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! :-)

F1 2018 - Abu Dhabi - A legend says goodbye

Justin:

It's been a while...

My last blog was in June, after the Canadian GP. A lot has happened in F1!

It was indeed the last F1 race I'd see Fernando Alonso at, as he soon after announced his retirement from F1.

Fitting tribute

There were a fair few nice, classy touches from F1 and McLaren over the Abu Dhabi race weekend for the fighting Spaniard.

F1 repainted the driver briefing room with moments from his career - see here.

There was a paddock barbecue after the race.

There was this reflective video piece from McLaren and the man himself here.

McLaren changed their car livery in honour of the helmet colours of Alonso.

And almost finally, the F1 paddock gave their tributes here.

Here's Fernando himself with a final video goodbye and thanks.

But the thing I loved the most? It was like a guard of honour. After the chequered flag, Fernando cruised up to Seb and Lewis doing donuts. And from there the 3 champions drove around the track together. It was as if Fernando's two greatest rivals were giving him a guard of honour and respect to see him on his way. It was a beautiful moment of respect. I remember how tough the Fernando vs Seb fight got in 2012. And from 2010 to 2013 all three of them were contenders and huge rivals. Of course, 2007 is also woven into the tapestry of Lewis vs Fernando. That's where it all began.

Then after driving around to the start/ finish straight, the three legends with 11 titles between them let rip with a series of donuts. 

I've been a massive Alonso fan since the start. He fights. All the time. He drives cars to the absolute limit. He is relentless. He is an F1 legend and an F1 all time great.

I've been lucky enough to attend his home race in 2009 and have seen him race additionally in Belgium in 2012 (where he got punted on the first corner so I have no race photo), Hungary 2015, Singapore 2016 and Montreal this year. I also visited the Fernando Alonso museum in 2017. Here's a picture from each of those below:

Elsewhere

It was a fairly interesting race. We had a scary role for The Hulk. Happily he was fine. Lewis won from Seb whilst Max pipped Daniel to the last podium slot. There was a fair bit of fun racing throughout, featuring some balls out overtakes for sure.

The end is the beginning

Kimi had his last race for Ferrari and is off to Sauber for 2019. Charles Leclerc had is last race for Sauber and is off to Ferrari for 2019.

Daniel Ricciardo is off to Renault next year where Ocon is off to be a Mercedes reserve driver.

Sainz is off to McLaren, and Vandorne is off to Formula E.

Plenty to look forward to next year for sure. How will Seb cope with the young charger next to him? How will Daniel cope being midfield for a year or two? Will Red Bull Honda be the package to see Max challenge Lewis and Seb at the very front?

Thank you Channel 4

I only dabbled once with Sky Sports live coverage for one of the GP's where the highlights were going to be shown at around 11pm or so. And I found their show to be pretty dull actually.

The Channel 4 team are ace! Enthusiasm, action, fun, banter, serious, explaining stuff for the casual viewer they want to entice. Channel 4 have a tricky role in that they have to appeal to die hard F1 fans as well as more casual viewers. It's a fine balance. A balance they achieved and yeah.

Just, thank you to Steve Jones, Karun Chandhok, DC, Mark Webber, Susie Wolf, EJ, Lee McKenzie, Ben Edwards.

You've made the last 3 years so much fun for us peeps who don't want Sky! I noticed the coverage today came up with the graphic "Australian GP highlights will be on C4 on XXX March 2019".

Hope I see some of the gang in 2019 :-).

Australia qualifying report

Justin:

Well, ultimately, there were no great surprises. Lewis out ahead flanked by a Ferrari. That was an astonishing lap by Lewis and a huge gap to Kimi.

It caused a bit of a fruity press conference afterwards - Gotta love these two exchanging words.

Bottas has his work cut out after hitting the wall quite heavily. Still, with the speed on the Mercedes you'd expect him to rise through to the top 5 with relative ease.

The Renault team look strong, as do Haas (they have apparently remained within the rules whilst actually building very little of their car compared to other teams) - the latter are surely the most improved/ big surprise of 2018 so far?!

Fernando Alonso said during the build up that this would be the worst weekend for McLaren. He'd better hope so. I'd imagine they didn't have qualifying 11th and 12th in mind before Q3. That said, Alonso seemed ok with it.

There is a big gap between the top 3 teams and the best of the rest. There was one second from Daniel Ricciardo back to Kevin Magnussen. Not sure if I'm more concerned by that gap or the one between Lewis and the rest.

That said, the flip side is the top 3 were all mega close after Q2...but Lewis was holding back until obliterating everyone in Q3.

Unless Ferrari and Red Bull pull something very special out of the bag tomorrow (today now if anyone down under reads this), I don't think anyone other than Lewis will win this race.

It's great that F1 is back, but I hope we have fighting at the front tomorrow and don't just have to rely on midfield for close up racing.

We shall see.

Belgium, Oviedo and whatever else I need to catch up on...

Justin:
Ok, so, it's been about three months since my first and only blog of this season. I've been about as rubbish as a Honda engine ;-).


For seven years, from 2010 to the end of 2016, I was writing pretty much after each and every race. I've gone into occasional blogger mode for the time being - so be it.

Fernando Alonso Museum
I was like a pig in shit during a recent trip to Spain, as I went with the number one purpose of visiting the Alonso museum. I certainly was not disappointed. I'll just let some of the pictures do the talking here...

Lorenzo Bandini trophy

2003 Renault - First race win!

World title and world title winning Renault

2012 Ferrari

Belgium
You can find all the race details and post-race interviews here, on the Channel 4 F1 website.

