyond a few exciting laps once the safety car returned into the pits with the first dry action of the race, Leclerc struggled to stay close to the rear end of the Red Bull. Their hopes of a race win now rely on a penalty for the Mexican, who has to visit the stewards for allegedly not staying within 10 lengths of the safety car. Perez was able to create a gap beyond 5 seconds from Leclerc however, which should mean that he keeps the win even with the 5 second penalty likely to be given for such a penalty.

Lewis Hamilton saw his weekend implode after getting frustrated behind Sainz and hitting the wall when braking too late. While no significant damage was achieved, his slow pitstop and inability to warm up his mediums sufficiently enough led to him walking away with only 2 points added to his total.

George Russell finished outside the points after choosing to start from the pitlane, taking engine penalties after qualifying P11 and then Mercedes making the wrong tyre decision onto dries. While a poor weekend for Mercedes, it was likely Hamilton was wanting to close the gap to his teammate even further than he did. Hamilton now sits 33 points behind Russell.

Watch the moment of collision between Zhou Guanyu and Nicholas Latifi.

Among other results, both Alpine and Williams saw double DNFs with both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon seeing engine issues while Williams retired from driver mistakes.

This proved costly for Alpine with McLaren able to capitalise on safety car pit stops onto dries and finishing 4th and 5th, putting them four points ahead of the Enstone team in the battle for fourth in the Constructors Championship.

Daniel Ricciardo takes his first top 5 finish since Jeddah 2021.

Verstappen looks to take his second world championship in a row in Japan, Honda’s home. With Ferrari looking out of both championship fights, there is some consolation is Mercedes’ poor weekend from them, however, it is most likely there wish they were looking ahead rather than behind.

Ferrari Steal Pole in France in Sneaky Strategy

Charles Leclerc will start the French Grand Prix at the Circuit de Paul Ricard on pole ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen, set to be favourite across the weekend due to Red Bull’s pure straight line speed compared to the prancing horses. Although on pole, Leclerc sits on the top spot, separated by all but one car from his teammate, Carlos Sainz, due to the Spaniard taking several engine penalties after his scary engine blowout and, consequently, fire in Austria.

In taking the penalty, it enabled Ferrari use their disadvantage to their own benefit, using Sainz to give a slipstream on both of Leclerc’s final runs in Q3, allowing the Monegasque to qualify, very importantly, three tenths faster than the defending champion. After having a poor run of races before Austria, Verstappen was able to slip away in the standings meaning good results are becoming critical for the Moderna based team, being championship-less since 2007 in the drivers standings. However, although Leclerc has secured pole, everyone has been quick to note that due to the Sainz’s penalty, Charles will be fighting one-handed with the raging bulls sat right behind him in second and third with Perez locking out the top three. With Red Bull having a quicker car overall historically, tomorrow’s race looks lined-up to be a return to another scrap between the two championship contenders.

Along with Sainz, Magnussen looks to take an engine penalty with the American team having an unfortunate qualifying, seeing Schumacher eliminated in Q1 after a strong couple of races in Silverstone and Austria. While Magnussen did qualify tenth, not running in Q3, it looks to be a recovery drive for the team, hoping to possibly follow Sainz as he cuts through the field.

Looking at other figures on the grid, Mercedes look to exist in the same playing field as before, separated from the top two teams while quicker than the surrounding teams, qualifying a respectful fourth for Hamilton and sixth for Russell, being pipped by less than one tenth by Lando Norris. While being a solid result for the German team, feeling around the paddock suggests that Mercedes were looking to be closer to their old championship rivals, with Nico Rosberg arguing they came to France wanting to be 3 tenths away from pole rather than nearer a second. While improvement from the start of the season, Mercedes’ loyalty to their car philosophy seems to be hurting any chance of closing the gap, with the grid seeing a domino effect of team’s switching from their designs to copying Red Bull’s, most noticeably in the side-pods. Although not positive for Mercedes, Hamilton continues his streak of outperforming Russell, needing to close the gap to him in the championship after a poor start to the season in comparison to his team mate. While Russell was unlucky in Silverstone, involved in Zhou’s crash, and given a time penalty after a collision in Austria with Perez, Hamilton is beginning to look more comfortable in his “sh**box“ W13 every weekend passing.

With the rest of the top ten seeing singular drivers from teams with Norris, Tsunoda and Alonso out qualifying their teammates. Within this list it’s easy to note that the French drivers at home are looking to have to put some work in tomorrow in order to score points and impress their home fans. With Gasly out in Q1, continuing a fall of form across the season from last, and Ocon missing out by two tenths in Q3, their disappointment will most likely be clear, especially from Gasly, who will sit 6 places away from his teammate in addition.

Therefore, going into the race tomorrow, the grid is set to see several fights from the prancing horse hoping to escape the raging bulls and Russell and Hamilton fighting for any hope of a podium place. Sainz will also be one to watch, coming through the grid, hoping to not lose too many points after his disappointing Austrian Grand Prix, being robbed of sure-fire podium (no pun intended) creating a even larger gap from him and any championship hopes this year. With lots of conversation on tyres with France currently in the heatwave which is leaving Europe stricken, tyre maintenance looks to be key to the win tomorrow. With Ferrari is relying on more downforce to protect their tyres, they will be hoping it doesn’t leave them too vulnerable on the straights. The game is on in France.

The History of Pedro Rodríguez: A Man Remembered and Honoured in Monaco

Looking to the first corners, Pedro Rodríguez sits in his car waiting…

While most special Monaco helmets involve elements of gambling, sea views and the glitz and glamour of the city, Sergio Perez took to honour his hero and home national figure of Pedro Rodríguez. In a statement on his decision for the helmet, Checo was quick to comment that the pair are ‘the only Mexican drivers who have had victories and podiums in the sport, in Formula One’. In a weekend that Perez became the most successful Mexican F1 driver ever, the helmet fitted as a suiting passing of the mantle 52 years after his last win, having a total of 19 podiums and 3 wins, overtaking Pedro’s two.

However, both the helmet and Checo’s emotions of the podium cement the legend of Pedro Rodríguez and his influence on modern Formula One drivers. While other drivers in his era such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Dan Gurney and several others often over shadow his success, his importance to Mexico within the decade he raced is something that cannot be understated. Furthered in point by the Mexican Grand Prix track, that is still raced on today, being named after him as his brother, fittingly named ‘Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez’.

Born in Mexico City in 1940, Pedro grew up in a family of seven, with one older sister and three younger brothers along with two loving parents. However, racing was put into his blood from a young age with him and his brother, Ricardo, racing motorcycles, quickly becoming Mexican national motorcycle champions in 1953 and 1954, growing into the world of motorsport together. He was only 17 when he made his international debut in cars, racing at Nassau in the Bahamas in a Ferrari; although being involved in an accident, while his brother, driving a Porsche Spyder, finished 14th, both their young ages and pure talent proved them to drivers of the future. So much so, Pedro picked up notice from Luigi Chinetti, Enzo Ferrari’s American Ferrari importer and incredibly close friend, making Ferrari big in the states. Chinetti noticed the young Mexican talent, bringing him across the water to Le Man, entering him to race with José Behra. While the car didn’t finish, having a radiator hose puncture, the move to bring him to Europe made Rodríguez an international name, having connections straight to the biggest man in motorsport and having the pace to belong there. Rodríguez raced in Le Man 14 times over his career, winning in 1968 in a Ford GT40 for the JW-Gulf team, an impressive run at one of the biggest races on the calendar.

Pedro Celebrating His 1968 Le Man win

Although proving himself internationally, he only first entered Formula racing in 1961, racing in Formula Junior, an open wheel class allowing drivers to take their first steps towards Formula One. Having several successes in and out of the class, winning the Paris 1000km but seeing engine failure in Le Man due only two hours from the end, both brothers finally attracted the attention of Enzo, offering them both rides in F1 with his team. While Ricardo snatched an offer of a lifetime, Pedro was hesitant to respond, turning down the opportunity due to stating he has ‘motor business in Mexico City’.

Despite the refusal, Rodríguez continued racing, entering several large races in the following year, still racing with his brother, winning with him in a 250 GTO in the Paris 1000km for the second time in a row. However, 1962 would turn out to be a devastating year for the brothers. In the practice session for the 1962 Mexico Grand Prix, Ricardo found himself in a fatal accident. As the New York Times reported on November 2nd, 1962, Ricardo’s car overturned and caught on fire at the final corner of the track, seeing the end of a racing legend so tragically at home. In his loss, Pedro considered leaving racing forever, devastated by the loss of, not only his brother, but his closest friend and racing partner. However, as history tells us, Pedro continued to race on, always with his brother in his mind and heart, winning Daytona a year on in a 250 GTO and continuing to go on and race his first Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in the works Lotus. With his appearances in Watkins Glen and the Mexican GP not seeming good enough to stay at Lotus, Rodríguez made sporadic appearances throughout the following years, mainly in American legs of the season. However his golden opportunity came in 1967 at Kyalami, South Africa for Cooper and it’s one he took full advantage of.

Pedro (left) and Ricardo (right) together as young kids - forever close, the tragic loss of his brother was something that would always haunt Pedro.

Facing adversities all weekend, struggling off track with his teammate, Jochen Rindt, after given the practice car to drive by Roy Salvadori, Cooper’s manager, something Ridnt thought he deserved, Rodríguez proved his worth against some of the best in the motorsport history. Driving the car in a beautifully smooth and consistent manner, Pedro won the South African GP with Denny Hulme and John Love both pitting in the closing laps. In doing so, he secured a full time racing seat for the first time in his F1 career, driving for the rest of ‘67 next to Rindt. Although slower than his teammate on numerous occasions, Pedro was left with the older, slower T8, while Ridnt was given the new and updated T81B followed by the T86. Although missing 3 Grand Prix, sidelined after an incident in another class, he returned to Zaandvort, marginally slower than his teammate in an amazing recovery.

Pedro and his (huge) trophy in South Africa, 1967.

Within this recovery came a better seat for the young Mexican, moving to BRM in 1968, further showing his excellence in the wet at Zaandvort and Rouen, along with having to settle for second behind Bruce McLaren after a lack of power in the Belgian GP. Although immediately faster than the Cooper the season before, the death of BRM’s testing driver, Mike Spence, meant the BRM P133 slowly faded throughout the year, causing it to be harder for good results to be achieved. Having a good chance to win in Spain, he eventually spun off, losing the race and argued to be a catalyst to him being released by Louis Stanley, BRM’S manager, to Parnell BRM, a privateer team. Proving to be a hopeless team, Pedro left after Monaco, returning to F1 for the British Grand Prix of the same year for Ferrari, retiring however, along with his teammate, Chris Amon.

Flat out: Rodríguez pushing to the limit in his Ferrari at Silverstone, 1969

With Ferrari having a hopeless V12 in the 312 along with a mixture of driver frustration and slow progress on the new flat-12 engine, Enzo wanted to race two Italian drivers. With options in the Brambilla brothers, both proved too slow, meaning Rodríguez continued to run in NART American racing colours across the North American races. Although dissecting him slightly from the team in the move, he still ran in a works Ferrari and managed impressive results, despite not earning a seat in Ferrari for 1970.

Having nowhere left to go, Rodgríguez got lucky when John Surtees decided to up and leave BRM, starting his own team. Therefore, returning to his old team, Pedro struggled, unfavored to his teammate Jackie Oliver. This didn’t stop him from proving himself however, with the Mexican going on to win in Spa over the March of Chris Amon by only 1.1 seconds, while achieving the highest average speed in Formula One history of 149.94 mph until 2003. Being his last victory, Rodríguez did see other missed opportunities, losing at Watkins Glen when needing to pit for fuel on the closing laps of the race. He raced on for BRM in 1971, seeing the car have consistently good engines, something the team struggled with in the past, but it was spread too thin running, at most, 4 cars in races. Failing to win in the Dutch Grand Prix against Jacky Ickx, his last podium would come in Watkins Glen, 21 days before his fatal incident.

Driving for his last win, Pedro driving the car with all his might, defending off Amon and setting the fastest average speed time in a race until 2003.

Racing in Norising in Nuremberg, West Germany, on the 11th July 1971, Rodríguez at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M, hit the wall after his front tyre blew, causing the car to burst into flames and him to pass away two hours later in hospital. In a tragic incident nine years after his brother’s, Rodríguez ended a career that was considered the best of any Mexican driver, a title he would keep for over half a century until this weekend at Monaco.

Pedro’s 512M in flames, everyone desperate to put it out

Considered the best in the wet for his era, he was also known for his absolute bravery, not concerned with safety like many of his fellow drivers. During the 1970 1000km of Spa, the Mexican risked it all with Jo Stiffert, touching going up Eau Rogue in the rain driving 917s, an excellent example of his said bravery but also his judgement of the limit. Being remembered across many facets of motorsport, due to having touched so many series from F1 to Nascar, the first hairpin at Daytona is named after him and a bronze plaque is placed at the site of his crash in Nuremberg. The most recent is obviously Sergio’s helmet, donning Pedro’s helmet colours and their combined wins and podiums, writing below ‘and counting’ a fact that was all but proven true at the end of the race.

4 wins, 25 podiums and counting, Perez proving the helmet right, making it factually wrong when he crossed the line.

Although he is replaced as the best Mexican driver in statistics, his legacy and inspiration can be accredited to driving Perez to achieve this goal. On top of this, his stretch across numerous motorsport disciplines is something that is also incomparable in the modern era. As Perez also wrote on his helmet, gracias Pedro for pushing the sport and making the history of it as rich as it is today.

From Rags to Riches: Perez Wins in Leclerc’s Heartbreaking Loss at Home

Where to start. Rain. More rain. No rain. A shortened description of everything that made Monaco, a track which future is up in air, showed once again why we love the nearly 100 year old race. In a dramatic event, Sergio Perez won the Monaco Grand Prix in magnificent style through an outstanding consistency no matter the tyre, conditions or pressure, making or breaking the racing royalty to his left and right. While the Ferrari’s started the race with a, later to be seen, façade of confidence, stretching beyond the reach of Red Bull, their poor strategy and loss of selves in the chaos of Monaco allowed for easy mistakes and Perez to slip by, holding position until the end of the race, despite near misses at the hairpin by the front wing of Sainz.

Pitting first onto intermediates on lap 17, Perez and Red Bull asked the Ferrari’s to flinch in the move for pitstops, originally starting the race on wets, knowing with evidence from other drivers and the quickly drying track, that the move to better tyres was needed soon. While Sainz defied Ferrari, suggesting going straight to drys a few laps later, skipping a tyre and a pitstop, Leclerc did flinch to Perez and ultimately losing a place. However, his pitstop woes continued, pitting on the same lap as Sainz for hards a few laps later, losing time and position, falling behind Verstappen and the podium. Although losing three points more in the championship fight, now being nine behind, the insult to injury came in the handing of Verstappen another podium and that podium being at home. In a race he so desires to stand on at least one of the steps, Leclerc was unable to come near it due to his own team, one that he lives and breathes, making errors disabling him from doing so.

