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A year ago, Venturi were the minnows of Formula E, hidden behind the arms race of Renault and Audi. They have hosted a number of experienced drivers throughout their four seasons in the sport including current Mahindra driver Nick Heidfeld and WEC stalwarts Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.
However, despite the talent of their drivers and a wealth of electric car manufacturing experience, the team have one podium to their name. They are one of the few teams that have never won a race and are never on the front pages. This could all be about to change with the arrival of two former Formula One drivers – one climbing behind the wheel and the other taking the reins of the team.
It was announced this week that Susie Wolff; ex Williams test driver, will become the first female team principal of a Formula E team and will be taking up her new position at the season finale in New York in a few weeks time.
Wolff’s appointment will be a welcome one within the paddock. Since the departure of Simona de Silvestro in season 2, there has been a distinct lack of female figures in the sport. However, Formula E has always prided itself on new blood and on giving drivers from other series a fresh start. Having Wolff at the helm of one of the teams, coupled with the presence of her Dare to be Different campaign, which was first introduced at the Berlin ePrix, could inspire more women and young girls to become interested in and join the sport. It will also be a challenge. Wolff has no experience in leading a team but she will be working alongside a team of well seasoned mechanics and strategists who will help to integrate her into the new role.
The appointment of Wolff is the latest step in Venturi’s plans to strengthen, following the regulation changes that will come into effect next season. F1 veteran Felipe Massa has joined the Monegasque team and will no doubt add add some further experience, flair and critical sponsorship. He will no doubt provide more exposure to the sport. Formula E already has two well known Brazilian champions in Lucas di Grassi and Nelson Piquet Jr, but a familiar face, particularly one as well known as Massa, will allow Formula E to reach a wider audience of motorsport fans. By choosing Venturi, a team who are yet to win a race, Massa may be hoping to prove something to those who think he’s too old for motorsport.
Venturi certainly seem to be looking to the future and the acquisitions of Massa and Wolff are just the beginning. The Monegasque outfit are the first to establish a junior drivers programme within Formula E, which includes the likes of Arthur Leclerc, brother of F1 rookie Charles. Although development drivers are common, Venturi are taking the approach of nurturing youth to a new level. Many experienced drivers have got behind the wheel of a Formula E car and struggled with strategy and conserving the energy needed to perform well within a race. By educating a rank of junior drivers, Venturi will eliminate the problem and create a pool of experienced but youthful drivers going forwards.
Wolff’s position also raises questions over Mercedes arrival in season 6. This season, Venturi partnered with Mercedes DTM specialists HWA, working alongside them in preparation for their inaugural season. This partnership will continue into season 5 with Venturi providing customer powertrains for the new outfit. Venturi and HWA have links to Mercedes. Both Venturi drivers, Maro Engel and Eduardo Mortara currently drive for the successful German outfit. It seems likely that when Mercedes finally join the party, it will use either Venturi or HWA to ease into the transition. It is a tried and tested method that was employed by Audi upon their entry as a full works team this season. HWA seem more likely due to their customer status, but Mercedes could continue to remain in partnership with Venturi. It would not be a foolish decision owing to the invaluable experience that the Monegasque team have and the resources that they have.
No matter who Mercedes choose, one thing is certain – Venturi won’t be fading into the background anytime soon.
Fabio Quartararo may have stunned everyone on Saturday with his first ever Grand Prix pole position, but on Sunday afternoon he sealed the deal, taking the victory. It wasn’t a straightforward job for the Frenchman, though, as he had to recover from an average start that allowed Alex Marquez into the lead, as Fabio dropped to fifth in turn one, where the two Dynavolt IntactGP bikes came through with Pecco Bagnaia.
Whilst that was happening at the very front, Miguel Oliveira made his usual start: coming from a different continent to be in the front group. This time, the Portuguese went from seventeenth to seventh, and by the end of the first lap and a half he was fourth. After setting a series of fastest laps and picking his way through the field, he took the lead at turn ten on lap eight. Oliveira was unable to open up much of a margin, though, and when he ran wide at turn four with thirteen laps to go, Quartararo was soon underneath him.
