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 6: Monaco, plus Round 7 Preview

Justin:

Headline. Ricciardo fails to smile after race.

You can't blame him at all. Red Bull fucked up big time and cost him what was looking like his first win at Monaco.


He said he didn't like being the miserable guy in interviews, but he just wanted to get out of there and skip the team de-brief. He just didn't want to hear what they had to say. I read somewhere that he told them on the radio not to say anything, as nothing they had to say would help. Crikey.

Driver of the day

Goes to either one of the first three frankly. Hamilton was on fire, plain and simple.

After being released by Rosberg, Lewis dropped him like a dead weight and began reeling in Ricciardo bit by bit. Hamilton was at one with his machine and the elements. The cream rises to the top in the wet at Monaco. Case in point, Perez storming to third. Fantastic.

What of Rosberg? He clearly had a bad day at the office. He was due one. He struggled with break temperatures, tyre temperatures...you name it. He also said he just didn't have confidence in the car to push hard, otherwise he would have been in the barriers.

It's not like he is shit around here, having won the last three Monaco races. However, in one swoop Hamilton has nearly halved his deficit in the points standings.

Fifty and still going

Well done McLaren. Alonso and Button and both got points finishes. Alonso probably quite enjoyed keeping Rosberg behind him in the closing stages.



News (9 June)

The driver merry-go-round has started for 2017, or as we all call it, silly season.

The facts are this:

1. Nico Rosberg and Kimi are the only guys out of contract for 2017 at one of the top 3 teams (Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari). I'm calling Red Bull the second fastest now, as frankly they are on top of Ferrari right now.

2. Rosberg is highly likely to sign again for Mercedes. He has said as much, and Mercedes have said they wish to keep him. Why would he leave? Nowhere else would give him a car as dominating as the Merc. There was a brief rumour that Ferrari were sniffing around him, to replace Kimi. I really don't see that happening. It does make more sense for Ferrari than Nico though.

3. Kimi holds the key to the top line driver market. He wants to stay, Ferrari feel his relationship with Vettel works well. So, signing him for 2017 should be going ahead right? We'll see. He is still quick that is for sure.

4. There are a whole host of potentially better drivers wanting that Ferrari seat. Perez has done his top team hopes no harm at all recently. The 2013 McLaren was a bag of shit and I feel that perhaps a top drive came at the wrong time for him - He was on the way up, McLaren were well on their way down! Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Valtteri Bottas are all waiting for that top drive.

Though, Kimi is ahead of Vettel in the standings right now.

5. Ferrari need to decide - Do they maintain the status quo for the sake of the team, or do they draft in a hungry, younger racer to come and shake things up? Who knows?

6. Button is out of contract at McLaren. What he does not deserve at all is being treated like shit yet again in a "will they, won't they?" sign him for another year...

He is a champion and deserves only the best treatment frankly.

Rumour is that Williams will let Massa go and draft in Button when Vandoorne takes his seat.

7. Will Kvyat be at Torro Rosso in 2017? He has been slagging Red Bull off here and there non-stop since being sacked by the big team. We shall see.


Round 7: Canada predictions 

Monaco was the place where a powerful engine matters least.

I cannot see Red Bull ruffling the feathers of Mercedes as much in Canada.

Hamilton knows how to win there, that is for sure.

You heard it here first! Top two will be Mercedes (I cannot predict which way around), then Ricciardo in third.

Day two: Red Bull are up shit creek without a paddle

And have nobody to blame but themselves...

I saw an article on the BBC today where Christian Horner stated Red Bull were right on the cusp of not being able to fully prepare for 2016.

It's the old five to midnight on the clock and they are still faffing around trying to find an engine for next year.

In it for racing and F1 or in it for marketing?
I ask myself, and indeed you, would a pure racing team such as Williams have thrown their toys out of the pram so far and loudly when their engine partner falls below their expectations?

Perhaps they might. But would a pure racing team completely tear their engine partner to shreds in public and actively look to turn the relationship so toxic that there is no other alternative than to dissolve the partnership - even though there are zero obvious alternatives to give you an engine?!

No, I don't think so.

In this aspect alone, Red Bull really must stop whinging and either put up or get the hell out of F1.

I don't like them...but...
They have been a breath of fresh air for F1 in some terms. Though, they nearly killed my interest in the 2013 season when Vettel dominated the last half of the season like Hamilton has this season.

I despise Helmut Marko and think Horner needs to grow his vocabulary above and beyond "Yeah, no, absolutely!".

I strongly disliked the blatant favouring of Vettel over Webber, even in 2010 when Vettel was not a champion. Just look at Turkey that year - blatantly Vettel moved into Webber, and everyone bar the actual team owner blames Webber!

All that said, Dietrich Mateschitz more often than not seems like a sensible chap.

F1 will survive without them
Will it though? I would like to hope so...But at the same time, if they leave and take Torro Rosso with them, thats four pretty racey cars that in all probability will be replaced by backmarker teams - making the Mercedes procession ever more straightforward.

