Unquestionably....it's time to blog again...

Justin:

Sunday 5 October 2014:

A lot has happened since I last blogged in April.

I have to start with today in Japan. We were given a brutal reminder that, despite people saying F1 is too safe these days, it's still a very dangerous sport.

We await news of how Jules Bianchi is doing.

In a dark day for F1, it was announced that Andrea de Cesaris has sadly passed away aged 55.

I had a huge blog planned, reviewing the championship battle between the Mercedes duo, the driver market musical chairs kicking off with Vettel announcing he is to leave Red Bull, where Alonso could be headed, Nigel Mansell thinking everything is fantastic....

Sunday 12 October 2014: 

At the start of the year I tipped Rosberg for the title, and up until recently I still stood by my tip.

Now I am not as sure.

He could still do it. 17 points behind Lewis is not a huge gap. One DNF for Lewis and it all changes again. That said, the momentum is clearly with Lewis now. 4 wins on the spin and a frankly crushing victory in Russia today means he has 9 wins this season to 4 for Rosberg.

Whenever they go wheel to wheel, Rosberg seems to bottle it. He is super quick, as proved by him having more poles than Hamilton this year. He is a great racer, as proved by his many a drives this season, and indeed his recovery drive today from the back to second.

It just seems Lewis has the clear upper hand when they are both near each other on track. Rosberg lunged for the move today and didn't make it stick via locking his tyres and flat-spotting them. Race over in terms of going for the win. In Japan he soaked up the pressure from Lewis pretty well as Lewis stalked him for 30 laps before that ridiculous move around the outside of turn 1.

These two have given us drama, fighting, politics, ruthlessness, falling out and great racing all year. I hope it goes to the wire, but in many ways I very much hope that the stupid double points doesnt change the destiny of this years world drivers title.

Mercedes wrapped up their first ever constructors title today. When they were winning in the 50's, there was no constructors title to fight for.

Rosberg and Hamilton were united in seeming really pleased and happy for the team. Rosberg said he was extremely disappointed on one hand, for his mistake at the start, but happy for the team etc.

USA is next, a track where Lewis excels. I expect another Hamilton win there, with Rosberg second, taking the points gap to 25 with two to go.

Driver of the year?? 
It is a very close call between Ricciardo and Bottas. Bottas has 6 podiums this year now, 4 in a row now I believe? He looked close to the Mercedes duo in qualifying and had pole within his grasp.

But I think Ricciardo shades it for me. Simply outstanding all year. End of discussion. He has effectively dumped Vettel out of his own team, stripped him of his number one status and sent him running away to Ferrari.

Musical chairs
Vettel has announced he is to leave Red Bull, but not announced where he is off to. Christian Horner has been on record saying it's Ferrari who have offered Vettel a lot of money to go.

Everyone was expecting Alonso to announce something first, this triggering the merry-go-round, but Ferrari have blinked first by signing Vettel...but they have not announced it yet.

Rumour is that Alonso approached Mercedes a few months ago and Ferrari viewed this as him not being committed for the future. Fair enough really. However, Ferrari have said it will be at least 2 years before they get on top of the current shambles they are in. Alonso is 33 now and he is hungry for more world titles.

Has he backed himself into a corner? Perhaps. Mclaren Honda is his rumoured destination, but they themselves may not be winning straight away. It's a roll of the dice, but certainly you could argue he won't be any worse off than he is now a Ferrari really. 

Anything could happen in F1 though. Could Ferrari dump Kimi again and keep Alonso alongside Vettel?

This does not sit well with me....but another rumour is Alonso taking a year off with a view to a top drive in 2016. For someone like Alonso though, surely this is the last option to take, with F1 racing in his blood he is widely acknowledged as the best on the grid (after the 2012 season 9 out of 11 team bosses voted for him as the very best on the grid).

To Austin we go in 3 weeks!