Monaco Grand Prix

The Formula One Monaco Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races, not just for single seaters, but for motorsport as a whole. Many drivers call Monaco a second home, and many celebrities (and fans) flock to the principality to see the historic spectacle unfold. Despite not being known for overtakes in the modern era, the atmosphere and rich history of the event is enough to suck in even the most casual viewer.

There were concerns going into the weekend that the new cars were simply too big to be raced around the narrow streets, and with the contract not yet renewed for next year, this may be the last time we see cars go round the infamous circuit, at least for a while. 

Yet Monaco proved to be the wonder that it is and gave us a fantastic qualifying and race. 

Extra pressure is put on qualifying well in Monaco as overtakes are very tricky, therefore track position at the start is everything. Drivers push hard to get the best spot possible, and some drivers, this weekend it was Sergio Perez who pushed too hard and hit the barrier. This ended the final session of qualifying leaving his teammate Max Verstappen frustrated too at not getting a final fast lap in, but Charles Leclerc was comfortably on pole in the streets he has always called home. 

The race start itself was delayed due to weather concerns just shortly before the formation lap was due to happen. This led to scenes of mechanics, and even Williams team principal Jost Capito, frantically rushing new tyres to the grid on trolleys. This was confusing because the rain had barely even started, just a few drops, and had the race begun on time, it would have been manageable to go round for a bit before pitting for wet tyres, and the running of cars would clear standing water quickly. However, due to the forecast and the dangerous nature of the circuit in the dry, the race directors opted to be cautious. Hopefully, this is just another Monaco anomaly and we don’t see too many more delays for rain, since those races are some of the most exciting and where we see the drivers prove their skill. Some drivers who proved their worth in this race were Carlos Sainz and Zhou Guanyu for doing some fantastic saves to keep their cars out of the looming barriers.

When the race did eventually start, Leclerc comfortably led the way. 

Pierre Gasly, after a disastrous qualifying (a red flag meant he missed his final fast lap in Q1) decided to risk immediately putting onto intermediate tyres, and after a couple of slides this worked as he managed to make some impressive overtakes early on. 

Strategy, and choosing which tyres to put on (drys or wets) proved vital. The overcut (staying out longer on your current tyres) proved to be more powerful, the one most impressively doing this was probably Carlos Sainz as he stayed on the wet tyres longer than any of his immediate competitors in order to go straight onto the dry hard tyres, and this was a solid plan for him as he came home in second place. The other side of the Ferrari garage were not so well organized, a confused radio call led to Leclerc being double stacked behind Sainz and losing track position to his teammate and both Red Bulls, a call that ultimately lost a podium position. The only comfort to him this weekend being, he has finished a home grand prix for the first time in his F1 career. 

Another driver to have a miserable day was Mick Schumacher who lost control of his Haas and had a nasty crash which ripped off the rear of his car, luckily he was ok. It is another disappointing weekend for the Haas team as a whole since their other driver Kevin Magnussen had just retired with a water leak issue moments before Schumacher’s crash. 

Despite all the safety concerns of the day, it took a while to pull the red flag. The Monaco marshals are the best in the world, but surely any time a barrier needs repairing it’s an automatic red flag? Potentially it is because they were trying to keep full race distance and avoid the time limit which we ended up racing to in the end. 

On a more positive note, George Russell has gone from Mr Saturday to Mr Consistency as he once again finished in the top five, as he has done every race this season so far. He had a good yet quiet race spent mostly battling with his mate Lando Norris at the back of the lead pack. 

Lando Norris was probably quite happy with this too, as he is still not fully recovered from illness but finished in sixth with the fastest lap. 

To summarize; once the racing did get underway it delivered more than we can ask from Monaco in this modern era of cars. Yes the weather played a part in making things a little more interesting, but we still saw cars making moves, taking risks and following closely around the twisty, narrow track. I do truly hope that the Monaco Grand Prix remains on the calendar, it is just inherent to the sport at this point and the drivers love to be challenged by it and this weekend proved that it still has entertainment value.