The big talking point for me has to be those Force India boys
Check out this tweet from Esteban Ocon - surely this won't go down very smoothly with Perez or the team!! Wouldn't be surprised if this gets deleted at some point. They were both blaming each other after the race, as F1 drivers usually do. That said, the stewards investigated but took no further action on the second incident at Eau Rouge. Force India have stated the drivers are not free to race moving forward. Fair play there. They have to learn not to nerf each other at every given opportunity, or it's becoming pretty much every race now! I watched the race with the Hamilton Court F1 Club (unofficial name = just me and two petrolhead neighbours :-)), and even we couldn't really reach agreement as to whose fault it all was. Ocon was being optimistic, but Perez would have known he was there surely. Just found this from Perez. Fair play - displaying a much cooler head. Well, I guess he is the experienced old hand in this pairing.

Racing right at the front
Am I too demanding on what I need from F1? I want wheel to wheel racing at the front. Blood, sweat and tears for the win. Vettel was never really more than a couple of seconds off Hamilton throughout, so no doubt they were both on it for all 44 laps. But aside from two crucial moments where they were side by side, they were never really together either. Still, Lewis caned it in qualifying and never looked back really. The championship fight continues to Monza for sure. Is this the weekend where Bottas dropped out of the potential title fight? He definitely had an off weekend. Then again, I'm sure we'll see Lewis have one of those sooner or later. Vettel has been the more consistent performer thus far, and whilst I think it will be very close, I think Vettel may just pip Lewis to the title. It's going to be great watching two legends go at it.

Anything else?
A good weekend for Palmer - Where did that pace come from? He would have been 7th on the grid had his car not failed yet again.

Danny Ric had a good race, steaming past Kimi and Bottas late on in an insane overtake. His press conference was bang on hilarious as is becoming the norm - check it out.

Max had a mare when his car broke down on lap 8. Oh dear. It has to be something to do with how he drives the car no? Anyway, he is sort of stuck at Red Bull for at least another year - until possible seats at Mercedes and Ferrari come up in 2019.

Alonso had a great race to a point, before his Honda engine failed yet again. He has gone on record as saying that McLaren only need to change one thing for him to stay next year. Just what could that be??!!

Nico Rosberg
Seems to be enjoying his retirement :-) - Check out his vlog here.

Robert Kubica
I would love, love, love to see this guy back next year for sure. Let's see how his next test goes.

The driver market has settled at the top 3 teams for next year. It's the midfield where rumours abound! Alonso, Kubica and the Renault test driver are all rumoured to be in the running for 2018 at Renault. Three into one will not go. Renault are also apparently thinking of Sainz. How many cars will they run next year?

Anyway, I'll be more regular from now on so blogs won't have three months worth of stuff to talk about in future!

Round 13: Belgium

Justin:

Welcome back old friend. Whilst in my last post I said I needed a break from F1, a month is long enough!

Ok, once again there was no real racing for first, right at the front. This has been my bugbear for a lot of races this year.

But, there was absolute mayhem and carnage on the opening few laps which distracted from Rosberg scampering off into the distance.

Max, Kimi and Seb nerfed into each other on the first corner and Max and Kimi kept coming across each other during the race too. The first corner incident really was not the fault of Kimi at all. Seb had to turn into the corner, but perhaps didn't see Kimi. He definitely didn't see Max.

Now, we'll give Max the benefit of the doubt for his first of many cock ups during the race. But, whilst a lot of people are blaming Seb...did nobody see that Max was actually fully on and over the kerb and he sort of just went straight on into Kimi?

He later moved over on Kimi at 200mph, after Kimi had made his move. Dangerous driving Max. If Kimi is bothered enough to be vocal about it after the race, then, well, you know it's a shit move mate.

The supidity of youth me thinks. Max later said he was pretty much driving angry after the first corner incident and said something along the lines of "better push him off than let him by".

Jesus christ. Calm down young man. That attitude will get people killed.

Elsewhere, I don't believe Rosbergs race was as easy as made out. The red flag restart will have required upmost concentration.

Great drives from Hulkenberg, Hamilton and Alonso (the latter two sailed through the grid as they started on medium tyres as everyone in front of them pitted due to safety cars and general utter carnage).

In all the mayhem I totally missed that Button had been punted out too!

So, nine points in the title race - Let's see a straight fight between the Merc boys in Monza please.

One last thing. Even if a driver I despised was the winner, I would never boo them if I was at a Grand Prix.

I couldn't believe it when Rosberg received a lions share of booing. Totally unnecessary.

Why boo him? It may have been the fact that the whole crowd wanted a Max win, but even still it's a bit harsh. I wouldn't put it past some of the Lewis fans too you know. There were a lot of Brits there.

Talk about football crowd mentality!

Oh, and K-Mag is fine. Yey. Typical F1 driver. 200mph crash, does his ankle in and is racing 5 days later. Most footballers fall over like they have been shot, then get up two minutes later totally uninjured. Pft.

Hungary and Germany were really quite dull races if you think about it

Maybe you don't need to think about it....

Nigel Mansell tweeted  after Germany "World Championship lost maybe in Germany. Wow I cannot tell you how many times I got forced wide or knocked off track. Very different now."

If it wasn't lost there, the race was run at the start where Lewis got a flyer and Nico bogged down.

There was fun racing further down the field, but for me, for it to be a barnstormer, you need racing for the win. Hungary and Germany were totally lacking this.

Whisper it, but I am glad of the month long break now.

For the record, I don't think Nico did much wrong with his move on Max. He is only acting as Lewis has acted towards him many a time.

Belgium next. Ah, Spa 2012. Then a certain blogger is off to Singapore soon enough after that and Monza! Yeah.

