Tom’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix Race Notes

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

Well, who saw that coming?.. The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix had a lot of work to do if it was to live up to last week’s final few laps of chaos that the British Grand Prix gave us. Did it? Well… Sort of, yeah.

Super Max

What can I say, as a Red Bull fan, I honestly do not know what to say but as the neutral as I am when it comes to the race notes, all I can say is… Formula One needed this!

Super Max Verstappen and even more to the point, super Red Bull! Starting on the hard tyre and going 29 laps on the hard tyre as well as an excellent start from Max, overtaking Nico Hulkenberg and his Racing Point to instantly move into P3, saw the Red Bull team FINALLY put pressure on Mercedes on a race day and it pays off!

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

Max showed us that tyre management is his thing and while his rivals were struggling to contain tyre wear, he knew what he had to do and he very well did it. At one point, Max was informed by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to push less and hold back because his tyres couldn’t possibly sustain the pressure the Dutch man was putting on them. However, Max disagreed and continued his pursuit of the Mercedes which now looks to have been a masterstroke as he claimed Red Bull’s first win at Silverstone in 8, yes, 8 years!!

Obviously, I couldn’t mention Red Bull without mentioning Alex Albon, the young driver qualified in P9 and ended up finishing in P5. That doesn’t match what his teammate achieved but Albon was first to pit and at one point found himself near dead last again. Having received a lot of criticism in the last weeks, Alex once again showed he shouldn’t be slept on. Oh, and he also held the fastest lap for a while too. Report on that one, you know who!

Mercedes tyre issues?

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

Once again, tyres have proved to be an issue for Mercedes. Both cars started on the medium compound tyre and as we all know, is the equivalent of last weekend’s soft tyre and we all know what happened at the end of last week’s British Grand Prix.

Anyway, this week saw both Mercedes cars reporting issues after just lap 5. Whether it’s the heat or whether it’s an actual issue with the car, is something we are bound to find out about in the coming days but just for now and the purpose of the race notes, it certainly seems that after so long, we have possibly identified an issue with what looks like a flawless W11.

Pole sitter Valtteri Bottas didn’t look comfortable from the start and never really showed us that he was going to get one over on his Mercedes teammate, while Lewis Hamilton didn’t look himself today despite fighting all the odds to stop claim a record podium.

Today wasn’t Mercedes’ day and having to pit early due to degradation, manage a tyre that didn’t look comfortable at all on the car, as well as having a last couple of laps of ‘free to race’ action because Lewis had the fresher tyres than Valtteri isn’t what they were hoping for whatsoever.

Hats off to you Charles Leclerc

Yes, its that stage of the race notes where I award my driver of the day and this week it goes to no other than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

For the majority of the season (ok, up until this point) when we talk Ferrari, there really hasn’t been anything positive to touch on. Nonetheless, today the Italian team and a certain driver put all that behind them and gave The Prancing Horse fans something to finally be very cheerful about!

Ferrari and Charles Leclerc, in particular, were one of only three teams to risk the one stop strategy today (other two cars/teams being, Renault (Ocon) and Alpha Romeo (Räikkönen)) and boy didn’t it pay off. Starting in P8, Leclerc managed to get himself all the way up to P4 and show that the old horse still has some power behind it and had at last, a very nice looking race pace!

Unfortunately, unlike teammate Leclerc, Sebastian Vettel’s season doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Vettel took a big spin on lap one and very nearly saw his race over had he not somehow avoid contact with Carlos Sainz’s McLaren. Vettel fought hard all the way back up to P12 but once again, its another race where Sebby’s final chapter of his Ferrari journey looks like it just isn’t going to end well.

Final Thoughts

Ok, the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix didn’t give us the madness that the final laps of last weeks British Grand Prix did BUT it did give us a lot to think over ahead of next week’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona. It was written in the stars that Mercedes were once again going to dominate but boy didn’t this historic track have other things in mind!

Max Verstappen managed his car to perfection and Red Bull showed why they hardly ever miss when it comes to strategy as they win at Silverstone for the first time on 8 years but more importantly, they end the run of Mercedes’ wins to possibly, possibly give us a real championship battle.

Here’s to the next one, see you in a week’s time in Barcelona! I can not wait!

70th Anniversary GP Qualifying: Bottas pips Hamilton to pole in a close fight

Valtteri Bottas took pole at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon after beating teammate Hamilton by 0.063 seconds in a extremely close battle as Mercedes locked out the front row after yet another dominant qualifying this season. The Finnish driver would be delighted at this result especially after signing on for one more year with the Silver Arrows. He will definitely be looking forward to starting the race on pole after the disappointment of last weekend.