While Leclerc struggled, Perez’s win puts him within reach of the top two, only 6 points behind Leclerc and 15 behind teammate Max Verstappen. In doing so, one must question the team order decision at Red Bull in the previous Grand Prix at Spain, with the win offering Sergio now to be level with Leclerc and therefore an equal second in the championship. Therefore, in doing team orders, Red Bull ultimately hurt their driver, something that may pay consequence as the season conintues. Although all speculation, there is no doubt 2022 is quickly turning into a three horse race, promising that Perez can keep up his turn of pace; much like Monaco, his season has relied on his strong consistency and it’s one that will be prove important if he can continue with Leclerc and Verstappen struggling with consistency on some level. Although this is the first race Verstappen has finished and hasn’t won this season, his car reliability has meant he has lost several costly points, giving Perez often the chance to take what he has missed. Although worrying for Ferrari, needing Sainz to offer a rebuttal to Perez, the Mexican’s turn of pace is arguably more worrying to Red Bull and his teammate, the golden boy of the team, Max Verstappen. Given a chance to win the championship, can Red Bull really stop him and if Perez does look to tail off eventually, much like Bottas or he has in previous championships, could the lack of team orders be too much of a loss to Leclerc later in the season? All in all, Perez’s win proves he’s not in F1 to sit pretty, he means to win.

Although briefly mentioning Leclerc, his loss in Monaco will have been a hard hit for him and the team and, having a chance to win three of the last races, Ferrari are now looking to be in a winning rut, something that killed their last championship hopes. Leclerc’s morale at the end of the race resonated Hockenheim 2018, a home race for Sebastian Vettel who grew up a mere 11 miles from the track. While many figures have claimed the race killed Sebastian’s own confidence in his driving for years following, it’s important Leclerc bounces back from a strong bout of bad luck and can not only bring the best in him but also the team. Being such a passionate Formula One team has it’s advantages when on top but, when struggling, it can often bring team morale to a strong and devastating low. Being a clear figure head in the Ferrari team and arguably Ferrari’s lead driver, Leclerc needs to hone in his inner Schumacher to raise himself up through his team so coming to Baku they can begin to reel in Verstappen. Being a track which is a perfect middle ground between the two cars with a hugely long straight and slow corners, it looks to be extremely tight and one that Leclerc has proven pace on before, taking the slow Ferrari to pole only last year.

While further on down the grid, Russell continued his top 5 finishes, being the only driver on the grid to finish every race in 5th or higher, showing his class once again, while his teammate was stuck frustrated in an Alpine sandwich. Being involved in a collision with Ocon, who received a 5 second penalty for the moment, and then stuck behind Alonso, who was purposefully going slow, meant Lewis found himself in an infuriating position. When Fernando was asked on comments about Lewis’ annoyance, he gave the response, ‘it’s not my problem’ in the most Alonso way possible. Being another race Russell furthers his lead on his teammate, Mercedes look to be in a hard position on team ranking with Lewis, for the time being, no longer looks to be Mercedes’ possible title contender if they can get the car working. Given the need for team orders, would Mercedes ask Lewis to get out of Russell’s way later on the season? All in all, Russell’s phenomenal run of points has proven his quality and, if Mercedes can get a championship challenging car ready, how Russell is more than prepared to be running at the top.

Bottas also continued his fantastic run of point scoring races, finishing ninth after Ocon’s penalty and bringing his point total to 40 overall. While Guanyu looks to still need to improve, having a scary moment out of the tunnel, nearly colliding with Tsunoda and the wall after losing the rear end before collecting it and going over the chicane.

Much like Guanyu, Schumacher also shows once again a need to improve himself, having a scary crash at the chicane by piscine, splitting the car in two. Thankfully, unhurt, it’s clear Magnussen’s performances are outshining the young talent even with his regal surname, with the team needing him to score points, after having so many missed opportunities. Looking at his junior career, Schumacher did take time to warm up, seeing in his final and championship winning year him being a brilliant driver. Therefore, much of the same philosophy may be carried to F1, needing time in a car that has much improved to warm up to the pace of Magnussen and the others surrounding. However, with the pressure of Haas and the stakes of F1, Schumacher might not be given the time he needs and with Magnussen being able to step into the car and perform without any warm up whatsoever, the urgency to perform is growing stronger than ever.

Therefore, in a race that had heat behind it due to Monaco’s contract for future seasons looking uncertain, the principality was blessed by the rain gods, proving why we love the track and the racing on it. In a race full of elation and heartbreak between Perez and Leclerc, a break is much needed before Baku due to the pure chaos that occurred on the streets of Monaco. Bringing Perez into the championship mix while Verstappen extends his lead, all is to play for in Baku.

Leclerc Faces Engine Issues While Verstappen Storms to Victory

Bulls in 1-2 formation.

From lights out to flag, the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix was full of action, recovery drives and some of the best defending this year. Leclerc got off the line perfectly, taking a sharp line to defend Max, holding the lead from that moment, with Max finding a tailwind at turn 4 causing him to lose braking and take a short trip across the gravel, losing second and third to Russell and Perez in consequence. Although this meant Charles had no worries, managing his own race, on lap 27 the Ferrari’s engine began to lose power, resulting in his retirement and an eventual Max win. While Leclerc came to Spain in the lead of the championship, Max managed to steal it away by 6 points going into Monaco, made possible by Sergio Perez’s second fiddle role, not fighting for the win, giving an uncomfortable feeling around him and the team when he announced some annoyance towards the treatment of his race.

Entering lap 1, Carlos Sainz saw a slow start, giving position to Russell and Perez before battling off Hamilton to maintain 5th coming out of turn three. However, with the fight giving opportunity to opportunistic drivers behind, Magnussen attempted an outside move on turn 4 before colliding with Hamilton’s front left tyre, sending him off and giving Lewis a puncture. Although Magnussen’s race was ruined, Lewis originally thought similar, calling to save the engine due to being 50 seconds behind the lead. However, through brilliant race pace and Mercedes being able to find true performance, Hamilton was able to fight his way up to 4th, overtaking Sainz towards the end of the race before returning the position when having to maintain engine issues. This return however, shouldn’t overshadow Hamilton’s brilliant drive in what can only be described as a difficult season for the 7 time world champion, finding himself consistently unlucky during the last few races. With claims that without the incident Lewis could have been fighting for lead, Toto Wolff argued he had the best race pace out of anyone on track, showing confidence that Lewis will return to the top step soon if he can shift his luck in the upcoming races.

Hamilton making his luck today in a fantastic race.

While his teammate, George Russell, showed one of the most promising races in his Mercedes career; being constantly out of reach of the top two teams but being the best of the rest, Russell has struggled to prove his race craft and his abilities throughout the season. However, due to Max’s mistake and Charles’ retirement, George found himself, if only shortly, leading the race, with an frustrated Verstappen still struggling with reliability issues in the Red Bull. Verstappen not being able to use DRS, Russell excellently defended Max lap after lap, giving no opportunity for a pass until lap 24 where Max dived down into turn one to find Russell not willing to roll over. Turning into turn 2, Russel brilliantly balanced the car, positioning it perfectly on the track, holding onto the lead. Although when Max pitted he comfortably built a gap, meaning Russell stayed behind the second half of the race, his defence and race craft across the 66 laps laid down a sentiment that when he has got the car and pace, he’s going to be rightfully fighting for the wins. Finishing a well deserved third with Perez easily overtaking on the main straight on a different strategy, both Russell and Hamilton proved Mercedes are beginning to unlock the car and the long spoken about pace is arriving. The only question that is left unanswered is can either of the drivers be able to fight for the championship or is it too late already? Having 22 races and only finished 6, it’s still an open game and, as Red Bull have noted on their lead, this early it’s all still to play for.

Russell looking confident on the podium already, scoring his third in F1.

Of course being the home race for two of the drivers, it would be impossible not to talk about their races and, while one had a phenomenal race, the other looked to be plagued with his bad luck once again. Sainz from the offset saw a difficult race, nearly stalling at the start and therefore losing positions; it was made worse by a slip of the rear into turn 4 caused by a tailwind, much like Max, sending him spinning into the gravel. From there Sainz was running a damaged car and, on many levels, a once again damaged ego. One could question, without the mistake, could Sainz have won today? Unfortunately any answer would be speculation and, although gaining fourth back from Lewis after he was told to slow down in fear of not finishing, Sainz saw another mediocre race, further settling him into a second driver role in 2022. Coming from the fastest Ferrari driver of 2021 to not fighting for the championship when Ferrari are the best team on the grid must hurt and hopefully Carlos can regather himself coming into Monaco; scoring a great podium there last year, maybe he can rally the Carlos will all know in the smooth operator for an exciting Monaco Grand Prix. However, although he is in a better car, it’s clear he has a few things to learn from his fellow spaniard, Fernando Alonso; having a poor qualifying and starting 17th, the team opted for a new power unit. In doing so, Alonso incurred a penalty that sent him straight to the back with not much hope for the 2 time world champion to score points. That didn't stop him. In an excellent drive and a few battles making viewers believe it was 2011 all over again, Alonso brought the car home in 9th along with Esteban Ocon, his teammate, to score double points in a brilliant outing in Spain. With Ocon commenting on the car having further pace in qualifying, both the drivers and team proved it with hope that they can properly create a midfield fight with McLaren seeming a step faster than Alfa Romeo who have been single handily carried by Valterri Bottas in the last few races. Being only 5 points behind the Swiss team and 16 from the papaya squad, Alpine look to rally themselves for a closer fight.

You can’t park there: Sainz’s detour after the wind spun him into T4.

In referencing Alfa Romeo, Bottas saw a 6th finish in a race in which he saw himself within podium positions at points, doing a two stop in which he described as the wrong choice. He was quickly caught at the end of the race by Russell, Sainz and Hamilton, unable to produce the pace of the three drivers on fresher tyres. Although such a result in Alfa Romeo should call for more of a celebration, Bottas couldn’t help but sound downtrodden, believing a different strategy could have brought him more into play for a podium. Having 38 points across the season, one less than Alfa’s total, Spain was another phenomenal race by the Finnish driver, showing that once the pressure is off and he’s given leading roles, he can deliver. However, it must be noted his teammate Zhou Guanyu was unfortunate in needing to retire the car, also looking on his way for points. Having scored points on his inaugural F1 race in Bahrain, Guanyu clearly has more to offer and I’m sure in the upcoming races he will be able to score more points, helping the team’s fight for 5th.

Other moments worth noting was Stroll and Gasly’s collision at turn one, giving the frenchmen a five second penalty, finishing a worthy 13th but making it his second race in a row with a messy incident, calling back to Miami and his touch with Lando Norris. While ruling out Stroll’s race, Vettel was able to show some defence for Aston Martin’s new upgrades, finishing 11th behind an improving Tsunoda, learning from last season to see Spain successful in out qualifying and finishing above his teammate.

Gasly and Stroll’s moment into T1.

On top of this, Albon’s red hair luck has officially run out with his hair salon, Albono’s, which opened in the paddock during the weekend, giving him no help in scoring points, finding himself a lonely 18th and behind his, so far struggling team mate, Nicolas Latifi. With rumours, along with a FP1 appearance that Latifi was to be replaced by Nick De Vries, the current Formula E champion and driver for Mercedes EQ, much of that has been put to silence by Latifi’s drive and Jost Capito’s claims no one is getting sacked mid-season. Finishing 16th, ahead of Magnussen, some credit should go to Latifi, taking the pressure and proving himself in difficult times.

With the race finished and Max taking the title, not much is left to be discussed with only teams needing to prove beyond Spain that their upgrades and change in pace is longstanding and not just for Spain, being a circuit they all know from pre-season testing. However, Red Bull and Ferrari will both be having internal discussions with Ferrari left to figure out why this time round they were the more unreliable one, although Red Bull still seem to be fighting their problematic RB18. While Red Bull have questions to answer to none other than the minister of defence, otherwise known as Sergio Perez. After holding his own all weekend and not allowed to overtake Max when he was on a faster strategy, Perez was told not to hold up Max, giving over position, leading to him feeling that team orders came too early in the season. While Red Bull hold up the mentality that they were on different strategies and so winning for Perez would have been extremely difficult, some would argue he wasn’t even given the chance. But much of that can be seen as his fault, giving Max position before he has got near enough for an attempt at an overtake. It’s clear to everyone though, Perez is still a second driver and when put in a position of championship change and after last year’s point drawing at the final race, if Max can get any advantage on the Ferrari’s, it’s important to do so now.

Max and Sergio talking post-race.

Therefore, while the Spanish Grand Prix had it’s ups and downs, much of it was an interesting touchstone in the season, seeing Mercedes offer a possible return, Ferrari losing both championship leads and Max proving why he is the reigning champion and what he is defending. Having a 100% win rate on every race he finishes, it’s important to stop Max’s thunder before he gets on a winning streak; while Leclerc offered to do that today, his Ferrari didn’t want to give him the chance. Having his second power unit in the car, it’s a worrying sign for Leclerc’s engines and hopefully not a sign of the reliability to come. Going to Monaco, it’s going to be all about Saturday and, with Ferrari looking to be quicker on the tighter street circuits, lets hope Leclerc can rid his Monaco curse and Sainz improves his luck in order to offer another challenge to Red Bull in Charles’ home race.

Another day, another dollar: Max celebrating a tough win.

F1 Looking to Switch up Calendar in Attempt to Group Races by Region

Revealed in Stefano Domenicali'‘s ‘coffee morning’, a regular Saturday event, Formula One is looking to improve sustainability through reducing logistical and personnel movements.

Stefano seen with Mattia Binotto

With Liberty Media initially stating a promise to be carbon neutral by 2030, a hard task for an international motorsport, clumping races together seems like a wise move in aiding the sport’s reach of the target. With the F1 circus moving from Miami to Spain for the race this Sunday, it’s easy to understand how, with the races being so spread out, it can cause massive carbon footprints. With Baku and Montreal looking to be back to back races, it’s choice to have so many races close together but geographically thousands of miles apart seems stupid and something F1 should have probably fixed sooner.

Writing about this in describing an ideal F1 season, I mentioned the idea of grouping, suggesting how it would help reduce emissions and also stress on workers with 23 races putting more pressure on teams and staff than F1 has ever seen. Could we now see Montreal at a different point on the calendar?