Austria, Britian reviewed and a preview of Hungary

Austria:

Whoops! Nico probably thought, well Hamilton hung me out to dry so many times that this time it is my corner and I'll run him out of road. Hamilton was optimistic trying to overtake around the outside of a 90 degree right hander.

I love how nine out of ten British media reports said Nico bottled it. He didn't. He was experiencing a few brake problems, which resulted in him coming out of the first corner slowly.

Britain:

Fair play to Lewis. A dominant win. Nico again struggled in the wet.

Standout drive had to be Max 33!!

Hungary:

This is a must win for Nico, to turn the tide of momentum. It will ebb and flow through the year. He won the first four races. Lewis has won four of the last five.

Ah Hungary...memories....

Round 8: Baku

Justin:

Well, the track and Baku certainly looked the part. A beautiful setting for an F1 race and indeed an interesting track. Castle Corner looked insane...single file only through there chaps please!

Because we had incidents in each practice session and a chaotic GP2 race, people thought the F1 race would at least have a Safety Car or two. Alas, it was not to be and what we got was actually a fairly dull race.

In a shameless effort to get more views, I shall link to more external websites in this blog. I did it for Bahrain and got around 190 views! Compared to the usual 10 or so. Ehem.

Hamilton had all the momentum coming off a storming win in Canada.

Rosberg doing what he needs to do 
He was impressive in Baku. Hamilton was quickest in every practice session. Hamilton just went for it and was nearly a second up on Rosberg in P1. Rosberg took his time to catch up, but he was within a couple of tenths by the end of P3. Has to be said that Hamilton's instinctive racing style gets him a bloody long way.

I have to say, looking back on that last line...tortoise and hare anyone?

Everyone was saying that Lewis would have beaten Nico to pole had he kept it on track. But, he didn't keep it on track. He admitted he was just not on it. The car setup was changed and he just didn't feel the car, or adjust to it.

Indeed, Toto Wolff covers this in the column of Andrew Benson on the BBC website.

So, with Hamilton in the wall in qualifying, Rosberg raced off into the distance in the race. When his one pitstop came, he was 40 seconds ahead of second place (ok second had stopped), and he ended up 17 seconds ahead of Vettel.

The way Rosberg seems to be taking each race at a time impresses me. After two Lewis wins on the spin, it would be easy for Nico to lose his cool and let the momentum of Lewis affect him. In Baku he didn't.

I felt a bit for Lewis and the engine setting nonsense. The rules are currently a bit stupid. His engineers couldn't help him, resulting in him fiddling with his steering wheel for many laps at 220mph!

I also sort of agree with Andrew Benson here. Just, you know, for more views ;-).

Colourful radio!
Kimi - we love you! How many swear word bleeps can he get into one broadcast??!! Classic.

Lewis' radio messages were amusing too.

Driver of the day
Perez. Duh!

To Austria we go.

Anyone stumbling across this thinking it's not in-depth or whatever, this particular blog edition may not be I grant you. Check out the last 6 years though people :-).

Round 5: Spain

Justin:

Erm, wow. What an absolutely stonking race. Now, THAT's why I love F1.

Aggression Vs Defence = Crash, Bang, Wallop
Hamilton made a good start, getting the better of Rosberg, but then Nico caught a good tow and went around the outside at turn 1. A ballsy move, proving that he was ready to fight with Lewis in a one on one race. Then coming out of turn 3, Nico was a lot slower (which we later found was an engine mode issue...though I inferred at one point that it was a battery thing from Wolff's interview...anyway).

At first, after I'd finished jumping up and down and screaming at the TV, I thought it was possibly more Lewis at fault...or did I think anyone was really at fault? It looked to me like the overspeed had caught Lewis out a bit (though later he said he knew Nico had engine mode problems and that he had to go for the gap).

So, Lewis went aggressive and wanted to take advantage and pass there and then, Nico went defensive. Bang.

Nico was entitled to shut the door, in my opinion. Lewis is a racer and was going for a gap, but it was very much from the Senna school of "I'm coming through, don't you dare turn in, if you do, we crash!".

File under racing incident. The stewards and indeed Mercedes said no guy was 100% to blame. Judge for yourselves.

Of the two drivers, Rosberg looked slightly more annoyed in the post race interviews - See here a link to Channel 4 F1.

Hamilton seemed rather at peace with it all. I should point out that neither tripped up over the tricky interview questions. "Are you saying you weren't to blame?"......Nico replied "I didn't say that". Plus he said what was talked about in the de-brief stays private.

Lewis too was pretty fair and even handed in his answers.

Monaco next. That will lessen the tension for sure...

The race they left behind
It was an awesome race. 4 cars in with a shout of winning, near the end too, is somewhat of a rare sight in F1 these days.

I'm getting a bit annoyed with Vettel having a good old heat of the moment whinge when someone does something he doesn't like, such as try and overtake him - gasp! Then afterwards he admitted he said stuff in the heat of the moment when Ricciardo tried a bold pass into turn 1.

I think Ricciardo is completely correct to ask Red Bull why he was pulled in and changed to the slower three stop strategy, which seemingly released Max to victory on the two stop.

Congratulations to Max Verstappen though. He drove an absolutely flawless race and really has to be my driver of the day doesn't he?

We should spare a thought for Daniil Kvyat. I can't find the Channel 4 interview with him after the race, but boy did he look peeved.

Channel 4 coverage 
I was tweeting before the race started and noticed a few ney sayers regarding Steve Jones.

I like him as an F1 presenter. He works well with DC. And Susie and Alain were awesome today also.

