Red Bull dominant, Ferrari same same, but look who is back!

Ok, ok, I know I always say I want my racing right at the front, drivers fighting for victories, but whilst Bahrain didn't have any of that, I rather enjoyed the race as a whole. Hell I even said in my last post that if Alonso was back at the sharp end again that I'd stick with F1 this year.

Age is only a number

If you're fast enough you're good enough. This is the general rule in F1. Fernando Alonso is 41 and the oldest driver on the grid. Irrelevant. He is also one of the best, and still one of the hungriest and most dedicated to his profession.

I couldn't believe it when he stuck his Aston Martin in 5th on Saturday in Bahrain. It confirmed what many people had suspected from testing and indeed from the Bahrain practice sessions (when in the latter Alonso was top 3 in the time sheets consistently) - that of the fact that Aston Martin had made serious improvements and gains from last season. Over one lap it looks like they have the third quickest car, more or less. 

On race pace in Bahrain, they had arguably the second quickest car. Whilst the Ferrari's were quicker on the first stint, Alonso bided his time and was just too strong in the second half of the race, the Aston seemed to be much kinder to its tyres compared to the Ferrari (sidenote, was Alonso on different tyres to Sainz? I don't recall). Either way, the race pace is very much there.

Ok LeClerc retired, which helped bump Alonso up the order a bit, but to finish first in F1, first you have to finish. Alonso didn't finish first, but you get my point.

But Alonso robbed Hamilton and Sainz then disappeared up the road later on, having diced with both Mercedes cars earlier on after falling behind them both at the start. I'd say Mercedes are definitely behind Aston and Ferrari.

It is just so exciting to see Fernando back where he belongs at the sharp end. Andrew Benson agrees :-).

Ferrari - same as usual?

The red cars seemed fairly swift early on, though not anywhere near the Red Bull of Max. Indeed, Perez swiftly dispatched both of them to ease into second. Then LeClerc broke down and the pace of Sainz faded towards the end of the race.

And now LeClerc is taking a ten place grid penalty in Saudi Arabia, the season has started off pretty miserably for a team that no doubt had title aspirations.

Red Bull and Max utterly dominant

Both George Russell and Toto Wolff said after the race that they could see Red Bull winning every race this season. I don't think they are too wide of the mark on that prediction. Max was in a league of his own, with Perez 20 odd seconds off in second.

Lance Stroll - One tough bastard!

12 days after breaking his wrists and his big toe, plus some other hefty bruises and the like, Lance Stroll wrangled his Aston Martin to 6th. Amazing. That is why I love F1 - the drivers are absolute warriors! 

Let's see what Saudi Arabia has in store for us this weekend. Will the Aston Martin still be strong and quick? Will Ferrari and Mercedes improve? What has happened to McLaren?

If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver

 19.7.21

A quote from perhaps the greatest of them all, the idol of Lewis Hamilton, Ayrton Senna. Was Lewis channelling that mantra as he arrived at Copse on lap 1?

Ok, as my former blogging colleague, and co-founder of this very blog, pointed out, that quote was from 30 years ago, of a different time in F1, where Senna perhaps got away with things here and there. These days F1 is very risk averse in comparison, hence penalties are dished out for all sorts.

I’ve been texting my F1 mates a lot about this and overall, opinion seems fairly divided. Channel 4 pundits DC and Mark Webber said Lewis shouldn’t have left his wheel in there and that he got off fairly lightly on the penalty. Though I have since seen that LeClerc and Alonso both labelled it a racing incident. Norris seemed less inclined to give his opinion. Fans of both drivers will no doubt back each of their guys.

I have no doubt Horner and Wolff, if their positions were swapped, would be saying the exact things the other is saying right now (and directly after the race).

And let us be honest, do we really think Max would have done any different if he were in Lewis’ position?

 

Racing incident 

I am calling the Lewis vs Max crash at Silverstone a racing incident. Both guys were super aggressive and neither wanted to back off. When that happens, inevitably there is a crash. Perhaps there was 5% more blame on Lewis, because he wasn’t on the usual line for Copse, and Max was.

Though Max knew Lewis was there and was probably expecting him to back off. But unlike the other couple of near moments they have had in races this year, where Lewis had to back off to avoid an accident against the always aggressive Max, this time he didn’t.

Maybe that did come from a moment of desperation. Perhaps he had to overtake Max on lap 1 and make it stick, otherwise Max would have pulled away and disappeared into the distance. 33 points in the title race is a fair way off.

But, Lewis was alongside far enough to be entitled to think it was his corner. Contradicting myself here, but on the flipside he was on a very tight angle and understeering. See, even as I write this I can’t decide entirely where blame should lie.