So, I'd rather Red Bull raced next year for sure. Plus in Ricciardo and Kvyat, they have two hugely talented guys. And indeed Verstappen and Sainz Jr.

In it to win it, else we'll pack up and go home
If Williams doesn't win, they try and get back to the top as they exist to race.

If Red Bull stops winning, they may pack up and go home as they exist to market a product.

I mean, sure we have had quit threats from huge teams in the past, but that was different. That is because they didn't like rule and regulation changes.

Red Bull have turned their engine partnership so toxic, they had to divorce without having a replacement in mind! Stupid idiots.

They whinge that Mercedes and Honda don't want to do a deal. They don't have to do anything!!

Well, rumour is that Honda do but are being blocked by Evil Ron - snigger.

Ferrari want to supply them with a 2015 engine. Doh. That has gone down like a lead turd in Milton Keynes.

VW....not any more!!
The big rumour was they would take Ferrari engines of some sort for two years, then VW would come in and buy Red Bull out.

Not any more. You try losing £3 billion then coming into F1!!

So, as the clock strikes twelve, the latest is they may have an unmarked Renault engine after all.

Will they be on the grid next year?

One thing for sure is that Evil Bernie is doing all he can to help.

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.

2014 preview

Justin:

Just 71 days, 9 hours and 11 minutes until P1 in Australia.

Of course before this preview gets going, I should mention Michael Shumacher. As many people have pointed out, if anyone was in a position where fighting spirit and steel determination was needed, he'd be top of the list. Get well soon Michael.

Red Bull
With Webber having departed, Daniel Ricciardo steps into the role of Aussie Number Two. Course, Red Bull say there are no clear orders regarding number one drivers, but we all know it's Vettel's house - his 4 world titles give him this as well as protection from the RB powers that be when things go wrong - see Malaysia 2013! Ricciardo is quick. Whilst I don't think he'll beat Vettel over a season, there might be one or two times where Vettel throws his toys out of the pram when Ricciardo might trump him in qualy. Team dynamics are key and it will be interesting to see how each party reacts when this happens. I expect Vettel to be in the title hunt and RB will be up there with Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Lotus.

Mercedes
Rosberg and Hamilton were evenly matched in 2013. Lewis will have more of an input on the car this time around so expect to see a faster, more settled Lewis in 2014. Rosberg will undoubtedly raise his game to meet this challenge. If, as people predict, Mercedes build the best power train, then expect both drivers to be real title contenders. The only weaknesses with Mercedes could be tyre wear (they have had this issue since 2010/11) and the reshuffle at the top - with Brawn out they have a technical director and a commercial director. Will be interesting to see who takes blame for stuff when it goes tits up.

Ferrari
Fire and Ice. This is the team where it could all go spectacularly wrong. If they don't produce a winning car (quite likely given the shit they have churned out the last few years), then expect Alonso to wring it's neck and get more out of it than Kimi over the course of a season. Kimi was allegedly brought in to keep Alonso honest in qualy - but as Alonso pointed out, Massa was just as quick as Kimi over their years as teammates. If Ferrari give both guys a winning car - then, well, how it all plays out is anyones guess. The politics at Ferrari are huge. Kimi more or less doesnt get involved in all this so I think it will all be down to how each guy reacts when soundly beaten by the other. Then again, these two may push each other towards the constructors and drivers titles, who knows.

McLaren
This is the year that JB could be made to look a little stupid by a fast rookie. It also has the potential to be the year when JB drives a sublime car to his second world title. If the car is awesome, JB will crush Magnuessen. As a team they must bounce back after 2013 was their worst season for 30 years!

Lotus
Maldonado is still a wild, unpredictable driver. He did win a race when the Williams was good, but I don't expect much from him at Lotus. They should have gotten The Hulk. Grosjean will go onwards and upwards from 2013 and lead this team with style I believe. I wouldnt be surprised, if the car is good, to see Grosjean take his first F1 win in 2014.

Williams
Regulation changes may help them move forwards. Bottas is a very quick guy and with Massa in it for three years I expect much progress from this legendary team in 2014.

Force India
Perez and Hulk is a great combination on paper. Whilst it was the best available seat for Hulk after Lotus declined his services, I am unsure why he has signed a multiyear contract - what if a big team comes calling, which it surely will. With Perez around, I'm half expecting these two to be shunting each other off a fair bit.

Sauber
If they can produce a good car as in 2013, expect Sutil to lead them to many points finishes.

Torro Rosso
Their car was pretty useful in 2013. If they can do the same again I reckon they'll get a fair few points finishes. JEV will be looking to prove the Red Bull people wrong by hiring Ricciardo over him.

Marussia and Caterham
The regulation changes represent the best chance of jumping up the grid a bit for these two eternal backmarker teams.