From there, Quartararo went unchallenged, stretching away from Oliveira, making the Portuguese look almost amateur. Not only was Quartararo’s victory unexpected, it was also masterful, dominating the field to the point where the question has to be asked: why only now? Quartararo’s ability and speed has never been questioned, and after changes made to his personal management and training personnel have been clearly so successful, you have to wonder why it didn’t happen sooner. Had it been so, he would likely still be at Pons HP40 and perhaps fighting for the Moto2 World Championship; or maybe he would be in the Estrella Galicia Marc VDS team having won the Moto3 title for them in 2016. Quartararo’s story in Grand Prix racing so far has been one of ‘what if’s’, and this win only increases that – but if the double Junior World Champion can continue in this form, and take more podiums and victories with Speed Up, his real future might just start to look as promising as his hypothetical one as it did in 2015.
Oliveira may have had no answer for Quartararo on Sunday, but he still took second place and after starting seventeenth, it is probably fair to say that he should be reasonably happy with his performance. Crucially, he beat Bagnaia (by quite a bit) and cut the gap in the championship to just one point. Twelve rounds remain and we are pretty much back to square one in the intermediate class championship, and there are reasons to say that both Oliveira and Bagnaia are evenly matched as we approach the second half of the season.
Third place went to Alex Marquez. Whilst this meant he closed in, in the championship to be precisely one race win behind Bagnaia, but he will be disappointed to have missed the victory. Once more, Barcelona proved a race of unfulfilled promise for Marquez: quick in practice, nailed on for the win, only to find himself in more difficulty in the race, and dropping back in the end. Maybe a cooler Dutch climate can yield a first 2018 victory for the Spaniard.
The late-race drop off from Marquez this time brought him into the grasp of the two Dynavolt Kalex’s of Marcel Schrotter and Xavi Vierge. Schrotter realistically should have beaten Marquez to the podium, in fact you could even argue that he had the potential to challenge Oliveira for second, but a mistake in the early phases of the race when he ran wide at turn one and dropped five or so positions. His fightback was strong, though, but still he will be frustrated to have missed the podium. It was not all bad for Marcel though, as he got a motocross jersey from American motocross/supercross star Adam Cianciarulo.
Vierge went under the radar in the race to end up fifth, which was quite a good result for the Spaniard after a weekend which was not straightforward. Three seconds back of Vierge was Brad Binder, who fell away from about the midpoint of the race onwards – for whatever reason he cannot manage the race distance as well as teammate Oliveira, although he can keep the leading pace fairly often in the beginning of the race.
Seventh place went to Lorenzo Baldassarri, who lost his third place in the championship standings to Marquez after this race. It had been a difficult weekend for Balda, and he will hope for more in Assen to try and keep himself in the championship frame. Nearly three seconds back of Baldassarri was a frustrated Francesco Bagnaia. It was a tyre problem which cost the championship leader a shot at the podium and maybe even the victory; after the race he put a photo of his tyre on Instagram, and it had a huge chunk of rubber missing from it. A frustrating race for the Italian but not a threatening one in the long run, his pace is not in doubt.
The extent of Bagnaia’s struggles can be contextualised by the following: Sam Lowes had a fuel pump problem before the race began, and did not make the grid for the formation lap. This meant he had to start the race from last, rather than his qualifying position of ninth. By the end of the race, Lowes was only three seconds behind Bagnaia, and had recovered to his original qualifying position – ninth. It was a stunning race by Lowes, much of it off camera, but where he might have previously made mistakes and in the end had a poor result, he showed calmness and class in a difficult situation to make a good race. Credit has to go to his team manager, also, who was making a big effort to calm the Brit down before the race when everything looked so negative. In another team, Lowes might have crumbled. As it is, he can go to Assen in a good frame of mind.
It was Lowes’ teammate, Iker Lecuona who returned to the top ten after a few difficult races, as he finished in P10 in his home GP.
Andrea Locatelli took eleventh place, ahead of Simone Corsi. But the drama for Corsi was not in the race, rather it came after the chequered flag. Corsi was looking everywhere other than in front of him after the race had ended, and when he looked up he was too late to react to the impending situation, and he slammed into the back of Oliveira on the run into turn one. Thankfully, neither rider was hurt in the incident, but Corsi received a back of the grid penalty for Assen; an understandable decision from the stewards.
