Round 2: Bahrain review..and Round 3: China preview

Justin:

What a great race eh?! Racing at the front and everything in between, 110%, for sure. Unquestionably.

But...MORE RACING AT/ NEAR THE FRONT. YEY! I appreciate that "yay" is a tad unprofessional, but I've been doing this blogging 10 years as a hobby/ passion...not as a pro. Yet ;-).

Highlights are here, courtesy of the amazing Channel 4 team again. 18 minutes in, Christian Horner showing Steve Jones some love haha.

Vettel

I do feel for Vettel. The guy I despised once, as the sworn enemy to Fernando back when it was RB vs Ferrari, and now what do you know I have actually developed a caring side for. Sort of.

LeClerc dominated Vettel all weekend, beating him to pole by 0.3 seconds. That is a lifetime for teammates in F1. Then, aside from the first few laps, he all but disappeared up the road and left Vettel for dust until his engine had problems.

Vettel spun under pressure and an overtake around the outside from Hamilton. That's a continuation of the errors he started making, on and off, at the halfway stage last year.

Now, every driver goes through bad spells. Look at Lewis and pretty much all of 2011! I had hoped Vettel would come back strong this year and wipe the floor with everyone. Two races in and it isn't the case just yet. He has LeClerc to deal with as well as two fast Merc drivers and a resurgent Verstappen in the Red Bull.

He, Vettel, had a cracking start to the race, then went backwards.

Bottas

Looked mega fighty and quick at the start, then faded but still claimed 2nd. He didn't look too fighty in the middle of the race, but thanks to Ferrari misfortune Mercedes grabbed a 1-2 and Bottas got some great championship points. My jury is still out on whether Bottas is title material this year.

He made a mega costly error at the start of lap 2, locking up and allowing LeClerc then Hamilton to pass. But, he is certainly making it more fun for the moment as part of a possible all Merc and all Ferrari fight.

Ferrari 

Found the pre-season fastest of all pace they promised but missed in Australia. But, they didn't win the race. Hmmm...is 2019 actually 2018 all over again?!

They already have team dynamic issues. LeClerc was asked to hold station behind Vettel. Erm nope! He stated he was faster and just went for the overtake. Which actually led to half a lap of fun fighting at the front. Sod Vettel. Sod Ferrari. That's what champions and championships are made of...defying team orders. Multi 21 Seb??

Eh?

Really, what kind of fucking name is "Racing Point"?? It sounds like a pointing dog that is pointing at, well, something.

Which driver?

I've always followed drivers over teams. Mansell, Hill, Villeneuve, Alonso....and now that Fernando has retired..?? I'm somewhat adrift. I thought my racing heart would gravitate towards Danny Ric, but I have to be honest that it hasn't so far. I..don't really have a favourite driver right now and I'm somewhat adrift in whom to cheer for.

LeClerc to challenge for the title?

I'm unsure if I am asking a question or stating a fact. Charles showed a lot of maturity in losing the race win via engine issues. He had immediate perspective and calm. Let's face it, he was dominant all weekend and for the majority of the race.

If Bottas cuts the errors and Vettel gets his act together...we could have a 4 car fight for the title between the Mercedes and Ferrari teams. Should be more fun for the neutral over the wipeout of the last half of 2018 where Hamilton walked it.

1000 up

China this coming weekend brings us the 1,000th F1 championship Grand Prix. I would say I fancy a Ferrari win, but then again they were heavily fancied in Australia and Bahrain...

Renault, in particular Danny Ric, need to do better. As does Sainz at McLaren.

I'd say the standout superstar so far this year is clearly Lando Norris. That guy is doing amazing things in the midfield McLaren, making Sainz look a tad slow right now for sure.

Poor Williams, around a second down on the next team on the grid. They need to turn things around quickly. Unfortunately you can make a quick car reliable but it's a lot more tricky to make a slow car fast. Or something.

F1 2019 is here!!

Justin:

So, I started my first blog of 2019 about a month ago, then paused for thought...and here I am completing it now. A lot has happened! I'll start where I finished, with my initial thoughts...

 

An evening with Ross Brawn OBE

Imagine my surprise about a month (well, 2 months now really) or so ago when my Dad sent me a link to an interesting looking event taking place at Wycombe Swan.

Ross Brawn was being interviewed by Steve Rider at Wycombe Swan for a charity event. Fantastic.

It was a quite fascinating and insightful evening, showing never-before-seen photographs of Brawn's career alongside he and Rider talking about all things motorsport and F1.

