Murray Walker - Thank you for a lifetime of F1 moments and memories

Murray Walker has sadly passed away at the age of 97.

As my esteemed former blogging colleague commented, it's a hugely sad day, but I think we can all agree he lived the fullest of lives.

He was the soundtrack to my F1 youth and life, much like many more millions the world over. He taught me about F1 as much as anyone else. His commentary had me on the edge of my seat more often than not. His voice of drama, despair, elation and pure emotion was just simply beautiful.

My earliest memory of Murray involved getting up at an ungodly hour in 1986 to watch Red 5 Nigel Mansell go for the world title, only to see his hopes ruined by naff tyres. And Murray yelling "And look at that!" - which surely would have woken me up had I nodded off :-). Take a look and listen here...

Everyone loved Murray, and rightly so. From everything I've read from those that had met him and knew him, he was one of the loveliest people in F1.

Another Murray and Mansell moment, where Murray asks Nigel about the bump on his head, then promptly pokes said bump, is absolutely classic. I just watched it again and burst out laughing. Watch it here.

I'm crushed that he has gone. But he gave so many F1 fans (and beyond) massive moments and memories that we will treasure forever.

And my fave quote of his? There are so many, but it is one my esteemed colleague and I use to this very day "IF is F1 spelled backwards!"

The BBC article about Murray here has beautiful tributes from Damon Hill, Jackie Stewart, Martin Brundle and more.

Thanks for the memories Murray :-).

 

 

F1 2020...erm...yeah...it's all a bit dull actually (and other thoughts)

 Justin:

Well, not all of it is dull, but the racing at the front is. Lewis is in a league of his own. We all know who will win most of the races. He himself said after the last race that he recalls watching Schumacher dominate all in 2002 and it got a bit boring. He even apologised to the fans saying sorry if it appeared boring.

I've actually published 3 blogs this year, but haven't shared until this one. So please do read the blogs before this one, in the menu to the side of the screen.

Yep, so as usual there isn't much racing at the front but there is plenty of fun further back. Wasn't it in Spain where Hamilton was absolutely, outrageously good when he finished 25 seconds ahead of Max and 45 seconds ahead of his own teammate? Insane. Everyone else was lapped! That shows you the mega gulf in speed between Mercedes and the rest. It also shows the gulf in speed between Max and Alex Albon.

Alex has made some daring, bold overtakes this year. He is a real racer, but if results don't start coming together soon I do fear he'll be replaced, such is the ruthless nature of having a Red Bull seat.

Gasly is absolutely flying in the Alpha Tauri this year, so look out!

The last race in Belgium, Hamilton was over half a second quicker in qualifying than Bottas. Core blimey and ouch!

Let's see what Monza brings today in qualifying. I strongly suspect a Mercedes 1,2.

It's probably a good thing there are no Ferrari fans, or any fans, present in Italy as they'd probably riot with regards to how bad the car is performing.

Still, there are a few things to look forward to still. I think we can all agree that generally speaking 2020 has been utter garbage (not F1, but life in general grinding to a halt with coronavirus etc). But, the pandemic has forced F1 chiefs to think outside the box on the championship rounds, resulting in a few fun, new tracks being visited, which could help create surprises. And we return to Turkey - what a blood great track that one is!

Fernando Alonso will return to Renault next year. And that car is looking fairly racy on the power tracks like Belgium - Danny Ric came 4th last time out. So this gets the F1 juices flowing.

Fernando also has an autobiography coming out in November, which of course I cannot wait for.

Then there is also the small matter of attending the Dutch GP next year, hopefully, perhaps, maybe. I was gutted not to be able to go this year as it would have been the usual fun F1 getaway with quality mates.

Ok, that's all my ramblings for now, in this, my 11th year of F1 blogging. Blimey.

 

F1 2020....finally!

Justin:

It looks like I gave up blogging on F1 in May last year, more or less. No great shakes. The championship and the racing up front was dull for the most part, save a couple of races (Austria and Brazil). Yawn.