Written 30/5/22

Spanish Grand Prix

It was an unusually eventful SPanish GP, just another signal that we are in for a tense battle for the championship until the bitter end of Abu Dhabi. 

Whilst the podium was relatively expected, that does not deduct from the fact we had some exciting racing throughout the field, including non-DRS overtakes. 

We usually do not get fantastic entertainment around Spain due to a number of factors. Firstly, the teams spend pre-season testing at the circuit so have data from these cars ahead of the first practice sessions, giving them ample data to work from. Secondly, the circuit itself does not lend itself to excitement. Whilst there are a few corners for the driver feeling brave under braking, most overtakes happen in the DRS zone on the pit straight, however it can be hard for cars to follow around the chicane prior to it increasing the gap and therefore making it more difficult to even pull off a move under DRS. However, due to the rapid development of these 2022 cars and the ability of these cars to follow closer, we were able to see more drivers in close enough range to pull off moves. 

Engines are still the talk of the paddock as we had more failures this weekend. It was the turn of Ferrari to suffer power train problems. Sadly, it meant that Charles Leclerc lost his almost guaranteed victory. Initially you would think this could be Leclerc pushing too hard for the win, but further down the field, the Ferrari engine in Zhou Guanyu’s car also failed. This season truly is turning into a race of attrition in some respects. 

Some teams brought upgrades to the Spanish GP this weekend, some more successful than others. The main talking point were the Aston Martins unveiling new sidepods which looked suspiciously like those on the Red Bull. This was of particular note due to the fact Aston Martin had hired a number of ex Red Bull staff to their team, and therefore a number of teams (including of course Red Bull themselves) alerted the FIA in protest, but were cleared of any wrongdoing. All this fuss ultimately amounted to nothing as it seemed on pace, the cars had taken a step backwards this weekend. On the other hand, Mercedes brought an update to their package which seems to have fixed their ‘porpoising’ issue. This meant the drivers were more comfortable and able to unleash the raw pace in the car, leading to both cars finishing within the top five, and George Russell to stand on the podium in third place. With Russell finishing in the top five in every race, it proves that their car has some serious potential and it is only a matter of time before they catch up to Ferrari and Red Bull in the constructors championship. 

As mentioned earlier, on paper it looks like your typical podium finish for the season (albeit a Mercedes is currently slightly unusual in this era thus far), it was far from plain sailing for the leaders. Max Verstappen did not have a fully functioning DRS to defend and attack with so was having to use pure skill and pace most of the time. The fact that he kept his cool and went on to take the win just proves how mature he has become in the cockpit because I have no doubt a younger Verstappen would have gotten desperate and made a mistake. He, and Carlos Sainz, did have a minor slip, but this was probably due to a headwind down at turn four, but luckily for Verstappen, his slip was later in the race when the cars had spread out more, unfortunately for Sainz his came earlier and he slipped back down to eleventh when he rejoined. 

George Russell came home third after putting up a phenomenal fight against Verstappen for multiple laps, and even for the lead (once Leclerc’s car had failed). It was exciting to see these two younger drivers dueling for the first time, fighting hard but fair all the way. It will be exciting to see again if Mercedes can keep up their pace from this weekend. 

It was sad, but unsurprising to see team orders creep in at Red Bull, it is only the sixth race of the season, it meant that Perez had to let Verstappen by, even though he was competitive. It shows that Red Bull believe only Max Verstappen can bring them a championship over the course of a season. You could argue that Perez knew what he was signing up for, but nonetheless in the words of the Mexican himself “that’s very unfair, but ok”. 

An honorable mention has to be given to Lando Norris, as he managed to finish eighth despite suffering from tonsillitis which was so bad that it was in doubt whether he would race or not. Hopefully, he’ll be back to full strength next week for Monaco as he will certainly need full focus round those narrow streets.

Overall, there were many positive stories coming out of the Spanish GP (unless you’re Charles Leclerc) and that is not something you hear F1 fans saying very often. These 2022 cars and drivers and once again proving to give us fantastic racing. Let’s hope that momentum continues in the notoriously tricky to overtake streets of Monaco next week.