I have a funny feeling that the two Mercedes drivers will be heavily involved in the drivers title race. There are bound to be others for sure - Vettel and Alonso, but Mercedes seem to be making a lot of good noises thus far and the big rumour is that their power train is pretty awesome and ahead of the game. They need to sort bloody tyre wear and sort off-track issues asap.

Four races, four race winners, four championship leaders

Phil: Yesterday in Bahrain, the race that shouldn't have happened but everyone's secretly glad that it did reminded us yet again how close this season is - and there's every reason to think it will stay that way. As if the stat above wasn't enough, here's another - in 2011, seven men stood on the podium all season, and five of them monopolised it for all but the first two races. So far this season, eight men have stood on the podium, after only four races.

The balance of power in F1 seems to shift on an almost weekly basis. Last weekend in Shanghai, Mercedes were the class of the field. This weekend, Red Bull and Lotus had the advantage, Mercedes were lacklustre and erstwhile championship leaders McLaren really had a race to forget. David Coulthard made a very interesting point pre-race in that this is what you get when you have stability in the rules - each team has time to figure out what makes the fastest teams fastest, and copy it. The result is a very close field, which in turn makes for exciting races.

There's only time to note really that Raikkonen's second and Grosjean's third were the first podium positions for Lotus cars since Nelson Piquet in 1988. There's a great pic on the BBC website of race winner Vettel (oh yeah, forgot to mention, the reigning world champion took his first win of the season) marking the occasion by giving Raikkonen the bunny ears during the podium photo session.

Reasons to be cheerful

Phil: Anyone would think Lewis Hamilton had been sucking on a lemon for most of Sunday's Australian grand prix, to judge by his post-race demeanour. Having cocked up the start, allowing his teammate Jenson Button into a lead he never looked likely to lose, he (perhaps slightly unfairly, it has to be said) lost second place to reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel when the safety car came out. And the big picture is that he must know he once again has a car capable of winning the world championship, but that the only other man with the same car, his teammate, is already 10 points ahead.

So, just for Lewis, and with a nod to Ian Dury who went to the same school as us (yes, really!) here are some things we learned on Sunday which if he were to reflect on them for a moment might incline him not to be such a miserable sod.

1. Red Bull's domination is broken. By mid-season we may be cursing McLaren's domination, but a change in F1's prevailing wind is always refreshing to begin with. Particularly if you happen to be driving the new fastest car on the grid.
2. The midfield is closer than usual. Perez made it to 8th from 22nd on the grid. Raikkonen must have had a damn good shit before the race because he made it to 7th from 18th. A healthy number of retirements (9 out of 22 starters) kept it interesting and even without the last corner shenanigans I was struggling to keep up with who was running where.
3. Williams seem genuinely competitive. Probably both Maldonado and Senna ought to have scored points, and would have done had they avoided midfield shunts.
4. We don't need Sky after all. Apart from cutting a few laps behind the safety car, I genuinely forgot this was an extended highlights show, rather than every lap in full. This will admittedly be of limited interest to Lewis. But best of all...
5. There's another one this weekend.

Belgium

Justin: I predicted before the race that, wet or dry, it would be a fantastic race. I theorised that if dry then the Ferrari of Alonso would pile forward as they are amongst the very fastest cars in warmer weather. Also, see Button in a much faster car a long way back! If wet, chaos would reign supreme.

What a race it was eh!!

Highlights for me and all F1 fans had to be the absolutely balls out overtake by Webber on Alonso side by side going into, and through, Eau Rouge. It was just insane. As Brundle pointed out, both are expert racers, but even Alonso had to yield on that one as Webber just said "I'm having this!"

Another highlight had to be Schumi coming through the field from last to claim a fantastic 5th on his 20th anniversary. It had looked like the wheel(s) came off his celebrations in quali yesterday, but he drove a fantastic race and even had a late squabble with Nico. The radio announcement to Nico was rather amusing "Ok Nico you are free to race but just be careful with each other". DC then interpreted that as "Michael's coming to get you!" Alas it wasn't much of a fight as Nico was on the harder rubber so Michael had more speed and grip on the soft tyres.

My co-blogger and I were texting throughout and even until very late on we couldnt predict a winner in this race at all. It was mighty interesting as different strategies played out....would Red Bull need one more stop than the rest, just when would Ferrari pit Alonso to change his first set of softs etc etc? In fact, the last I knew, both my colleague and I predicted either JB or FA for the win. Everyone looked strong at different stages and everyone from Vettel to Webber, Alonso to Button looked ripe for a win at some point. Even Lewis looked pretty handy until he shunted Koboyashi. From how it looked, I'd say he just thought he'd passed him when in fact the Sauber had pulled back alongside him and he just didnt look as he moved across to take the line into the corner. Ooopsss.

It has to be said that JB's drive was another mega highlight for me. How many overtakes did he do? Hasn't he done the most in F1 this year now? And people said he was boring compared to Lewis! At one point Jenson pulled a frankly stupendous move at the outside of La Source on a Force India and...Sabuer wasn't it??