So, when coronavirus stopped the world turning, my esteemed colleague and I joked that we weren't actually missing much in the way of F1, based on last year.

But this somewhat truncated, unique championship could produce opportunities for drivers where once there were none.

I'd originally discounted Bottas and his title chances, after remarking that he might start stronger than Lewis and get a good foothold in the championship, but would eventually fall away across the entire season.

Well, he won handsomely in Austria at a track where he always excels, and the next race is only in Austria again. I'd say this year could be his best bet at a title shot. But I still put 95% of my money on Hamilton and world title number 7.

Austria report - Round 1

Austria was an ok race, fun in places but quite dull in others to be honest.

I have to say, I felt Hamilton was treated pretty harshly by the stewards. The first incident (yellow flag) in qualifying was looked at on the Saturday and that was it. No further action. Then Sunday morning Red Bull whinge about it, new footage miraculously emerges and he gets a 3 place grid penalty. Hmmm.

Then in the race. I'm with David Coulthard on this. Racing incident, pure and simple. Albon was very brave and skillful to get his car around Hamilton on the outside, all be it on soft, fresh tyres. But Hamilton was on the inside, he didn't release the steering into Albon at all and gave him as much room as was possible. It's a 50/50 for me as Albon's car was not entirely ahead. But they give Hamilton a 5 second penalty. Brutal frankly.

Bottas was fairly dominant and drove a great, controlled race. Read the BBC race report here.

Ferrari

They seem to be pretty far up shit creek without a paddle. In the alleged words of Niki Lauda in Rush, when asked what he thought of the Ferrari when he tested for the first time... "it's a shitbox". 7th and 11th in qualifying?!

Then again, Ferrari was 1.5 seconds off the pace in qualifying in Australia in 2012 and Alonso only missed the title by 3 points, so go figure.

I believe they and other Ferrari engine teams are all slower relative to their 2019 cars, where others have gained pace. Something engine related perhaps...ehm.

LeClerc drove well to 2nd, which flattered to deceive the pace of the car, what with all the safety car periods. I think probably the car is more setup to suit his driving style, given his dominance over Vettel last year.

Vettel

I feel for the guy frankly. I was pretty surprised when Ferrari and he announced a parting of the ways, given the sounds they'd been making before that. Despite the errors of 2018 and 2019, he still brings home good points and is an experienced head for the young LeClerc.

I was even more surprised when he revealed they'd not even offered him any talks of a contract, that he was done. That is that.

Unfortunately, no matter how difficult he is finding the car to be at the moment, his teammate was 2nd and he was 10th via spinning into a McLaren that was at the time ahead and fighting another car. Vettel locked up and drifted into the car ahead. The errors are still coming.

With Alonso about to announce a return, I say anything is possible in F1 and I'd say it's still 50/50 as to whether Vettel pops up at Mercedes next year or not. If not, I'd imagine retirement beckons.

Sainz and Norris

Great drive by Norris in Austria with a P3. Boom. McLaren look to be picking up where they left off in 2019 for sure. I think Norris gets my driver of the day. Or maybe Perez?

And Ferrari calls for Sainz in 2021. Huge move for him. I think he'll prove to be equal to LeClerc, so I think all these people speculating he has signed a number 2 contract can probably think again. All he needs to do is be quick and stand up to LeClerc. But it could be tricky if he isn't involved in the car development as by the time he gets there it will be built and ready to drive.

Fernando Alonso

A legend returns.

2019: 10 years of this blog and the F1 year that was...

Justin:

Ok, in my tenth year of F1 blogging I said I'd make a renewed effort to blog regularly. Well, we can safely say that didn't happen.

BUT...

I think it's kind of fitting that my last blog before this one covered the amazing Niki Lauda, a good race at Monaco (luckily I didn't blog about most of the races up to and including the awful French GP!), remarks on Bottas hanging onto Hamilton's coattails and the brewing rivalry at Ferrari...ehm...


Let's talk about Lewis.....

Arise Sir Lewis!