Written 30/5/2022

Miami Grand Prix

The inaugural Miami GP was certainly a spectacle and highly anticipated by teams and fans alike. However, the spectacle did not quite deliver on the track but overall it was an enjoyable weekend.

The Track;

The Miami track is a street circuit with the long straights and tight corners of our other new street circuits such as Baku and Saudi Arabia. There are three DRS zones to keep it the first and last sectors speedy, but the middle sector is particularly challenging as a series of corners that have very little room for error. Personally, I am a fan of street circuits and I like the concept of this particular one, I think there is strong potential with the layout, and the drivers seem to relish the nuances and concentration demanded by it. 

The thing that is not working for the track is the tarmac itself. Drivers have been complaining that there simply wasn’t enough grip compared to their normal experience. This is due to an increased amount of limestone in the tarmac and the fact that it has had barely any running on it (only W series were supporting this weekend) and what little rubber was laid down was washed away by the rain. It probably is not enough of an issue for it to warrant resurfacing, but it was an additional challenge the drivers had to face when going into an unfamiliar track. 

The tight nature of the street circuit, plus this limited grip available offline due to the tarmac meant that we didn’t see too many overtakes, especially outside of the DRS zones, so potentially we need to widen some areas to allow for a run off, choose different tyre compounds or resurface the track to improve on track action in the future.

Fight For the Lead

It has been a weekend of back and forth for our championship contenders. Early on in the weekend it seemed that Red Bull had the pace around the circuit, but it was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc that managed to claim pole when it mattered. 

The Ferrari’s did seem to have good race pace, but ultimately it could not compete with the straight line speed and the DRS of the Red Bull in the hands of Max Verstappen, who managed to take the lead on lap 9. Having said that, Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull could not make it work to pass Carlos Sainz to claim third, even after having the DRS because he ended up locking up and going deep allowing Sainz to maintain his position for the podium. 

It does appear that the cars and drivers of these two teams are very evenly matched and have strengths in different areas to make the long term strategy interesting. Whilst, it wasn’t the closest or most exciting battle we have had between them so far, it is good to see that this title fight will continue on for a while yet and no one team or driver is completely dominating. 

Safety Chat

Going into this weekend, there was plenty of talk (still) about the FIA’s recent clampdown on jewelry and underwear worn by the drivers due to safety concerns. These rules have always been in the sporting code, but rarely enforced. The new race directors, after the Abu Dhabi debacle, are keen to follow the rule book to the letter and are no longer tolerating rule-breaking. Of course, some drivers are not keen about these changes. Lewis Hamilton states that he has permanent piercings that cannot be removed, Pierre Gasly has stated he wears jewelry for religious reasons, both valid points. There were not so subtle protests of this during the press conferences this weekend as Lewis Hamilton covered himself with chains and watches, and Sebastian Vettel wore boxers over his racing overalls. I understand that there are safety concerns about both of these items, but ultimately it’s the drivers in the car and it should be their choice whether to take the risks on these personal matters. 

On the track itself, during practice, another safety issue came to light to do with the building of the barriers. Carlos Sainz crashed into a concrete barrier at Turn 14 and suggested at the drivers meeting that evening that it should be changed to Tecpro (the material that absorbs more of the impact) due to having a larger impact than is typical because of the concrete wall. His concerns were dismissed by the FIA who assumed that because it was a low speed corner such incidents were unlikely. However, the next morning, Esteban Ocon had a 51g crash at the exact same point, himself being winded and his car being so broken he was unable to compete in qualifying that afternoon. 

It seems ridiculous that the FIA are being so strict about jewelry and underwear yet when drivers are reporting dangers from crashes that they refuse to do anything about it.  Hopefully in the future they will listen to drivers’ opinions when it comes to the suitability of barriers. 

Tyre Problems

Once again, we saw the tyres struggling to heat up and become performance ready as soon as they were attached. Qualifying runs usually took two outlaps before setting a respectable time. 

Similarly, in the race when coming out of the pits the cars were noticeably slower when they had rejoined because the tyres simply were not up to heat, the most notable issue of this was Lando Norris who whilst he did initially get some clear air, he was quickly swallowed up by the cars behind and ended up in the back of a DRS train. 