Andrew Benson, the F1 analyst at BBC, makes some good points in his article. That Lewis has not really had any big title pressure in the last couple of years. 2017 and 18 early on there was a nibble from Vettel, which faded over the course of the seasons. You need to go back to 2016 for when the pressure was last turned up to 10. And Lewis did make a couple of mistakes back then, the big one in Barcelona of course (when Rosberg was ahead and perfectly entitled to slam the door shut on Lewis, causing Lewis to brake and spin onto the grass and clatter into Nico). Nico did not back off at all in 2016 in these sorts of situations, where he perhaps had done previously.

 

24.7.21

Ok, I needed to step away for a few days to clear my head on this one. Red Bull have since announced that the crash could cost them up to £1.3m! Ouch!

It is clear that emotions were very high in the aftermath, from all sides. Christian Horner has mellowed a little since then perhaps. I don’t really agree with Max tweeting from hospital saying he found Lewis celebrating to be disrespectful. They crashed, Lewis was told Max was out of the car and essentially ok. I think, if anything, the fact Lewis still won with that penalty just shows how far ahead Mercedes and Red Bull are of the rest.

 

Drivers of the weekend?

As good as Hamilton’s win was, I can’t give him driver of the weekend when he has been involved in punting his rival into the kitty litter.

You’d have to go some way to beat LeClerc on this for me. That Ferrari had no right being in first place for most of the grand prix. But he showed yet again just what a supreme talent he truly is. And let us not forget that Hamilton was helped out by Ferrari car gremlins as he caught and passed LeClerc.

 

Let us also consider the quite mighty weekend from none other than Fernando Alonso. His sprint race start was utterly electric, going from 11^th to 5^th! Ok he had soft tyres, but his starts have always been mighty, and he found a way around the outside of a couple of cars at least. Then he spent the second half of the sprint race in 7^th fending off a queue of faster cars behind him. As like the Ferrari of LeClerc in the main race, that Alpine had no real business being that high up the order. He spent the grand prix in 7^th, fending off cars behind him too. A true fighting drive.

 

Driver of the year so far

Is unquestionably Lando Norris. Next!

 

Sprint race yey or ney?

I think from a spectator point of view, having qualifying on Friday in place of practice sessions worked well. Let’s face it, most practice sessions are boring to watch.

Then having a mini race on Saturday was diverting enough for a few laps, then it all settled and got very boring very quickly. As most people have remarked, it was saved by Alonso seemingly being in a rocket ship.

I am undecided really. I think the sprint race needs some tweaking if it is to be a permanent fixture, but I hope it really just fades away as for an OCD chap like myself it messes with records a bit. They did a usual qualifying session on Friday and it wasn’t pole position, it was “speed king”. Huh?

 

The championship year ahead

The crash was perhaps inevitable, the way the two protagonists race. And there will be a couple more before the end of the year. The gloves are well and truly off now and we’ll all be watching to see how it pans out in Hungary. For the neutral, this is utterly fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

Round 1: Bahrain race review

Phew. F1 is back with a bang. And luckily for us fans, it seems we have a genuine two team fight for the title.

I was wrong. All those years of Mercedes arriving into the first round and unleashing their full qualifying potential have left me somewhat cynical it seems. Max was 4 tenths ahead of Lewis for pole and provided the 7 team world champion with a stern test through the race, albeit racing apart for most of it. It was a game of cat and mouse, of strategy, that ultimately led to a showdown on track for the last handful of laps. And we were not left disappointed as the 2 drivers went at it hammer and tongs to win the season opener. Max hunting down Lewis when Lewis was on tyres that were 11 laps older, so he had to defend with all his racing acumen, and then some! Max ultimately overtook Lewis off the track at turn 4 and had to hand back the lead immediately, through fear of race control punishment (the turn 4 off track rules seemed confusing during the race and at the end to be honest!). 

It was a grandstand finish from two drivers at the very top. Let us hope Red Bull are competitive at all tracks this year, and don't drop away on other tracks like they did at times last year. Game on!

This. This is what I wanted all along. Racing, fighting for the win!

Elsewhere there was plenty to see. Norris made a blinding start and was soon in 4th. Perez's Red Bull turned itself off on the parade lap and he had to start from the pitlane - he finished an excellent 5th!

Fernando Alonso didn't drive like someone who has been away from F1 for 2 years. He made an excellent start, taking Sainz immediately and tracking the McLarens until falling away a bit. He also had a doozy of a battle a bit later with Vettel and Sainz. A shame he had to retire really, as no doubt he would have got some good points for Alpine.

Both McLaren's looked pretty nippy early on and Ricciardo finished a solid 7th in a car he is no doubt still getting used to. Ferrari looked solid enough too, finishing 6th and 8th. A good start compared to the utterly disaster strewn year of 2020! Read the full race report from BBC here now.

Of course, plenty of people will look at the benefits of the new aero regulations for some teams versus others. Ehm. Still. They are all in the same boat and have to adapt to the rules as best they can. But this is an interesting little graphic about how much time each team has lost in Bahrain 2021 qualifying versus the same race last year.  