From the start Webber got bogged down yet again and went backwards immediately.

It should be noted at this point that Red Bull tried to get a new set of tyres in use for the race, particularly for Vettel's car, as the quali set had blistered badly. It was found that it was the Red Bull car itself, the way it was setup, that had done a lot of the damage.

It was quite amusing seeing Vettel so...animated, talking to the tyre chief from Pirelli on the grid (snigger).

Anyway...from the start...

Rosberg got a flyer and drobe superbly, having to defend very well from Vettel and co.

As is usually the case there was chaos at La Source as people bumped into one another. Someone nerfed Alonso and he had to compensate by driving very wide at the exit. Button got nerfed from behind and a bit of rear wing broke off.

Hamilton also went quickly backwards as the Ferrari's swarmed all over him. At one point, when Alonso took Massa, Lewis also nabbed back 4th(?) from Massa. The Ferrari's, it has to be said, had a magnificent speed through Eau Rouge and you could visibly see how much faster they were than most others through there.

Vettel and Webber pitted quite early on. This left Webber in midfield, but on the harder rubber, which would benefit him later on.

During the safety car period, Vettel pitted whilst Alonso opted to stay out, hoping Vettel's tyre issues would continue. Webber had radio issues and didnt come in during the safety car period.

As it all settled down towards the end it was Vettel, Alonso, Webber, Button. Webber and Button quickly caught and passed Alonso as the Ferrari just doesnt perform well with harder rubber. For some reason, they struggle to get them up to temperature.

So, win number 7 for Vettel. It was amusing reading reports that because Hamilton crashed they say he is now out of the title race. Isn't everyone?!

Webber is the nearest challenger and he is 93 points behind Seb. As my mathmatically gifted colleague pointed out, he only need finish 4th in each race from now on to retain the title.

Onto Monza we go in 2 weeks!

(check out Martin Brundle's column here where he praises Webber somewhat for his overtake on Fernando, and too right frankly)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/14711653.stm

Calm down, dear

Phil: I think we need to have a chat about the Red Bull team orders thing.

In my view it really ought not to be the headline: the headline should be Ferrari's first win since last autumn. Mark Webber having been told not to attempt to overtake his teammate for second place on the last lap of the race was slightly disappointing, as we missed out on what might have been an exciting last lap, but no more than that. Mark is right to try to overtake, he's right to ignore the team the first time, but I think that Red Bull were also right to try to stop him.

I really don't think anyone can condemn Red Bull yesterday and condone Ferrari at Hockenheim last year, for the following reasons.

1. Team orders were illegal then. They are legal now.
2. Massa was told to give up a position to his teammate. Webber was told not to overtake his teammate.
3. The Ferrari incident decided the win. The Red Bull incident decided second place.

Finally, and I don't think it's relevant to the comparison between the two incidents, but Vettel is dominating Webber every bit as much as, and probably more than, Alonso was dominating Massa. That's not a criticism of Webber, because Vettel is in a class of his own: as Martin Brundle said, he's becoming the benchmark, as Schumacher one was. It's almost inconceivable now that Vettel does not retain his world title. He's 80 points ahead of his teammate, and 92 points ahead of his next nearest rival (Alonso). If the ten remaining races this season finished with exactly the same result (Alonso first, Vettel second), he would still beat Alonso by 12 points.

And he's 0.4s faster than the Stig.

Can we put this one to bed now?

When I was in 'Nam...

Phil: Got back a couple of days ago from a very enjoyable honeymoon in Vietnam. Imagine my excitement on the morning of The Big Day when I turned on the telly to watch the first race of the season. Doesn't Albert Park look a lot like Interlagos, I thought, no lake, lots of hills, and hasn't Kubica done well to get it together in time for the first race? After about a minute I realised I was actually watching last year's Brazilian grand prix. In Vietnamese. Anyway, this blog tells me everything I need to know about the race I missed, and my co-blogger has done an admirable job of reporting it. I have only the following to add. 1. Aren't Ferrari crap these days? As my co-blogger has observed, they're at best the third best car this season, after Red Bull and McLaren. And Alonso can't do better than ninth in Friday practice at Sepang. 2. Didn't Petrov do well? Were I wearing a hat, I would take it off to him. After all, he was fairly lacklustre last season, but to put the Renault on the podium? Well doneski. This really only begs the question whether Reanult might actually be faster than Ferrari this year, and of course what Kubica could have done with the car. Finally, a brief personal message for my co-blogger. Have been having issues with my phone lately, but we are definitely on the annual live event on Monaco weekend.

Plenty to say...?

Phil: It's been a classic year. I think we can all agree on that. I think I'm right in saying also that never before have four drivers started the last race of the season with a mathematical chance of winning the title. Each driver from each of the top three teams led the championship at some point or other during the season, but the man who led after the last race (and at no other point during the season) was Sebastian Vettel.