Tetsuta Nagashima finished thirteenth, ahead of Augusto Fernandez on his return to Grand Prix racing in place of Hector Barbera. The fact that Fernandez was wearing fully liveried up Stihl Pons HP40 leathers strongly suggests he will remain with us in Grands Prix for the remainder of the season, which is no more than he deserves. Remy Gardner took an impressive point on his return from two broken legs as he rounded out the top fifteen.
Edgar Pons wildcarded this weekend and finished sixteenth, better than he ever managed, pretty much, as a full-time GP rider, and ahead of Luca Marini who may have felt better physically better on the bike this weekend than in Mugello but clearly did not have the feeling with the bike as he ended the race seventeenth. Eighteenth went to Steven Odendaal on the NTS, ahead of Khairul Idham Pawi in P19 and Domi Aegerter who completed the top twenty.
Danny Kent was P21, thirty seconds down on his race winning teammate, and then came Joe Roberts, a further seven seconds back, Jules Danilo, Dimas Ekky, and Eric Granado who was the final finisher.
Stefano Manzi, Niki Tuuli and Bo Bendsneyder all got caught up in an incident at turn four on the first lap which ended their respective races. They were joined on the sidelines by Jorge Navarro, Federico Fuligni, Joan Mir, Mattia Pasini (who crashed because of a gearbox problem), Romano Fenati and Isaac Vinales.
Featured image courtesy of Markus Berger/KTM
Check out the latest Mobil 1 The Grid latest feature with Red Bull’s Adrian Newey, during which he talks about the team’s switch from Renault to Honda power units for 2019.
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16 years ago, a young Fin by the name of Kimi Raikkonen was racing in his debut season with in Formula 1 with Sauber. He would go on to have mixed fortunes with McLaren, before making a switch to Ferrari, winning the championship in his first season in 2007.
He would leave the sport after the 2009 season to switch to rallying before returning in 2012 with Lotus, saying he “missed racing.” A move back to Ferrari in 2014 beckoned a second world championship for Kimi, but it wasn’t to be. The fairytale return has been somewhat of a nightmare. Reliability failures and poor pace compared to team-mate Sebastian Vettel have left the 38 year-old in a precarious position in F1, and he now has a young Monegasque breathing down his neck.
16 years after Raikkonen, Charles Leclerc, the extremely talented 20-year old has impressed massively in his own debut season… with Sauber.
In a French Grand Prix for which Raikkonen qualified more than half a second slower than team-mate Vettel, Leclerc was right behind him on the grid, only just over a second behind the Ferrari. With Leclerc’s 8th place in qualifying, it was the first time Sauber had made Q3 since 2015. By the end of the first lap, Leclerc was in front of him.
Ultimately, after a problem with the front wing for Daniel Ricciardo, Raikkonen ended up on the podium, while a poor Sauber strategy left Leclerc in tenth; he deserved a lot more
However, after the pace we saw from the respective drivers, it seems Raikkonen’s number, is up. Truth be told, it should have been up before this season, but it seems that, with the start of a bright career for Charles Leclerc, it is time for Kimi to swallow his pride and call it a day at the end of 2018.
Raikkonen has enjoyed a brilliant career. His racing has been world class, he’s a world champion, and of course he has given us some of the best one-liners we’ve ever had in F1, most notably his “Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing” radio message during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix of 2012, which he won.
Now, however, with the start of a career with Sauber mirroring the start of Raikkonen’s, the Fin will begin to realise that, despite his achievements, it may be time to move over. Furthermore, the excitement about the career ahead of Leclerc is rife; his prodigious talent has led many of us to believe that he is capable of multiple world championships in the future. While we shouldn’t put too much pressure on the charming Monegasque, the excitement is difficult to contain.
What would be Leclerc’s role at Ferrari? We know that Ferrari have always had a number 1 and number 2 driver system. Even when this has not been the case contractually, the principle was still applied, as we saw when Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher raced together at the Maranello-based team. Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion, would surely be ahead of Leclerc in the pecking order. However, with the ability that Leclerc has, “it’s more than possible that Leclerc could overthrow him and become number 1, and perhaps at some point, in what will hopefully be an illustrious career, a world champion. As with Kimi Raikkonen himself, but more notably the great Michael Schumacher, it wouldn’t just be a Formula 1 world championship; it would be a Formula 1 world championship with Ferrari.