Another recurring issue we have been seeing with these new larger tyres is that they seem to be susceptible to leaving the rim on impact. This race, Lando Norris’ tyre came completely off the rim and ran alongside the track. Previously, I think Latifi lost a tyre after hitting a wall too. So whilst they may be able to take wheel to wheel contact as we saw in this race between Hamilton and Alonso, they are not capable when meeting a harder surface, particularly at an angle. 

Notable Performances

Whilst there wasn’t much action for a majority of the race, there were some moments and performances of note, both good and bad. 

On the negative side of things, Mick Schumacher unfortunately lost his opportunity of gaining his first points in Formula One when he collided with his good friend and mentor Sebastian Vettel towards the end of the race. It was opportunistic but a racing incident nonetheless and I’m sure he is regretting it a lot. Mick needs to get some points on the board soon, he is no longer a rookie and his team mate Kevin Magnussen has proved they have a car capable of doing so. 

Another person who had a rough race was Pierre Gasly. He  was overtaken by Fernando Alonso and his rear wheel was clipped in the process. This was just the beginning of the issue though as this damage led for him to go slow and wide later on before collecting Lando Norris causing the Brit to crash out, and for Pierre to eventually retire the car. 

On the other side of the Mclaren garage there was some more positivity as it appeared that Daniel Ricciardo had rediscovered his inner ‘Honey Badger’ and did a fantastic late breaking move on Yuki Tsunoda. Clearly he has found some confidence in those troublesome Mclaren breaks so we can see the classic Ricciardo dive bombs again. 

Another wholesome story from further down the field is that Alex Albon has again scored points for Williams. It is no secret that the Williams is not the quickest car yet Albon is consistently putting it as close to if not in the points whilst his teammate struggles to do the same. 

In conclusion, the atmosphere and hype around the race was certainly entertaining. I’m glad that the teams had fun. But it shouldn’t be that the pre-race build up that is more interesting than the racing. The Miami track has a strong potential and I hope the organizers listen to the feedback from drivers and fans about how to improve. 

Written 9/5/22

Emilia Romagna (Imola) Grand Prix

With a damp but drying track, a threat of rain, and a tricky track to overtake, it was shaping up to be an exciting race at the Imola circuit. 

Putting the ‘pain’ in Spain.

It was another weekend to forget for both Spanish drivers. Carlos Sainz was taken out in a racing incident on the first lap, it wasn’t his fault it was slightly more Ricciardo’s but a racing incident nonetheless. It is such a shame, he would be desperate to prove himself as he crashed out last time in Melbourne, but also he signed a new two year contract with the Ferrari team this week, so crashing out is not what he wanted on their home turf. Also on lap one, the other Spanish driver, Fernando Alonso, got a little bashed by an out of shape Mick Schumacher. This led to his sidepod cover flying off later in the race and ultimately retiring the car. 

Mercedes 

It was another painful race for the Lewis Hamilton side of the garage with him only managing to finish p13 (as Ocon had a time penalty). Even though he looked to have more pace than the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly, he still couldn’t pass him, even with DRS. 

Both cars are visibly suffering with the porpoising and not confident in the braking zones. Whereas George Russell is able to take the problems and make the best of a bad situation, Hamilton has not had to do this in recent years so maybe on the backfoot. You could argue this shows just how good George Russell is to come into the team and outperform the embedded seven time world champion. 

Either way, the Mercedes is still not competing for the podium, which to them is unacceptable, and with Toto Wolff adamant the design isn’t fundamentally wrong, the drivers and the rest of the team will be hoping the upgrades expected in Miami will prove fruitful. 

DRS experiment

With the cars starting on a damp track with intermediate tyres on, the DRS was not enabled on the third lap as usual. However, a dry line quickly began to appear, with only the threat of more rain preventing teams from pitting for dry tyres. Potentially, the race director felt that the cars going offline to overtake with DRS would cause a safety issue and that’s why it was withheld, but cars were already trying to overtake anyway. A cynical person could argue that it is the race directors experimenting with a no DRS race as these new cars can follow a lot closer, but I think it proved that at least for now we still need some form of assistance to keep the race moving. 