We've talked a lot about Alonso lately, but I think we need to give Vettel some blogspace. Some have suggested that he somehow not a deserving champion. I'd agree with Stirling Moss when he said Vettel is undoubtedly the fastest driver at the moment, but pointedly didn't say he was the best. When you consider the raw pace of the Red Bull, they in some respects ought to have walked it (in a previous blog, I mentioned that the only teams to score more poles in a season were McLaren in 1988-9 and Williams in 1992-3, and we know the utter dominance of those teams at those times). Vettel sat on pole ten times out of 19 in 2010, but only converted that into a win five times. Alonso by contrast took the same number of wins from only two poles. It's become a bit of a cliche, but Adrian Newey's cars are fast but fragile, and reliability let Vettel down, probably more so than Mark. But there's also a lack of maturity about Vettel, which his predecessor as youngest driver ever to do anything, Lewis Hamilton, never showed, from day one. It was this that led him to commit the racing driver's cardinal sin - knocking off your team mate when he's in the lead - at Istanbul.

But (and it's a big but) maturity seems to be all he lacks. At 23, he's the youngest champion, race winner, driver to score a point or sit on the podium. To say he has a bright future would be a huge understatement. After the race if he's done well, one of the first to congratulate him is often Michael Schumacher. I can't lipread in German but the body language is warm and there's clearly no rivalry there - in fact, at 41, Schumi is old enough to be Vettel's father. My point is, Vettel is now where Schumacher was in 1993 or 1994, and I think he has the talent to dominate Formula 1 in the same way Schumacher did. If Red Bull continue to have the pace, and if becoming world champion gives Vettel a little more maturity, then we could have witnessed the beginning of a new era in F1.

A couple of other points, specifically about Abu Dhabi. I have very little time for the naysayers (and I note that my co-blogger isn't one of them) who think there is a Renault conspiracy which meant that Petrov deliberately kept Alonso behind him to allow a Renault-powered driver to win the title. Petrov kept Alonso behind him because he was protecting his position (both in the race, and at Renault next year), and Alonso was out of position because Ferrari cocked up his pit strategy. It's as simple as that. And I think it's an exaggeration to say that that cost Alonso the title - this season was so close that any of the mistakes that any of the leading drivers made potentially cost them the title. If, as some predicted, the Korean Grand Prix hadn't happened, Webber may well have won the title.

I think we have plenty to talk about between now and 13 March 2011. Watch this space!

Two photos

That's how good this season is. The other wall, incidentally, is at Estoril, 1986. Funny how Hamilton looks just as unhappy to be sitting next to Alonso as Senna looked unhappy to be sitting next to Prost...anyway, I digress.

I agree completely with my co-blogger about Massa's reduced circumstances. As my co-blogger rightly points out, two years ago he was one corner away from the world championship. My concern is that he might now become one of Formula 1's nearly men: a talent somehow reduced by a life-threatening crash (Herbert, Panis) or simply outshone by a faster teammate (Barrichello, Berger, Coulthard).

Finally, another statistic. Red Bull have taken 12 pole positions this year. The only other teams to have beaten that record are McLaren (1988 and 1989) and Williams (1992 and 1993) (on the other four occasions, the team took a whopping 15 poles, ie every race but one). McLaren and Williams walked it in 1988-9 and 1992-3 respectively. With that pace, Red Bull ought to have done the same this year. The viewing public's great fortune is that they haven't.

Splash and dash

Phil: Blogging in my lunch break at work as I've moved yet again, and have no Internet at home, so it's going to have to be a short splash and dash.

First things first, greetings to our follower! First actual readers, and now an actual follower. This blog goes from strength to strength. If we carry on at this rate we may be starting our own religion by the end of the season.

Anyway, the race. I would have to agree with some (but not all) of my co-blogger's detailed analysis. The news since he blogged is that Schumacher has apologised to Barrichello for almost shunting him into the pitwall, and been penalised 10 grid places at the next race, at Spa. Given his current qualifying form this may well put him last on the grid.

I'm going to give a pat on the back to Vitaly Petrov, consistently outraced by his Renault teammate Robert Kubica all season to the extent that Renault have openly considered who to replace him with (Sutil? Heidfeld? Raikkonen?), who scored a 'best of the rest' fifth place at the Hungaroring.

Congratulations also to Mark Webber - make no mistake, this was the drive of a champion. Admittedly, the opportunity only arose because of his teammate's misfortune (one of the Red Bulls was inevitably going to win this race, as they were head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the field at the weekend, and I'm going to pretend I didn't see Vettel behaving like a spoilt child as took his penalty and on the podium) but the important thing is that Mark took the opportunity and turned it into a dominant win. And with the top five drivers separated by only 20 points (the equivalent of only 8 points under the old system) with one third of the season left, this is going to be the closest season finale in a long time. I can't wait.

