ThePitcrewOnline

Category: Formula One

  • Ferrari’s year turned into Ferrari’s nightmare

    Ferrari’s year turned into Ferrari’s nightmare

    Photo credit: Ferrari Media Site

    My name is Dimitris Bizas, I am from Greece, and I study Communication, Media and Culture at Panteion University. I have been writing about Formula 1 since 2012, firstly at totalracing.gr and, for the past 18 months, for the ‘4Wheels’ magazine. Motorsport is my passion and getting to write and report on it is a true blessing.

    2018 was supposed to be Ferrari’s year: they built a good, competitive at any given Sunday car, they had Sebastian Vettel at his prime and they carried with them a year’s worth of experience in title battles, from their 2017 campaign. However, they seem to have failed to capitalize on their chances once again, and the reason is simple, but not so obvious.

    Let’s start from the very beginning of this season, the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari did the unexpected, with Sebastian Vettel winning a race which Hamilton led up until the Safety Car, having taken a remarkable pole position the day before. They continued their winning ways at Bahrain, they were held up by the Red Bulls at China, and then came the first real ‘wake-up call’ for Vettel and his team: the Baku incident.

    He could be on the podium, on the second or third place, hadn’t he been in such a hurry to overtake the Mercedes boys. He was somewhat lucky that he did not end up on the barriers at the exit of Turn 1, taking the checkered flag 4th.

    This was the first sign of his lack of composure under pressure. But, since it was so early in the season, it didn’t affect his championship aspirations, despite the fact that his arch-rival, Lewis Hamilton, took his maiden 2018 win that day.

    Fast forward to France, and Vettel has just taken a commanding victory on Hamilton’s ‘second home’, at Montreal. He grabbed a truly unbelievable pole on Saturday (sing of his confidence at that point of the season), and he went on to win, reminding to his nemesis that 2018 is not a 2017 repeat.

    Of course, this feeling of superiority against Hamilton was short-lived. Paul Ricard marked the first of a series of mistakes from Vettel – mistakes that ultimately cost him the world title. He got off the line brilliantly, before hitting Bottas from behind, losing place after place, and finishing only 5th – a result far from representative for his overall performance that weekend.

    Then there was Germany and his biggest mistake of his career, probably. That was the first turning point for his campaign – losing 25 points, in front of his home crowd, and seeing his rival taking the win instead, was a huge blow, not only for his team, but also for his confidence. Sebastian Vettel is and has

    always been a driver whose performance is affected completely from his morale. If he is elevated and on a roll, he seems unstoppable, invincible. However, a single race gone bad can make him vulnerable, prone to mistakes. It is as if a huge weight is put to his shoulders, and this year, that weight is all the expectations from within his team and from the hundreds of thousands of Tifosi. It is not an easy task.

    The final nail on his title hopes’ coffin was put at the Italian and the Singapore Grand Prix. His spin at Variante della Roggia and the crucial mistake during the FP2 at Marina Bay were the ones which gave Hamilton a huge advantage, both on the standings, and on the ‘psychological war’, as he calls it. He now stands 67 points ahead of Vettel, and Austin could be the place where he will have both hands on his 5th world championship.

    Ferrari’s fault on this run

    Although it is easy to point fingers and proclaim that Vettel lost the title on his own, Ferrari has been subpar when the stakes were extremely high.

    One of their biggest weaknesses is the consistency they do not show during the season, not only on the track, but also back at the factory. Keeping a respectable –nay, a competitive- level of performance during the span of 21 races is crucial for the title battle, and the Maranello squad has not met the standards of their rivals, Mercedes.

    Both at Brackley and at Brixworth, work was done in order to close the gap from the dominant –as it stood in the first 1/3 of the season- SF71H. The disadvantage on the power unit area and the tire management were the two main factor that held the Germans back, and they made a remarkable job recovering from a deficit on and off track. This allowed Hamilton to push harder, to build his confidence with the car, and ultimately to win one race after the other.

    On the other hand, Ferrari made some marginal gains over the summer, and all their upgrades after the summer break were not what they expected. They fell back when their rivals pushed forward, got ahead of them and tried to stay there.