People have short memories. It took Suzi Perry a while to hit her stride and she made a few errors in her first year. That's the nature of live TV.

I liked the Channel 4 nod to the fact that some people on the internet didn't like Jones much, when he was told by Susie to be a travel agent instead of an F1 presenter on their car journey to the track.

Steve is enthusiastic and happy to be there. To be fair, if I was presenting, it's probably not far off how I'd be. He's a bit of a fanboy. Anyone notice him touching Prost a lot during qualifying? Heehee.

Kudos to them bringing in Prost. That man is a legend. They also had to nearly cut him off from talking too long a few times. Hehehe.

The way they present too, is working well. Chopping and changing from one presenter to another, in a different part of the paddock. True, the BBC coverage did some of this, but C4 do it on another level.

To Monaco we go!!! The Mercedes boys will be trying to not touch each other at all.

PS - worth noting that Andrew Benson tweeted after qualifying that Alonso was right to leave his contract early, based on the fact he wouldnt have won any titles if he'd have seen it to the end of 2016. Bang on frankly. Ferrari were over a second behind the Mercedes duo.

Round 3: China

Justin:

Chaos and carnage, yet Rosberg sailed serenely into the sunset 38 seconds down the road at the end.

It was a fantastic race in China, almost too good for me to do it justice in this blog (or I can't be doing with writing another huge blog. There's only so many times you can dump a huge blog out, after all).

My main gripe, whether it's Lewis winning last year, or indeed Nico winning this year is that there is no fighting at the front.

I want people fighting for the win every race.

That said, Rosberg is doing all he needs to. As his competition falters, he sails on regardless.

6 wins in the last 6 races. The last 9 drivers to win the first 3 races at the start of a year all went on to become world champion.

That said, Rosberg has his head screwed on and is taking it on a race by race basis. Even he pointed out that none of those 9 drivers had Lewis Hamilton as a team-mate.

Hamilton and Vettel will come back at him, but his confidence must be surging right now.

Last year he started the campaign off very poorly. He needed a better start and middle.

He is doing all the right things right now.

Hamilton has some work to do.

164 page views from Poland last time out? Cheers!

30 days, 30 blogs...Day one: My love for F1 never really dies

Justin:

It has been a while!
I last blogged about the Hungarian GP back in late July. Since then, I've, more often than not, gotten a little frustrated watching F1.

In a fair few races there was a distinct lack of unpredictability about the race for first. Essentially, due to Hamilton's dominance over Rosberg, there was no racing for the win.

There has been racing galore through the field, but fun though that is, I really get off on the race for the win.

It only takes a moment to restore the faith
Maybe my deep passion for F1 allows it too easily back into my good books, who knows. Before Austin and Mexico City, I actually fell asleep during a couple of races.

Austin was an insane race from start to finish. From early on, the two Red Bulls got into the mix and certainly upset the Mercedes running order.

Capgate was hillarious! One can understand Rosberg being frustrated and angry with himself and that probably enhanced his feeling of annoyance at being run out of road by Hamilton at the start.

The race in Mexico City - erm, wow! Every time the cars raced through the baseball stadium section, where the cars go between two massive grandstands, you could hear the roar of the crowd.

The podium celebrations taking place in that area, rather than the pit straight, was a pure stroke of genius. F1 is back in Mexico.

So, as part of a series of challenges I am setting myself over the next 30 days, one of those is to compose an F1 blog every day. No matter how long or short, any or all F1 topics may come up.

There is plenty going on in F1 right now to chat about, plus the fact I currently have four F1 books on my coffee table to read.

Here are a few pics from Hungary that I took, to remind us all where I last left the blogging.

Catch you tomorrow.

30th Birthday party in Hungary!

Justin:

In two F1 related moments, following one after the other, my summer really kicked off in big time stylee.

I went to see Fleetwood Mac on June 24th. They opened with The Chain. A long time classic with F1 fans. It brought tears to my eyes - such an emotive song. I'd been waiting years to see them and built it up in my mind. The gig was even better than I could have ever imagined.

When I returned from Fleetwood Mac, on June 25th, UPS delivered 4 grandstand seat tickets for the Hungarian GP weekend. Booyaa!

According to the tickets, it will be a massive party as Hungary is celebrating its 30th Grand Prix this year. It will be a pleasure to be a part of it.

In a third F1 related incident, I appear to have loaned out my book "The Limit" and I have somehow lost track of who has it. Fellow blogger Phil Smith - is it you? If you reply with your usual "It's me", it will be a relief. I know you have my other book "Chequered Conflict"...right?!

Season so far
In my last post I remarked that I couldn't see anyone beating Hamilton this year, with the form he was in. Rosberg won in Spain, lady luck helped him win in Monaco, Hamilton was quicker in Canada and Rosberg was the faster guy in Austria.

Three wins in the last four races has seen Rosberg peg back Hamilton and only ten points separate the two now.

It was the manner of Rosberg winning in Austria that made a lot of people sit up and take notice. He buried Hamilton off the start and was quicker all race, all weekend in fact. Hamilton was on the backfoot for the first time this year. Ok, it all fluctuates, one will be quicker than the other and vice versa from race to race.

I think Rosberg has finally got his shit together now. It is time for this title fight to get going!

Elsewhere McLaren toil still, as do Red Bull.

Hulkenberg won LeMans, which surely increases his stock for a top drive next year - though I hear Ferrari are looking at Bottas.

Races have been a tad dull this year so far. Let us hope for more Rosberg vs Hamilton antics up front to liven shit up a bit!

Formula E?
No...just...no.

Richard Branson thinks this will be bigger than F1 in a few years. No Richard, no!