It looks that Baku is a definite mover, being put in the Japan and China leg; China’s COVID situation is still a rising issue for the sport and therefore putting at the back of the calendar gives room for it’s current issues to breeze over.

Will Baku be a championship deciding race at the end of the season?

While Miami and Montreal look to become buddies, moving one of them by around a month with Monaco’s traditional date not looking to change, restricting flexibility in the month of May.

On top of this, the Middle-Eastern races look to be put together in pairs, similar to what we saw this year; Bahrain and Saudi-Arabia look to be at the beginning of the season, while Qatar and Abu Dhabi look to the end. However, with Saudi Arabia’s missile crisis this year, a larger debate should be had in F1’s involvement for political and safety reasons.

A nerve wracking choice for F1 as missiles strike Aramco oil refinery 10 miles from the Jeddah track.

Being a great way to reduce carbon emissions, one has to question why in 2022 is this being thought about and not earlier? Either way it’s an important move and one which is welcome in helping such a sport become more environmentally friendly. I’m sure out of everyone, Sebastian Vettel very much approves.

Hopefully. by moving the race, and in other actions, we can help avoid the first underwater race.

Leclerc Snatches Pole in More Red Bull Reliability Woes

After an impressive lap set by Max Verstappen towards the beginning of the Q3 session, while championship rival Charles Leclerc spun, qualifying ended in a opposite fashion with Leclerc setting a phenomenal lap, 0.300 seconds faster than Verstappen, who was unable to do a final run seeing more engine woes. While originally the issue seemed to possibly be something damning, Red Bull have since claimed the loss of power was due to a sensor failure; it was clear to see still the frustration for Verstappen missing out once again due to the problematic RB18. During an interview with Sky Sports team principal Christian Horner said he believed even without the issue Leclerc’s lap was beyond their reach, settling with a second in hope that Ferrari’s tyre issues in races, seen most recently at Miami, will allow them to stay close and take another win back to Milton Keynes.

Leclerc celebrates a 13th and dominant pole after a spin on his first final run.

Further down the grid, while the weekend saw teams bring an array of upgrades, the only team to see a genuine turn in pace seemed to be Mercedes, able to run much closer to the top two cars, qualifying an unlikely 4th and 6th. During a post qualifying interview, Russell claimed to have more pace than left on the track, saying although it was their best result of the season, he could have got a little more out of the car. However, while Russell was able to celebrate, Hamilton clearly felt a little disappointed saying although the porpoising issues seem to fixed, his inability to be where Russell is further up the grid is ‘gutting’ with the car and him looking not yet to be one with eachother. While Russell was able to put the car where he wanted, Hamilton could be seen consistently fighting the car throughout the lap feeling it twitch under braking and in gear changes. Although upset, Toto Wolff offered reassurance saying not only do they understand the issue, he commented that Lewis told him it now ‘felt like an F1 car’ giving confidence to Hamilton, the team and fans that Mercedes will be back to where they belong in a short time.

Hamilton driving his twitching W13 pushing it to the limit to try and return to his familiar position at the top of the grid.

Although Mercedes looked to be the big winners, Aston Martin looked to be the big losers with their new controversial side pods, speculated to be a copy of Red Bulls’, proved to offer no extra advantage seeing both cars out in Q1 with Vettel 16th and Stroll 18th putting Alonso in a Aston sandwich in 17th, his first time out in Q1 in Barcelona. With Vettel clearly frustrated asking if his finishing position was a joke, they still seem to need to understand their upgrades with team only having 6 points so far in their season, showing a step down rather than a step up from last season.

Aston Martins’ new and legal side pods to much of Red Bull’s dismay.

Among other teams, Mclaren saw another mediocre qualifying even though the team brought 10 new upgrades. Norris was harshly knocked out in Q2 with a lap time deleted for running wide on the exit of turn 12, giving Schumacher his first Q3, a needed confidence boost after his clumsy race in Miami.

While not being the most exciting qualifying with a reduced climax to the end of the session, the grid seems to be mixed up enough to create an exciting race tomorrow along with another chapter in the fight for the championship. There is no doubt Alonso will be wanting to impress home crowds and Norris will be looking for a better result than his current position. With worries on the lifeline on the tyres along with unseen results from upgrades, I don’t think Spain will be an easy race for any of the drivers.

Charles Leclerc awarded pole position award from Carlos Sainz Sr. Much like the fans, I wonder if he wished it was the other Ferrari, otherwise known as his son.

eSkooter Championship: DiGrassi’s Look into the Future of Mobility and it’s Inaugural Race

The electric, tron-esque racing has finally arrived.

The eSkootr Championship, otherwise known as ESC, held it’s inaugural race this weekend at the renowned London club ‘Printworks’, turning the dance floor into something a whole lot different. With the idea helped developed by Formula E’s Lucas di Grassi, known for being a key figure in creating the world leading electric sport, Formula E, and Alex Wurz, another formula Formula One driver, it looks to accelerate the future of mobility while making a spectacle out of it.

With the scooters themselves being able to reach claimed speeds of 100 km/h and the batteries being supplied by Williams themselves, ESC is a high speed sport involving drivers from multiple althletic backgrounds from skiing to surfing to stunt riders. Already having 10 teams with three drivers in each, the sport looks to gather plenty of talent and interest with names from all around the motorsport co mmunity invested already. Examples include known junior series team Carlin owning their own team having such drivers as Nicci Daly, niece of ex-F1 driver Darek Daly, and even Niko Hulknberg owning his own team, 27X.

First look at the scooters racing wheel to wheel.

Having such a mix of a talent and important names mean the first race has had much interest in it’s future potential. Having already secured 6 races, spreading from the UK to the United States, there looks to be a real championship, which is set to be intriguing due to it's innovative principal.

Much of what makes the racing separate from it’s other two wheel precursors is it’s heat format. Formed by a series of races with the top 4 of each heat progressing to the quarter finals, then the top 3 to the semi-finals and then the top three going to the finals. With this means for a race-day event there’s plenty racing to keep you excited but watching from afar means there’s possibly too much with it most likely people might just tune into the final race. However in doing this, the length of the final heat is too short for the casual viewer to understand what’s going on. Being the first race of the season, it was over before I was able to figure out who was who. On top of this, falling off the scooter seemed to act as fatal, seeing the top 3 separated by 8 seconds, leaving 4th over 25 seconds behind them and 6th shockingly 40 seconds from the lead. Although I’m sure as the season continues the handling of the scooters will get better reducing the gaps and the amount of mistakes, seeing one get lapped in such a short race seemed concerning. In doing so, one must question that if the sport saw a dominating figure, how easy would it be for him to win every race within one season?

Hulkenberg’s comments on his team and the series itself.

Of course the other side of the argument is that everyone is due a mistake and therefore the severity of making mistakes means that it’s likely it will be much more mixed-up every time the sport races. Having so many drivers and so many different heats, come Switzerland, the final heat may contain completely different drivers and it’s within this sheer amount of possibilities that the sport will become victorious. With Matis Neyroud taking the first win, a profession scooter rider before the championship started, followed by Dan Brooks, a British National Superstocks racer, and Anish Shetty ex winner of the Cross Fit Open Championship, being able to get a hang of these scooters as soon as possible seems integral to championship chances. Being only the first race, it will be interesting to see what the sport looks like by the last race; I imagine it’s evolution over the next years will be rapid, looking at other electric sports, such as Formula E, only increasing interest and more races the bigger it becomes.

Lucas di Grassi winning the first ever Formula E race in Beijing

Looking at it as a race-day spectacle it looks thrilling; having the track partially in and outdoors with fans inside the old warehouse under bright lights and close to the track, along several other immersive experiences, it seems it may become one not to miss out on when looking as racing events within actual cities. Much like Formula E, having the in-city ability allows easy accessibility to tracks while reducing the amount of pollution but it’s already clear how people such as di Grassi, who had such big hand in developing Formula E, are helping develop the forefront of scooter technology. Securing such big names as Hulkenberg, Williams and even Carlin was integral to increasing attention while having core sustainability initiatives meant it’s morals are directly in the right place.

With the next race held in Sion on the 27-28th May, I’m excited to see what the sport can bring in the future. Being such an innovative racing series in which attracts athletes from all disciplines, everyone seems to believe it’s missions and it’s future as a fun to watch sport. Hopefully the gaps seen in the first final heat and the competition can become a lot closer in the future with the talent still to get to grips with, what seems to be, the fastest scooters in the world. What’s the most important takeaway of all however is that the first race in London so far has looked to be a rather successful opening event.

Chequered flag on a successful day of electric racing.

Bahrain 2022: Talking Points

The inaugural race of the 2022 season started off with a bang, seeing some great wheel to wheel racing at the front between Max and Charles while also offering an insight in what to expect throughout the grid for the rest of the season. I think it’s fair to say the rule changes has created some winners and some losers already, with the grid already looking completely mixed up when compared to last season. 

So now we have had a few days to digest what was an eventful race, what’s the main talking points? Obviously, there are so many things to already mention with some possibly to become more prevalent as the season goes on, but we can already see what the headlines of this season will be as it goes on.

I’ll be focussing on the talking points of Ferrari’s return to the top of the grid and their title fighting position, Red Bull’s engine woes and what this might suggest going into the season, McLaren’s unexpected lack of pace, going from ‘better than Mercedes’ in Hamilton’s eyes to looking to be on par with Williams and Haas return to the midfield, being the most improved car so far from 2021. 

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Ferrari’s Return to the top step 

Going into Bahrain, Ferrari had made quite a statement in their car design with the Eau Rogue shape side pods and the pace the car had shown in testing. With the Ferrari 2022 hype train starting in Abu Dhabi last year after Sainz’ podium, Bahrain showed that their title challenge was real and one that was a threat to Red Bull and Verstappen, who are looking to maintain their title as driver world champions. 

Going into Qualifying, Leclerc managed secure pole with Sainz third on the grid, maintaining these positions in the race, even though Max put all his effort in to steal Ferrari’s first win since Singapore 2019. Although Verstappen didn’t finish the race, this should by no means devalue Ferrari’s 1-2 with Leclerc’s win looking set from the moment Max locked his tyres, unable to catch after the first round of pitstops. All in all, Ferrari were dominant. The SF-75 is a real challenger this year and I honestly think their driver pairing might be one of the best of the grid. 

When comparing to Red Bull, Sainz and Leclerc are both very quick drivers who can consistently deliver, pushing each other and the Ferrari stable to be the best it possibly can be. Leclerc looks to be the replacement of Vettel in being Ferrari’s flag post driver, given a, a 5-year deal in 2019, the longest in Ferrari’s history. It’s clear the team are putting their faith in the young Monegasque driver to deliver the team’s first driver’s championship since 2007, the second longest drought the team has seen on the grid since it’s genesis. However, although Sainz is often overlooked in his career, once being teammates with Max in 2015 at Toro Rosso and having several other accoladed drivers as teammates such as Daniel Riccardo, the Spaniard has made it clear he isn’t willing to become 2nd driver, something which may become an issue the longer the season goes on. 

It's interesting hearing Sainz speak after Bahrain as, although he got 2nd overall after overtaking Max on the lap his car had to retire, he seemed almost disappointed saying he had struggled all weekend on car balance. Speaking gin the pen post-race Carlos commented that this possibly may have been his hardest weekend while at Ferrari, which is strange all things considered. Carlos was racing for Ferrari last year, seeing the car in much less competitive state, fighting for occasional podiums and therefore it may be considered that this is one of his best results so far not only with the team but in F1 equalling his best position for a third time.  Talking about having no pace on Friday before finding some during qualifying, only to face same the fate as Friday during the race, Sainz clearly looks to be fighting his own demons in the cockpit while Leclerc begins to look very at home with the new car. 

The disappointment is understandable with Sainz coming into the team in 2021, expected to play second fiddle to Charles, but instead his infamous consistency meant over the whole season he ended beating his teammate, something which was more than impressive when comparing to drivers who also moved teams that season. I’m sure Sainz is wishing to make sure he stays better than his team mate this season and losing the first to Charles in such a way is sure to bring worries within him that he will look to be supporting Charles’ championship fight rather than bringing his own. There’s a reason Charles has been referred to as Ferrari’s new Schumacher, bringing the team from woes to victory, I’m sure Sainz doesn’t want to be referred to as Ferrari’s new Barrichello, a driver who had so much unseen potential. 

Unlike Red Bull, the team have no boundaries of drivers, Perez won’t be fighting for the title and the reason for that is Max. It will be interesting going into this season, how Ferrari manage two young drivers in their first real title fighting year with the team not having a first driver since 2018 arguably. I don’t see Sainz allowing Leclerc to become the lead driver as such and I think coming into Jeddah, he will be expecting more from himself. His first win is surely not far away and it’s likely he will be wanting to make a point to the title competition as soon as possible. He’s a driver who has been waiting for his first win for a while now and, although playing nice in Bahrain, not being aggressive against Max at the start or during the restart, I think Sainz is likely to become a bit pushier and more impatient as the season goes on. He proved himself last year in Ferrari and he will need to do so again in order to not become second driver. 

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Red Bull’s engine woes and what this might suggest going into the season: 

Of course the biggest moment of the race was Red Bull’s double retirement seeing in the space of 4 laps both their cars retiring due to an engine issue. Max was the first to notice the issue saying the battery wasn’t working before being overtaken by Sainz and then the rest of the grid as the car came to a slow walk into the pits. After challenging Leclerc for the win, Verstappen was surely upset with the result, being annoyed even before issues begun claiming he could have taken the lead twice if he wasn’t asked to do a slow outlap. Although catching Leclerc after the first stops, he was unable to make any move he made stick with Charles retaking first after each overtake before he locked upped in a large dive into turn 1 causing his attacks to finish as the Ferrari pulled away. 

Even before the engine issue, Red Bull looked to have no answer to the Ferrari, unable to manage tyres nearly as well and having to nurse brake temperatures early in the race. Obviously being something that annoyed Max, Red Bull now look on the back foot going into Jeddah; however we all know what happened last time Max was fighting for the victory in Jeddah when under pressure. 

The double DNF causing Red Bull to already be several points behind means Red Bull will most likely come into Jeddah looking to win and put Ferrari a peg down after, what can only be seen as a dominating win by Leclerc. Forget Red Bull, Max will want to show his title defence in a winning manner with Leclerc constantly outwitting him in battle. It was clear through his lock up, Charles’ constant retaking was frustrating him causing such a bold move which ultimately only hurt him. I think what will be interesting in Leclerc vs Verstappen this year is that Leclerc seems to have the balance of aggression and driver intelligence that Hamilton seemed to lack last year. Looking at onboards of their fight, Leclerc doesn’t go beyond 7th gear allowing Max through so he can retake before turn 4; it’s clever fighting and one that looks to outwit Max and use his own hot head against him. 