Charles pushing too much?

Charles Leclerc came into this weekend dominating the drivers championship and managed to put it on pole during Friday qualifying. However in the race he lost out at the start and slipped into third, but managed to stay on his tail. With Sainz crashing out, the Tifosi’s hopes were resting solely on him. For the most part he was calm, controlled and competitive but in the closing stages you can hear on his radio that he was getting stressed about his tyre wear and yet wanted to close up (even though there was no threat from Lando behind). He pitted for soft tyres in the closing stages clearly aiming for the fastest lap, but in doing so, he hit a curb too hard and lost control, almost hitting a barrier. Luckily he had enough time in hand to pit for a new front wing and then make his way back up to sixth place. Obviously, this is a hard lesson to learn in the patience and strategy required to win a championship as he could have remained comfortably in third had he not done that extra push. Hopefully this is something he can learn from if he wants to keep his championship campaign alive.

Cool Down Room Returns

Pre-pandemic fans were delighted to see the return of the cool down room this weekend. The cool down room is where the podium finishers go to clean up, grab a drink and their sponsor wear before heading to the podium. It has been a place of joy and fury in the past and it is good to see drivers letting their guard down, because although they are away they’re being filmed, they’ve yet to be briefed by PR teams and are still running high on adrenaline and wanting to discuss the race with their closest competitors. This particular time, it was sweet to see Lando Norris not knowing where things were in the room because he had never been in them before, only having podiums since the pandemic. 

Overall, it was a dominant outing for the Red Bull team getting a one-two and a huge step forward for Lando Norris and Mclaren gaining third. The Aston Martins getting points mean that every team now has points on the board and these technical regulations have done what they intended to do in closing up the field. Next race, it is the inaugural Miami GP so it will be new to all teams and we will see who comes out on top in two weeks time.

Written 24/4/2022

Australian Grand Prix

It has been a glorious return to Australia after a few years away and the new track delivered the speed and overtaking opportunities intended. Plus, for better or worse, the grid seems to be re-ordering into what it was pre regulation changes with the Mclarens and Mercedes back up in the higher points. 

Headache for Aston Martin

The entire weekend was an absolute nightmare for the team. From practice on Friday to the Sunday race, every session was marred with drama. During Friday practice, Sebastian Vettel got barely any running in FP1 due to an engine issue. This was crucial time to be wasting as Vettel had missed the first two races of the season due to COVID. He also got a fine for driving a scooter on track back to the paddock as his car was recovered. In the end, Vettel only got one run in qualifying (barely making it and having to get fined for speeding in the pit lane to do so), and this lack of knowledge of the car and new circuit must have been a contributing factor to some of the basic errors seen in his driving in the race which ultimately led to him putting it in the wall early on in the grand prix. 

Lance Stroll has not had a clean weekend either, crashing into Nicholas Latifi during qualifying and gaining him nothing but a three-place grid drop. Then, in the race, he was weaving on the straights, effectively doing multiple moves to defend his position, which everyone knows is not allowed, earning him a five second penalty. Whether he was told about the penalty or not, he then continued to hold up a whole train of cars including Valterri Bottas who he forced out wide. 

So overall, a race weekend to forget for the entire team. 

This team simply must get on top of whatever is going wrong with their car. Admittedly, they run a Mercedes engine which we know is currently not the strongest on the grid, but their issues are bigger than that. This will help their drivers who are struggling to control the car even in the best of conditions. The drivers have their own struggles, whether it is because of age, lack of running in these new cars, not being used to developing cars or something else, Stroll and Vettel also have to be accountable to what happens on track. 

George Russell delivers

George Russell finally got his first podium as a Mercedes driver, one he’s been wanting since his brief taste of running in those positions in Bahrain (Sakhir GP) 2020. 

Whilst still showing a lot of ‘porpoising’ on the straights, the Mercedes team did seem to demonstrate improvement in their car this weekend as both cars made it into Q3 to start comfortably within the top ten. In the race, both Hamilton and Russell gained positions on the start and held them nicely. 