Last weekend saw the return of the French Grand Prix, this time at Paul Ricard. Overall the expectations for this race were low, as this is not particularly the best circuit France has. With all of its 167 different layout options, there were enough options to make the track more interesting for racing. Many did think though that this layout was not the best they could have chosen, and that it wouldn’t provide any good racing. How wrong many people were then when this race made up for the previous two races at Monaco and Montreal, which were criticised for being too boring.
First of all, there were many debates even amongst the drivers about the track. One of the problems being discussed was the pit lane. Especially the exit was deemed very dangerous as drivers re-joining the track will get on the racing line of the upcoming drivers. The other problem was the chosen layout, with focus on the chicane on the Mistral straight. This, according to Brendon Hartley and Sergio Perez, would not provide many overtakes and thus asked for it to be removed. They were proven wrong, as this race with all of its 57 overtakes provided the most overtakes of this season yet. For sure it helped that the DRS zone before the chicane was 700 metres long, which helped Vettel and Bottas to regain some positions after their terrible start.
Other drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hülkenberg complained about the confusing blue and red lines. These lines disorientated not only the drivers, but for fans watching it on TV it was very confusing too. The Free Practices on Friday demonstrated that the drivers struggled with the braking points due to the many lines surrounding the circuit. Vettel almost took a turn too early at the Mistral chicane and Hamilton almost drove straight into Vandoorne as he missed his braking point as well. It was not going to be an easy race for the drivers.
For some drivers their weekend even started disappointing after qualifying. With both McLaren drivers in only P16 for Alonso and P18 for Vandoorne, it really was an embarrassing Saturday for the Woking team. This disappointing result in the light of rumours that employees are unhappy doesn’t help their situation at all. Another team that has to feel embarrassed was Williams. They didn’t stand a chance as they qualified in P19 and P20, filling up the last places on the grid. Luckily for them Hartley had to start in last position as he had a 35-place grid penalty, so both drivers moved up a place.
The race however, which started an hour later than normal because of the World Cup, didn’t disappoint at all. The start of the race was very chaotic. Vettel had a better start than Bottas in front of him, but couldn’t get past Lewis who seemingly didn’t have a good start as he held Vettel up. This all resulted in a crash between Vettel and Bottas, as Vettel locked up his brakes and drove into Bottas. Verstappen had to evade them and, as he said himself after the race, took ‘the fast chicane’. Vettel did get a five second penalty from the stewards for the incident. However, for Lewis and many fans alike this penalty was not enough as he still finished higher than Bottas. The crash looked like just a racing incident as Vettel locked up and as a result hit Bottas, which is something that can happen at the start of the race especially with a tight corner like the first at Paul Ricard. It got even worse when it was announced after the race that Sebastian was voted Driver Of The Day, which seems very strange after he caused a collision and many fans thus were surprised.
After the race no other than second placed Max Verstappen took this crash as the opportunity to joke about criticism towards him about his driving style. ‘’I think the next time you see Seb you should ask him to change his style, you know, because honestly it is not acceptable. That’s what they said to me in the beginning of the season so I think they should do the same.’’ Again he got a well-deserved podium, just like he did at Canada. It looks like Max has proven indeed that his driving style is the right one as his teammate Ricciardo didn’t get on the podium. Surely he didn’t have the best start of the season you could get, but now he has gotten himself two podiums in a row. With the home race for Red Bull coming up this weekend it will be his job to achieve this again, this time maybe even a win.
The start crash between Vettel and Bottas did liven up the race though, as they had to fight their way through the field. However, this was not the only crash at the start of the race. Two of the three starting French drivers at their home Grand Prix crashed after just three turns, as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon crashed into each other. Neither of them did get a penalty for it though, as the stewards decided that they were both at mistake and it wouldn’t matter anyway as they were both out of the race. In front of the cameras a seemingly very emotional Gasly explained that he hoped for a better result as this home grand prix means a lot to him. It was a disappointing weekend for the French fans, as Grosjean didn’t deliver too with just an eleventh place.