Nico Hulkenberg put on a stellar display in the final parts of the qualifying to put himself on the second row for the race tomorrow in third, a tenth of a second ahead of Max Verstappen in fourth. The other Racing Point of Lance Stroll couldn’t extract the maximum out of the car and ended up qualifying sixth, which puts him on the third row alongside Daniel Ricciardo. The Renault driver put in a mega performance in Q3 on medium tyres but he couldn’t quite get on the second row which was looking likely after the first run of Q3. His teammate Ocon in the other Renault did not make it out of Q2 and will be starting 11th, pending an investigation after impeding George Russell during Q1.

Nico Hulkenberg, Racing Point RP20

Ferrari’s dismal form continues. Sebastian Vettel failed to make it to Q3 and will be starting 12th on the grid; Leclerc, who managed to make it to the second row last week couldn’t make it past the fourth row this time and will start eighth. The only direction the team seems to be going is backward and there will be a lot of questions asked back at Maranello.

Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri looks to be set for another impressive weekend at Silverstone after managing 7th place today with an impressive lap. Teammate Kvyat, on the other hand, never made it out of Q1 after an error-ridden lap which saw him finish 16th.

Alex Albon and Lando Norris made up the fifth row in 9th and 10th for which both the drivers would not be overly happy.

It was a very average afternoon for McLaren with Norris at 10th and Sainz at 13th and they will be hoping that the fortunes change come race day tomorrow, especially with the midfield very tightly packed.

George Russell maintained his perfect qualifying record against his teammate after an extremely impressive lap which saw him progress to Q2 and put him fifteenth on the grid while his teammate will be starting P18.

Haas will be disappointed with their qualifying after only one car made out of Q1 with Grosjean in P14 and Magnussen in P17 after making a costly error in Q1.

Alfa Romeo started 1st-2nd-3rd-4th for the first ever British GP in 1950 but fast forward 70 years and they will be starting at the back with Giovinazzi at 19th and Kimi at 20th after a poor showing in Q1.

With Mercedes locking out the front row for the 67th time, it looks set to be a straight fight between the Silver Arrows for victory while the long-awaited podium for Hulkenberg might finally happen. With an extremely close midfield starting all the way from 3rd to 13th, it looks set to be a promising race for the 70th Anniverary Grand Prix.

Tom’s British Grand Prix Race Notes

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

Well, well, well, I have to say that at one point, I was massively struggling to find a way to make this interesting for you. However, queue the final couple of laps of the Grand Prix and the race really came alive! So, where to start? Here are my British Grand Prix Race Notes…

Lewis Hamilton 

I mean what can you say? Lewis led from start to finish, cruising home to claim a 7th British Grand Prix win, moving 30 point clear in the Driver’s Championship. Ok, I say cruised, he did for 50 laps at least before the real fun started and it almost got away from him. (more on this shortly).

Hamilton now moves to within four wins of Michael Schumacher’s all-time GP wins record. Back against him? You really shouldn’t. It’s inevitable and given the car that is under him, there’s no way he’s not going to claim the crown sooner rather than later.

Image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

I said at the start, what can you say? Well, not much more really. It was a relaxed drive for Lewis and once again, Mercedes show why they are miles ahead of the grid, even when they only have three fully functioning tires on the car!

Final Laps of Pure Carnage:

As mentioned, the Grand Prix looked all but done right from the start and the Race Note’s almost ceased to exist however, this historic Silverstone track had other ideas and gave us two laps of pure carnage and entertainment!

It all started with Valteri Bottas and after sitting in second place for 50 laps, Bottas reported on the team radio that he was suffering from a lot of vibration. At the time it was apparent that his tires we’re starting to struggle but what we didn’t know was just how bad they really were.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t long before we found out and as the Finn headed into the first corner to start his 51st lap, Bottas lost his front left tyre completely as it’s pressure dropped ultimately leading to his front wing punctured it. Bottas came into the pits at the end of the lap and he found himself going from second to finish the Grand Prix in 11th place. Which may sound bad but it could have been worse as at one point, you were left wondering if he was even going to make it to the pits at all!

Bottas wasn’t the only man suffering from tyre degradation either as Lewis Hamilton also quickly found out.

After leading the race completely unchallenged, it looked as if Lewis could sit back, relax and enjoy his final lap with his now 32 plus second lead over Max Verstappen, but what he didn’t know was that his tyre, just like his teammates tyre, was about to go bang!

Lewis heard about Bottas’ puncture and admitted that his looked fine but as he turned into Luffield, his very own left front tyre punctured and left him hoping that he would beat Verstappen to the checkered flag. As we know, he did but that 32 plus second lead quickly vanished into a 5.8-second win. Close call? Absolutely and in the words of Lewis himself, ”It was definitely a heart-in-the-mouth kind of feeling” for the Brit.

Danny Ric

To wrap up this week’s race notes, it’s the man himself, the man who never stops smiling and most probably has the best sense of humor the grid has ever seen.

Daniel Ricciardo, a man on a mission of late, who has those boots that are made for overtaking and overtaking he did. Danny Ric started 8th on the grid and battled all afternoon against both McLaren’s of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris, which in truth up until puncture gate, was the only entertainment of the day. (Apart from K-Mag and Dani Kvyat’s crashes maybe).