You could argue that George got lucky with the timing of his pit stop. He was coming in just as a safety car was deployed meaning he lost a lot less time in the pits and managed to maintain his position of third. 

Nonetheless, Russell managed his own car well when Hamilton struggled (particularly with his front left). This could be because Russell has spent the past three years extracting the maximum potential from one of the slowest cars on the grid, whereas Hamilton has easily had one of the strongest setup exactly as he likes it, so Russell is used to having to manage a difficult car and still get the most out of it. 

It is nice to see Mercedes letting their drivers race and not showing any preferential treatment (as yet) either way, as they could have inverted the cars to save them fighting and crashing at the end, but instead, they let George Russell have his first taste of well earned, race fought (not from a technicality, Belgium 2021) champagne. 

Red Bull Reliability

This is the second race that Max Verstappen has yet to finish, and we have only had three races so far this season. 

Initially, the issue was thought to be that of the new Red Bull powertrain since Alpha Tauri were also affected but today, it seems that the issue is more to do with the way the fuel pump is attached due to the amount of fluid leaked from within the car. 

Whatever the issue, it needs to get fixed in order for Red Bull and especially Max Verstappen to get their championship campaign underway. Having said that, this does not actually seem to be the attitude that team principal Christian Horner is taking as he told Sky Sports after the race ‘I’d rather fix a fast car than try and make a reliable, slow one fast’. Therefore, developing and altering the car to avoid this problem recurring doesn’t sound like it is a priority for him. On the other hand Max Verstappen is understandably frustrated as he told Sky that he isn’t focusing on the championship just finishing races, which is not what you want to be hearing from the current world champion. 

Potentially Christian Horner is correct, we’re only in the early stages of the season after all, but with Goerge Russell second in the driver standings after consistently scoring points (a 4th, 5th, and 3rd), it may be worth investigating the slower reliable route after all. 

DRS

Despite the controversy surrounding DRS in the last race in Saudi Arabia, the Australian GP opted to have three (initially 4 but then reduced to 3 for the race due to safety concerns) DRS zones. These proved crucial in allowing cars to pass and helped to speed up the circuit which had already been developed to increase speed. 

The speed did make some people over-confident as we saw the likes of Carlos Sainz, Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen making mistakes particularly around…/ 

However, the DRS proved crucial in sorting the order as it meant that cars could get up to speed by clearing slower cars. Plus, it meant that those who were proving questionable to pass could be done so neatly. For example, when Pierre Gasly and Valterri Bottas could finally overtake Lance Stroll without having to risk diving up the inside. 

Honey Badger is Home!

To finish on a positive note, it is worth mentioning the Australian Daniel Ricciardo managed to score his first points of the season at his home Grand Prix.

It is no secret that Ricciardo has been struggling since his move to the Mclaren team last year, especially in comparison to his younger teammate Lando Norris. Plus, he has been very open about missing home during COVID times, and just not being able to have his beloved home grand prix on the calendar these past two years. 

So for this to be the place where the team and he can show some pace for the first time in 2022 must be a good feeling. He was constantly with his teammate throughout the entire race, battling right up to the line. Fingers crossed this is the step forward that the Mclaren team needs.

Finally, an honorable mention must go to Alex Albon who basically did the entire race on one set of hard tyres. He pitted on his penultimate lap and managed to get his first points for his Williams team, so he must be celebrating almost as much as his mate George Russell. 

It has been long overdue, and the return to Australia is a welcome one full of speed and intrigue as we continue this new era of Formula One. We leave as we came in, with Ferrari and Charles Leclerc clearly ahead in the championships. 

Written 10/4/2022

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was just as dramatic on track as off. The fastest street circuit on the calendar definitely delivered another entertaining race. 

On – Track Action

The new 2022 cars performed well once again when following closely meaning that cars were more able to stay in the slipstream, even after over-taking therefore meaning drivers were once again trading places each lap, the most notable of which were Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc who were battling for the lead for most of the race. 