A couple of things stood out for me. When he was asked about the future of Silverstone, he was pretty evasive and political. Ok, you could argue as Managing Director of F1 that is his job now! It seemed to me that his mindset on that night was "well, we'll have a British GP but it probably won't be at Silverstone". Brutal. F1 is so complicated. Silverstone is one of the best attended races of the year, but it's comparatively bloody expensive to attend for fans. I mean, last year General Admission tickets for 3 days were around £170. I spent £240 for a bloody amazing grandstand seat at the Canadian GP! Ok, also Silverstone is not government funded like many other races worldwide.

You can see Brawn is very fond of Michael Schumacher for sure. When Steve Rider went digging about Michael being a bit of a git sometimes on the track, particularly against Damon Hill, Brawn sort of said "well, I recall Damon running into him a few times", and never really admitted or answered the original question. A true politician haha.

The Sky Sports vs Terrestrial TV point came up. More or less, what Brawn said here was that Sky was paying 5 times the amount for exclusive live footage (did I dream this number??), and he runs a commercial company. Ouchie.

Sky has been kind enough, with enough pressure from Liberty no doubt, to cut a deal that allows Channel 4 to show highlights for 2019 and the British GP live. But this is a deal that has Sky rules all over it. Never-the-less, Channel 4 do an awesome job (more later on that).

As I say, it was a fascinating evening and Steve Rider is a legend. He did the gig for free of course and jetted in the same day from a family holiday and was leaving early the next day. What a guy.

And of course many thanks to Ross Brawn. I actually didn't realise he started his career at Williams.

Whilst I admit I'm slightly unsure what to make of him, I'm glad he is on the F1 management team on the whole.

My tenth year!

Just realised, this is the 10th year of my F1 blog. It started out as a partnership with the person who I can only name here as my esteemed F1 colleague and best friend. I realise I've gone down to 3 or 4 blogs a year in the last year or so (since my colleague retired from his special event guest blogging duties). When we started it was a blog after every race and then some! A partnership not unlike Frank Williams and Patrick Head, James Hunt and Murray Walker, Damon Hill and Heinz Harald Frentzen...eh.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary, I pledge to blog at least after every race, if not more. I'm going to try and entice my colleague back under some sort of "it's ten years, you must!" emotional blackmail thing.

I just looked back to our blogs in 2010. In November that year, we were both predicting an Alonso title win! How wrong we were.

Funnily enough, our first blog entry was for the Aussie GP in 2010 (the second race that year, but our first blog).

Here's to 10 years!!

Fantasy F1 teams

I submitted my 3 fantasy F1 teams just in the knick of time. I based them on previous teams, for the most part. Though I cannot select Alonso now. That said, I have shown a worrying turn in that I finally selected one of Vettel or Hamilton. Oh well. Let's see. One of my teams has Kimi in it. The name of the team is "Bwoah!". I've also gone for a lot of Haas over the 3 teams. I think they are going to be bloody great this year, best of the rest outside the top 3 and may even pick up some podiums.

*Update - nobody out of 62 team entries picked Bottas as a driver. That's a lot of missed points.

 

Moto GP

Whilst this is nothing other than an F1 blog, I should note that I have an increasing interest in MotoGP (and indeed I love all forms of motorsport - aside from Formula E!), and I thought the first race in Qatar was amazing. I'm a bit worried about Lorenzo though. He's beat up and at the back whilst the others are scoring good points. Whilst I was watching though, I thought wouldn't it be great, if F1 had as close and as crazy racing as MotoGP. At the front. For the win.

Channel 4 coverage is back - love it!

The Channel 4 coverage was so much better than Sky from 2016 - 2018 (yes I admit I paid for one race on Sky and thought the coverage was ok, but a tad dull). It kind of sucked in a way, that C4 inherited a contract where they couldn't compete for live coverage from 2019.

They've had a few rules imposed on them by Sky

I'd imagine 99% of C4 viewers won't respond to Steve Jones saying "Watch the race with us, or alternatively you can watch SkyF1", with an instant subscription to the enemy. It's all good.

Steve, DC, Mark and Ben are joined this year by some brilliant additions to the team. Billy Monger and Stefano Domenicali (who actually doesn't look entirely unlike my blogging colleague) are insightful, knowledgeable and have huge passion for the sport.

Phil

 

 

 

 

Stefano 

 

 

 

 

 

Australian GP review

I'm going to put it out there. I'm not as convinced as others by the victory Bottas achieved here.