Anyway, Danny Ric was one of nine drivers to benefit from Bottas’ second to last lap puncture and thanks to a solid drive from the Australian, he ended up coming him to finish in P4 which matches his best ever finish for Renualt. Had Hamilton’s tyre issue been a lot worse than it was then we could have been talking about a podium finish for Danny Ric but Hamilton somehow got his Silver Arrow home and he had to settle for fourth which isn’t anything to turn your nose up at. (No pun intended, Danny). Great drive!

Other mentions:

Image courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari

Ferrari had a tale of two weekends and depending on who you ask, the response to how they faired this weekend will be very different. Charles Leclerc had a very impressive weekend which was topped off by a podium finish in P3, which Sebastian Vettel had a nightmare weekend as he ended up in P10. Vettel struggled to stay on the track for most of the weekend and the race pace just wasn’t there for him again. That said, it was a much more improved Ferrari overall.

McLaren will be hugely happy with their showing as Lando Norris brought his MCL35 home to finish in P5, which is great news in terms of the constructor’s standings as Lance Stroll could only manage a ninth-place finish as Racing Point had a race to forget given Nico Hulkenburg’s car didn’t even make the grid due to a power unit failure.

Alpha Tauri will also be happy as Pierre Gasly had an excellent race to finish in seventh after team mate Dani Kvyat crashed out after a clash with Red Bull’s Alexander Albon.

Final Thoughts:

It was a race that looked as if it was over before it even started but thanks to a final few laps of pure carnage, it really did not disappoint in the end. Hamilton may have won his 7th British Grand Prix but it wasn’t as easy as it potentially could have been in the end.

Shall we do it again? Ok then, see you next week for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix!

 

BRITISH GP REVIEW: HAMILTON WINS RECORD 7TH BRITISH GP

image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports

Lewis Hamliton had to literally drag his Mercedes across the finish line at Silverstone on Sunday afternoon to become the record 7th time winner of the British Grand Prix.

The Sunday for Mercedes was going in a very expected manner with both the cars comfortably leading 1-2 until it all kicked off with 5 laps to go. Valtteri Bottas complained about heavy tyre vibrations which did not seem like a big deal until his front left tyre suffered a puncture with 3 laps to go and he was out of a points finishing place just like that after having to make a pitstop which saw him finish 11th. Luck was on Lewis Hamilton’s side as he also suffered the same fate as his teammate but it was on the very final lap which enabled him to carry the Mercedes across the line for his 88th race win.

Max Verstappen took 2nd place amidst all the chaos on an afternoon where he looked set for a lonely 3rd place finish until the sequence of punctures kicked off which promoted him to 2nd. He could have even taken victory if not for the team’s idea of pitting for fresh tyres in order to go for the fastest lap just the lap before Lewis’ puncture. Charles Leclerc also ended up with a very unlikely last podium spot for Ferrari despite running at 4th the whole race thanks to Mercedes chaos at the end. Sebastian Vettel in the other Ferrari finished his race at the final points spot in 10th to cap off what was a very below average weekend for the German driver. Alex Albon in the other Red Bull made a late charge through the field after stopping twice which saw him finish 8th. The Thai driver will take the result as welcoming concerning the pressure on him about keeping his seat coming into this weekend and also after tangling with Kevin Magnussen in as early as the second lap which ended up with the Danish driver retiring out of the race and could also have ended badly for Albon too.

McLaren also looked set for a strong finish with Sainz at 5th and Norris at 6th when Sainz suffered the same problem as both the Mercedes on the penultimate lap which saw the Spainard finish 13th. Norris managed a 5th place finish despite being overtaken by Ricciardo who hung in there the whole race and finished an impressive 4th after all the events of the race unfolded. Esteban Ocon in the other Renault finished 6th after a strong drive following his earlier battle with the Racing point of Lance Stroll who finished 9th. The Silverstone based team would definitely be very unimpressed with the weekend as they could only get one car to the grid as the sensational return of Nico Hulkenberg did not go according to plan. Mechanical issues meant that the returning German driver’s race had finished before it even began.

Pierre Gasly probably had the best weekend out of the rest after finishing 7th following an impressive drive throughout the race. The Frenchman starting 11th on the grid was on the back of Vettel’s Ferrari from very early on and managed to pass him with a slightly controversial move. He had a mini battle with the only Racing Point as well and came out on top and made his way into a high points place. The other Alpha Tauri of Danil Kvyat retired very early on as he carried too much speed into Maggotts while suffering a right rear puncture and ended up in the barriers. Both the Alpha Romeo drivers were complaining about rare tyres during the race and ended their races with Giovinazzi at 14th and Kimi at 17th. George Russell finished 12th in his Williams after complaining about handling issues during the race. He would be left pondering as to what could have been if he had not had the 5 place grid penalty following an excellent qualifying on Saturday.