Jeddah will be a super interesting race for several reasons with Max nearly having the best qualifying lap since Hamilton’s Singapore lap (I say nearly for a reason as I dislike people saying it’s the best qualifying lap ever as to do that you first need to finish to quote Schumacher). He’s clearly quick around the track and with a point to prove, I’m excited to see him continue his battle with the Ferraris, but hopefully not in the same way as last year. 

Looking at the mechanical issues, the reliability of the engine is questionable with three of the Red Bull Powertrain engines failing in some form. However, Gasly’s issue is separate to the senior team; both Max and Perez saw a fuel pump issue, seeing both cars having no fuel being provided to the engine anymore according to ‘How F1 Works’. Noticing an issue, the team switched the engine mapping so that the car relied more heavily on the hybrid unit of the car, explaining why on the first turn, both cars rear lights were flashing as they harvested more energy. However, the mapping didn’t stop the issue becoming terminal leading to both dramatic retirements. 

With the fuel pump being a standardised piece by the FIA, it shouldn’t be something that affects them in the future plaguing them with reliability issues; it may cause concern for other teams who also have the same piece and therefore may mean we see further issues in relation to this part. Although none of this is confirmed, it’s the best guess so far with the other option being the team simply ran out of fuel, but this seems unlikely for such a high-class team but they didn’t run any race simulations during testing so it may be simply they didn’t estimate correctly. 

Looking at Max’s steering issues, that was a separate problem suggested to have been caused when the car was dropped off the rear jack, so whatever you say, it looks the RB18 is plagued with a few issues that need buffing out when compared to the F1-75. 

None of the issues should massively hurt the team going into the future but Gasly’s engine fire may also not be a good sign, but I guess only time will tell us how reliable the engine is. All we know is it’s not slow.

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McLaren’s unexpected lack of pace, going from ‘better than Mercedes’ in Hamilton’s eyes to looking to be on par with Williams.

Possibly one of the biggest surprises was McLaren’s very clear lack of pace no longer hiding behind just brake issues and now showing a clear lack of about everything. Qualifying only 13th and 18th and rolling the dice to start on mediums, the team suffered a horrible weekend only finish 14th and 15th by the end. After having a great Barcelona test placing within the top 3 with Hamilton even suggesting the team was ahead of Mercedes, Bahrain looked to only rain down issues with Riccardo testing positive for COVID-19 and then constant brake issues stopping them from getting good running time, meaning they got the least laps out of every team, including Haas who saw logistical issues, meaning they missed out on the first day and got after hour sessions to make up. With such a lack of laps, vital work was missed with revised ducts rushed to Bahrain to solve some of their issues. However come race day, both were fighting at the back of grid with Riccardo being plain last at certain points. 

So what is the issue? Honestly McLaren have said not a lot besides a severe grip issue and just poor performance. This was seen throughout the Mercedes’ engine camp with Mercedes, Williams, Aston Martin and McLaren all lacking pace in comparison to the other engines. However the issue at McLaren seems much deeper than just this with lots of not quick fixes causing the car to suffer. There’s not one solution or answer to what McLaren is facing in this current time with the team also keeping their cards close to their chest for obvious reasons. It looks like this will be their situation for a while and hopefully we will see them find pace in future races. After all the progress they have made, it would be a shame if the team only returned to their woes rather than fighting for wins like they belong to. 

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 Haas return to the midfield, being the most improved car so far from 2021. 

Magnussen’s result speaks for itself. If you had told anyone last year that Haas would be finishing 5th and 11thon their first race in 2022, I’m not sure many would have believed you. To add k-Mag is back, no one would have. Haas’ year so far has been wild with no easy decision to make from getting rid of their Russian ties to choosing a new driver, their result is nothing short of phenomenal when considering everything they have faced not only this year but in the last year too. 

You also have to consider the skills Magnussen showed, stepping into the car in testing to then turn his quick whirlwind of events into one of Haas’ best results. Not many drivers could turn up and deliver such great results. On his second return to the sport, the Dane delivered in qualifying and the race and not by luck, both him and Haas showed they deserve to be where they are, overtaking Perez at the start and then controlling their own race to finish in an excellent result. After the race, much of their success was noted towards the Ferrari engine which, in all fairness, is very quick this year with 6 of the top 10 cars driving a Ferrari powertrain but I think this, in a small way, diminishes the hardship Haas went through to design a car that has brought Haas back into the midfield. 

Adding no upgrades in 2021 to purely focus on 2022, the team saw themselves at the very back of the grid the whole of the last season, seeing a lot of pain in order to see a huge gain. One that has clearly pulled off; it makes me laugh that after being scammed by Rich Energy, Haas on some level have pulled off their own scheme, taking the Uralkali money to develop their car and then dropping their sponsor and driver in response to the Ukrainian invasion and in doing so taking on a much better driver than Mazepin. Of course there is no way they could have seen the turn of events, but it has given them benefits subsequentially. 

I’m excited to see what the team has to bring this year and who they could challenge Alpine and maybe even the likes of Alfa Romeo and Alpha Tauri if Schumacher can also score points after being so painfully close, losing position on the race restart. The future is bright for the American team for the first time in a few seasons and I’m excited for the (once-again) all American team. Maybe we can get a happy Gunther drive to survive episode this year. 

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Of course the race was full of so many talking points from Mercedes’ sandbagging not being sandbagging at all, struggling for pace with a fortunate podium for the silver arrows along with Alfa Romeo’s quick pace. Overall, the season looks to be an exciting one with lots of mix up and dramatic moments. Looking at Jeddah, it will be interesting to see if the cars can overtake there any better with last year it not being the easiest track to overtake anywhere but the main straight. Honestly, I’m a little scared for Jeddah with last year being a race that was just too intense for me. I’m hoping we can avoid a repeat but somehow, I think it's just the track design on some level that makes it so scary and dangerous. However that’s another episode there, let’s hope the race gives me no further reason to go into it. 

Hope you guys enjoyed and if you did, look at the rest of my website and the other stuff available like my previous blogs and don’t get scared to ever get in contact, got any comments on what ever I’ve said? Let me know! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you guys soon. 

Ferrari Wins 1-2 Victory Among Red Bull’s Catastrophe

Watch F1’s Official Highlights of the First Race of the Season

The start of the season began in a whirlwind of on-track fighting for the lead and dramatic failures as Charles Leclerc managed to win a dominant lights to flag victory from Max Verstappen, who after poising a potent battle to Monegasque, retired, with the Red Bull seeing several engine issues laps before the race end.

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After a great start from Leclerc, Verstappen saw himself consistently out of the attack window of the Ferrari, unable to catch him after early in race having to manage brake temperatures. However, during the first round of pitstops, Red Bull’s choice of the undercut allowed Max to fight Leclerc, closing the gap significantly enough that the two switched positions several times on the main and second straight.

Although Max looked to get the job done several times, Leclerc’s racing prowess meant he was able to put himself in first once again each time before turn 4. In doing so, Leclerc proved that not only do Ferrari have the car to fight for the championship but the drivers to dethrone the current champion. This was later also proven by Sainz, who almost leaped Max on the race restart, after Pierre Gasly’s ‘barbecue’ engine fire brought out the safety car. Although it felt like the opportunity to get the first Ferrari 1-2 since Singapore 2019 was gone, Sainz managed to take advantage of Max’s ongoing steering and engine issues, overtaking him on turn 11 before he retired later that lap.

Ferrari consistently escaped the grab of Max throughout the race with both undercuts by the opposing team not working, clearing annoying Verstappen, who stated he would ‘never ever’ take it easy on an out lap again. Although Max felt if he was allowed to push on the out lap, he could have had the lead, Ferrari’s consistency and ability to nurse the tyres unlike the Red Bull meant many felt his complaints were unrealistic.

After the second pitstop, Leclerc continued to pull away with Verstappen then continuing to report an ongoing steering issue, suggested to have been caused by dropping his car off the rear jack in his third and final pitstop on lap 43. Although the pitstop was an attempt to scare Ferrari into also bringing their drivers in, both stayed out and, in doing so, benefitted from essentially a free pitstop under the safety car when Gasly had to pull over due to the fire on lap 46.

During the race restart, Max continued to notice steering issues, complaining that even on the straights, the wheel was moving. Although using the same fear tactic as in Abu Dhabi in 2021 during the race restart by sticking a tyre on the inside of Leclerc before beginning racing, Max looked to be caught off guard by Leclerc, defending from Sainz, rather than attacking the Ferrari in front.

With the race restart bunching up the grid, Max’s issue led the team to be no longer fighting for the win but now just a podium. However, it was not one they were to win in a painfully late engine issue, leading Max to retire on lap 54. Verstappen left Bahrain with no points and a hard bounce back to reality as he looks to defend his title.

Although the fight for first was finished, who was going to join Leclerc on the podium was decidedly not. Perez on the restart was unable to escape Hamilton in his ‘diva’ of a Mercedes after taking back the position he lost from the Brit on lap 1 earlier on in the race. With one Red Bull having to retire, eyes turned to see if Perez was to see the same fate. Although noting issues with the engine, Red Bull’s pit wall looked to score some points, suggesting it was ok to race on.

Getting to the first corner of the final lap, Perez turned into the tight corner before seeing his engine switch off leading to a dramatic spin and ending his race. In doing so, Sergio lost his 16th podium and handed Hamilton his 183rd and 16th consecutive season to stand on one of the top steps. Although in seasons gone by, this would be seem as unimpressive by the silver arrows, both team and drivers suggested it was the moral boost it needed in order to help fix the ongoing problems their car faces.

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‘Some f*****g Viking Comeback’

Gunther Steiner on the radio to Kevin Magnussen after his p5 finish.

Looking beyond the podium, Haas saw a miraculous 5th and 11th with Magnussen’s return to the sport shown through, what Gunther Steiner politely termed as ‘some ******* viking comeback’. Throughout the race, Magnussen was able to not only maintain position but also fight further up for certain periods of time, overtaking Perez on the first lap of the race, before locking up and giving position back to the Mexican.

However, his team-mate was more unlucky than K-Mag, qualifying 12th before being hit by Ocon during corners 5 and 6 on his rear tyre, sending him into a spin that he neatly recovered. From there, he was able to regain positions, finishing in a disappointing but hopeful 11th, losing position to cars behind on the restart. Haas were undoubtedly the most improved car from the previous season, moving from fighting themselves at the back of the grid to now scoring points on merit. Sacrificing their 2021 campaign to focus on 2022, Haas have clearly made a right step forward, unlike the team from Woking.

McLaren looked to have issues from the onset of the weekend with the least laps in testing due to brake issues. The scale of which their issues however, I’m not sure driver or analysts were to realise. Moving from Hamilton saying they were slower than McLaren to not being quicker than Williams, Both Norris and Ricciardo saw themselves fighting outside the points with the choice of mediums tyres causing them struggle in the first stint of the race, not helped by Norris being pushed wide by Stroll and Ricciardo taking avoiding action after only seeing a plume of smoke from Ocon and Schumacher’s tussle.

Finishing a low 14th and 15th, team and fans expected more from the papaya team, noting they can no longer hide behind brakes being the issue, lacking performance in every aspect of the car. Going into Jeddah, a track requiring high speed and agility, McLaren have already lowered expectations, saying the issue is not going to be fixed anytime soon.

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Alfa Romeo saw double points along Alpine with Ocon who finished ahead of his teammate, Alonso, even though he received a 5 second penalty for his incident. Happy his mistakes didn’t upset the team’s positive weekend which in comparison to their rivals was a success, seeing Aston Martin also in woes and Alpha Tauri only walking away with 4 points. Alfa Romeo had an even more positive weekend, potentially offering themselves as a bigger rival to the French team than Aston Martin in many regards, finishing 6th and 10th, with Zhou scoring his first points on his debut, something that could be clearly seen as an emotionally moment for the first Chinese driver.

Walking into the sport with pressure on his shoulders from not only the biggest nation in the world, but also the biggest motorsport nation; many felt Oscar Piastri deserved his seat more than him. Zhou proved his worth and hopefully will only further our expectations of him. Bottas also saw a good weekend in his new outfit after qualifying one place below his former employer and team-mate, Mercedes and Hamilton. Although having a poor start, falling 8 places, the Fin managed to fight back to 6th with only Magnussen separating him from his replacement at Mercedes, George Russell.

‘I’m really happy for Guanyu as-well, first race and he got points. It’s pretty good’

Valterri Bottas post-race

From shock retirements to wheel to wheel racing, Bahrain introduced the new era of F1 in an array of displays that were just as explosive as the fireworks that illuminated the track to celebrate Charles' victory. After years of struggle from the Maranello factory, the most accoladed F1 team in history returned in full force, leaving Red Bull scratching their heads in what they are missing. I’m sure Christian Horner was doing more than scratching his head though when leading Bahrain as the the double DNF in their camp has left the team much to prove coming into Jeddah and already 44 points behind Ferrari (a creepily eery number when considering all last seasons controversies).

With a mixture of success and woes up and down the grid due to the biggest rule change in decades, Formula One looks to have an exciting battle this year for the title and one that is nowhere near it’s climax.

Nikita Mazepin and Uralkali Dropped by Haas: Who Will Replace Him?

This Article is available in podcast form! Head over to Podcasts to get the companion piece to this article.

The news thats been surrounding the world over the last week is Vladimir Putin’s order of the Russian forces to invade Ukraine. Since his shock decision, the invasion has been condemned by Western powers with sanctions imposed in response. Within this, major sport bodies have also taken action with the International Olympic Committee recommending all Russian and Belarusian athletes be banned from all international competitions. This response has led to bodies such as Fifa suspending all Russian clubs and national teams and the FIA themselves imposing changes such as Russian drivers only allowed to compete in a neutral capacity and under the ‘FIA flag’, which some may say it’s not a huge difference from what was already imposed after the Russian doping scandal. 

With F1 cancelling the Russian Grand Prix and the position of Russian athletes in limbo, Nikita Mazepin’s place in F1 was very obviously on thin ice. On the third day of testing, Haas F1 team removed their sponsor ‘Uralkali’ running a completely white car after the sponsor’s Russian connections, being a Russian potash fertiliser company and 20% stake owned by Mazepin’s own father, Dmitry. Losing Uralkali as a sponsor made a debated topic of Nikita’s future as the sponsor was a driving factor for his seat and in losing the sponsor, Mazepin would obviously be lost too. Therefore, when the announcement came on the 5th of march from the American team that Mazepin and Uralkali were both officially dropped, the news came to a shock to no one, not even Mazepin himself. Although clearly upset, Mazepin wrote on Instagram: 

‘Dear fans and followers, I am very disappointed to hear that my F1 contract has been terminated While I understand the difficulties, the ruling of the FIA plus my ongoing willingness to accept the conditions proposed in order to continue were completely ignored and process was followed in this unilateral step. To those who have tried to understand, my eternal thanks. I have treasured my time in F1 and Genuinely hope we can all be together again in better times. I will have more to say in the coming says. Nikita.’ 