As my number one bullet point on a long list, it has a lot of drivers who are not good enough for F1 or who never got there in the first place (perhaps harsh on Bruno Senna and JEV, but hey, life is harsh chaps). It has pure novelty value in having Senna, Prost and Piquet on the same grid again.

Though, my opinion on Nelson Piquet Junior is only higher than my opinion of Flavio Briatorie..just.

I believe Jarno Trulli has taken time away from winemaking to take part. Combining hobbies eh.

And lastly..
When I informed a good friend that the tickets had arrived, he texted back saying "Will Alonso finish in the points?".

I replied "Compared to Belgium (when the three amigos last rode to a GP in 2012), just getting around the first lap will be a bonus!".

Though in his McLaren, that might be a wish beyond the capability of his machinery.

Hungary. 2015. Let's do this.

(That said, of course, it is the British GP next weekend - how could I forget? So, Rosberg to win?).

I'll sign off with this statement of fact.

You do not win three races in three years at Monaco if you are but a "very good" driver.





  

2015...so far, so average..?

Justin:

At the start of the year I tipped Rosberg to come back stronger this year and push Hamilton even closer for the world title.

At this point in time, I cannot see anyone other than Hamilton winning the world title.

He steamrollered Rosberg in Australia and is threatening the same again this weekend in Malaysia. He is on a roll of 7 wins in the last 8 GP's.

Rosberg needed a strong weekend this weekend, but no matter what he does or how strong he is, Hamilton has an answer.

Lewis didn't get as much prep time during the free practice sessions, but still stuck it on pole. Job done.

Nico will have to use everything at his disposal to try and put Lewis off his game. It's a different dynamic to last year, in that Lewis has the confidence of a world champion and with Nico giving soundbites such as "yeah, he is driving like a champion" - fighting talk that is not.

Having said that, there was a brief bit of petty handbags again as Nico disrupted Lewis' final pole run, then Lewis got in Nico's way a bit. Whether either was deliberate, who knows, but they were both piddling around for clear track position to get a clean lap.

McLaren

Interesting looking at the pictures on BBC when Alonso hopped out of his car, Ron Dennis turned around as if to address him and Alonso walked off. Whether he knew he was there is another matter.

There is still loads of speculation about Alonso's testing crash. McLaren say there was nothing wrong with the car at all. He stated this weekend that he felt the steering go heavy. Everyone else has written about this, I'll leave it to you to decide whether you want to let this rest or not.

I'm not exactly looking forward to watching two world champions piddle around fighting to see who finishes next to last (assuming the Marussia's conk out).

Red Bull and Renault

Who knows what the future holds for these two? Rumours abount that Renault want to purchase Toro Rosso and have it as a works team. What definately seems to be the case, is that this is a marriage of convenience right now.

Ferrari

Ok, you would have to say Vettel seems to have made the right move. Red Bull have gone backwards and Ferrari have gone forwards.

I still say he ran away from Red Bull. He admitted in an interview today in fact "there were a couple of things on the other side" - alluding to him not being too happy at being beaten soundly by Ricciardo. But, heyho, Ferrari now seem to be the closest challenger to Mercedes.

With Rosberg seemingly in Hamilton's pocket for the time being, Ferrari entering the fray is the only hope we have of a good season.

Driver of the day in Australia had to be Felipe Nasr. Awesome stuff!

Is F1 in good health?

My co-blogger and I were talking about this the other day. I'm not sure F1 is in great health right now. 15 cars started the race in Oz. Not great. McLaren are floundering at the back, Bernie is having a pop at "disgraceful Marussia", no German GP...

Bernie goes where the money is - ie the money paid by whomever to stage a race. He doesnt go where paying fans are. The stands and viewing areas were pretty empty in Malaysia FP. OK, possibly a naff example as it's one of the more popular newer races and is generally well attended for qualy and the race.

The old one of Monza again being under threat has come round again. Talk about ripping the heart out of F1. Spa, Silverstone, Suzuka, Monza, Monaco...these are the essence of F1 and must stay.

That said, I'm not sure about the special "bargain" price of £99 GA for a weekend at Silverstone. Most European races are cheaper. It cost me £82 for a 3 day grandstand seat in Hungary!

The reverse is that you have a lot of interesting teammate battles this year - Kimi Vs Seb, Alonso Vs JB....Ricciardo seems to have the measure of Kvyat for now. Nico needs to come back and sort Lewis. This season is shaping up like last season without the Mercedes battle - not good!

Predictions for Malaysia? As they line up on the grid - Lewis, Seb, Nico.

F1 2014 - Final blog of the year

Justin:

Well, the "title showdown" turned out to be a damp squib in terms of Rosberg and Hamilton going at it to the death.

The race itself was pretty dull, as most in Abu Dhabi are. The title was decided at the start when Lewis made an amazing start and Rosberg bogged down.

Rosberg was very gracious in defeat and wounds seemed to have healed for now between the two men.

Nico himself said that he didn't want people to talk about his ERS failure, as it wouldn't have made a difference anyway as Lewis was leading and going well at the time.

Spa - The turning point

The drivers championship was won and lost in Spa, rather after Spa. However much Lewis said he came out ready for war after this, one could easily say that Nico lost his mental edge in the fallout.

His team completely blamed him for what in my mind was a mere racing incident. They fined him and told him off rather publicly. Add to that the fans opening and happily booing him. It clearly affected him. His races were littered with errors after Spa.

By the time he'd pulled himself together again with an absolutely sterling race weekend in Brazil, it was all probably to little too late to stop the Hamilton Juggernaut.