Ok, he was 20 seconds down the road at the end. But, Hamilton's car was damaged and he was simply stroking it home. Bottas got a flying start for sure, and was dominant thereafter. But it would have been interesting to see Lewis closer, car undamaged.

Bottas could prove me wrong of course. He needs to do it consistently and batter Lewis in the next few races. Then we have a fun season ahead.

The pace of Ferrari was a complete letdown. They were nowhere, and Vettel was overtaken by Verstappen in a Red Bull Honda. Hopefully Ferrari will come back in the next race. With that, Max and Lewis vs Valterri, we could actually see some fighting for the win. Though I won't hold my breath.

Driver of the weekend has to be Lando Norris. He qualified 8th and looked mighty in the race too. McLaren have a megastar on their hands right there. It will be interesting to see how Sainz reacts to being soundly trounced at round 1 (Ok, his car did blow up early on, but he was nowhere in qualifying).

The 1 point for fastest lap actually added a fun element later on, when Lewis, Valterri and a couple of others went for it with a few laps left. In fact, the two Mercedes boys defied team orders to take it easy.

To round 2!!

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 :-).

Round 7: Canadian Grand Prix live retrospective blog

Justin:

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

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

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

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

Grandstand 12

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

40th anniversary - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve

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

Excited!!!

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

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

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

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

Vettel - 50 up!!

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

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

Why I love Formula One

Justin:

Seems like an indulgent title I know. But, I have rediscovered my love of writing about F1 here, so I thought I'd roll with it and just see where this blog takes me.


I admit I have struggled on occasion to enjoy F1 lately. Minimal fighting at the front and domination by one team. I miss Rosberg at Mercedes too if I am honest. Their team dynamic has changed and seems much more harmonious these days. Good for the team, but I miss the drama and fighting between Nico and Lewis - on the track and off it.

Where did it all start?

Well, I got into F1 because my Dad watched it when I was a nipper, aged 5 or 6. Evidence of my love for the sport was clear early on though. I remember stumbling across an old scrapbook I kept from around 1985 or so. It had press cuttings of everything to do with the sport, plus some amusing crayola drawings that I can only assume were meant to be F1 cars and drivers.


He took me to my first Grand Prix - The 1985 Shell Oils Grand Prix of Europe at Brands Hatch. The first win of Red 5! I have memories of this, mostly via looking at old photographs, but still it is there.

Mansell was my hero, the first driver I was thoroughly entranced by. He fought, scrapped and bullied the car around the tracks of the world. He was a complete fighter, was bloody quick and was intimidated by absolutely nobody. No bullshit. Witness him never yielding to Senna as they thrashed it down the straight of the first Spanish GP at Montmello in 1991 - a truly iconic image.

I remember eagerly getting up at stupid O'clock to watch all the Australian and Japanese races, a lot of them title showdowns. I remember being absolutely gutted when Mansells' tyre burst in 1986. The title showdowns with Prost and Senna, where I saw them crash on the first lap - immense anti-climax, so I went back to bed.

The Chain and Murray Walker are as much a part of the soundtrack to my life as any other music or voice.

I admit, I never fully, truly appreciated Ayrton Senna until well after he died. He was always the arch nemesis of Mansell, so I always felt I just couldn't like the guy at all.

I idolise the guy these days and have pretty much every book about him. In fact, I have an F1 bookcase, full of around 35 F1 books and F1 Racing Magazines dating back to 2001.

The drama...it's all this and more

It's the characters, it's the anticipation at the start of the race - I don't think I've been silent at any race starts, ever. I am always on the edge of my seat, looking out for a quick starting Alonso (for example) whilst screaming at the TV and leaping around.

It's the speed, it's the brutality, it's the gladiators and the machines, it's the risk, it's the art - the way a car impossibly sticks to the race track as it's flung around a corner at 150mph. I once said in this blog that the track is the canvas, the car is the brush and the driver is the artist.

It's wheel to wheel at 200mph...I just bloody love this sport.

I remember getting up in 1994 to watch the title showdown in Adelaide and being absolutely destroyed when Hill pulled into the pits. The wistful look in his eyes as he stared at the broken front wishbone. His titles hopes done and dusted.

I watched again in the early hours for Japan 1996 to hear Murray speak those immortal lines "and I've got to stop, because I've got a lump in my throat" - as Damon became World Champion.

It's watching the 2010 title decider with friends and being absolutely distraught when I saw things slipping away from Alonso, stuck behind Petrov for lap after lap as Vettel swiped the title from under his nose.