Overall then this French GP was a good one. It saw the most overtakes of the season yet, delivered some chaos, controversy and drama. There were many doubts about this race as this circuit wouldn’t make for an interesting race, but instead we got one of the more interesting races of the season. Now the question is, after we’ve seen this race, should there be changes made to the track like some drivers suggested? It looks like it isn’t necessary. Will Vettel ruin his chances for the championship on his own again just like last year? Is the new Mercedes engine good enough for Lewis to dominate again? We shall see, as this week we head down to the second GP of the ‘triple header’ in Austria, the Red Bull Ring.
So far this season we’ve had a Mercedes winner, a Ferrari winner and Red Bull winner. This is completely normal and what we’ve come to expect, given that those teams have become F1’s ‘big three’. The only other team to get a podium so far was Force India at Baku, such is their stranglehold on F1. Two of the names most notably missing from that list are McLaren and Williams who are both having shockers of a season amid growing tensions.
This was not always the way. McLaren are not only the second-oldest active team after Ferrari, they are also the second most successful team – also after the Italian marque. Over 52 seasons and 833 races entered, they’ve racked up 155 pole positions and fastest laps, 182 wins, 12 drivers’ titles and 8 constructors’ titles. That is quite some record! However, their last podium came back at Australia 2014 and you have to look even further back for their last win – Brazil 2012. So, where did it go wrong for McLaren?
If you ask them, the first word you’ll get will almost undoubtedly be “Honda”. It’s true, through their most recent three-year partnership they scored no wins, no podiums and only had a best result of fifth. Throughout that time, McLaren repeatedly claimed to have ‘the best chassis on the grid’ which, rather sceptically at first, we all ended up buying into. Truth be told, they evidently didn’t as now they’ve switched to Renault engines, the same as Red Bull and Renault, for this season, they’ve been pretty awful. Best result of fifth, a lot of no-scores and DNFs… oh wait, this is sounding a lot like it did with Honda! The majority of the problem still lies with McLaren.
In truth, it all starting going downhill way before Honda came back on the scene. McLaren lost their star, their prodigy that they’d supported since day one, they lost Lewis Hamilton. Most people were puzzled, to say the least, at Hamilton’s move away from the race-winning McLaren to the struggling Mercedes for 2013 but, with countless race wins, three world titles and a lot of success, it all makes sense now! Hamilton not only wanted a new challenge, he knew the direction McLaren was headed and that direction was down.
Under the year’s of Martin Whitmarsh, management structures had been put in place that just don’t fit F1 while Ron Dennis took a step back, removing some of the atmosphere of fear. When Whitmarsh went, Dennis came back into control and signed the Honda deal, citing that they would only be successful if they were a works team. We all know how that went but now Dennis’ has been pushed out of his own company in favour of Zak Brown and Eric Boullier. This seemed like it was going to be a new McLaren revolution, they’d signed with Renault, they’d kept Fernando Alonso (somehow!) and now they were going to get back to winning races. They believed it and, for a moment, we believed it but it came to nothing and this reflects the mood at McLaren now.
The way out of this rather large hole seems a long one and they’ll probably have to wait for the 2021 rule change before they can even dream of being competitive again. But, with a diminishing amount of sponsors, a disgruntled star driver who’s looking for the door and general staff dismay, the question is if they can stay afloat until then?
Williams’ story is equally tough and also lacks a clear way out. Now Williams hasn’t been quite as successful as McLaren in the past but their record is still one to be coveted. 128 poles, 133 fastest laps, 114 wins, 7 drivers’ championships and 9 constructors’ championship is nothing to be ashamed of for a racing record but, like McLaren, those tallies haven’t been added to for some time. Their last win was the 2012 Spanish GP where the much-maligned Pastor Maldonado surprised us all by winning over Alonso but that was a long time ago.
For Williams, it has been a slow but constant demise. Founder Frank Williams was left with no choice but to reduce his roles as his health deteriorated, leaving the reins to daughter, Claire Williams. The team have been solidly in the midfield for the past few years, battling with Force India for fourth in the constructors’ championship and while that wasn’t where Williams wanted to be, they were still getting some podiums and decent points.
This year, however, it’s all gone to pot. The season was troubled before it even got going with the questionable driver choice of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin. Both vastly inexperienced with patchy racing records and no real scope to develop a car. But really, their biggest problem this season has been the car, not the drivers. They still have arguably the best engine on the grid with the Mercedes but something has gone drastically wrong with the design of the car, meaning that they have been stone dead last all season.