For the first time this season, Bottas failed to secure a top 3 finish after the events during the final laps which means that his championship hopes have taken a massive hit as he now sits 30 points behind his teammate Hamilton, who is in the driver’s seat to take his 7th championship and equal Michael Schumacher’s all time record. Max Verstappen also looks to be slowly cementing his 3rd place in the driver standings after his strong 2nd place finish today. It is however going to be all to play for from P4 to P10 with the midfield battle looking very promising between Racing Point, McLaren, Renault and Ferrari.

Hamilton takes 91st pole position ahead of British Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has taken the 91st pole position of his career ahead of tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, three tenths in front of team-mate Valtteri Bottas and over a second clear of third-placed Max Verstappen. It makes Mercedes the first team in F1’s history to take eight consecutive pole positions at the same circuit.

Hamilton suffered a spin at Luffield on his first run in Q3 but recovered to post two laps good enough for pole, the quickest being a new track record of a 1:24.303.

Charles Leclerc got to within a tenth of Verstappen in what is Ferrari’s first second-row start of the season. McLaren’s Lando Norris will line up a very respectable P5.

Lance Stroll only just made it through to Q3 and qualified P6 ahead of Sainz and the two Renaults of Ricciardo and Ocon.

Having struggled all weekend, Vettel will line up only tenth for tomorrow’s race. What’s more, he will be starting the race on the soft tyres rather than the more favourable mediums.

Alex Albon failed to make it through to Q3 for the second race in a row and only managed P12 behind the Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly. He suffered a hefty crash during free practice on Friday and was plagued by an electrical issue on Saturday morning.

Nico Hulkenberg, drafted in at the last possible moment to replace Sergio Perez after Perez tested positive for COVID-19, qualified P13.

Daniil Kvyat will start P14 ahead of George Russell, who made it through to Q2 for the third consecutive time in his Williams. He was, however, investigated for failing to slow for yellow flags after his team-mate span at Luffield in Q1.

Both Alfa Romeo cars failed to make it through to Q2 yet again, as did both Haas cars. Nicholas Latifi will line up P20 after his aforementioned spin.

 

[Featured image – Steve Etherington]

Hulk is back – The German driver impresses on his F1 return with Racing Point

With news that Sergio Perez had tested positive for COVID-19 breaking on Thursday evening, Racing Point had a decision to make as to who would come in and effectively replace him for at least this weekend’s British Grand Prix and even possibly for the 70th anniversary race weekend the next week. Well, it was all to perfect for a certain German driver who’s last race came some 243 days ago.

After losing his seat at Renault at the end of last season, Nico Hulkenberg was most likely wondering how he could get himself back in a seat. However, what he probably wasn’t expecting was how it would come about and how much earlier an opportunity for him to return to the grid would arise. With that said, news broke hours before the start of Free Practice 1 that Racing Point had opted to replace Checo with Nico, who had already spent three-quarters of an hour of Friday morning in the Racing Point simulator ahead of his scheduled return.

With 177 Grand Prix’s to his name, it absolutely makes sense for both Nico and the Pink Panthers for him to take the drive, replacing his former Force India teammate and he did not disappoint!

Glen Dunbarr / Racing Point F1 Team

Free Practice 1:

Nico’s initial lap of the historic Silverstone track was slightly delayed due to the fact we were still awaiting the result of his own COVID test, however, it wasn’t too long of a wait and before you knew it, Nico was taking to the track in the RP20 and was actually the first out.

After a couple of bedding in laps and a could of stops into the pits, Nico went on to complete an impressive 24 laps and subsequently posted a best lap time of 1:28.592 which was good enough to see him end FP1 in 9th just +1.170 behind the fastest man of the session – Max Verstappen (1:27.422).

What was more impressive was the fact that while he was just over one second off Verstappen, Nico was only +0.591 off his teammate Lance Stroll, who ended up finishing the first session third fastest posting a 1:28.004 (+0.582 behind Verstappen).

Post FP1 thoughts had you thinking that given Nico hasn’t taken to the track whatsoever this season let alone jumping into a car which has a serious chance of challenging this weekend, he could only get fast. Excitement building for FP2? Absolutely.

Final Session Times:

Free Practice 2:

FP2 got underway and Nico took his time in the garage before heading out to put an initial lap time of 1:29.906 for 13th with almost 20 minutes of the session gone. The following lap, Nico got himself into the top 10 with a much more improved 1:29.041 (9th), pace was starting to gather for the 32-year-old German.

With just under an hour of practice left, Nico saw teammate Stroll set a session fastest 1:27.274 during a qualifying simulation run. Nico’s answer? Well, it was 1:27.910 to go 5th fastest and move to within +0.636 of Stroll.

With just three quarters of an hour left in the session though, Red Bull’s Alex Albon went off the track at Stow in a big way after losing the rear end and spinning in barriers. The session was red flagged and all car’s returned to the pits for around 15 minutes.