Both guys will come back stronger next year, but I expect Nico to run Lewis even closer than 2014. You heard it hear first. Nico Rosberg - 2015 World Champion!

Driver of the year

I've already mentioned Bottas and Ricciardo as clear contenders. Obviously Hamilton is clear choice for the award, but maybe that's too easy given he won the title?

Lewis has shown a certain level of maturity in his driving and attitude outside the car this year.

Motorsport magazine actually had Alonso as their driver of the year, and that is hard to argue with. Ok, there were no headline grabbing wins and just one podium. The Ferrari he is driving this year is the worst car he has had in his 5 years there and yet he still drags performances out of it that his team-mate gets nowhere near to. It was the 4th, possibly even 5th fastest car at times this year. Ok, Kimi struggled with balancing the car all year, but Alonso absolutely destroyed Kimi 16-3 in terms of races done better in (the best out of all the teams). You'd say Massa kept Alonso on his toes more than Kimi.

1. Daniel Ricciardo
2. Bottas/ Hamilton
3. Alonso
4. Rosberg
5. Button

Damp Squib of the year

One word. Vettel.
Possibly one of the naffest title defences in history. Ok, you don't have the best car to win the title, but at least get a race win or two. No? Get trashed by your team-mate and run away? Ok then.

The true greats always adapt. Vettel has to go to Ferrari and blow Kimi away, that should be the first thing on his to do list.

Squabble of the year

Erm, any overtakes involving Ricciardo. That dude can race!!

Also, the Alonso vs Vettel duel at Silverstone. Epic! Even more epic were the verbals over the radio.



To 2015 we go. We hope to see JB still at McLaren alongside Alonso next season - that could be fun. Alonso...doing a deal with the devil that is Dennis again.....hmmmmmm.

I need to purchase some Alonso/ McLaren merchandise, whenever they get around to announcing it.

Enjoy the next 3 months with no F1 :-(. Time for an F1 book and the review of the year dvd.

A picture, as Fernando Alonso leaves Ferrari after 5 years, of one of the many memorable moments he had there.... a win in the wet in Malaysia in 2012 (pic from bbc I think).

If he reads this, I invite my esteemed co-blogger to reply.

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!


 

Tough luck!

Justin:

Teammate battles are becoming very intriguing this year, more so than any season that I can recall in recent times. Three battles in particular are proving the most interesting to me thus far...

Mercedes
Hamilton is seemingly burying Rosberg at the moment, with three wins on the spin. Bahrain was amazing in terms of these two dueling for the lead for the entire race. In China Hamilton was utterly dominant where Rosberg never really got going. Nico had all sorts of technical problems on the grid and it was a great recovery drive to limit the points loss damage to Lewis. Three poles so far for Lewis, three wins from four. It will be interesting to see how Rosberg does in Spain and whether he can cease the runaway express that is an on-song Hamilton.

Ferrari
The one driver lineup that everyone thought was going to explode first hasn't, and doesnt really show any signs of doing so. Kimi is uncomfortable with the car and is generally struggling at the moment. Alonso drove the car off it's wheels in China to a great third place. The true all time greats find ways of adapting their driving to get the best out of a not so great car or a car that is not to their liking. Alonso does this - see 2012 as just one example. Drivers such as Kimi and JB are awesome on their day when the car is just right. If it's slightly off, then usually so are they. We'll see what happens when Kimi comes back.

Red Bull
That's twice in four races now that Red Bull have asked Vettel to move aside for Ricciardo. Oh dear. Ricciardo is blowing Vettel away a bit at the moment. He is getting on better with car whilst Vettel struggles to adapt to the new regulations. Vettel has gone on record as saying that yep, Daniel is doing a better job, plain and simple. How does that really sit with a four time world champion? Not well I'd expect. We've already had a flash of that Vettel petulance on the radio...."Daniel is behind you, he stopped later.."......"Tough luck!". A flash of that thinking that says he is bigger than the team once again.

I think this situation will explode soon if Vettel doesnt start putting the new guy firmly in his place.

Alonso made a remark at the end of last year that if when Vettel has an average car, same as the rest, or a car he doesnt get on with very well....if he comes 5th, 7th, 8th, then these four world titles are even worse news for Vettel and how people view him.

He was king of the exhaust-blown era, but that is all gone now. Can he adapt? Is he a true all-time great?


It's not just these three....Williams....Massa Vs Bottas.....Force India...Hulk vs Perez....it's kicking off all over the grid this year and I love it!!

Now...where was I?

Justin:

Two rounds gone, two wins for Mercedes. It seems the rumours were bang on the money before the season started. Mercedes have gotten themselves a huge gap and the title race will seemingly be fought between Nico and Lewis.

F1 2014
Is a new beast. It is an engine formula now, with aerodynamics taking a backseat. Mercedes have the best engine by far, hence even if the Red Bull is the fastest car in certain corners and is more aerodynamically efficient etc, the Mercedes engine still has more grunt. With horsepower to spare and the Renault engines having serious reliability issues, I find it difficult to see where another winner will come from at least until we get back to Europe or a wet race before then.

Ferrari
Pains me to say it, but the Ferrari does not look that fast. Alonso pretty much started 4th and finished 4th in both races, making no notable superfast overtakes aside from on Hulkenberg at the end of Malaysia (Hulk's tyres were shot to pieces). It's easier to make a fast car reliable, than to make a reliable car fast. The Ferrari is reliable, but looks to be the third fastest car behind Mercedes and Red Bull...at best.

Domination - Nico vs Lewis
It's early days, but you'd be silly not to put fair cash on either of the Mercedes drivers being champion in 2014. At least there are two people dominating right now, as opposed to just Vettel in the second half of 2013 - though I must say the Malaysian race was pretty boring!!