Clearly upset with the news, it’s a shame to see a driver go in such a way, even though Nikita has always had a complicated history with fans. Being one of Russia’s drivers of the future with names such as Robert Shwartzman and Artem Markelov, his career began in karting in 2011, quickly moving up into KF3 class in just his second year of competition. 2014 saw his last year of karting after finishing vice-champion to Lando Norris, another notable name in the motorsport world, in the Karting world championship, causing his eventual move to MRF Challenge Formula 2000, grabbing his first podium in just his second race of his single seater career. Moving between lower class single seaters afterwards, he quickly moved to GP3 in 2018, racing for ART Grand Prix alongside Callum Ilott, Joe Hughes and the champion of that year, Antoine Hubert, who we tragically lost the following year. Within his only season in the class, Mazepin won 4 races, more than anyone that year and only finished 16 points behind Hubert. This great success lead him to join Formula 2 in 2019 staying with ART and joining Nyck de Vries in the team. Compared to the year before, Mazepin saw little success with only 11 points in total and and sorrowful 18th in the standings. The only notable moment of his season was an accident he caused with Nobuharu Matsushita at the Sochi Autodrom. Learning from his mistakes, Mazepin came back strong in 2020 with Hitech Grand Prix driving along side Luca Ghiotto seeing his first podium in Hungary and his first win in Britain. Although a controversial defender at times as seen in Belgian where he pushed Yuki Tsunoda wide, Mazepin proved he had at least some pace to deliver. 

Within his F1 history, his first drive in the pinnacle to motorsport came fairly early in his career with Force India naming him test driver in 2016 and made his first testing debut that same year at Silverstone. Staying with Force India for two years after, the Russian then took part for Mercedes in the 2019 Barcelona test, topping the time sheets with a 1:15.775. With his good, while controversial season in F2 saw skill, his time in driving F1 cars was a big plus for small F1 teams when looking at his name in consideration for the 2021 season. This along with the major sponsor of Uralkali and his dad’s vast wealth, meant F1 teams in a pinch were more likely to look at him than others possibly more deserving. When Haas F1 saw a disastrous 2020, scoring only 3 points and needing a whole new lineup after dropping both Magnussen and Grosjean, the team needed two things in order to create a fresh start: talent and money. Fortunately, Mazepin offers both. 

Mazepin joined the Haas team in 2021 on a multi-year deal alongside Mick Schumacher, Michael’s son and protege. Although many were disappointed in the choice of Nikita, it made sense for a team that were financially struggling after seeing a sponsor scandal with Rich Energy and little progress within their position on the grid. However, straight from the get go, Mazepin was offering more problems than solutions. Before his start with the team, Mazepin was accused of sexual assault after an instagram story went viral. In doing so, his relationship with F1 fans became very quickly sour with calls to remove him from the Haas line-up, holding the team accountable for the choice of the young Russian driver. Haas condoned his actions saying the ‘matter was being dealt with internally and no further comments shall be made at this time’, which translated into the team keeping the Russian due to several unsaid reasons. Mazepin did publicly apologise to the said assaulted women in the video, Andrea D’IVal, however many fans felt it was insincere and her own posts on the matter were not genuine with suggestions on her offered hush money to keep the matter subdued. 

Therefore when the 2021 season rolled around, Mazepin was in the Haas seat at the first race in Bahrain with no worries over losing it in the near future. His season was as good as it could be in a Haas, not fighting for positions with anyone but his own teammate who was often in front of him and not behind. On his first race, Mazepin crashed out on the third corner and continued to spin out a total 22 times throughout the 21 race season, starting an online nickname of ‘Mazespin’. It took him until Monaco to be beat Schumacher in a race and didn’t see the season out either, contracting COVID before Abu Dhabi. Finishing 21st in a 20 driver race after Kubica’s race for Alfa Romeo saw him finish higher than the Russian, Mazepin’s first and possibly only F1 season can only be seen as unnoticeable. Therefore, his removal from the grid is one that I’m surprised to see many upset by. Looking on comments of all socials, many fans are saying things such as: 

‘This is actually sad. I’ve gone from hating him in 21 to defending him in 22.’, ‘Unfair’, ‘Gotta feel for him but we all knew it’.

And many others along these lines. I have to agree with some of these comments, it’s sad to see a somewhat talented driver forced to leave the sport not on his own volition due to war. However when looking into the Haas family and it’s wealth, the decision becomes more clear within the current social-political landscape. On the 24th of February 2022, Putin started a full scale invasion on Ukraine hours before hosting several oligarchs at the Kremlin. Oligarch is a word that has been highly used in the last week and can be defined essentially as a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence, particularly used in reference to Russia. It highly commented that one of these prestigious men is Mazepin’s own father who has been known to have close links to Putin and, in a tweet put out by the Russian Government on the 4th of February, can be seen among several other men including Putin inside the Kremlin. Beyond this, Putin and Dmitry have had one on one talks within the last month as well as being awarded medals by the Russian government. With direct links between Mazepin and his sponsors to the Kremlin, Haas had no option under the current situation to drop both, cutting ties to Putin, avoiding backlash from fans and other forces alike. However, I feel the pressure Haas has been put under to make this decision has been unfair with FIA’s own decisions once again solving no issue and laying the problem solving onto teams and host countries alike. 

The FIA’s response to the Russian-Ukraine conflict was merely to cancel the Russian Grand Prix and allow racers to driver under a neutral flag. Although cancelling the the Russian race was seen a good decision by many, the choice to not take action against drivers and sponsors meant smaller teams who rely on the financial aid and drivers from Russia have to make the decision ad therefore receive the pressure and backlash for their decision, rather than the body itself. In doing so, it creates fears in me that the FIA show no change from their past actions in which sitting the middle has created further issues such as seen in Abu Dhabi. Beyond the teams, the FIA also lay responsibility on hosting countries to decide their choice to allow Mazepin and other Russian drivers to race; Motorsport UK after the FIA’s announcement banned Russian and Belarusian licence holders to race in the UK, further pushing Haas’ hand to eventually drop Mazepin as the choice disabled him from racing in the upcoming British Grand Prix. With the the UK motorsport body taking action it would be understandable if several others followed, however such news is yet to be confirmed. Overall, the FIA as a sporting body to not take the same action as FIFA, the IOC and other major sporting bodies by taking responsibility and stopping other people in the chain receiving backlash for their decisions is once again showing the issues our sport faces when understanding how it is governed.

However a depression conversation as their is war in Europe for the first time in this century, Mazepin’s removal opens up a vacant seat for other rising or old talent. With Fittipaldi possibly the most obvious choice as the Haas reserve driver, many other drivers are available and arguably better options for the seat than the grandson of Emerson. Names such as Gionazzi have been put into the bowl, along with Hulkenberg and maybe even Piastri, a driver we all wished could have been promoted after his phenomenal season last year in F2. So let’s discuss each of their likelihoods and who is most likely to be the latest driver in F1. 

Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi is Brazils latest rising motorsport talent. Being Haas’ reserve driver for several years, racing when Grosjean was unable to after his terrifying crash in Bahrain 2020. His results within both races he drove were decent considering he was driving a Haas, finishing 17th in Bahrain and 19th in Abu Dhabi. Gunther Steiner was quick to note he thought ‘Pietro did a great job, considering he drove the car for the last time a year ago’. Looking beyond his limited time in F1, his motorsport career has seen him race in several categories such as Indycar in 2018 and 2021, named part time driver in 2018 for Dale Coyne Racing, racing six races within the season. A similar deal was seen in 2021 between him and Dale Coyne which saw him replace Grosjean in oval racing due to Romain’s deal only seeing him enter road and street circuits. Due to not competing all season, Fittpaldi’s results were not notable with crashes such as at the Phoenix Grand Prix in 2018 and Texas 2021 being remembered more than his results. Although possibly the obvious and contractually owed choice, when compared to all three names above, he is obviously the weakest choice. Both Hulkenberg and Giovinazzi have multi-season experience and Piastri’s F2 season saw him  become the third champion to win in it his rookie season and with a 60 point lead from his nearest rival. In all honesty if I was Haas, another option would be more appealing that Fittipaldi at this current time, all in, he is the perfect reserve driver, but there is a difference between reserve and actual driver for a big reason.

Looking at Giovinazzi, his return could be likely, having a strong 2021 with Autosport calling him the ‘unsung star of F1 2021’ in the first half of the season. However, the Italian’s lack of money and mediocre overall season when in comparison to now retired team-mate Kimi Raikkonen meant he lost his seat to a new member of what Hamilton refers to as the ‘billionaire boys’ club’, Guanyu Zhou. Zhou is a Chinese racing driver who finished third in the 2021 F2 season, having raced for UNI-Virtuosi Racing since 2019. Having a successful run in the class, 2021 saw his highest finishing position with years prior only seeing him finishing 7th and 6th. His racing career, although shows promise, has nothing spectacular when in comparison to others with him getting a seat and not Piastri viewed as one of the modern issues with the racing series. His links to the Chinese Government and other backers cause many to see his signing being due to financial reasoning. Although keeping his background very low profile, sources suggest his father owns at least 23 companies in China with at least 2 have a registered capital over 1 billion renminbi. With such suggested financial backing, drivers from small Italian towns such as Giovinazzi struggle to keep their seats despite their driving worth, with his dad unable to pay for a season in Formula Abarth, let alone a whole F1 team. Making his debut in 2017 when the team was known as Sauber, Giovinazzi went on to finish 12th in Australia and didn’t finish in China after crashing on the exit of the final corner. After Ericsson’s leave however, Giovinazzi got his first full season in F1 in 2019, being the first Italian in F1 for a full season since 2011. Scoring 19 points over the three seasons, which may seem minimal but a good haul for the car he was driving. His leave in F1 left many feeling he didn’t get enough of a chance to prove himself with many impressive drives throughout his time in the sport. However, a Haas is unlikely to show his talent anymore than an Alfa Romeo. Being one of the most recent drivers to leave with a wish to return, he seems like an obvious choice, knowing the landscape of current Formula One and being able to provide consistent and steady results, something Haas needs in order to be fighting this year. However, his own contracts may disable him from being a choice as he joined Fomula E team Dragon for the 2022 FE season. Formula E sees the teams go from January 28th to August 14th coinciding with many Formula One weekends and therefore his own commitments limit him from being a fully fledged choice. Therefore other ex Formula One drivers may be more obvious choices such as Nico Hulkenberg. 

Hulkenberg was known as one of the most consistent Formula One drivers of his time, seeing his time in Renault as a staple driver in the midfield, helping bring Renault its success throughout the 2017-2019 period he spent with the team. Although never achieving a podium and being one of the longest standing races to never do so, the lack of one is not due to lack of trying. Hulkenberg got close several times such as Brazil 2021 before a collision with Hamilton and Hockenheim 2019 before sliding off on the fatal final turns which claimed several victims due to the slippy surface, gliding the cars into the gravel. In comparison to Giovinazzi, his Formula One career was more successful with many arguing that if put in a top team, he may have had better chance at being more successful int he sport. Although leaving in the 2019 season, being replaced by Esteban Ocon, Hulkenberg was still seen on the track for Racing Point in Britain and Germany at the Nurburgring. The British Grand Prix saw him race twice due to Sergio Perez contracting Corona Virus, in which his first run saw him qualify thirteenth, still impressive for being out for half a year and then unfortunately not start the race. However, it was the second weekend in which the Hulk showed his skill, qualifying third and during the race was on course to finish 4th before being forced to pit after high tyre wear, seeing him finish 7th one place behind full season driver Lance Stroll. At the Eifel Grand Prix, Hulkenberg returned this time to replace Stroll, qualifying on the other end of the grid in 20th but in a more than impressive drive, scoring points for the team and finishing 8th. His 2020 driving showed he is still more than capable within a car but he saw no return in 2021 and 2022 cars are completely different. Having sat out for a whole season and not raced a full season since 2019, his ability to adapt may be hard, especially to begin with. Although having no other agreements for racing like Giovinazzi, his own physical limitations might means he is less of an option. Hulkenberg has also turned down offers to race within the last year, being offered a chance with McLaren in Indycar before saying no, stating he was unwilling to race on ovals and finding the cars significantly harder to drive than the F1 cars he was used to. Therefore, it might be a possibility Hulkenberg is not wanting to possibly return to racing badly and therefore an opportunity at Haas might not be a tempting offer if he is looking to settle down after just having a child. 

This then leaves us with Haas bringing in rookies and who wouldn’t be a better choice than Oscar Piastri. I feel I have already said a lot about this man when in reference to other drivers and he often speaks for himself. It’s a shame he isn’t racing this season yet and possibly more than any other driver from the F2 system over the last year deserves to. In the last three classes he has raced in, Piastri has won the championship, winning F3 and F2 in his rookie seasons. He is a talent of the future, and a talent that Alpine possibly aren’t wanting not loose with their seats full at this current time. Piastri is stuck acting as a reserve driver for the French team and therefore, if Haas were to offer him a seat, it would make sense if he wished to take it rather than sit in the Alpine garage at every race with him also not racing in any series for the first time since 2014, when he was 13. However, as with always the politics of F1, Alpine may chose to block this due to  not wanting to lose him to Haas and possibly the Ferrari academy due to Ferrari and Haas’ close ties. It may even be within Ferrari’s own wishes that Piastri doesn’t race for Haas, wishing that if a rookie were to be placed within the seat, it should be Ilott or another Ferrari academy driver. Ironically, the most obvious choice from Ferrari right now might be Robert Shwartzman but his Russian nationality immediately blocks this. Therefore although Piastri is the best choice so far in my mind, politics would be complicated and therefore Haas may wish to solve the issue quickly, seeing as testing begins within the upcoming week. 

Of course there are other options such as Callum Ilott who I mentioned, a fine British racer, but like many other drivers is in his own Indycar rookie season for the year, racing for Juncos Hollinger Racing full time, meaning he is unlikely to break the contract and come to race in a team which will offer him little victory.

Out of all these options, there is with each one it’s own issues and it does put Haas in a tricky position coming into the new season, Fittipaldi is possibly the easiest but by no means the best. However, as I said, if I had to choose I would go for Piastri however we will have to wait and see what they decide. 