With restart of the session and around 30 minutes to go, Nico went on to complete a further 25 laps and ultimately ended up in P7 at the checkered flag. As for his teammate Stroll, well.. he ended up being the fastest man of the session with his before mentioned lap of 1:27.274 which was +0.090 fastest than second quickest Alex Albon, who after his crash at Stow, didn’t return for the rest of the session.

Final Session Times:

 

What Nico Had To Say:

“The 24 hours has been a bit special. Crazy and wild. 16:30pm yesterday afternoon I got the call took a plane here and then seat fitted until 2am last night. Then into the simulator at 8am for an hour with a bit of prep work. It was a short night, but all worthwhile.”

Mark Sutton / Racing Point F1 Team

Overall Assessment:

Nico’s return to the track after 243 days was a very impressive one giving the circumstances. With as much notice as he had, I don’t think you could have asked much more from him. Yes, we all know that the car he was in control of could and should have been up with Stroll’s timing but let’s be honest, 24 hours on from being told he was coming in, Nico did an excellent job in staying within six hundred tenths of his teammate.

The rest of the weekend will now be an opportunity for Nico to repay Racing Point’s trust in giving him to replace Checo. You can well imagine that with the data collected from his laps today and the debriefing to follow, Nico’s confidence will have grown massively and could show not only in tomorrow’s FP3 but also in what is expected to be a much cooler Qualifying.

It’s fair to say that despite the circumstances that surround his return, it’s great to see the man that they call Hulk back in a Formula One car. Welcome back, Nico!

Tom’s Hungarian Grand Prix Race Notes

After an excellent and action packed two-race weekend in Austria to open the 2020 Formula One season, our attention was turned to Hungary for race three. Known as Monaco without the close barriers (and minus a luxury yacht or ten) the Hungaroring had the potential to deliver even more thrills and spills and didn’t it just. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some Hungarian Grand Prix weekend highlights and yet even more talking points.

Lewis Hamilton 

Quite frankly, I don’t think there’s anywhere else you could possibly start, is there? Fresh off the back of a masterclass in Styrian, Hamilton arrived at the Hungaroring needing just one win to equal the Michael Schumacher’s record of eight wins in Hungary. Boy, didn’t he deliver!

Hamilton’s mind-blowing qualifying meant he started on pole, leaving the field needing something to happen at turn’s one and two or it was game over. Sure enough, Hamilton had it all his own way as he cruised through the opening corners and never looked back. In fact, the Brit opened up a staggering eight-second lead by lap three. Oh, and he had a free stop at the end of the race to claim the fastest lap crown and that all-important extra point.

Put simply, Hamilton and his unstoppable Mercedes were once again class apart and he thoroughly deserved his 86th career win.

Oh, Red Bull!

Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Being a Red Bull fan wasn’t easy this weekend. Both drivers reported issues all weekend, Albon’s qualifying was one to forget and race day was looking like it was headed for disaster. Did it end up being a disaster? Absolutely not! However, did it very nearly not happen at all? Absolutely!

My memory doesn’t always serve me correct but that said, I can not for the life of me remember the last time there was pandemonium on the grid prior to lights out as there was on Sunday. Just 12 corners into the pre-formation lap, Red Bull’s race looked as if it run before it had even began. Locking up into Turn 12, Verstappen collided with the barriers, leaving him needing a miracle to make lights out.

Thankfully, the Red Bull mechanics were not about to let the story end there. Not only did they get the job done but they got the job done spectacular fashion. Usually, the job that they were facing to repair his damaged RB16 would take around an hour and a half to put right however, somehow they pulled it out the bag in just 20 minutes!

Verstappen, in return, managed to take himself from 7th to 2nd, dedicated his podium to his mechanics and telling them on the team radio, “This podium is definitely dedicated to my mechanics”.

As for Albon, he managed to get over his Saturday session and pull himself from 13th to 5th. Albon has developed a reputation for getting it done when he’s up against it on a Sunday and once again, he didn’t disappoint. Although, he very nearly didn’t have a finish at all (more on this shortly).

Racing Point

I had a decision on who to mention first between Haas and Racing Point (or Mercedes depending on how you feel about the ongoing battle with Renault – sorry, Lawrence). I decided on Racing Point because yet again I am left wondering what else had this car got in it?

Racing Point locked out the second row of the grid. However, despite Stroll dropping a place to finish fourth and Perez dropping three places to end up in P7, that’s still very impressive. Here’s why.

Both Stroll and Perez were constantly giving their rivals something to think with their pace. It looked as  if Stroll was going to start on the front row for only the second time in his career – only to be denied of course, by Mercedes.

This was another great showing from a team, who firmly believe we haven’t seen the best of yet. With a week off between now and the British and 70th anniversary Grand Prix’s at Silverstone, how much more can they improve ahead of next year’s rebranding? Personally, I’m not sure but I know one thing – I can’t wait! Well done, Racing Point. A point is certainly starting to be made. Loud and clear too!