Not bad for a number two

Phil: 'Not bad for a number two driver', if you haven't heard, was how Mark Webber sarcastically described his achievement in winning the British Grand Prix. Well Mark, at this blog we love a good number two.

The infighting at Red Bull seems to have returned with a vengeance, and the clearing of the air that followed Webber's and Vettel's collision in Turkey seems to have been only temporary. Fair enough, there was only one new front wing, but it's looking more and more like Vettel is the unofficial number one driver at the team. To me, Christian Horner's congratulations message to Mark which immediately preceded his 'number two' remark seemed very empty and lacking in enthusiasm.

I'm going to leave the Alonso penalty to my co-blogger, as I know he'll want to take issue with it. Instead, here are a few things which for me brightened up the afternoon at Silverstone: it was good to see Button make his way back from fourteenth on the grid to fourth in the race, in a car which he described after quali as 'undriveable'; it was good to see Barrichello and Williams as high as fifth; it was good to see Stirling Moss up on the podium dodging the champagne; and finally it was good to see guest steward Nigel Mansell threatening to fine Eddie Jordan for his poor dress sense (something we've been complaining about all season - at last the stewards are taking note).

Two week gap - Now its the Canadian GP baby!

Justin: Hello to one and all, well hello to our known two readers anyway! The fallout from Turkey has rumbled on and on over the last two weeks, and it looks set to continue going into the Canadian GP.

There is literally bucket loads to discuss and analyse! Love it!

A nod to my absent co-blogger this weekend -he is moving house and blogging duties are all down to yours truly. He might add something during the week, so be sure to check us out at the end of the week. I myself will struggle to watch the race this weekend as I'm off to a gig in London on Sunday night, but like the true professional that I clearly am I aim to watch the highlights on BBC at 12:15am that same night.

Down to business...where the hell to begin??

Interesting piece in The Guardian today about Ferarri and how they have fallen behind in the development race. I also find it VERY interesting that they have opted to sign Massa for another two years, especially given that people like Kubica are out there on the market. Anyway, Stefano was asked about the car and how they seem to not be able to develop it as quickly and all, he stated that "Fernando is still in the title hunt, he is fighting, wants to fight, always does his best". No mention of Massa at all. Interesting. Course, I may have taken that slightly out of context as it was put to Stefano just before that that Alonso was the pre-season title favourite and yet he lies a fading fourth with Massa seventh. Still, even with that, there was no "and Felipe is doing his best too"......As someone said to me the other day, Ferarri do that sometimes...they sign someone up then buy them out of their contract a year later....Kimi...where are you mate??

I don't know if anyone reads the BBC blogs by people like Andrew Benson, Ted Kravitz etc? Those guys have done excellent jobs investigating and theorising as to what the hell went on at Red Bull during and after the Turkish GP. It's pretty clear from looking at all this that Vettel and Webber have descended into a somewhat frosty co-habitation. Red Bull have signed Webber for 2011 so they will have to find some way to get along. Do they still share information? Once that stops, all bets are off!

I am waiting the quaili coverage today as I saw on the BBC website that Vettel was interviewed and asked if he and Webber would be watching Australia vs Germany together! haha...I am gagging to see his reply there!!

Thing is, I wouldnt bet against them doing exactly the same thing on the track this weekend...as lets face it, both guys have said they wouldnt do anything differently at all. This is starting to remind me a bit of Lewis vs Fernando in 2007 when Maclaren had the best car and in fighting stopped either guy getting the title.

Taking me onto Maclaren....Interesting that Hamilton's engineer was asked by Hamilton "if I am saving fuel, will Jenson overtake me?".....the engineer replied "no lewis, no". Whitmarsh later claimed that Hamilton's engineer had given lewis incorrect information. Perhaps he took fuel saving to mean they were both to stay where they were.

Unlike Red Bull covering things up, blaming everyone, nobody then changing their story again, Maclaren's story seems perfectly reasonable...that it was just misinformation and miscommunication. Button later explained that he had a set lap time to aim for and Lewis was two seconds slower on the lap before which is why he caught up so dramatically.

Still, those guys seem to be able to manage their relationship pretty well at the moment. Button is just incredibly laid back that it's almost untrue. Then again you could say the same for Webber, and look where that got him, a team-mate in his sidepod!

Practice One was dominated by Maclaren, with a certain Schumi third...was he third? I think he was...anyway, the Ferarri's are lurking ready to pounce I hope...well I say Ferarri's...theres only one of them I actually care for!

Practice Two saw Vettel rise to the top of the standings - git! Oh incidentally, Nick Heidfeld was interviewed off the record by one of the BBC guys and he said of everyone he had spoken to in the paddock....EVERYONE was of the opinion that Vettel was 100% at fault for the Red Bull crash. Clearly he doesnt speak to anyone at Red Bull then :-).