This is not how they used to be but equally, their last championship of any description came back in 1997 and they haven’t really been a factor in the championship since the dawn of the 2000s. Next year they’ll lose their title sponsor of Martini and, beyond that, even surviving in F1 could be a problem. They, like so many other teams, have pinned all their hopes on the 2021 regulation change and, if that doesn’t help, we may have seen the last of the Williams name in F1.
It’s not been good, by any stretch of the imagination, for these two teams and it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Featured image courtesy of Andrew Hone/Williams F1 ref: Digital Image _ONY4604
It looked like Penske were going to be the ones to beat at Road America with Josef Newgarden and Will Power locking out the front row and, while one’s challenge ended before it even started, the other took his third and most dominant victory of the season, ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and championship leader Scott Dixon, to vastly improve his own championship position.
After starting the season strongly, Newgarden had struggled in the last few races however, he turned that around at Road America to take the win, only failing to lead three laps which were all during the pit stops sequences. Hunter-Reay posed a constant threat throughout the race, always just a few tenths of a second behind Newgarden, shadowing him, waiting for a mistake but none came, and Hunter-Reay was unable to make a move. Power going backwards at the start helped Newgarden as everyone else had to dodge the slowing #12 Penske while his other Penske teammate, Simon Pagenaud, helped by forming a large train behind him and preventing any challenges from anyone below seventh. Despite the help, he still had Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Robert Wickens and Dixon to deal with – all of which put up strong, sustained challenges. Ultimately, it was Newgarden who had the better pace and therefore took the win with a victory that looks a lot more dominant on paper than it did in real life. That result puts Newgarden into fourth in the championship, overtaking teammate Power, and meaning that he’s now only 50 points back – a race win’s distance.
The other two Penske’s of Power and Pagenaud did not live up to Newgarden’s achievements at Road America. Power had started second, but he had an engine problem at the start which dropped him to last within half a lap and effectively ended his race. The Indy 500 Champion now finds himself in sixth in the championship and 65 points back, a large but not insurmountable gap. Pagenaud, meanwhile, finished the race but struggled for pace throughout, only getting up to seventh after barging past Ed Jones in the closing stages of the race. That tops off a sub-standard start to the season for Pagenaud who’s now 138 points astray in the championship; taking the #1 this season is looking more and more unlikely for the 2016 champion.
Second in the race, and now the championship, was Hunter-Reay who spent the vast majority of the 55 laps staring at the back of Newgarden’s #1 Penske. He had good pace during the race but couldn’t quite find a way past race leader Newgarden while, at one point, it looked like he’d have to fend off the charging Dixon but that came to nothing. Overall it was a decent, if not frustrating, race for the 2012 champion who has very much announced himself in this championship.
Still in the lead of that championship, with a much-increased margin of 45 points, is Dixon who took third after qualifying, rather disappointingly, in eighth. As ever with the Chip Ganassi crew, clever strategy was the name of the game and meant that Dixon jumped Rossi, Wickens and Sato, putting him in third. This was done by running an extra lap on the first stint then cashing it in on the second by having to stop for less fuel so less time. It was a masterstroke from the #9 crew which meant that Dixon didn’t have to waste time by trying to pass the three on track, which was proving difficult at best for everyone else.
For a long time, one of the biggest challengers to Newgarden was Rossi who had sat in third right from the start, after pushing Wickens off on Lap 1 in a slightly questionable move which Rossi managed to avoid a penalty for. Sato nearly passed both Rossi and Wickens after the second stops however, Rossi put a stop to that by, you guessed it, pushing him off track! Again, Rossi went unpenalized which did nothing to please Sato or Wickens but, in the interviews after, Rossi saw no error in his ways – rightfully or not. After all that work, Rossi’s race fell apart when he suffered the same suspension issue that teammate Zach Veach had earlier in the race, meaning he actually finished in sixteenth.
Season-long rival Wickens may have both started and finished fifth however, that doesn’t tell the whole story. After fighting with Rossi early on, Wickens had dropped back off the front group and had to work through the race to get back up to them. He was back with Rossi after the second stops, but any further dual was stopped by Rossi’s suspension issue. Graham Rahal got past Wickens and, after an incident with Pagenaud in the pit lane slowed Wickens down, it looked like it was going to stay that way; in the closing laps of the race, Wickens managed to get back past Rahal to take fifth but still meaning that the Canadian is 119 points back in the championship.