Haas Haas Haas

No, that’s not a misprint, that’s actually Kevin Magnussen and Haas laughing all the way to Silverstone with a 9th place finish and two championship points in the bag! Oh, wait… Checks notes… Maybe not, because after what looked like a masterstroke from Haas was actually a breach of rules and ultimately cost the team a place after both Magnussen and Romain Grosjean were each handed  a 10-second time penalty.

With the formation lap coming to an end, Haas decided that the track conditions were improving and that running on intermediate tyres was old news. Both drivers were told to pit for soft tyres which, as I mentioned, was a masterstroke. They eventually found themselves running in 3rd and 4th respectively. This was great to see but it was the long game they were using this strategy to benefit from.

To me at the time I thought it was a brilliant strategic work however, after the race the FIA thought otherwise and decided they had actually breached the regulations. Great thinking Haas but there’s undercutting and then there’s breaking the rules. It’s a far cry from what Guenther Steiner once described them as looking like though and credit where it’s due, it was still a very good showing.

George Russell and Williams

Now, I know that both Russell and teammate Nicholas Latifi both had a nightmare of a race, as Williams remain the only team yet to score a point this season. However, both drivers did amazingly well in qualifying, marking the first time two Williams drivers made it through to Q2 since 2018. Doesn’t seem that long? Well, think back to last season’s horror show at Williams and it does.

Russell was outstanding in qualifying and actually gets my highlight of the weekend with his ‘That’s the lap, That’s the lap’ reaction on the team radio after he put in a worldy of a lap to go 5th at the end of Q1. I’m not going to be the one and I don’t really need to say it BUT Russell right now is surely putting in a great audition for a certain seat in the coming year or so.

Another busy day for the stewards, and another Renault protest

Sergio Perez, Racing Point RP20

Oh boy, where to start! In fact, there’s only one place and that’s with Renault vs Racing Point – part four!

As we all know by know, Renault are serious not letting go of break-duct gate and after the race, issued the following statement:

‘We confirm that Renault DP World F1 Team has submitted a request to the Stewards of the Event for clarification on the legality of the Racing Point RP20. We have no further comment on this matter until the Stewards have arrived at a decision.’

Rewind a week to the day and it’s the same statement regarding the same battle – the legality of the Racing Point. Renault is adamant that Racing Point has broken the rules when designing their car, while Racing Point are categorically denying any wrongdoing. Who is right and who is wrong? Well, you can make your own mind up but for me, I really don’t see how we are this far along and this is still a conversation. Renault though are not letting go and have said that they will contest every race weekend until the FIA give them full closure. The FIA have already told Racing Point that their car is legal but Renault are still having none of it!

Renault versus Racing Point wasn’t the only thing that the stewards were looking at after this weekend’s race. There was also Albon’s dry start, Valtteri Bottas’ jump start, as well as the aforementioned Haas double-time penalty.

For Albon, the stewards came to the decision that Red Bull did not use their dryers to dry his grid spot and no further action was deemed necessary.

As for Bottas, that is very much self-explanatory. Yes, he jumped the start by the finest of margins but ultimately he didn’t benefit from it as he dropped a place from P2 to P3. Had he benefited from the error or even overtaken Verstappen to claim second place then maybe there could/would have been something done about it, but as it is, Bottas is the only one who has suffered as he surrendered his championship lead to teammate its Hamilton.

Final thoughts

So, as the F1 takes its first break since returning, you have to admit that while it wasn’t as action-packed as rain-struck Austria,  the conflicting opinions on the teams radios as to whether it was going to rain or not, and indeed when, was brilliant to listen to. Hungary wasn’t the best race given Hamilton’s and Mercedes’ pure dominance once again but overall, it was a great way to prepare us for a huge doubleheader at Silverstone.

 

[Featured image – LAT Images]

Alonso returns to F1 with Renault

(Image courtesy of Fernando Alonso Instagram)

When Fernando Alonso announced in 2018 that he would be stepping away from Formula 1, very few of thought he would return. With the current status-quo as it is with the last few years dominated by Mercedes with only Red Bull and Ferrari able to hold a candle to them, and Alonso growing evidently tired of being in a lackluster McLaren, it was perhaps understandable that many of us didn’t believe these rumours of the two-time champion returning to F1 with the team that took him to those two world championships, Renault.

But sure enough, it was confirmed by Renault that Alonso would make his F1 comeback next year partnering up with Esteban Ocon and replacing the McLaren-bound Daniel Ricciardo. The former Red Bull driver signed a two-year deal with the French automotive manufacturer which was estimated to be in the region of nearly €25 million per year. But the promise of a car being able to challenge for podiums in the coming years wasn’t convincing enough for Ricciardo, and he will now take the seat of Carlos Sainz who is off to Ferrari to replace four-time champion Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso claimed he would not return to F1 unless he had a race winning car, and in a post on Instagram, he seems to be pinning all his hopes on the upcoming revolutionary 2022 regulations which will close the gap between the top three teams. With the teams having agreed to continue using their current cars for 2021, Renault certainly don’t look like a frontrunning team right now.