Chris Hoy is a 6 time Olympic Champion. Steve Redgrave is a 5 time Olympic Champion. Andy Murray is a 3 time grand slam winner (the first Brit to win Wimbledon for 75 years etc). They all have the title of Sir.

In the context of titles won, Lewis Hamilton is surely a certain for first on the list on the New Year honours list!

Ok you could argue he should get one when he undoubtedly wins his 7th title in 2020, equaling Schumacher at the very top of the F1 all time title list. But, no. Give him the Knighthood now damnit!

PS - 7 July 2020 - I went to write a new blog on the first race of 2020, and found this half finished piece. Can't believe it's been over 10 years of blogs now. And, clearly Lewis did not get knighted. What a joke.

Round 6: Monaco - Shades of Senna vs Mansell in 1992

Justin:

Don't you just hate that. I wrote a fairly long blog and it somehow all got deleted. Urgh. Here we go again.

The Monaco Grand Prix was fairly good fun in places. Lewis being chased very closely by Max in the latter stages had shades of Senna keeping Mansell behind him in 1992.

It all started with Charles LeClerc. I was a huge fan of his "I'm going to overtake and race hard or crash trying" attitude, after his awful qualifying session. He was clearly pumped up and driving angry and made a couple of balls out overtakes before he pranged.

Talk about the spirit of Gilles Villeneuve, driving back to the pits with the back tyre falling off all over the place.

This in turn was the event that kicked off a safety car period. All the leading cars came in and Max jumped to second with a clearly unsafe pitstop release, hence his 5 second penalty.

It was quite a dramatic race late on, especially when Max made a lunge on Lewis and they touched.

A tip of the cap to Lewis Hamilton for a truly stunning win, it has to be said. And, have a look at a 360 camera on the front of his car during his qualifying lap here - quite terrifying actually and reminds you just how bloody talented he, and indeed the entire grid, are - to go through these tight streets, at those speeds, so close to the walls. Unbelievable.

Big shout outs to Carlos Sainz finishing 6th in the McLaren and the Torro Rosso pair in 7th and 8th.

Niki Lauda

Many people have said many touchingly eloquent things about this absolute legend of F1.

I was desperately sad to hear the news last week, and instantly texted my esteemed F1 colleague (the guy I started this blog with).

I watched Rush again a couple of days ago. What a film, what a rivalry, what a friendship and what a portrayal of Niki.

I just love the bit where he and his future wife flag down the two Italian chaps in the countryside somewhere in Italy. They completely ignore her and walk up to him with a huge hug..."NIKI LAUUADDAAA!!!". Brilliant.

To me and many, he was the hardest, bravest and most courageous chap in F1 history. After his crash in Germany in 1976, he was near death and yet returned just over a month later to race to 4th place in Monza. Absolutely astonishing.

Perhaps, arguably, equally as brave was him parking his car after the first lap in a rain soaked Japan that same year. He knew the risks of driving in F1 and wasn't prepared to go a certain percentage beyond that. So for the title showdown, he was his own man and simply parked because the risk of crashing fatally in that horrid downpour was too great to him.

To be a champion, you have to really believe it. You did Niki, and we all know you are and always will be an F1 icon.

The title race and Ferrari

Ferrari aren't in the title race I hear you ask? You're right. They are nowhere near it.

Aside from the certain victory that mechanical failure snatched away from LeClerc, they just haven't been anywhere near Mercedes all year so far. Not good enough.

The car isn't good enough and I have no idea why they are making team orders an actual thing. The whole "how will Seb cope with LeClerc?" isn't really a thing for me now, as they are both faffing about for 4th and 5th usually.

I kind of agree with Eddie Jordan, in that when something goes wrong they immediately chop and change and there is no real consistency at the top of the organisation (where there is at Red Bull and Mercedes).

Bottas is hanging onto Hamilton's coattails still in the title race, but I fear Lewis will start to pull away a bit now - he is nearly one race win clear, with Canada coming up where Lewis is always strong.

To Canada we go next - good memories :-).

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!!