Anyone for bowling?

 

I thought of that blog title, perhaps somewhat smugly, as soon as the first corner carnage unfolded. Turns out, great minds think alike - check out poor Charles LeClerc on Twitter...

I cannot recall such an action packed, exciting race in recent memory. Wow. 

 

First corner carnage changes the race

They really did topple like pins from a bowling game, cannoning off into each other. 

Bottas made a poor start, and was overtaken by Norris and Perez. To be fair, it was the first wet running all weekend, so some errors were bound to happen somewhere. Bottas misjudged the braking and nerfed into Norris, who in turn was a passenger and spun into Verstappen. Bottas continued sliding and took out Perez. They all went off at the outside of the hairpin corner. Then a charging Stroll mounted the inside grass and clattered into LeClerc, who then in turn hit Ricciardo a little further around the corner. Utter carnage. Pieces of F1 car strewn everywhere and anyone who stayed to the inside probably did better than those going around the outside of the carnage. Ocon and Vettel nipped through from eighth and tenth to go second and third behind Hamilton! Sainz came from 15th to...4th was it? Amazing. And also shows just how many cars were retired or knocked to the back. Alonso sort of got stuck a bit on the exit, having had to slow right down as he went more to the outside to try and avoid the spinning cars. The race was stopped due to just how much wreckage there was on track.

 

Weirdest restart in F1 history?

Coming round to the grid for the restart, everyone but Hamilton elected to change from wets to slicks and to start from the pitlane. This left Hamilton to take the grid alone. What the actual smeg was that? You'd have to rub your eyes a few times to believe it. It turned out later that Mercedes thought it was going to rain again. The Channel 4 pundits thought it might have been to do with well, if he pits with everyone else, there are no guarantees he comes out first. Witness George Russell making massive pitstop gains to emerge second I think?

Ocon vs Vettel

For most of the race, Vettel was closely tracking Ocon, never more than 1.5 seconds adrift. He made a couple of notable moves, the biggest was when Ocon was lapping a McLaren down the start finish straight. All in all, Ocon took full advantage and drove an absolutely flawless race in the lead with a four time champion breathing down his neck for 68 laps. Amazing. Thoroughly well deserved win!

You can look at a full race analysis here, courtesy of BBC and Andrew Benson. I'm gonna delve into the juiciest bits.

Hamilton vs Verstappen

The last 2 races have been a disaster for Verstappen, of fairly epic proportions. He was 32 points ahead before Silverstone. He is now 8 behind. That's a 40 point swing to Hamilton. Ok, for Hungary there was absolutely no blame on Verstappen as he was clattered into by Norris, a mere passenger himself. His car was severely damaged and he laboured near the back of the race for the majority of laps, but he did scrape a point near the end. How valuable could that be at the end of the year?

 

Hamilton vs Alonso

Hamilton had so much speed during the race and would unquestionably have caught Ocon for the win (after being slap bang last after the first lap of the restart, having pitted for slicks) if it hadn't been for the dogged brilliance of Alonso in a battle for 4th. He held Hamilton off for ten laps, which prevented Hamilton catching Ocon - you could see he was under a second from Vettel at the end!

It was just two supreme racers at their total best. Alonso celebrated his 40th birthday in style with a defiant, classy drive to 4th (well, 5th, but Vettel was later DQ'd due to fuel irregularities).

Check out the battle here.

Other epic stuff...

The Williams boys drove brilliantly to both get Williams' first points of the year. Latiffi was in third at one point, Russell in second at one point too (I think? I lost track to be honest with so much going on!).

Sainz again drove a pretty stellar race, finishing 4th with Alonso breathing down his neck. Though obviously this was later third due to Vettel's DQ.

I think we all need a little break just to calm the hell down after this one. Just, wow. Nothing I can really say will describe just how much fun, excitement and proper wheel to wheel racing this one had.

The title race is evenly poised as we go to Spa. 

And breathe.

Round 4: Russia

Justin:

Best radio transmission of the year, or any year in recent history..
Clearly goes to Mr Vettel. Amongst the many bleeps, he was essentially exasperated at being punted off not once, but twice! Classic, amusing stuff there. Kvyat admitted fault for turn 2 as he locked up, but at turn 3 Vettel was lifting off because he thought he had damage. It's a bit more difficult to react when you are following someone a metre behind at 200mph, when they suddenly slow down where they are meant to be doing flat out.