It’s sad to see someone leave sport due to arguably something they have had no say in with Putin’s full scale invasion on Ukraine punishing Russian athletes in and out of motorsport however it was the right decision from Haas due to the direct connections to the Kremlin and also due to the backlash they may receive in doing nothing. However I do think it’s shameful the FIA put the pressure of the team rather than make the decision for them as now Haas are receiving scrutiny for a decision they have arguably been pushed into. Optimistically, there is now a new opportunity for drivers such as Fittipaldi who have not had the chance to prove himself to do so and this should be what we focus on now as a sport. Whoever Haas choose will be interesting and I’m sure in the next week they will make the right decision and we will find out everything about it. I’ll do my best to keep up with the story for anyone out there who wishes to find out more and if you enjoyed this, please feel free to check out me, Hamish Shackleton, and the rest of my page and don’t be scared to get in touch, which you can through the email icon at the top of the page. Thank you guys and hope you all have a good week. 

F1-75: Ferrari Announces Name for New Challenger

Ferrari have released the name of their 2022 Formula one challenger in homage to their first production car.

While following such cars as the SF1000 and SF21, the name falls out of pattern with the familiar names for the Scuderia cars, however the F1-75 is the 68th car built within the Maranello factory, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the 125 S, Ferrari’s first production car, leaving the factory in March 1947.

The 125 S was the first vehicle to bear the Ferrari name, first racing at the Piacenza racing circuit. Only two models were ever built, featuring an engine built by Ferrari collaborated, Gioacchino Colombo, that was partnered with a five-speed gearbox. Much like Ferrari’s 2022 car, thought was put into the name, referring to the capacity of a single cylinder, coming with a humble 118bhp.

What wasn’t humble in its creation however, was the litre and a half displacement. This was suited to four-cylinder engines, six at most; in order to make this work with 12, as Karl Ludvigsen notes, ‘the pistons would have to be the size of thimbles!’.

During this period, the pre-war 1.5 limit for supercharged voiturettes, a miniature car, began to be adapted into Formula One, which allowed lesser cars to compete with the with the non supercharged 4.5 litre cars. Therefore, Ferrari saw amalgamating the V12, 1.5 litre with a supercharger as a good way of creating a Ferrari single seater.

It was said that in July 1945, Columbo and Ferrari began scripting the idea for the car, with Ferrari noting his want to make racing cars, in which Columbo simply responded:

“Maserati has a first-class four-cylinder; the English have the six-cylinder ERA and Alfa Romeo has the eight-cylinder. In my view, you should be building a 12-cylinder!”

In doing so, Columbo reaffirmed his understanding of Ferrari; build the quickest car by any means. Although the engine was not supercharged, keeping his motorcycle heritage in his thoughts, Colombo managed to build an engine that would inspire cars for years, with the light weight and simple hairpin spring inspiring F1 engine design for years to come.

The aluminium body with a live rear axle and independent front wheels, both using leaf springs, made the car quick when partnered with the engine, revving aggressively with Franco Cortese commenting, the cars high revs meant you had to ‘drive with your head…and with your eye on the tachometer’.

During it’s first race in in Piacenza, the car retired from a faulty fuel pump and during it’s racing stint, the car took part in 10 races, in which Columbo wrote of the 1947 season that, ‘they won six of them, were second in won and had to withdraw from three’.

It’s best victory came in Rome’s Caracalla road circuit, a 85 1/2 mile race, competing against 1,500 cc cars. Cortese and the 125 S easily won, beating their Italian rivals, Maserati, for the first time, starting a heated rivalry between the two Italian manufacturers.

After the 1947 season, both models were torn apart to produce further models. While that was believed to be the end of the first Ferrari cars, a 166 was later believed to have the chassis of one of the 125 S’. The 166 was refitted with bodywork to resemble the original 125 S, bringing it back as a showpiece of Ferrari excellency.

I tell the story of the 125 S, not only to build an understanding of the car in which Ferrari is paying homage to, but also to understand the mentality Ferrari is heading into this year with. A clean slate. 2022’s rule change has meant every team on the grid is appearing with a car entirely different than the ones seen last season and Ferrari show through their new name an aim to build a new era. After a shocking run in performance in the last two years, Ferrari look to provide a competitive car again in 2022 and the F1-75 looks to bring in their first competitive model since 2019.

The name doesn’t only link to 1947 with many critics pointing out it’s likeness to the F1-2000, Schumacher’s first championship car under the Rosso Corsa colours. All in all, the name gives enough of a clue to Ferrari’s ideas and aims within this season; provide a car that offers a clean slate from it’s past troubles and one that could possibly help Sainz and Leclerc lead Maranello to victory.

The end of 2021 saw Ferrari having a much stronger car than McLaren after being rivals all season. The last races saw Ferrari’s pure performance smoke the papaya team, securing third in the constructor championship. Forgotten in the midst of the controversy in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari saw a strong finish to the season with Sainz on the podium, showing the pace they might have going into next season with engine regulations not changing from this season.

All in all, 2022 offers exciting opportunities for Ferrari to return to their deserved place on top of the gird and their choice in name much anticipation towards what we might see this season.

Was Hockenheim Hulk’s Last Chance at a Podium?

The 2019 German Grand Prix saw one of the most hectic Grand Prix in a very long time with the podium finishers seeming to change every lap. One of the few to be in possibly opportunity of finishing on the podium was Nico Hulkenberg. However, the slippery 13th and 14th turns caught the German out at his home Grand Prix, giving him the same result as LeClerc, Bottas, Ricciardo, Perez, Norris and Gasly. DNF. However, this means that the German has gone 164 starts with no podium and one pole position with hope of one arriving soon disappearing with every race that happens. The hope of Hulkenberg achieving, what is arguably a deserved podium, is dissipating evermore and, as an F1 fan, watching Hulkenberg after the crash on a deck chair showing his pure misery was truly brutal to watch, with Brundle comparing it to Häkkinen at Monza in 1999 crying after spinning out of the lead. I can only imagine how elated he would have been to not only stand on the podium but also to do it at home. However F1 is known to be a sport of pain as Vettel showed us last year at the exact same circuit and Hamilton showed at Malaysia 2016. It's when the most is on the line, the drivers seem to lose out. With Renault being behind expectations and Hulkenberg's lack of opportunities to really seems that Hulk is losing grip of ever holding any trophy at the end of a race?

As mentioned, Hulkenberg has seen 164 starts in F1; in the great scheme of things, it can be seen that is maybe not that much. Mark Webber went 130 races before achieving his first win and Rosberg went 111 which he then followed by winning 22 other races. Moreover, Hulkenberg doesn't even enter the top 10 most entries with the driver with the most entries, Rueben Barrichello having 312 entries, which is 148 more entries than the German. So looking at statistics, Hulkenberg seems to have a valid chance at achieving a podium, he could only be just over half way through his career which gives hope. However, I do believe it's important to understand why Hulkenberg has not scored a podium in his career. The German has had several opportunities with him qualifying in Brazil 2010 1.029 seconds faster than any other driver, including the, at the time, dominant Red Bull's with Vettel being in second.

However, when it came to race day, Hulkenberg saw his chances of winning slip away as he lost the win at the first turn and a chance of any podium finish within the first 10 laps as Alonso overtook him for third. Hulkenberg went to finish 8th that day. The Williams car that year was not up to win any race, let alone a pole so him achieving such a feat was miraculous. However, Hulkenberg's career at Williams came to end with Pastor Maldonado, a name recognised by many in F1 took his seat for the next season. This left the German moving to Force India for two years, seeing him as Di Resta's reserve driver in 2011 to then being promoted to one of the two drivers in 2012 with the seasons showing another missed podium opportunity, this time at Spa. The Force India was running second at the 2012 Spa Grand Prix but was jumped in the pits by Raikkonen to then be overtaken by the much faster Red Bull, leaving him 4th by the end. Although it was a career best, Hulkenberg surely looks back hoping he had achieved more. However, it surely couldn't have been as bad as Brazil that year. Hoping to reclaim a lost chance a podium, Hulkenberg saw himself running in the lead after overtaking Button on lap 19. The German gained a 45 second lead with Button until the safety car was deployed. This only caused a spiral of events for Hulk who saw himself lose the lead to Hamilton on lap 49 and then collided with Hamilton 6 laps later seeing him lose control of the rear of his car, hitting Hamilton's front left tyre and retiring the McLaren driver on his last race for the team that gave him his first world championship. Nico received a drive through penalty for the crash, losing him his first victory and also podium, finishing 5th.

Monaco 2016 was another moment Hulkenberg could have scored a podium, set to finish third but traffic in the pits caused his team mate, Perez, to jump him while he was in the pits, stealing his podium. While at Renault, Hulkenberg's chances of podium have been arguably reduced with 2017's Singapore Grand Prix showing a huge accident at the beginning leaving Verstappen, Vettel and Raikkonen retired, leaving Hulkenberg in third until Kvyat brought out the safety car causing Renault pit blunders to lose him the podium and leave him in 5th until he retired from an oil leak. This leads us to 2019 with the German Grand Prix showing a large total of missed podiums which is arguably many weren't his fault.

In fact, I would argue his lack of podiums are due to his lack of ability to be in a better car; when looking at the missed podiums, it is easy to see that Hulkenberg has never been in a car having a chance to win a race apart from once. The German has driven for Williams, Force India, Sauber and Renault, in which only one of those has won in the hybrid era. Therefore, his lack of podiums is highly understandable. However, although a few were his fault with him arguably hitting Lewis in 2012, it can be noticed that as a driver, he is unlucky. His 2013 season saw him move from Force India to Sauber, a move that was a mistake as Force India's 2013 season saw a much better car than that of Sauber's and his chances have almost been stolen from him by his team with Monaco 2016 and Singapore 2017. I fear that Hulkenberg falls into the same issue as many F1 drivers of his talent not being truly allowed to be shown with Hulkenberg arguably being one of the most reliable drivers on the grid. Since arriving at Renault, Hulk has been above all his team mates in the standings by the end of the year and has done so with every team mate but Barrichello and Perez who beat him two seasons (2015 and 2016) in a row with Hulk beating Perez in 2014 by 37 points. The question is however, will his chance increase or is he doomed to forever have been near a podium but not quite there?

Well if you had asked Renault last year, they would have told you they could have won Hulkenberg more than one podium with possible wins on offer. 2018 Renault showed confidence within their Formula One future, hoping to return to the Team Spirit livery days with Abiteboul comparing Ricciardo's arrival to that of the arrival of Alonso in 2005 and 2006. However, the manufacturer team has seen nothing such as that this year. Hulkenberg's best position this year has been seventh in Australia, the opening race of the 2019 season, and Canada. With almost half way through the season, the team is also losing in constructors to McLaren, a customer team, showing a lack of control over keeping their 4th in the constructors. There is definitely a lack of hope within the team scoring any podium this year with neither driver showing hope and many judging Ricciardo's move to Renault as less Alonso 2005 to more Alonso 2014 when he moved to McLaren. However, it could be that this is just a transition year with 2018 seeing a reshuffle within the team's drivers and management, it means they would have had no effect on the original 2019 car and therefore 2020 holds more hope and then 2021 is a year of new regulations so Hulkenberg's podium chances may become a reality by 2021. However, by then he will have raced 204 races and including Australia 2021, it will be 205 races and it seems unlikely he will win his first outing the new regulated f1 car. Therefore, Hulkenberg will be wanting to probably achieve a podium before this and therefore this may mean he needs to change teams.

One of the paddock rumours circulating early 2019 comes within Red Bull; Pierre Gasly, a rookie in 2018, was moved up from Toro Rosso, Red Bull's B team, to Red Bull after Ricciardo left. However, his performance compared to that of Verstappen has been to say the least abysmal with him not racing the top 5 but instead spending most his races fighting the midfield in what is a much faster car. The result of this led to many speculations of Gasly being replaced with Red Bull known to have done it in the past with Kvyat replaced by Verstappen in 2016 and in 2017 both drivers of Toro Rosso replaced midway through the second half of the season. One of the names mentioned to replace Gasly however, was Hulkenberg.

The rumour existed for several days until Helmet Marko, in his signature style, put an end to the rumour saying it was 'far fetched'. However, if Gasly is to be replaced, which in total honesty is not unrealistic, would Hulkenberg be a choice? Honestly, I think not, seeing as Kvyat through his performance in Germany put himself as a very viable option. His third was an amazing feat by the Russian and also showed his return this year was a choice well made. Moreover, Red Bull have already shown interest in him; although demoted, he was in Red Bull for the 2015 season and part of 2016. If the team felt that he showed potential again, I can't see why they wouldn't bring him back. Moreover, it would also mean that Gasly could stay in the sport and given more time to prepare with Kvyat and Gasly just switching teams with Gasly already having raced for Toro Rosso and therefore knowing the team and how it works, allowing a smooth transition, instead of a messy negotiation between two teams with an already fragmented relation. Red Bull and Renault after the switch to Honda from Renault engines has a strong tension with 'Drive to Survive' on Netflix showing the tension between the team bosses. So Hulkenberg moving up to a better team is unlikely; Renault are at the top of the midfield and its unlikely Ferrari or Mercedes will take him with Mercedes having Ocon in the wings and Ferrari hiring Raikkonen if needed or even Mick Schumacher who they have shown much love to over this season. Therefore Hulkenberg's best option is to probably just wait it out but I believe it shows a key issue within F1.

Hulkenberg is a great driver, he has shown this repeatedly, but the lack of a car like Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull limits him from a podium and I sorely hope the future regulations allow a more fair playing field as this seems to be the only opportunity he will have to score a podium before he retires. I guess only time will tell if Hulkenberg will get a podium but for his sake, I hope he does and the day he does (because I'm sure he will), I'm sure many F1 fans will be elated and I hope he gets the gratification of finally achieving it.

Ferrari’s ‘Rubik’s Cube’ Might Not Be With the Car

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix saw what can only be described as a dull race compared to that of the 2018 race, however, it did leave some interesting comments from Ferrari. Vettel in the pen post-race told reporters the team Ferrari's issues is just like a 'rubik’s cube' commenting that he believes the team has 'a lot of people that can do a rubik’s cube in a couple of minutes'. However, I think the team need to focus on what the rubik’s cube issue is in order to fix the issue. In order to complete a rubik’s cube, all 6 sides must have all of one colour and if the pre-season and early weekend results show, the cube has at least 4 out of the 6 issues fixed. So what are the other two issues? It depends on who you ask, Jacques Vilneueve will tell you the main issue is with the drivers while others will tell you its to do with strategy with Ferrari throwing away points in China and putting LeClerc on a duff strategy in Azerbaijan. However, it's not what the issues are but how integral they are to the team and in winning championships. An F1 team can only win when all parts run in synconisation. In other words, with no whites in the red face. Ferrari was believed to rid the whites out of the reds last when Arrivabene was replaced and the young Monégasqued driver, Charles LeClerc joined. However LeClerc has brought the team future woes along with future wins.