The experience of Alonso will undoubtedly play a part in developing their 2022 car but even so, time isn’t on his side. He will be turning 41 in 2022 which means at the very most, he has at most three years if Michael Schumacher’s three-year tenure in his comeback with Mercedes is anything to go by. Will he still be at the top of his game? Even if by some miracle, Renault are consistent front runners and he’s challenging for podiums, wins and maybe even the championship, would Fernando still be capable?

Then there’s the question of Renault’s academy drivers. With Esteban Ocon being out of F1 for 18 months prior to the Austrian Grand Prix and having only raced two full seasons prior with Force India as well as a couple of races with the Manor team in 2016, he’s far from being able to lead a team just yet so that undoubtedly factored in when finding who could take Ricciardo’s seat. However there’s still questions to be asked about where this leads the two probable F1 graduates in Renault’s academy right now.

These two drivers are Formula 2 racers Guanyu Zhou and Christian Lundgaard. Zhou is entering his second season of F2, prior to his first season , he hadn’t been that impressive in the junior formula, although was runner-up in Italian F4 in 2015. He had been on the Ferrari driver academy before joining Renault’s for 2019, and despite his time in European F3 not being indicative of being potential F1 material, he stepped it up when it mattered.

Zhou scored five podiums and a pole position on his way to seventh overall, and began the 2020 season with a pole at the Red Bull Ring, and was set for his first win before his Virtuosi F2 car let him down. Plus you have to think that Zhou is also a marketing goldmine for a manufacturer like Renault, since he would be the first Chinese driver and China is always a market that brands want to sell in so it would make sense from a marketing standpoint.

Then we have Lundgaard, who won two F4 championships in 2017, finished runner-up in Formula Renault EuroCup and took a race win last year in FIA Formula 3 with ART Grand Prix. He’s now in F2 with ART and scored a fourth and fifth in his first F2 races. He has had a rapid rise through the lower ranks and undoubtedly has the ability, but perhaps it may have been too early and he could be in prime position to be in the Renault F1 drive after Alonso retires for good.

Since we are talking about Renault juniors, it would be an insult if we didn’t talk about the driver who was perhaps in the best position for that seat alongside Ocon.

Lundgaard may have remained in F3 for a title charge in 2020, but that ART F2 drive had already been paid for by Renault so he was promoted into the seat that most likely would have been occupied by 2018 GP3 champion Anthoine Hubert.

Having won two sprint races last season in F2 at Monaco and Paul Ricard with BWT Arden, but tragedy struck at Spa-Francorchamps when Hubert was fatally injured. I would have put a lot of money on Hubert being champion in F2 this year had he been in that ART seat, considering the past two champions George Russell and Nyck De Vries raced with ART as well.

(Image taken from F1 2020 Game Play)

Nevertheless, it’s the return of Fernando Alonso with Renault for 2021. I can definitely imagine a few more iconic moments from him, especially in the Drive to Survive season focusing on the 2021 season, the combination of Fernando and Cyril Abiteboul is going to make for some interesting moments for us, that’s for sure.

Bottas wins chaotic Austrian Grand Prix as Norris claims debut podium

Valtteri Bottas has taken victory at a chaotic Austrian Grand Prix that saw just eleven cars reach the chequered flag, with Charles Leclerc in P2 and Lando Norris claiming his first ever podium in P3. Lewis Hamilton finished second on the road but dropped to fourth due to a five-second penalty he received for a collision with Alex Albon.

The race was sedate enough for the first ten laps. Bottas built up a 3.2-second gap to Verstappen, while Norris slipped back to P5 behind Albon and Hamilton. On lap 11, though, Verstappen lost power on the approach to Turn 3 and told his engineer that his car kept going into anti-stall. He limped back to the pits and retired on lap 13.

LAT Images

The next casualties were Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll. Ricciardo pulled into his garage with a cooling issue while Stroll, who had been struggling with a lack of power for several laps, retired due to a sensor issue.

Bottas had built up a six-second gap to Hamilton by lap 17, but on lap 21 Hamilton set a new fastest lap and began to reel his team-mate in. Four laps later, the gap was down to 3.8 seconds.

Lap 26 saw the first safety car of the race, brought out due to Kevin Magnussen suffering a brake failure at Turn 3. A flurry of pitstops ensued with every driver opting for the hard tyres except for Perez, who went with the mediums.

When the safety car period ended, Vettel lunged down the inside of Carlos Sainz going into Turn 3. He misjudged the attempt and span, dropping down the order to P15. While the incident was noted, no investigation was deemed necessary by the stewards.

On lap 42, Bottas and Hamilton were warned about sensor issues that had been detected in the gearbox of both cars and were told to stay off the kerbs. This warning was repeated several times and the gap between the two widened as Hamilton eased off slightly. Despite this apparent issue, the duo were still over ten seconds ahead of third-placed Alex Albon.

Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Lap 51 saw the next retirements. George Russell ground to a halt from what had been a promising P12 and brought out the second safety car of the day. Romain Grosjean, meanwhile, ran off the track at the final corner and pulled into the pits with seemingly the same brake problem that curtailed team-mate Magnussen’s race.

Red Bull chose to bring in Albon for a change to the soft tyres, losing P3 to Perez in the process, while both Mercedes stayed out on hard tyres that had already completed 25 laps by that point.

The Safety Car came in on lap 54 briefly, after which Albon re-took third place from Perez after Perez locked up going into Turn 3.

At that exact moment, however, the safety car was brought out again, this time because Kimi Raikkonen’s front-left tyre had come clean off the chassis going into the final corner. It was initially unclear whether it was Albon or Perez who had been ahead at the moment the safety car came out, but it was decided a few laps later that Albon had been slightly ahead of Perez and thus the Red Bull driver slotted into P3.

Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Lap 60 saw the safety car come back in and Albon set about chasing after Hamilton on his newer soft tyres. He saw an opportunity going into Turn 4 and went for it, only for the two to come to blows. Albon span and fell down the order to last place. The incident was duly noted and investigated, with Hamilton being given a five-second penalty.

Albon slowed a couple of laps later, saying over the radio that his engine was stopping. He wound up finishing P13, or last.

Between lap 64 and lap 66, Leclerc got past Norris and then Perez to find himself in P3 behind the Mercedes duo. It looked as if Perez was in with a shout of finishing on the podium due to Hamilton’s penalty, only for his hopes to be dashed when he was awarded a five-second penalty of his own for speeding in the pitlane and then being overtaken by Norris.

Lap 70 saw the last retirement of the race when one of Daniil Kvyat’s tyres disintegrated going into Turn 1. He managed to bring the car to a stop behind the barriers at a marshall post.

Bottas crossed the line to take the chequered flag at the end of lap 71 with Hamilton in P2, Leclerc in P3 and Norris in P4. Hamilton’s penalty, though, dropped him to P4 and promoted Leclerc to second and Norris to the final podium position.

[Featured image – LAT Images]

Austrian Grand Prix Preview: F1 is back, but not as we know it

112 days after the opener in Melbourne was supposed to get underway, the Formula One season will finally begin in Austria this Sunday.

As with the return of most sport during the COVID-19 pandemic however, things will work a little differently in the F1 paddock. Media presence will be lower, the freedom of the drivers to roam around the surrounding area during race week will decrease and, perhaps most prominently, there will be a complete absence of fans.

The Austrian Grand Prix will mark the first of two races at the 4.3-kilometre Red Bull Ring, with the Styrian Grand Prix following just a week later. This is all part of the FIA’s plan to satiate the year with as many races as possible so as to create as exhaustive a calendar as possible for the world championship season, which needs to be at least eight races long to classify as such.

Normally by this point of the year, we would know who is competitive and who is not, but the cars have not run since testing in Barcelona at the beginning of the year and, as we learned last year especially, testing pace is little to go by.

It is therefore quite difficult to determine who the favourites are going to be, but the same could generally be said in Spielberg last year. Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari were all competitive last season, with Max Verstappen narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to victory following a controversial overtake at the end of the race, the investigation for which was not concluded until hours after the drivers had stepped off the podium.

Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

One of the major points of interest is the perennially fascinating midfield battle. The Racing Point, designed on last year’s Mercedes, is tipped to be one of the major challengers to fourth place in the Constructors’ as they look to knock McLaren off their perch as best of the rest. Renault’s inconsistencies over the past couple of seasons will need to be rectified by their new driver-pairing of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, as the French team consider their future involvement in the sport they have failed to re-master since their return in 2016. Alpha Tauri – rebranded from Toro Rosso – and Alfa Romeo will also have an eye on challenging for the best of the midfield teams.

Haas are understood to be the only constructor not bringing upgrades to this race, as uncertainty looms about their interest in F1 too. Their upgrades last year affected them adversely rather than helping them progress after the first race, and they will look to avoid further regression this year. They managed a fourth and fifth-placed finish in Spielberg in 2018, while Kevin Magnussen qualified an impressive fifth last season. A gearbox penalty and the Haas car’s ghastly race pace saw him finish behind both the Williams cars.

Speaking of which, Williams’ car was three seconds quicker in testing in Spain than it was in the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix, which will lead the British team to believe they can climb off the bottom of the championship table and relieve some of the immense pressure currently on Claire Williams’ shoulders.

One of the shortest tracks on the calendar follows the longest wait for a Formula One season since the World Championship’s inception. The Styrian mountains will not be alive with the sound of fans, but they will still be alive with the sound of Formula One cars.

 

[Featured image – Matthias Heschl/Red Bull Content Pool]

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