Ferrari are not having the best of starts to a season at all. Then again, Kimi has collected two podiums in as many races. You'd have thought Vettel could have done more though.

Fun racing, but not at the front
It was a great race to watch, with plenty going on through the field, except at the front. Rosberg was comfortable in leading throughout and took his 4th win of the year, 7th in a row (joining Ascari and Schumacher on that tally, with only Vettel on 9 ahead of him). I've said this before...Hamilton ran off like a scalded dog for most of 2015 and there was no fighting at the front. Same for Rosberg right now.

Once again his main competition had problems and fell away at the start (Vettel), or even before the start (Hamilton with his engine issues starting 10th).

Rosberg knows the challenge will come eventually. Hamilton knows too. He also knows he can't buy any luck at all right now.

McLaren rising? 
Alonso the racer and fighter is still there, as evidenced by him going round the outside of all the mess at turn 3. Opportunity/ luck/ instinct...call it what you will, it lifted him to 8th and he eventually finished 6th. Button took 10th and despite Vettel falling off the track, both guys said the pace was there and a double points finish was on merit.

Driver of the day
Max was running second for a while, Alonso got a good result. Both Williams drivers did well too. Magnussen came 7th....in a Renault. Right there is my driver of the day I think. Either him or Hamilton.

To Spain in two weeks we go. I want a fight at the front between Lewis and Nico.

Might be worth pointing out that it's twenty years since Damon Hill won the championship. To date, he is the only world champion son of a world champion. To date. Twenty years is a nice round number no?

The final word is for Ayrton Senna. I read somewhere that the Russian GP this year was the first to be held on May 1st since Senna died 22 years ago. Wow. 22 years. Still feels like yesterday.

A legend. He passed away on raceday, but of course we cannot forget Roland Ratzenberger, who died the day before.

Both guys were 34, which I only just realised.

2016...just 54 days until "Lights out, away we go!"

With a new season nearly here, it occurred to me that we actually started this blog way back in 2010. The first blog takes us back through nearly 6 years of F1. Blimey.

Wow, that is a fair while ago. That was back when my long time co-blogger actually blogged once in a while ;-). That was when Alonso was fighting for titles and Webber was in his prime also fighting for titles.

A lifetime in F1 terms.

So, the season ahead...
Well, will we be hearing the famous words of Ben Edwards as the cars line up on the grid in Oz? Chances are, yes we will. It's complicated, but David Coulthard's production company have been hired by Channel 4 to take care of the F1 coverage. So, DC has swiped a lot of the BBC team - Ben Edwards included. It provides continuity for us folk who don't want Sky.

There isn't a great deal of news, but here is a quick roundup...

Honda have allegedly found 223BHP over the winter. I'd like to believe it. However, the piece reads like a lovely bit of PR frankly. The Honda engineers cancelled Christmas and worked 24/7? Yeah, ok! (I should note here that Honda have since said they don't know where the figure or report came from).

The Honda engine will be as fast as the 2015 Ferrari. Erm, I guess that is progress, but they will still be behind.

Though, they should at least have Manor, Renault and Haas behind them.

We welcome Jolyon Palmer to the grid with Renault. He has Pastor as a teammate - all you need to do is not crash and you'll be doing better than him!

To be fair, all the news is stuffed full of drivers training and drivers off having a good time.

There isn't a great deal going on right now.

Car launches soon and then testing. That's when we and indeed JB and Alonso find out whether the McLaren is still far off the pace or not.

PS - you may or may not have noticed that I failed in my "write a blog a day for 30 days in November". I got to day 8 which was pretty good. Turns out I gave myself too many challenges!

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.

Monaco Magic

Justin:

On a track which offers the ultimate test of a driver, Mark Webber has re-written the history books with his Monaco GP win. He becomes the only Aussie to win the flagship event twice in the history of the sport. He has also won the race in two of the last three years.

He also becomes the sixth winner in six races this year, which has never before happened in F1. Though he didn't seem to care for this particular stat afterwards, saying that the Monaco win would be special regardless of this record.

(image above is from BBC website - we ain't breaching no copyrights here)


And did he do it in some style or what!

His first win of the year catapaults him to joint second in the title race - he is firmly in it ala 2010. Welcome back mate.