LeClerc is a passionate driver no doubt; his response to his failures this season already have been full of heart on Twitter and Instagram with the young driver saying after his Azerbaijan qualifying crash: "no excuses. I've been useless". LeClerc's fiery passion is something of a weapon to Ferrari, he shows determination to always do his best and 9/10 that's exactly what he does. But when the car in front is of the same flag, issues arise. The season has seen 4 races so far and in at least 2 of those races, Ferrari has had an issue with team mates. Australia saw LeClerc quickly catching Vettel to be told to stay behind and in China, a similar issue occured but switched with Vettel following LeClerc. The difference was Vettel was allowed to go through. This ultimately crushed LeClerc's race with the team leaving him out longer in order to avoid further conflict on track and therefore LeClerc lost a place not only to Vettel but also Verstappen. Vettel has been Ferrari's number one driver since he joined the team in 2015; he has seen many victories under the red flag and two missed chances at being a world champion. To further this, in 2019, he has been nowhere near winning a race. LeClerc has. Bahrain was almost guranteed to be LeClerc's first win for the team after dominating the whole weekend. Engine issues caused his win to be agonisingly lost and ended up third. Although, it is fair to say the win had a toll on the confidence of LeClerc, he did handle the situation with grace and also showed something that Ferrari desperately need if they plan to win their first championship since 2007. Potential.

Vettel over the last two seasons has been heavily critisised and, although Ferrari still show a strong faith in him as a driver, Charles' brought excitement to fans and team alike when the team announced he was to join them. Unfortunately for him, this means he has a lot to live up to; Bahrain was a first example of his potential to live up to Ferrari's dream, while Vettel has scored more podiums than him, many would argue one of them should have been Leclerc's. The issue of 1st driver is a big one, deciding who to priotise in a team is not always an easy decision, as shown by Mercedes not even a year ago at the Russian Grand Prix. Jacques Vilneuve holds an interesting view upon the matter commenting that Charles is having a "negative effect on the team". The 1997 wolrd champion argues that they should have given him a contract for 2020 and 2021 and kept Kimi as this was "the year to fight". Vilneueve went on to comment: "the way Ferrari operates, the way Seb is, he needs this kind of love around him, and it was just not the right move." LeClerc's move has arguably unsettled the team; 2018 saw a definite first driver and it caused balance, enabling the team to focus on one driver. LeClerc's arrival has caused an uneeded battle to be the number one driver and it has put Ferrari on the back step. Red Bull have been lucky in a similar situation due to Gasly's arguably poor start to the season causing Verstappen to be the clear number driver, however I'm not sure if that was ever going to be different. While Ferrari have two very talented drivers, one arguably at the peak of his career and the other having the fiery heart of a rookie. it reminds me 2007 McLaren in certain ways with Lewis and Fernando having their issues; let's hope for Ferrari's sake, it doesn't get to the same level. However, strong parallels can be made, Vettel, like Alonso, is an experienced driver with world championships on his belt. While LeClerc, like Hamilton, is a young driver, desperate to prove himself and his right to be in such a prestigious seat. The most interesting comparrison for me however is that Alonso left McLaren that year, moving to Renault once again. Vettel's contract with Ferrari runs out next year and so we could see Vettel leave for another team if the inner team battles continue. I'm not so sure due to Vettel's choices being limited but a possible return to Red Bull may not be too far out of question due to the legacy he left the team; I'm sure they would gratefully have him back.

The other issue Ferrari face is strategy. The issue is nowehere near new with 2018 seeing the team putting their drivers on a backfoot to Mercedes due to a duff stratefy in comparrison. However, I wouldn't say their strategies are always bad and they have won them races, but they're not as good as Mercedes. Take China this year as an example. Mercedes are the team that could lose everything this year and therefore many would argue a safe strategy would be best but their double pitstop in China proved that the team is always trying to new things, pushing the boundaries and therefore are benefitting from doing so. Ferrari barely push the boundaries in such a manner and suffer due to it. Ferrari's strategy in China meant they lost any chance to gain second and not only that but also lost 4th to Verstappen. Third and fourth were almost looking guaranteed to be theirs but Leclerc's long run sentenced him to a mediocre finish. A line I thought I wouldn't say about Leclerc and Ferrari for a while into this season. Sticking with China, I wonder if the strategy could have been resolved if they hadn't underestimated Red Bull; the team has shown miraculous pace under the Honda engine with good strategy. Although China is a track with high speeds and fast corners, Red Bull were to able to outwit Ferrari in planning and therefore finished in a very respectaful fourth. Ferrari show little aggression in their strategies and therefore lose out; Azerbaijan saw them waiting for a safety car with LeClerc, which in Baku many would see as inevitable, but it never came. Will Buxton commented in an article later that Ferrari 'seemed to have no agression in the strategy' with Ferrari having dominated the weekend, it can only be seen as frustrating the team didn't use this package to its full advantage. Buxton later commented the team looked to base their strategy off 'hope, indecision or a staggering conflation of the two'. Ferrari showed a car that could dominate; it wasn't helped by LeClerc's crash which set him for an 8th start but a podium could have been capable from this position. Starting both Ferraris on mediums could be seen as where Ferrari's strategy began to fail as it was the slower tyre. Ferrari saw issues heating up their tyres all weekend and putting both cars on a tyre that is harder to heat up seems like a questionable move. Even if they put one car on mediums, a wiser strategy may have been putting another on softs to meet Mercedes as the mediums left Vettel a streniuous task of meeting the same pace, which it was clear he struggled to do.

It is hard to watch such a prestigious team lose grip of another title they are very capable to win; Ferrari have the best car, Mercedes know this, the fans know this and Ferrari clearly agree. However, their issues with drivers and strategy see themselves sinking their own ship. Ferrari through both these faults have let Mercedes escape with four 1-2 wins which shouldn't be happening. If you had asked anyone after pre-season who would be leading by the 4th race, Ferrari would have been the most common answer. They are wasting not only the team's work but also their drivers talents with Vettel and LeClerc being two sensational drivers at two different points of their career. But they need to either decide a first driver or figure a way to allow them to fight like Mercedes as right now they seem terrified for them to be even near each other on track. However, what's stuck out to me most about this season so far is the team still sees similar issues as last year without Arrivabene and, although Binotto hasn't had enough time to sort every issue, the team needs to look much further beyond the team principle if it hopes to sort their issue. F1 is an ever evolving sport and Ferrari need to keep up if they want to win; the sport acts with little mercy as we have seen with McLaren and Williams. Ferrari have everything to lose, possibly even more so than Mercedes, due to their history and the expectation for the team. Buxton sees their issue as much deeper saying they are 'so frightened of losing, they can't win'. If so, they need to get over this fear before it's too late because while Ferrari sink, Mercedes are sailing away.

Kubica: Legend or Archaic?

The story of Robert Kubica is one of the most famous in the modern Formula One era; a passionate Polish driver struck down in his prime by a near fatal rally accident, inhibiting his return to F1 possibly forever. Many thought after losing most movement in his right arm, his return would be impossible. However his shock return to the grid in 2019 with Williams proved many wrong. Kubica is the only returning driver to the sport, with many rookies joining him in getting a seat, including his new team mate, George Russell. The expectations for Kubica this year are high but my gut feeling tells me he won't perform as well as many hope and he holds a big question over his head: is kubica archaic or will he show he still belongs in the sport?

Kubica's last F1 race was Abu Dhabi 2010; the Pole qualified in a satisfactory 11th, behind team mate Petrov and finished the race 5th, ahead of Alonso and 3 seconds in front of his team mate. Its been 8 full F1 seasons since. His old team, Renault, are a new team, returning to F1 in 2016 and out of the 24 drivers on the grid in 2010, 3 will line up with him on the grid in Australia. F1 has changed since he raced. The Renault R30 is completely different to what we can only imagine will be called the Williams FW42. The R30 was a v8 engine, a noise that roared as it came alive and forced the car forward in an extremely different way to the V6 turbo charged Mercedes engine and its not like he has had practice in race conditions seeing as the hybrid era started 3 seasons after his leave from the sport.

Although, Kubica has practised in numerous test sessions and in practice sessions throughout the year, he lacks the race practice that possibly rivals such as Sainz or Kyvat even has witnessed in the hybrid era. All in all, I think in order not to be disppointed by Kubica's performance in the following year, we must witness him as a rookie, no better than possibly his team mate, Russell. Both he and Russell have only ever had practice sessions in the hybrid era and therefore I argue that, although Kubica has past F1 knowledge, him and Russell will come out even in the following season, if that. Russell is a budding racing driver, a Mercedes young driver and not restricted by any form of injury. Kubica's arm injury is inevitably going to have an effect on certain corners, be it the tight upflick of Eau Rogue or struggling with the tight turn of China's hairpin, the force of certain corners will be a struggle in his state.

Mark Webber was the first this year to admit that he is "nervous" for Kubica stating that he hopes his restrictions "aren't frustrating for him in certain scenarios like driving in the rain or aquaplaining". However Webber notes afterwards that, although he may these queries, he strongly believes the Pole is "mentally...in incredible state". This is an interesting note from the Australian as, especially in the recent years, racing mentally has become hugely important. Rosberg claims to have beaten Hamilton due to playing mind games with him throughout the 2016 season and 2018 was not without Hamilton doing similar to Vettel. Famous examples may be the scooter where Hamilton zooms past Vettel, overtaking him in the pits at the last second. Many believe Vettel loses championships by being mentally broken by a point in a season; Germany is one that all will remember. Kubica being mentally strong going in and, as Webber says, being "hungry to prove himself" will be a driving factor in how he will perform. Kubica's chances of returning to F1 were incredibly minimal after the rally crash in 2011, losing most movement within his right arm. However, Kubica commented that "somehow your body adapts to reality...everything I tried to do in the same way, I got disappointed, but then I realised I could still do them in different ways".

Kubica tested with Renault in 2017 and 2018 was seen in the William's car several times as their test driver. Kubica has one of the strongest mindsets of an F1 driver and I don't doubt he will be mentally strong as at the beginning of 2018, his return looked impossible. However, I worry that the sport has built him mentally strong to only have the capability to destroy it. The Williams car this year will not be good. The team recently lost it's title sponsor of 'Martini' and lost money from both it's drivers, with Lance Stroll moving his money to Racing Point and Sirotkin being dropped for Kubica. Although 'AT&T' have stepped in as a title sponsor, the team seems to be only growing weaker and whatever kubica will be driving, it won't be anywhere near Mercedes pace. It may not be even near some of the midfield. Kubica needs to be aware that he will struggle and going in with his fiery mindset will only help but how long will it take him before the car starts fragmenting it?

Kubica is one of the most mentally strong racers F1 has ever witnessed. His background of racing shows a young Polish boy supported by a father bankrupting himself for his son's will to drive and him making F1 in 2006 was a feat of magnificance. However, his return to Australia this year will show an even greater story and one F1 won't forget soon and embeds in him as a legend in F1 wall of fame. However, I fear his limitations will weaken this legend and possibly taint it forever. Kubica enters this year at the same age as Hamilton but is incredibly more disadvantaged than the Brit. Driving what very possibly could be the slowest car on the grid and to have physical limitations upon that aswell, Kubica has a lot to fight against. More importantly though, a lot to prove. With his fiery mindset, if he can bring the Kubica we all watched and loved, his return is one that is very welcome and one I am incredibly excited for. I will always question however, if the accident hadn't happened where could Kubica be and what could he have achieved?

Artem Markelov: One to Watch

2019 will see several new, rookie drivers on the grid with the older generation moving on to other sports or down the grid, like Alonso to Indy and Raikkonen giving up his Ferrari seat to Leclerc to go back to his roots in Sauber. We will see Alexader Albon, Lando Norris and and George Russell, the three main competitors for the F2 championship in 2018, all getting seats. However I believe one driver has been looked over. Artem Markelov. The Russian since being in F2 has shown masterclass performances over and over again with his race craft emulating the likes of LeClerc and Verstappen.

The Russian driver was born in Moscow on 10th September in 1994 and began karting at the fresh age of six. He raced mainly in Russia but worked quickly through into the KF2 category by 2010. This lead him to be in open-wheel racing the following year, competing in ADAC Formel Masters with Motopark Academy, taking eleven podiums in twenty three races. This lead to him making a F3 debut in 2011 at the Hockenheimring round of the Formula Three Euro series. Markelov raced under the Lotus moniker in the F3 2012 series, finishing seventh with three podiums, including two wins at Lausitz and Hockenheim. he stayed for the 2013 season only to see more success with 18 podiums in 23 races finishing only runner up to his team mate Marvin Kirchhofer.

The young Russian thus moved onto GP2 in 2014 with Russian Time, joining Mitch Evans to complete the team. However, he saw little success with one point finish at Spa, causing him to finish 24th in the season. This was 20 points behind his team mate, Evans. The team remained the same for 2015 and this time took his first podium in Spa, where he started 22nd on the grid. He finished 13th place, being more consistent in the points but still 8 points behind Evans. Evans left the team, meaning that Raffaele Marciello joined the team. However, in the 2016 season, Markelov achieved his first win at Monaco after starting from 15th. However, once again he wasn't as stable as Marciello, finished 10th in the championship. However during this time, GP2 went through new marketing and was renamed 'Formula Two' for 2017. Artem stayed with Russian time for a fourth season, being joined by Luca Ghiotto and won the first race in F2 history. He collected wins at Spielberg, Spa, Jerez and Abu Dhabi but he lost to a certain man named Charles LeClerc in the championship. However, his resilience lead to Russian Time winning the Teams' championship. in 2018, Artem finished 5th in the championship with 3 wins, 7 podiums and 186 points.

In Feburary 2018, Markelov became Renault F1's development driver and drove for the team in Free Practice 1 in Russia. The spotlight has come more upon him recently as he got more time in the car at the tyre test sessions at the Yas Marina Circuit. He is being seen as one of the few great drivers in F2 to be refused a seat, possibly due to Ricciardo's astonishing change from Red Bull to Renault.