It's the utter drama of the 2007 season as Ron couldn't hold McLaren together as everything imploded.

It's Bahrain 2014 - the insane race between Rosberg and Hamilton. Teammates going for it 100%, neither wanting to yield an inch of tarmac, side by side, running out of road.

It's Gilles Villeneuve. I didn't grow up in his era, but I've seen the races. The ultimate fighter never gave up. Ever. The car control was insane. A true F1 hero.

It's the rich history of the sport, the despair, the drama, the heroic moments, the racing wheel to wheel, tinged with tragic moments.

In the flesh

From 1985, my next live encounter was Silverstone qualifying in 1991 - Senna, Prost and Mansell were all there.

2001 - Walked around Albert Park on my visit to Australia.

Then, skip forward to Barcelona 2009. Alonso country! The eager Spanish track announcer encouraging the crowd to join in every time he announced Alonso on the circuit speaker system - "Fernando....ALLLLOOONNNNSSSSSOOOOOO!!!!!". What a fantastic weekend as we witnessed Button crush all before him in his dominant Brawn. We also saw Massa conk out on the last lap and Alonso breeze by him for a tidy 5th in a pretty below average Renault. The crowd went absolutely bonkers.

Next, the boys trip to Belgium in 2012. From sheltering in a freezing cold bus shelter in the cold rain through to discovering Belgian beer, this was a trip to remember. Watching the cars go around Pouhon at 150mph, impossibly sticking to the tarmac, was incredible to see. I spent the first half of the race in a foul mood, as I'd traveled all that way to see Alonso continue on his path to the title only to see him punted out in dramatic fashion at turn one.

Hungary 2015 was hot! Our grandstand gave us a perfect view of Hamilton binning it into the kitty litter in the first lap. Alonso was 5th. All good!

Singapore 2016 was a different experience entirely! I was in the Waterfront grandstand, so had a fantastic view of the cars as they accelerated away and out of the corner, squirming to within an inch of the barrier. Amazing. I could also hear the support cars from my hotel room - what a way to whet the appetite! It was a great race too, with Rosberg being followed closely by Daniel, Kimi and Lewis.

2017 - No racing, but just the matter of visit to the Alonso Collection in Oviedo. I blogged about this last year. It's not every day you get to see all the cars of the greatest racer of a generation.

2018 - Off to Montreal for the Canadian GP. I've walked around the track before in..2002 I think. Grandstand 12 - I'm looking forward to what is usually a very entertaining race.

So, as every relationship has ups and downs, I've had mine with F1 - I still absolutely love it though.

Liberty have much to think about for the future though - I've read in places that people see Formula E as the future and at some point down the road F1 has decisions to make about how it progresses and what it becomes.

To Bahrain!

That Haas to be painful...

Justin:

I won't apologise for spotting a great pun and going for it with the headline there.

I was absolutely gutted for the Haas team though. They were running, what was it 4th and 5th, or 4th and 6th and looking pretty comfortable to be honest before disaster struck. Of the midfield teams, they were clearly the quickest behind the top 3 of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. They were holding off Renault and McLaren pretty easily. Still, the big positive to take forward is that if they have that genuine pace for the year, then big points are on the horizon for sure.

Fernando Alonso got F1 Driver of the Day for a gutsy, fighty and opportunistic drive. He pounced on the virtual safety car to pit and then jump a couple of cars. Of course a spinning Max helped his cause, but Alonso came out of the pits in front of Max in 5th and held him back for the rest of the race. A good start for McLaren with Stoffel also in the points. I have to say, I am loving Kimoa sponsoring McLaren - witness Zak Brown wearing the very cool sunnies produced by the company owned by his star driver.

All in all, I have to say that this was a pretty average race overall. Lewis was walking it until Mercedes misjudged things and allowed a very opportunistic Vettel a chance with the virtual safety car pit stops. Give Vettel a sniff of blood and he'll bring it home. Then it was Lewis following Seb for the rest of the race. The Mercedes doesn't run too well in dirty air, actually not many of the cars do in this incarnation of the formula - witness Bottas struggling in 15th for a fair while before starting to progress through to 8th.

No fighting at the front. Which was one of my big annoyances from last year - minimal action mano a mano at the front. All the fun fighting is in midfield still, and there didn't seem to be a great deal of that today either.

There was a great overtake by Ricciardo on one of the Renaults I think. That guy can brake later than anyone! Fantastic stuff.

Anyway, on to Bahrain we go.

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.