At the end of the race he finished just half a second ahead of Rosberg, followed in a train of cars by Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton and Massa. For most of the last twenty laps these guys were seperated by no more than 6 seconds. Fantastic stuff! At one point when the rain started falling, each was all over the back of the guy in front. At one point, they were all well under a second from each other.

Webber got a flyer (for once) at the start whilst Grosjean got in all sorts of bother, punting into Schumi and spinning himself off.

Maldonado had a horror weekend frankly. He used his car as an angry weapon on Perez in quali then crashed out in the race.

Webber, Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso (all on the softer compound) all stopped for harder styres around laps 29 and 30. By way of a mega in lap Alonso managed to jump Hamilton in the stops, and of course whilst all these guys pitted Vettel cruised by on his harder tyres that he had started on.

Good strategy by Red Bull saw Vettel eventually move from 9th on the grid to 4th at the end which represents a good day for Vettel really.

When Vettel pitted around lap 46 for the softer compound tyres when he was around 17 seconds ahead of Webber, but crucially 20-21 ahead of Hamilton. So, he re-emerged from the pits in 4th.

From lap 47 to the finish on lap 78 we were given Formula 1 racing of the highest order by guys who did not put a foot wrong all day.

It made my neck hairs stand on end watching the train of cars...Webber, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton...Massa (sort of hanging on just about at the back), covered by so little time for so many laps.

Beautiful!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18228584

Just watch from 5 minutes onwards on this BBC highlights clip!

To race this hard, fast and close is absolutely magnificent. At Monaco you do not get away with mistakes as you would on other tracks - you hit a wall and thats that.

It was a pleasure watching these guys fight.

We truly are in a golden era for F1 - I don't care what negative remarks people have about tyres. F1 drivers adapt - thats a specific skill all the best guys have.

Time for a quick sub-heading feature!

Webber - Driver of the day, on a day when there were a fair few contenders. Faultless race and from pole too.

Schumi - Life in the old dog yet as proved by his blistering quali lap, only to be scuppered by yet again more mechanical issues in the race.

Vettel - Keeps picking up points - great drive from 9th to 4th.

Rosberg - Beautiful drive too - kept Webber honest throughout.

Hamilton - Picked up points again, but are Mclaren going backwards? He seemed to point the finger firmly at their door again, seemingly annoying Whitmarsh a little in the process.

Button - One to forget - now 31 points of the championship lead after 3 rubbish races.

Di Resta - Fantastic drive through to 7th. I doubt he will be at Force India next year.

Alonso - This is where my objectivity may take a battering from my co-blogger, but I have seen various reports from differing sources all saying that Alonso is essentially driving as well as he ever has, doing extraordinary things in an ordinary car (it was a dog at the start of the year, but Ferrari do seem to be turning it into something better. In the meantime Alono's driving ability alone is keeping him in the hunt. He is utterly relentless and never gives up and is always lurking in the points. DC himself called Alonso unbelievable and the BBC's Gary Anderson stated in his blog:

 "In Alonso's case, his position is simply down to the quality of the driver. He has done astounding things with that car. He's always good off the start, always gets stuck in, and then fights the battle from then on." 

 The more I read about people complaining about tyres (fans?) saying they want to know who the fastest guys in the fastest cars are, not have this apparent lottery we are having with six different winners in six races......I say to you, look at the title standings....and shut the fuck up!!!!!

The cream always rises to the top, no matter the conditions, rules etc.....

Alonso leads Webber and Vettel followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Kimi and Button....

Five of those seven have been contesting the title for the past two years and keeping race wins amongst themselves exclusively (Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Button and Hamilton) and one of the others is a former world champion.

What we have is near enough to a level playing field for the golden generation of Formula One drivers.

Let them get on with it!

Welcome to the blog

Phil: Welcome to our new blog. We're one race into one of the most eagerly anticipated Formula 1 seasons in years, with Alonso at Ferrari, the return of Michael Schumacher, three new teams and a ban on refuelling. The first race, at Bahrain two weeks ago, however, was criticised for being a bit boring. Well, you haven't seen boring yet. Wait until a few more blog entries, you'll be begging for Bahrain 2010 then.

This weekend's race in Melbourne is billed as a sunset spectacular. That's sunset in Australia, so still redeye in the UK. We'll post again over the weekend, if we can be bothered to get up early at watch it.