The Russian arguably didn’t get a seat in F1 this year down to his inconsistently. Looking through his racing career, it is clear that he lacks the consistency to win a chapionship like LeClerc. The one season Markelov could have one, he faced the young Monegasque, who saw a strong run of races, with 7 wins and a number of podiums. In order for Markelov to prove to F1 teams, he needs to show this. F1 teams, especially lower down the grid, need this talent due to the close proximity the teams race in the constructors. The 2018 season saw several teams racing for position in the championship to the line, such as Force India and McLaren being only 10 points different and Sauber only 4 points behind Force India. Their decisions to hire drivers are based upon consistency in lower championships. Norris saw himself as a rookie within the 2018 F2 championship but was able to fight for the championship for the majority of the year, until Russia where Albon came through to overtake him in the points, taking second.

Moreover, Markelov is tied down to Renault, a team that will probably not see a free seat for a while. Ricciardo signed a two year Renault deal, a deal astonishing the whole paddock and fan world due to Ricciardo only ever been a Red Bull driver. However, it is seen by many as a investment deal, following the suits of Alonso with McLaren and Hamilton with Mercedes. This means it is likely he will stay with the team to the 2021 rule changes if the team is able to stay at the top of the midfield through the next two years. This stops Markelov accessing at least one of the seats. The other belongs to Nico Hulkenberg, a man becoming one of the older members of the grid but also the most consistent driver on the grid arguably. The German finished 7th on the driver's championship, putting him at the top of the midfield with a 7 point gap to Sergio Perez. Although Hulkenberg has never won a race, he has proven himself to be one of the best on the grid, especially this year. Renault has seen an extremely erratic season with the car losing in the development battles, meaning teams such as Force india came out by the end of the year with a faster car. His ability to stay in the points majority of the time is a feat that most drivers would be unable to do, proven by his teammate Carlos Sainz. Sainz is said to be one of the best young drivers on the grid but has had, what only be said, as an average season in comparison to Hulkenberg. Sainz finished 10th in the season and was knocked out in Q1 3 times throughout the season. Renault need that consistency of Hulkenberg with Ricciardo in order to stop the advance of other midfield teams of Haas and Force India who will be after that 4th position. Therefore, I believe Markelov should have moved himself away from the team in order to grab one of the free seats. The 2018 driver market has been one of the most chaotic in years and Markelov could have easily grabbed a seat at Toro Rosso, Williams or even possibly Sauber but his ties to Renault have held him and I believe will continue to.

Markelov is an excellent driver, he has proved this several times and his talent to move through the grid to win a race, resembles LeClerc in Bahrain 2016 and Verstappen in Brazil 2016. However, he isn't consistent and has put himself in a deal with the wrong team. Arguably, he wouldn't have known this going into the 2018 season, with Sainz on loan from Toro Rosso but the drivers market caused a Renault seat to be something unlikely before the 2021 rule change. In order to be in an F1 car in modern times, you need to be a fresh new talent and I believe Markelov is this, but he needs to be careful that, like so many others, he isn't skipped over and sunk in the currents of F2 rivals, like the many, making their appearances such as this year.

Why Losing Esteban Ocon Would be the Biggest Mistake of 2018

With 44 races to his name at the age of only 21 and having collected 132 points within his first 3 seasons so far, Esteban Ocon is a young driver of the future. Or at least he should be. Before the summer break, Force India went into administration, only to be saved by Lance Stroll's consortium. Although this was great news for the sport, it meant Stroll, arguably once again, bought himself a seat into F1. This buying of a seat means one of the Force India drivers will be replaced for next year, if not, by the end of the season. With Sergio Perez, Ocon's team mate, having shares in the team, it points to Ocon being the one left to be pushed off the shelf. However, this shouldn't be seen as him being a bad driver, as many would argue that out of the three French man on the grid, he is the best. With 43 race starts under his name and only 3 retirements, Ocon is one of the most reliable driver on the grid; he even held a mighty record of 27 races before he had a retirement in Brazil last year due to Romain Grosjean colliding with him.

Ocon started his racing career in 2006 in karting; he finished 8th within the French mini-championship only to return in 2007 to become champion. In 2008, he switched to the Euro series until 2011. His winnings within the KF3 championship and 2nd place in European championship led to another change in series in 2012 for the young French man to the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, where he scored a podium in his first year and finished 14th. He came back with a fiery ambition to win in the Hockenheimring and ended in a respectable third place within the championship. However, the youngster also made a debut in F3 in the same year in the Grand Prix of Macau and in 2014 raced in the European F3 and won it. He won 9 races within the season and beat familiar names such as Max Verstappen. However, the younger Verstappen was pick upped before Ocon by Red Bull, making his way into Toro Rosso. Eric Boullier, however, noticed Ocon and, being of strong French blood himself, took him under his wing and selected him for the young driver programme for Lotus in 2014. Ocon finally got the chance in 2014 in a Lotus F1 car on the Yas Marina Circuit in free practice and clocked 28 laps. In 2015, he was asked by Force India to test for them before switching to DTM to only return to F1 to become Mercedes’ test driver. In 2016, he moved to Renault to be their reserve driver after they bought over Lotus. His first race was not with Renault however, but Manor as he replaced Rio Haryanto at the Belgian Grand Prix and stayed to finish the end of the season. He scored no points but became quickly faster than high profiled Pascal Wehrlein, being faster than him in the last two races. The driver had to make a move in 2017 due to Manor going under and therefore was signed by Force India where he raked in 87 points and has seen since 3rd in Qualifying in Italy, a result he managed to replicate this year in Spa.

Ocon is by no means a driver that is easily forgotten, his performance to score third in qualifying in Spa this year was a miraculous achievement, especially after what the team had been through in the weeks before. Although Ocon has had 4 DNFs this season due to many reasons, he is still only one point behind Perez who has seen only 1 DNF along with a podium in Azerbaijan. Their main average finishing positions also reflect this, with Ocon scoring 8.64. compared to Perez's 10.29. Gerhard Berger, former Formula One driver for Ferrari, commented on the prospect of Ocon not having a seat saying it would be a 'complete shame for F1' and with his stats you can understand where he is coming from. The Singaporean Grand Prix was arguably a perfect example for why Ocon deserves the seat more than his team mate Perez. Ocon saw a first lap retirement, hitting the wall on the turn 3 after attempting a outside pass on his team mate. However, the crash is highly debatable with Perez seemingly hitting his team mate and not leaving enough room for the driver. The incident was recorded as a race incident by the stewards but Anthony Davidson later commented on the crash that the onboard on Perez's car "sheds new light on it [the incident]", leaving him the question "was it oversteer or did he do it on purpose?". However Davidson did come to the conclusion that Perez would never "admit the truth". It did stir up Force India team principle, Otmar Szafnauer, who seemed furious over the incident and told the press, "we're back to the old rules" referring to the rules put in after the Spa incident between the two team mates in 2017, leading to the team having team orders to avoid accidents such as seen in Singapore. Otmar even seemed to shame Perez saying "if it's your team mate, you've got to give them room" which in the past, Perez has been unforgiving with. Perez later then collided with William's driver, Sirotkin, causing a drive through for them and car damage meaning he limped to a feeble 16th after qualifying a superb 7th. Essentially, Perez wrecked what could have been a massive point scoring weekend with both cars qualifying within the top 10. Post race and even post-incident with Ocon, he seemed very apologetic saying to the press "I'm very sorry for the day the team had in general" but to me, he seems to take little blame for what happened saying "it's racing". Ocon commented well after his accident, refusing to answer some of the questions rightfully and doing the team well to the press. However an interesting comment he made was "what I'm going to analyse is that we had great pace the whole weekend, it was supposed to be a great weekend for both of us and now I've come out of the race with 0 points and that is terrible."

With rumours circulating this may have been Ocon's last race for the pink panthers, it seems a depressing note to end on and a note that reminds us what needs to change in F1 but has always existed. seats based on money not merit. Ocon is revered as a future world champion by many critics and fans alike but due to not owning the team or even having shares within it, he will lose his seat to a racer who arguably is not even F1 worthy. Stroll has seen a podium, unlike Ocon, but by pure luck due to the chaotic sense of the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Jacque Villeneuve even famously commented that he believes that Lance stroll is the worst rookie in F1 history following his 2017 performance, commenting "results speak for themselves". It's not just Villeneuve thinking this either, with Hamilton and Vettel both standing up for the young Frenchman after his performance in Spa, with Hamilton commenting on how Ocon "conducts" himself as being "exceptional" and saying that "some teams, rather than take the up and coming kid, they rather take money." Vettel said someone "should be considering for signing him somewhere next year" with hopes at McLaren at the time, only to be dashed by a new rookie, Lando Norris to arrive for 2019.

The removal has also caused outrage with team boss of Mercedes Toto Wolff, who told Sky Sports F1 "what has been going on this year in July and August was just unbelievable." This led to Christian Horner, team boss of Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, quipping that "I'm sure if Toto wrote a cheque he could get a seat at Williams". Horner's remarks may be because of his beliefs that Ocon not having a seat is down to him not respecting the driver programme such as other teams and not rewarding the drivers. Ferrari have rewarded young driver, Charles LeClerc with a seat at the team and same goes for Red Bull who have moved up young driver Pierre Gasly to the team after a season at Toro Rosso. However this was arguably not down to choice as Daniel Ricciardo moves to Renault for 2019. This leads the argument of should have Mercedes promoted Ocon to the team indeed of keeping Bottas?

Mercedes is the only team to see no driver change out of the big three teams and at the moment, they seem to be the team with everything to lose. Keeping Bottas in 2019 gives them two experienced drivers, but Bottas seems to be losing the competitive streak seen in 2017 with his two wins and even at the beginning of the year where he could have won several times. Therefore, it leaves the question of when the new boys arrive, will he be able to be as good at attacking or even defending. As Wolff said himself, Bottas is a good "wingman" but not much else right now and there is a feeling that he even he is aware of this when he said he would be "willing to help" Hamilton's efforts towards winning the 2018 season. Bottas has a one year contract with an option year for 2020 but it could be seen that Ocon was supposedly meant to take that seat in 2020. With him leaving F1, it arguably throws a spanner in the works of the best team on the grid and therefore could be highly detrimental to their future. However, Ocon still may gain the seat, a year out of F1 at this pinnical stage as new changes come in could be costly with new front wings and back wings coming next year; this would at least explain Wolff's anger. The team put themselves in this position before by not rewarding their system as seen with Pascal Werhlein, an old team mate of Ocon at Manor. Werhlein was meant to be part of the new generation of F1, putting in impressvie results in both years racing for Manor and Sauber but at the end of the season, he lost his seat to the young Montesquieu driver, LeClerc, putting without a seat and another Mercedes young driver to be out of F1. The team seem to be unable to help their drivers within the sport and this may be because, unlike Red Bull or even Ferrari, they lack a B team of such. Torro Rosso act as a feeder to Red Bull and same for Sauber to Ferrari. Mercedes see no feeder team and rely on their engine suppliers who have no obligation to keep the Mercedes young drivers like the other teams. This may be the reason for the movement by Toto Wolff wanting to see 3 cars in an F1 team. With three cars, Ocon may not be losing his seat but other teams are against this as having two cars is a financial struggle for many of the midfield teams, such as Racing Point Force India. Also, having three more cars to compete against will only push the midfield further down the grid and obliterate any chance of a podium or high scoring points.

The lack of seat for such a fabulous driver such as Ocon arguably comes down to one thing. Mercedes not respecting their young driver programme. The team have now seen two of their young drivers being neglected and other teams like Red Bull, Ferrari and even McLaren, understand the importance of it and until Mercedes realise how important it is to bring new talent up to the front and to respect it, they will see themselves fall further back. With 2 young drivers moving up the ranks, Mercedes will see hot competition from two drivers who are desperate to win in F1 for the first time and the risks they will make will be much higher than Bottas and even Hamilton to some extent. Ocon should be a warning sign to the silver arrows as such a talented driver shouldn't be left without a seat. He outperforms his team mate on the track and in the press. Ocon deserves a seat and, until Mercedes either let him go off their contract or put him the car he deserves, we will see a talent lost to the sport and another reason why F1 needs a check up.

Hamish Shackleton

Spanish GP: Mercedes With the Same Issue as Last Year?

The Spanish GP saw Hamilton winning by an astonishing margin upon anyone else; Bottas was 20 seconds behind and Vettel, in 4th, was 27 seconds. A gap that big in the last year between Mercedes and Ferrari was only seen at Monza, which is where Mercedes flew off to win the championship. However, the Mercedes has only been at the front this year at Australia and briefly in Baku. Does this mean that Mercedes are having the same issues as following a car as last year? If so, the Spanish GP was a perfect example of this; the race saw Hamilton escaping first lap dramas and leading the race from start to finish, while his unfortunate team mate was overtaken by Vettel on the first corner. What followed was many laps of Bottas struggling to overtake Vettel, even though he was consistently within a second. Mercedes' Achilles heel last year was struggling to follow Ferrari and therefore overtake them and, although at the beginning of the year, they commented that they had believed to have fixed it, it still seems to be their biggest weakness. Therefore, Ferrari's pace being better in almost all of the qualifying so far makes this season even harder as they can't keep the front line. The Spanish GP was so easily taken by Hamilton with fresh air, the silver arrow soars.

However, the 1-2 Mercedes achieved this year can only be blamed upon a botched Ferrari pit strategy. When the virtual safety car was released on lap 42, Vettel pitted for a fresh set of mediums. This lost him a place not only to Bottas but also to Verstappen. This arguably ruined his chances for a podium as , during the end of the race, the Red Bull pace seemed to be much faster, as Riccardo was seen posting track records lap after lap. But once again, this isn't the first time we have seen virtual safety car causing loss of places for a driver this year. Lewis in Australia saw his race win stolen when Vettel pitted under VSC for his tyres. Vettel later made comments on the issue complaining that it allows drivers to go faster than it should do.

Moreover, Grosjean sees a 3 place grid penalty for his burnout on the first lap that caused the end of not only his race but also Hulkenburg's and Gasly's. The penalty also gave him two penalty points along with two very unimpressed drivers, with Hulkenburg commenting on Radio 5 live "he doesn't look great in that particular scenario...he has to look at it and do some homework". Gasly also commented his belief on how they were other ways to deal with the scenario, saying he "could have braked and it could have ended differently".

Verstappen also saw wing damage in the race after Stroll braked heavily during the end of the VSC causing Verstappen's end plate of the wing to fall off. Verstappen commented later that he was "surprised" he saw no big issues, saying he changed some modes around and managed to make it work, only seeing understeer in certain corners.

Moreover, Raikkonen saw a heartbreaking retirement for the prancing horses as it caused their constructor lead to be overtaken, with him retiring due to an engine issue but, Ferrari have said they should be able to avoid an engine change. The issue was apparently down to a wiring issue and therefore the engine should be used in Monaco, after only being put in after an issue in Friday practice causing an engine change for the Ferrari.