I am still going with my instinct and sticking with Nico for the title. People are saying Hamilton thrashed him at Sepang and that Nico wouldnt have won had Lewis not retired in Oz. Well, the latter we'll never know. The former - Nico seemed happy enough with second in Sepang. Just like JB accepted when he was at McLaren with Lewis, there will be days when Lewis absolutely knocks you out of the park. It's what you do on the days he doesnt that matters. Over a season, I think it's going to be a very close run thing between these two.

Felipe - Valtteri is faster than you
I sympathise with Massa here. Surely Williams will understand where he was coming from on ignoring team orders.

Hulkenberg
How has this guy not go a top drive? He was awesome in Malaysia.

New sound
I still miss the V8 roar, especially when they are on the grid starting the race. But, you can hear the fans cheering, the tyres screeching and the engine sound is quite different engine to engine and it's nice and deep...rich.

Next round....Bahrain. Let's hope Mark Webber avoids Nigel Mansell impressions in future.

3 minutes 10...hehehe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/26798524

Schumi and Senna
No news on Schumi unfortunately.

It's 20 years in May since the passing of the great Aryton Senna. Two giants of the sport.

Here is a very cool twenty year anniversary edition of Senna's helmet, designed by the son of the guy who used to design Senna's helmets.

Toxic Teammates

Justin:

Best friends, work colleagues etc etc, fall out. Some friendships recover, get over blips, some aren't meant to or simply don't. For one reason or another, lack of effort or caring, some friendships fade.

Add to all this the intense sporting environment of F1 and you would have to say true friendships are hard to find. That's not to say they do not exist, just rarely between two drivers on the same team.


I've picked three examples of when "teammates" were nothing of the sort, where the relationship soured and people fought the enemies within, but each example has some striking similarities with the next. Indeed, Piquet Vs Mansell at Williams in 1986 is similar in nature to that of Alonso Vs Hamilton at Mclaren in 2007. That of established double world champion coming in to a British team either expecting to be number 1, or promised they would be number 1. In the case of Williams fate intervened and in the case of Mclaren Ron Dennis sold Alonso a dream that didn't exist (read, there seemed to have been an almighty misunderstanding and general fuckup at the contract signing!).

The first example, Prost Vs Senna...what hasn't been said about it? This was simply the case of Senna thinking "who is the best driver?" and then setting out to move to the best team, alongside the best driver, to destroy him.

Prost Vs Senna

Prost himself remarked once that Senna wanted to not beat him, but humiliate him. That was Monaco in 1988 when Senna was told to slow down whilst 55 seconds in the lead ahead of Prost. He kept pushing and pushing, then crashed out. No doubt Prost saw Senna wanting to humiliate him as a weakness. Despite the odd barbed remark, things remained cordial enough for 88, with Senna taking the title in Japan.

1989 was the beginning of the end...the end of 89 was the end of the end.

Senna had begun moulding the team around him and even though Prost won the title, Senna had effectively driven Prost out of his home simply because he refused to work with someone like Senna ever again.

They crashed into each other in the 1989 finale in Japan, one blaming the other. Senna got his car moving again, via a steward bump start. Prost went immediately to the FIA office to lodge a formal complaint about Senna. Senna was DQ'd, for re-entering the track a few metres from where he left it.

Prost took the title whilst Dennis protested on Senna's behalf. Theres favouritism if ever you saw it. Dennis always claims to give equal treatment to drivers. OK, Prost was taking the number 1 to Ferrari for 1990, but still, Mclaren won the drivers and constructors titles and here he was defending Senna at the expense of Prost.

Senna's passion and intense drive came from his need to be the best, to prove himself against the best. To destroy the best.

For 1990 they weren't teammates, but they weren't friends at all. The rivalry carried on.

Another example of Prost's alienation from Dennis was Prost throwing his winning trophy at Monza in 89, when he'd just announced his move to Ferrari, to the Ferrari fans. Whoops! Again, Dennis helped aid the disintegration of relations no end.

All the way to another coming together in Japan for the title showdown. Senna later admitted to deliberately getting his own back for what happened in 1989. Senna was very passionate, driven by a sense of injustice, the system being against him. Prost was cool, calm and calculating.

They reconciled when Senna won his last race in Australia 1993 and Prost joined him in the podium. They were no longer rivals as Prost was retiring.

All I remember of their years at Mclaren was a completely poisonous relationship.

Opposites do not attract.

 

Mansell Vs Piquet

Piquet arrived at Williams in 1986 as a double world champion. Mansell was the guy who wasnt supposed to be fast, to be easily put in his place by Piquet. 

Piquet has stated previously that when he signed it was on the understanding he would be number 1. A month or so later the team was in a state of disarray after Frank Williams' accident.

With equal equipment and no team orders Mansell was inspired whilst Piquet was clearly rattled.

Through 1986 and 1987 the two had some titanic clashes on and off the track. Piquet always felt like the fighting outsider whilst Mansell was the fighting Brit, just fighting for everything.

Honda paid Piquet's salary and were non too impressed that through 1986 Williams never ordered Mansell to pull aside and let Piquet through. Piquet stated that had he been backed he would have won the title, rather than allowing in-team fighting. This is similar to Alonso and Hamilton.

The low point of this toxic teammate lineup included some rather nasty remarks from Piquet about Mansell's wife.

Alonso Vs Hamilton

Possibly the most toxic of the lot as everything went to pot within half a year of Alonso and Hamilton first teaming up at Mclaren.