Next up for the IndyCar paddock is Iowa Speedway after a weekend off, this race was won by Penske’s Helio Castroneves last year who won’t be returning to defend his win this year.
Full Race Result
DNF – Will Power
Featured image courtesy of Michael L. Levitt/LAT for Chevy Racing
You might have seen that I went a bit viral this week, with my commentary of the England v Tunisia World Cup match. However, despite its players’ fine coiffures and fancy footwork, football is not my sport of choice. I much prefer motor racing. I’ve been a big fan of Formula 1 and other motorsport since I was a young child watching battles between Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen. So, what’s the appeal? After all, there’s no diving in F1 (apart from Piquet Jr that one time, perhaps); the largely sub-par haircuts are hidden under helmets (although Marcus Ericsson and Kevin Magnussen are putting in valiant footballer-esque efforts); and, sometimes, the races are undeniably boring (recent visits to Canada and Monaco don’t so much spring, but limp, to mind).
However, some races have more than their fair share of craziness. Two out of three visits thus far to Baku have resulted in bizarre crashes, last-minute drama and surprise podium appearances (Well Done Baku, indeed). Meanwhile, even in less exciting races there’s usually some drama to discuss, whether it’s a first lap clash or a teammate rivalry. Just like football then, not every race is exciting, but there’s usually still something to talk about.
In place of the referee and VAR we have the all-powerful stewards and their sometimes questionable decisions, and there’s just as much fruitless protesting – only we get to hear it. This has given us gems such as “When did I do dangerous driving?” from an aggrieved Sebastian Vettel, who surely must have known that driving alongside, and then into, Lewis Hamilton under a safety car just might be considered dangerous.
Instead of aerial duels we have, well, aerial duels, with more than a few cars being launched into the air over the years. Even when cars don’t make it off the ground there’s plenty of dramatic crashes and clashes. From Grosjean’s repeated trips into the wall this season to the numerous clashes between Force India teammates Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon last season, there’s always material for a heated discussion about who was at fault or how an incident could have been avoided.
From a personal standpoint, this season hasn’t been the most enjoyable for me, mainly because I’m a Williams fan, and, unfortunately, they’ve produced a car so terrible it’s often slower than last year’s model. My second-favourite team, Force India, are going through some testing times as well, with poor results on track and financial problems away from it. They have, however, enjoyed a podium this season, with Perez standing atop the third step at Baku, so that has buoyed my spirits somewhat. However, it’s another reminder that, just as in football, you have to take the lows and the highs with your team of choice, and supporting a team or driver adds another level of emotion and intrigue into the sport.
So, what else might we be missing in Formula 1? Football has their transfer season, and we have ours. Will Fernando Alonso stay or will he go? Will Daniel Ricciardo accept a cool 20 million to drive for McLaren? Will Robert Kubica ever return to an F1 race seat? These questions and more keep discussions interesting even when the racing is not.
So, while my forays into football commentary have seen my tweets go viral, and years of tweeting about motorsport have done nothing of the sort, Formula 1 remains the sport closest to my heart. And while I might watch a few more football matches than I used to, nothing will hold my attention like Formula 1 has done for so many years of my life.
Featured image courtesy of Sven Mandel
This weekend, the 2018 Superbike World Championship heads to California, and the Laguna Seca circuit, home of the famous “Corkscrew”. Negotiating turns eight and nine efficiently this weekend will be critical to achieving a good result, but the puzzle of Laguna Seca is not only limited to its most famous section. Coming over the crest of a hill at turn one on full lean angle and at around 160mph gives a breath-taking start to the lap, which leads straight into the second turn at the double-apex Andretti Hairpin. The complexity of this section means mistakes are inevitable across the weekend, so minimising having a setting to give good confidence when braking on angle is essential for this part of the track. Then the circuit flows right into turns three and four. Three is merely a kink, but it is important to take a good line to be able to make a good turn four. At the same time, in the race, the layout of this part of the track means that the fastest line also leaves you open to a pass, so finding the right compromise will be important in the early laps.