The only downside to this close following lap after lap is that it has exacerbated the game of ‘DRS chicken’ where the lead driver brakes earlier as to not be the first over the detection line so they can be the one to get the DRS advantage, not the car that’s following close behind. Whilst entertaining to watch, it can lead to drivers locking up and wrecking their tyres meaning that the close racing will be over quicker. There is also the safety aspect to consider as it is ultimately braking late with another car following closely behind, and personally I think it is inevitable that it will end in a nasty crash. We had a small taste of the drama in Jeddah last year when Verstappen broke late causing Hamilton to run into the back of him. For now the drivers seem to be fairly sensible, but I think if it becomes a regular occurrence or risk, then the FIA will have to get involved to police it. 

Mercedes Engine Problems, continuing?

The Ferrari engine seemed very powerful once again with the four of the top 10 cars being powered by the Scuderia (it may have been five, but unfortunately Mick Schumacher had a nasty crash in his crash so we were yet to see his full pace). Whereas, the bottom six were once again Mercedes powered, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton being knocked out in the first round of qualifying, which he hadn’t done in over a decade (the 2009 British GP was the last time he was knocked out on pure pace, he was crashed out in Brazil 2017 though), showing just how much Mercedes are off the pace from the Red Bull and Ferrari. Having said that, George Russell, living up to his title of ‘Mr Saturday’ (earned from his stellar qualifying efforts) managed to haul his Mercedes into fifth, and the Mclarens put in a better show this week occupying eleventh and twelfth on the starting grid. So perhaps all is not lost for those serviced by Mercedes. 

Red Bull Power Trains, thankfully had a more reliable weekend with three of their four cars making it into the points this time out. On the other hand, Yuki Tsunoda barely did any competitive running this weekend as his car had a water system issue that couldn’t be fixed prior to qualifying, and then on the lap to the starting grid his engine failed. It must be slightly concerning to the Red Bull team that these issues are still lingering in their cars, and not what they want when the senior team are once again title contenders. 

Drivers Under Pressure

We know that Jeddah is a highly demanding circuit due its high speed and close barriers. However, we saw some usual suspects getting into incidents. Nicholas Latifi crashed twice over the course of the weekend, once in qualifying (causing a red flag) and once in the race (causing a safety car). You can either read this as him pushing the car to the limits, or him still making rookie style errors unfortunately his reputation and previous results would favor the latter. With Williams no longer reliant on Latifi’s fathers money, Nicholas needs to put in some solid, competitive performances relative to his car and teammate in order to keep his seat in the future. 

Similarly, Lance Stroll had a collision with Alex Albon’s Williams in the latter stages of the race; he fortunately got out unscathed but it was the end of Albon’s race. Although Alex did do a late move, he was clearly gaining on Stroll and it was a part of the circuit that it is possible to overtake at, so Stroll should have anticipated a move. Plus, it is a very similar move to one he did on Tsunoda last year where he completely closed the door on the rookie. This is worrying because it means that Stroll is either completely oblivious to the presence of other drivers or just doesn’t learn from his mistakes. However, Stroll is more likely to keep his place on the grid as his father owns the Aston Martin team he races for, yet with moves like this you have to wonder how far away an incident is that completely ruins his reputation. 

It was definitely interesting to see how these new cars dealt with the narrow confines of a street circuit, and it was nice to see that they could still overtake there. The race was fun to watch and it continued to set up an epic title battle between Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with their teammates not too far behind either.

Written 30/3/2022

Bahrain Grand Prix

The 2022 season got off to a fantastic start in the desert this weekend. We saw closer racing with more constructors challenging for podiums and points when compared to the previous few seasons. With it being the first of new regulations there were of course some reliability issues up and down the field as well as some new faces. Without further ado, let’s go through some of the biggest talking points to come out of the race.