Looking back now, it's easy to see that perhaps the issue wasn't between the drivers themselves, but more Alonso and Ron Dennis...therefore, Alonso Vs everyone at Mclaren. However, both drivers had plenty of anger towards each other at the time.

This year in F1 history was also set against the backdrop of "spygate", where some Mclaren team-members were found to have gotten their hands on Ferrari car data.

Has to be said, Alonso the antagonistic politics player came to the fore in 2007.

First signs of real trouble brewed in Monaco when Hamilton was annoyed about being told to hold station behind Alonso after the final pitstops. 

Unbeknown to Ron Dennis, Alonso had seen some of the Ferrari data, but would later refuse to take part in the spygate trial.

As the season progressed, relations between all parties soured as we all realised there had clearly been some huge misunderstanding between Alonso and Dennis when they signed contracts. Alonso believed he was to be given number one status to lead Mclaren's charge to his third world title. Nobody was really prepared for how quick Hamilton was to be, apart from maybe hamilton himself.

This was an epic clash of ego's. The proud, double world champion who would not regard Hamilton as anything other than a young, brash upstart who he'd firmly put in his place. As the year progressed Hamilton's ego came to the fore and he almost kind of forgot his place in the standings of F1 driver greats. It was a great rookie season for sure, but he was not standing shoulder to shoulder through history with the very best just yet - his strut and actions suggested he thought otherwise.

By Hungary came around things were strained. Hamilton ignored a team order to let Alonso past him in qualifying for a clear run. This had been agreed before the race. Yes, we don't usually hear this bit, the bit where Hamilton started off a chain of events, not Alonso.

As revenge, Alonso came into refuel in the final moments of qualy, was cleared to go, and just waited patiently in his pitbox. Hamilton was queuing behind and as a result of Alonso delaying him, he missed a final run. 

Dennis hauled Alonso's trainer off into the garage for a few harsh words.

Essentially, Mclaren was now tearing itself apart at the seams. For a man who always claims to be able to manage driver lineups and who is a huge control freak, Ron Dennis was getting a lot of things wrong as his house became a rampant mine of utter chaos.

Alonso got penalised for his actions and started with a grid penalty - not good for the team.

Allegedly Alonso also approached Dennis with regard to his knowledge of the Ferrari data. Alonso is then alleged to have told Dennis "give me number one status or I go to the FIA with this data". Dennis told him to go to the FIA as he hadnt  a clue such data existed.

Things continued to sour between all three, with both drivers antagonising on and off the track.

As DC put it a while ago, Alonso had been sold a dream by Dennis...what it was, what it was supposed to be, they cannot agree on.

Dennis also claims not to favour drivers.....lets ask Mika and DC shall we?! Alonso took it as they arent backing him so they must be backing Hamilton then.

Alonso drove bloody well given all the chaos around him, the team being against him etc etc.

In the end, the chaos at Mclaren gifted the title to Kimi as the two Mclaren guys paid too much attention to each other.

Alonso was right about one thing - if Mclaren would have backed him, he'd have won the title.

Alonso and Vettel at RB will never happen...too toxic a mix. I dont think Kimi being at RB will be any less toxic either frankly. Vettel will spit his dummy when he loses.

A link to a video of before it all went wrong - funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKU90BSHqHk

News roundup and results analysis

Justin:

Apologies to all....4...(?) readers for the rather dull title of this post.

I haven't blogged since Malaysia, which is a lifetime for me. My co-blogger has unofficially reduced his role from fellow founder of "I Was Having a Blog" and full-time blogger to making only special guest blogs when he really feels he needs to dump one out. Kimi would be proud, not answering to the calls of the fans or his team, listening only to what he wants to do and when. Or something.

I'm just going to pick out bits randomly from China and Bahrain.

China saw a massively dominant Fernando Alonso win which vaulted him right into the title fight. There were plenty of overtakes in an action packed race. Ferrari have a very fast car this year, and what's more is it's pace in qualifying which usually sees both drivers in the top 3/4 on the grid.

Unfortunately then in Bahrain Ferrari had plenty of issues, even though they qualified well and looked to be on for podiums in the race. Alonso had DRS problems which dropped him down the field, for a fight back to 8th. Massa had two punctures! Talk about bad luck.

Someone that cannot buy luck right now is Mark Webber. The wheels literally came off his campaign in China, nearly battering into Vettel in the process.

We saw hard and fast wheel to wheel racing with the Mclarens in Bahrain. People seemed to complain that Button complained too much about Perez's style of going racing.

To be fair to JB, if my teammate rammed me and nearly punctured my tyre whilst sending carbon fibre flying and then banging wheels with me at 200mph in another incident, I'd be annoyed too.

It was awesome to watch though wasn't it? :-).

Nico Rosberg bagged a very impressive pole in Bahrain then proceeded to travel backwards quickly during the race.

Lewis seems to be hanging on in third in the title race, 27 points behind Vettel, at the moment. To me though, in race trim, the Mercedes is just not as quick as Ferrari, red Bull or indeed Lotus.

Kimi has taken three podiums from four races thus far - consistency is key once again this year.

Alonso and Ferrari are quicker this year, but of a potential 4 podiums in the first 4 races, cock ups have seen many lost points - they should have told him not to use DRS again when he pitted at the very least.

He is now 4th, 30 points adrift of Vettel after the first 4 races.

It's a gap that cannot get any bigger and why a podium in Spain in two weeks is very much the order of the day.

Murray Walker has been presenting his fave moments from F1 though history for the BBC this year.

The last one was Villeneuve vs Arnoux in France in 1979. They'd be hauled before the stewards and banned for this type of racing these days, but boy did it look bloody awesome!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/22032240