I'm just reading the BBC F1 gossip column and apparently Michael Shumacher would love to see Jacques back in F1 next year so they can renew their rivalry. Villeneuve is apparently still pushing ahead trying to get a seat after this years failed Stefan GP venture.

Button and Hamilton are planning to watch the England match during and after their quali debrief - at least they cannot fall out over it. One wonders if Vettel and Webber's relationship will deteriorate further due to the footy today!

One last thing, I'm glad to see the Canadian GP back on the F1 circuit. Having been there and walked around every corner and inch of the track I can safely say its one of my fave's and Montreal is a beautiful city. The track of course is named after one of the most naturally gifted drivers in the history of F1 - next season could see the return of his son. As my co-blogger knows, I will be rather excited at this prospect.

PS - Schumi is now apparently "concentrating on preparing for the 2011 season"....on all evidence thus far should we presume that this primarily involves making his sofa very comfortable and stocking up his beer fridge for race weekends?!

Red Bullshit

Phil: I don't think we are the only voices out there in cyberspace sticking up for Mark. But we are the only ones to have published that birthday card photo.

Anyone with half a brain, and Eddie Jordan, can see Vettel caused the accident. Anyone except Red Bull, of course. Although he has since tried to backpedal, Christian Horner is on record as saying that, 'it is important that they [Vettel and Webber] give each other a bit more respect and concede if one has got a run on the other'. The implication is that Red Bull are, or were, blaming Webber. A cynic might be tempted to suggest Red Bull see Vettel as 'their man', and Webber as a Barrichello to Vettel's Schumacher, a driver who can be relief upon to pick up plenty of points for the constructors' title without doing anything silly. Never mind Mark, there will always be a place for you on the I Was Having a Blog sofa.

My co-blogger ('teammate' is a bit of a dirty word right now) pointed out one of those historical ironies which I'd missed. Earlier on in the season, we questioned the widsom of McLaren putting two world champions in the same team, pointing out that the last time they'd done it, it had all ended in disaster. Well, maybe not disaster, seeing as they won both titles four years on the trot, but certainly in a certain gravel trap at Suzuka. The irony, of course, is that Lewis and Jenson seem to be managed their professional rivalry perfectly fine, and it's Red Bull who are on the verge of civil war. It's not even as if Red Bull can say they've fallen out over the spoils like McLaren did: it's McLaren, after all, who are now leading the constructors' title race.

Without wanting to sound too much like a back-slapping session for McLaren, it's easy to forget that Turkey was actually a 1-2 for the Brits. What's more, another British driver, Dario Franchitti, won the Indy 500 on the same day. A good day for the Brits, I think.

Turkey Quali

Justin: Well, I know as a professional blogger I am supposed to show little or no bias...but I was devastated when Alonso went out and didnt make the final qualifying round. I barely watched the top ten shootout. The Ferarri clearly isnt as quick this weekend as Massa was barely 8th. What usually happens is though that Massa is around 6th or so and Alonso is top 3 or 4 (when he isnt pranging the barrier of course). This time it was a case of driver error....but the two red cars didnt look too pacey anyway to be honest. In his interview Alonso said he was pushing to the limit, hence his error. Eddie Jordan spoke some sense finally when he said "the key is Alonso was pushing the car over its limit and the car just isnt good enough to compete".

Anyway, onto other matters. Schumi out does Nico yet again. Damn that man and his ability to get a team working for him alone! Lewis and Jenson did well to be up there with Red Bull.

The fantastically telling thing for me was in the top 3 press conference. Webber was reminded of some sort of issue Red Bull had with orders for leaving the pits (or something like that)...maybe it was pit stop order in final quali....anyway he looked vaguely awkward and answered the question saying "yeah, dunno what happened there, as this weekend it was my turn to go second".....thus Vettel would have had some small advantage given to him by pitting first.

Here is the key....those of you who were watching closely should have seen Vettel look rather disgusted and roll his eyes up to the sky at this point. Could be a few shennanigans in the Red Bull team me thinks soon enough. Vettel, whatever his problems with chasis, brakes..whatever...he just isnt happy in the car or out of it at the moment, as lets be honest...Webber is trashing him good and proper. 3 poles in a row and it could be 3 wins in a row tomorrow. Fair Dinkum Sport! :-)

PS - Martin Brundle described Alonso as a miserable little so and so in interviews...ouchie! I guess we will see what he means tomorrow. I am looking forward to Webber meeting EJ at his Bucks home.

You can overtake at Monaco after all

Phil: Well, Monaco was certainly a unique venue for our 'live blog' experience. Apologies to anyone out there in the blogosphere who wasn't there, you missed some great banter, and I still maintain that Button should have braked really hard to get that thing out his sidepod, cartoon-style, before it cooked his engine. My esteemed colleague took the role of Murray Walker in our panto, and I was James Hunt. That's not rhyming slang, by the way.