Turn five is a fairly simple, flat right hander, but the radius combined with the relative lack of camber means that it is easy to get sucked in, but the important thing here is the corner exit, because there is then a reasonably long run to turn six through the un-numbered right kink. There is a lot of camber to offer a lot of support in turn six, meaning there is potential for a pass. Turn seven is very fast, on the left side of the tyre. As Always the riders are on the limit of the track boundaries on the exit, and track boundaries in Laguna are enforced not by the Race Direction but by the run-off areas themselves, which are largely gravel – rest easy Mr. Haydon. After the run down the Corkscrew, it is the tricky Rainey Corner, where the riders push the front hard as the downhill run continues before another heavily cambered corner at the penultimate turn. Finally, the last corner is the best overtaking spot, as highlighted by Eugene Laverty in 2013, but as Casey Stoner showed in the MotoGP race back in 2008, it is also quite easy to make a race-deciding mistake at turn twelve.
Chaz Davies best mastered the Californian circuit in race one last year, which was a remarkable victory, only two weeks after he was run over by Jonathan Rea in Misano race one. This year, it is not physical issues which have the potential to hinder Davies this weekend, but rather problems with the bike. Davies has struggled since Imola, and especially in Donington and Brno. In Donington, Davies suffered his worst weekend of the season, missing the podium in both races; then, in Brno he suffered again, but with some crashes in race two he was able to make the podium. Laguna has been a good track for both Davies and the Panigale in recent seasons, and the Welshman will be hoping to make a return to the top step.
It was Jonathan Rea who took victory in the second Laguna Seca race last year, and the form he is in at the moment would suggest another double could be coming the way of the new ‘most victorious’ rider in World Superbike history. He took that record from Carl Fogarty in race one in Brno two weeks ago, but contact with his KRT teammate Tom Sykes left him as a spectator from lap three in the second race. The frustration from the incident was put to one side, though, as he put pen to paper on a new two-year deal to pilot the ZX-10RR until 2021. As for this weekend, Rea and Davies have been the two to beat around Laguna since 2015, and with the Welshman currently in a difficult moment, this weekend could well be a Johnny Rea domination.
But maybe Marco Melandri can take it to the reigning World Champion. He should have won race two in Brno but made a mistake at turn three which put him out of contention. Melandri made the podium last year in race two, and may prove to be the only rider with any hope of stopping Rea taking yet another double. However, if his instability issues reappear this weekend, Melandri could have a bigger problem in Laguna than anywhere else – few places require total confidence, especially in the front end, as the Weathertech Raceway.
What about Sykes? Well, he took two wins in Laguna – one in 2013 on his way to the championship, and the other in 2014 when he shared the winning that day with Melandri, the last time the Italian won in Laguna. He took a pair of second places in 2015 behind Chaz Davies and in front of Rea both times, before he took a third US win in 2016. A podium was followed by a crash two weeks ago, and with his record in Laguna Seca, this weekend could offer an opportunity for Sykes to expand on his solitary victory of 2018 so far.
Perhaps the biggest question for this weekend is: what can the Yamahas do? Three race wins out of the last four races, across both riders, and including a double for Michael van der Mark in Donington one month ago leave the R1s under significantly more pressure to perform and achieve big results, especially with the Ducati riders having fairly large question marks over the heads of their competitiveness, as well as Sykes. The Pata Yamaha riders could be the biggest contenders to Rea this season, ad they have to be in a good position to be able to try to challenge the championship leader.
The Aprilias could also have something to say this weekend, with Eugene Laverty making good progress at Brno a couple of weeks back, taking a sixth in race one and a fourth in race two. He was backed up, too, by Lorenzo Savadori who, despite having a bonfire underneath his rear tyre for most of both races, managed to shadow his Milwaukee Aprilia teammate to take seventh in race one and fifth in race two. Coming here, Laverty was confident of being able to achieve podium results, and the progress in the last races would point towards being able to get near that. Maybe they are quite far away, still, but with some luck they might be able to get themselves on the box. Laguna has been a good circuit for Laverty in the past. He only has two podiums, but has only ever raced there once on competitive machinery, in 2013 (when both podiums came), including a stunning win in the second race that year.
There are also three Americans on the grid this weekend: the two WSBK regulars, Triple M Honda’s PJ Jacobsen and Red Bull Honda’s Jake Gagne; and the wildcard Josh Herrin on a Yamaha.
Feature image courtesy of hondanews.eu