Engines:

As we saw in qualifying, the Ferrari engines are looking incredibly strong. Five out of the top ten (points scoring) cars were powered by Ferrari engines, including, of course, the works team itself winning and coming second. Whereas, the bottom six cars were powered by Mercedes engines, with the Mercedes team itself struggling to keep itself in the podium battle for a majority of the race. The Red Bull  Power Trains were also looking strong throughout with Max Verstappen right up and fighting hard with Charles Leclerc, making colossal lunges into turn one, showing the raw pace was as good as the Ferrari’s. Unfortunately, it all began to unravel when the Alpha Tauri (sister team to Red Bull) of Pierre Gasly had an engine fire causing him to bail out and bringing out a safety car which closed up the grid. Upon the restart, Verstappen’s car was suffering with lack of engine power and steering and also had to retire. Perez’s engine also locked up when turning into turn one, leaving him stranded as Hamilton sailed past to claim third. 

This is interesting because, as I mentioned post qualifying, engines are harder to develop mid-season than aero and this proves that it is advantage Ferrari for the time being in the championship battle. On the other hand, if you’re a team that uses Mercedes power, you could be in for a very long, slow season.  If Red Bull can sort out their reliability then we are on for a huge battle between the old karting rivals of Verstappen and Leclerc. 

On-Track Action

Part of the reason for the change of technical regulations was to enable closer following and therefore more on-track battles. It may have only been one race, but I think it is working. We saw stunning wheel-to-wheel action between Leclerc and Verstappen at various stages within the race. Hamilton was attacking Perez throughout. Even at the beginning it took awhile for a lead pack to breakaway as everyone was fairly equidistant for the first ten or so laps. This was because the cars could follow closer together and the DRS (drag reduction system) was incredibly powerful, particularly along the pit straight. 

All this close action from a wider variety of teams will lead to a closer and more competitive fight for the championship.

Tyres and Pit Stops

To fit the new, wider cars we also have new wider tyres. These tyres are also not being heated as much in the blankets before being fixed to the car. As a result, we saw drivers such as Lewis Hamilton skidding out of the pit lane with the harder compound tyres attached. Alex Albon struggled to make the turn as his tyres lacked grip. The pit stops themselves were slower than previous seasons, some beyond three seconds, as mechanics are still learning how to handle these wider, heavier compounds. 

Also, with cars qualifying in the top ten having to start the race on the tyre they used in qualifying session 2, this led to a more varied approach to strategy across the field as some started on new softs, some old softs and some on mediums. This tyre allocation means that those starting further down the grid have more new sets of tyres to use to try and compete with the faster cars by getting more grip.

Clearly, it will take some getting used to for the teams to understand these new tyres and pit routines, but I’m sure once one teams finds a solution others will quickly follow. 

Notable performances;

Whilst we had Leclerc and Verstappen putting on a brilliant show out front, no one is surprised to see those talented drivers making their competitive cars work hard. 

Looking slightly further down the grid, we can see that Kevin Magnussen, despite only having one week’s notice that he would be racing this year, managed to bring the Haas home to fifth place. This is huge for a team that struggled so much last year and had a tumultuous start to this one having to quickly drop their driver and sponsorship, but whether it is Magnussen’s experienced hands or spending all of last year focusing on this year, something has finally gone right for them. 

Rookie Zhou Guanyu also put in a great performance in his first outing as an F1 driver by putting his Alfa Romeo into tenth place and gaining his first point. You could argue that he was aided a lot by the Red Bull and Alpha Tauri retirements, but nonetheless he showed good pace and race craft throughout when fighting with his teammate Bottas and Albon’s Williams.

On a more negative note, Mclaren have yet to fix their mysterious brake issue so struggled to move up the grid, leaving them feeling like this was an extra test. With there bein gthree more races until there’s a break it is unlikely they will be able to make much improvement for those outings. 

Overall, if this is the calibre of race that we will see in Formula One 2022, I am a very happy fan. There’s close racing, a wide competition and interesting strategy calls and still more technical developments to come. Bring on the rest of the season!

Written 21/3/2022

About Me

Hi, I’m Rhett. I have been a Formula 1 fan for over a decade and my love for the sport has only grown in that time. I often go karting at my local indoor tracks. I’m a neutral fan for the most part, but let’s be honest we all have our biases, and mine is that I was raised a McLaren fan.

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