There was proper racing throughout the field, throughout the race. Brilliant.

Also, I can't be the only one who mistaken the Aston Martin's for the Mercedes on around 3 different occasions?! Under the lights the paint jobs look rather similar! 

Round 2 - let's go! :-)

Round 1: Bahrain qualifying report and views

It was great watching the C4 F1 gang again, like welcoming back old friends you haven't seen for a few months :-). DC is celebrating his 50th birthday (loving Mark commentating on DC getting a face full of cake), and Mark Webber's folks are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Fantastic. And they had a beautiful piece from DC about Murray Walker.

Qualifying for round 1 threw up some interesting results. LeClerc in 4th, Gasly in 5th, Vettel out in Q1, Perez 11th. And Russell once again getting (what is quite likely) the slowest car into Q2. Fantastic. You can read the full report here from the BBC. Sainz was half a second behind LeClerc, which might sting a bit, but then again the whole car would have been built last year around LeClerc so let's give Carlos some time to get fully up to speed.

The McLaren's were both in the top 10, along with the returning Fernando Alonso in a fairly strong 9th.

But let us talk about Max in the 33 Red Bull (my sometime blogging colleague will be living in a very happy household given the Max superfan status of his wife). Wow, what a lap, nearly 4 tenths up on Lewis! I mean, I really don't want to get carried away. But, it looks like Red Bull are genuinely quicker than Mercedes, at least at the first track here. I wasn't really listening to all the talk before qualifying of Red Bull being quicker, as we've seen in previous years Mercedes arrive at qualifying and blow everyone away. I thought that would likely happen here. But, we may indeed have a genuine fight at the front. Proper racing at the very front! Let's see. I am excited.

Now to the real important stuff. How are my fantasy F1 teams looking based on qualifying? Hehe.

Ok, my team 1 drivers are Alonso, Gasly and Kimi. Not looking too bad.

Perez, Russell and Ocon in team 2. Eh.

Vettel, Stroll and Schumacher in the last team. Go Stroll!

I'll be back early in the week for a full post-race analysis :-).

Round 7: Canadian Grand Prix live retrospective blog

Justin:

Ok I realise calling this a live retrospective is a slight contradiction, but stay with me.

I've just returned from a week-long trip to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The race wasn't a corker by any means, but it was an amazing experience for sure. Plus, whilst the race was a bit dull, being there live means you see things you wouldn't see up close on a TV. I was stood at the fence in front of grandstand 12 for a while, and the way the cars fly into the corner, hurl themselves at you before darting immediately right is a sight to behold. They also sound beautiful, sounding like fighter jets as they brake from the start/ finish straight.

I'm not a Ferrari fan, but that car under Seb looked amazing. It looked the most driveable car of the lot in that section. And...the engine. My word. The engine sounded like poetry in motion!!!

Grandstand 12

As you can see from the photo below, I couldn't have picked many better places to see the action from (though, you pay £250 for a 3 day ticket, you possibly might expect more than a metal bench to perch on..). We would have witnessed all the first corner mayhem, if any had happened. Still, we saw Mad Max try and take Bottas on the first lap, plus a couple of other spins through the race.

40th anniversary - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

It was the 40th anniversary of the first race on this circuit, which was won by the legendary Gilles Villeneuve. So, we were in for a treat. Jacques driving his Dad's Ferrari 312 around the track!!! Now, I have seen video of Jacques absolutely punishing this car around a test track (can't recall what video exactly), but even a parade lap where he was toddling along sent shivers down my spine and made a special weekend even more so. The sound of the engine....I just cannot. :-).

Excited!!!

Now, I'm a chap who gets excited when attending Grand Prix weekends. Part of the build up for me is simply spotting F1 people on the flight over to wherever the race is. My mates and I spotted DC at Brussels airport in 2012. I was reading Damon Hill's book when I spotted him in the waiting area for my Singapore flight in 2016. This year I saw none other than both Tom Clarkson and Andrew Benson on the flight and Jenny Gow in the passport queue. How fantastic is that eh?! Me spotting F1 people I look up to is all part of it for me.

The last time I'll see Fernando Alonso at an F1 race in person?

It could be. I'd rather it wasn't, but it could be. I won't be seeing another race in person until next year now, when he might be in Indycar or the World Endurance Championship full time (and only in that). Who knows?

I'll just leave a photo and video from Canada here.

Vettel - 50 up!!

Whilst I said the race was dull above, it actually wasn't. It was a pleasure witnessing a driver at the peak of his powers utterly dominating the track and his peers. Vettel looked completely on it for every lap of the race. The car danced to his tune. The Ferrari looking amazing and sounding amazing all weekend.

I'll sign off with a couple more pictures :-).