Anyway, congratulations once again to Mark Webber for what but for his performance last week in Barcelona would have been the drive of his career: to pull out a lead, only to see it evaporate when the safety car came out, not once but four times, was the drive of a champion. He has seemed utterly invincible for two weeks and his confidence must be sky-high going to Turkey. Vettel has some thinking to do, but Red Bull are edging ahead at the moment. And I agree with my co-blogger that one of Webber, Vettel, Alonso and Button - the four men who have won races so far this year - will be champion.

Alonso proved in more ways than one that you can overtake at Monaco after all (even if it is a bit like the Hungaroring with houses). He scythed his way through the Virgins and Lotuses early on, but it's Schumacher's last-corner overtaking move that everyone is talking about. At last, the Schumacher of old is back, courting controversy as ever. Whether it was legal or illegal, it was certainly an audacious move, and one which really only Schumacher would ever have done. Something that appeals to me about F1 is the history, and there was so many historical ironies here - Schumacher and Ferrari, Schumacher and Alonso, at the same corner as in 2006 when he parked his Ferrari in quali and buggered up Alonso's flying lap, and most of all, a little wry smile that it was Damon Hill as race steward who had the pleasure of reducing his old rival to twelfth place, with a hint of retribution for the 1994 world championship. As for the rules, I haven't a clue, although a learned friend of ours who has been known to read this blog (eh? what?) thinks Schumacher is clearly right. I think the rules are likely to be self-contradictory, and weren't tidied up properly when the new rule about safety cars was brought in at the beginning of this season. As Eddie Jordan pointed out, and it's not often that he's right, the fact that it took Damon several hours to reach a decision indicates he wasn't sure either. The latest as of lunchtime today is that Ross Brawn is still sure he's right and Mercedes intend to appeal. Having said that, how many times do Formula 1 teams announce they're appealing a steward's decision, and then quietly forget about it?

It's well past my bedtime, so I ought to wrap up and nominate my skiver of the day, which my co-blogger has already alluded to. There are several candidates this weekend. My first thought was the nameless bloke at McLaren who left the wotsit in Jenson's car which made his engine brew up after three laps. My second was double world champion Fernando Alonso, who was clearly having forty winks on the way into the Rascasse on the last lap, thinking it was all over, when an elderly German snuck past him. However, I am going to nominate Eddie Jordan, who is fast becoming favourite for skiver of the year, for failing to take a dive into the BBC micro-pool, in the Red Bull post-race fashion, in aid of Children in Need. To be fair, it was a very small pool, and he'd probably have banged his not inconsiderable ego on the bottom, which wouldn't have been a pretty sight at all.

Webberthon

Phil: When this blog first started, we tipped Mark Webber to win a race. I'm pleased to say our prediction has been proved right, even if it wasn't the race we were thinking of. When Martin Brundle spoke to him on the grid, he promised us a boring race, and he wasn't far wrong: his lead throughout the race was so unchallengeable that at times I almost forgot he was even in it. Taking his third career victory, he drove the perfect race: pole, fastest lap, and the win. His teammate Vettel, meanwhile, reminded us that the Red Bull is fast but also fragile.

Further down the grid, Michael Schumacher had the best result of his post-career, outqualifying and outracing his teammate to take fourth. Even so, this clearly isn't the Schumi of old: even if the Mercedes is most definitely fourth of the 'big four', he lacked pace and was clearly holding Button up during the middle part of the race. He finished around 40 seconds behind Vettel, who had no brakes, a dodgy wheel nut and a front wing that wasn't working properly. However, his on-track pace may have been lacking, but the on-screen graphic revealed he posted the fastest pitstop time of the day, with 3.8 seconds. The cream always rises to the top...

Jenson Button meanwhile retains his lead of the driver's championship. He was also last week granted the freedom of his home town, Frome in Somerset, which apparently gives him the right to do something involving sheep in the high street. If you were watching carefully during the pre-race coverage, you'll have noticed that they've also named a street after him, called, predictably enough, Jenson Drive. However, you'll have had to be watching BBC local news down here in the land of cider-drinkers to know that Jenson also visited his old primary school that day, where the kids sang him a specially written song in his honour, to the tune of 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'. Classy. Incidentally, he's always referred to on the local news (and nowhere else) as, 'the Frome Flyer' (they have to reinforce the local interest, of course), so it did cross my mind that among the business interests that retired F1 drivers tend to get involved in, he could start a fish and chip shop called, 'the Frome Fryer', in the same way that Niki Lauda called his airline Air Lauda. Sort of.

Anyway, skiver of the day. I was tempted to nominate Heikki Kovalainen, who started packing up ready to go home before the race had even begun, but I suspect Lotus will provide me with plenty of other opportunities to take the piss out of them during this season, so I'm going to nominate David Coulthard instead, who couldn't even be bothered to turn up. Obviously German Touring Cars are a whole lot more interesting than talking to Eddie Jordan. That's wasn't a joke by the way.