    Even if Vettel was perfect (which is highly unlikely in such a lengthy season), his team would have failed on him. Stagnation is a poison for every F1 team, especially in such a hard-fought battle.

    The bottom line is that the Ferrari-Vettel combination lost another chance to make history, to bring the crown back to Italy after 11 years. The legacy of this cooperation is still a work in progress, and if these two years are just the beginning, they have time to improve, to learn from their mistakes and

    mishaps. But, if this was their final chance (and that’s a big hypothesis), then History will not be lenient with them.

    Dimitris Bizas

  • Alonso versus F1: Is there a problem with the stewards?

    For many years now, Fernando Alonso has been a man to speak his mind, and he has taken no prisoners since the announcement of his retirement, roasting the world of F1 left, right, and centre. The latest in the long list of episodes featured the stewards, who intervened in a very strange way after an incident between the double world champion and young Canadian Lance Stroll at last weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

    RED BULL RING, AUSTRIA – JULY 01: Fernando Alonso, McLaren during the Austrian GP at Red Bull Ring on July 01, 2018 in Red Bull Ring, Austria. (Photo by Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images)

    Going into the last chicane Stroll, unaware of Alonso’s presence behind him, moved across and pushed the Spaniard off the track. Alonso had to short-cut the chicane and gained a position on Stroll as a result. The stewards decided to penalise both of them: Stroll for forcing another driver off the track, and Alonso for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

    Alonso, quite rightly, argued that the only reason he was off the track in the first place was because Stroll put him there. Alonso had no problems with Stroll, and accepted his apology in the media pen. He did, however, have a problem with the stewards, and he’s not the only one.

    The stewards opted not to take any action against the Haas of Kevin Magnussen after he moved across the track and caused Charles Leclerc to hit him. Magnussen retired from the race as a result, but for a crash that had the potential to be enormous, one would think the stewards would hand out a penalty for the next race in the United States. They did not.

    The problems have been ever-present over the years, but the main cause of frustration has been the inconsistency. Earlier this season in France, Sebastian Vettel took out Valtteri Bottas and got a mere five-second penalty. His team-mate wiped out Lewis Hamilton at Silverstone and was given a ten-second penalty, which raised questions as to what exactly the difference was between the two incidents.

    If we look back further to the United States last year, we saw drivers using an interesting interpretation of track limits throughout the whole weekend at virtually every corner, yet no penalties were given. On the final lap, Max Verstappen left the track passing Kimi Raikkonen and gained the position. He was the only man that weekend to be penalised for exceeding track limits which led him to question not why he got the penalty, but why he was the only one penalised when other drivers had been making more flagrant violations of track limits all weekend.

    Earlier that year, Daniil Kvyat was given two penalties – after he had served the first, the stewards decided they had given him the wrong one and thus gave him a second.

    Finally, we come to the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg both cut turn two and got away without a penalty, yet Verstappen was penalised when he made the same error later on in the Grand Prix.

    Veratappen, earlier in the season, had been criticised for moving under braking but was not penalised. Vettel made the same kind of move on Daniel Ricciardo in Mexico and was penalised for it.

    It has to be said that when it comes to stewarding, F1 is a bit of a mess. The way racing incidents are judged by the stewards can often have an impact on people’s perception of our sport. They cannot be too lenient, but they also have to make sure they don’t start giving out penalties for the smallest of incidents. Therefore, it can no by no means be said that the stewards have an easy job.

    However, there can appear at times to be a bit of an absence of logic and common sense, leading to heavy criticism from drivers and fans alike.

    Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary. .
    Sunday 30 July 2017.
    Fernando Alonso, McLaren.
    Photo: Steven Tee/McLaren
    ref: Digital Image _R3I4275

    Alonso said in a post-race interview that his penalty “shows how bad Formula One is”. The aforementioned incidents do seem to suggest that the stewards have a tendency of making silly and seemingly unthoughtful decisions.

    A viable solution would be to have the same stewards go to every race to avoid the inconsistency we have at the moment. But as it is at the moment the stewards, with some extremely ambiguous and disagreeable decision-making, are a problem that need to be solved in F1.

  • Sebastian Vettel: Ferrari spirit “unbroken despite everything”

    Sebastian Vettel: Ferrari spirit “unbroken despite everything”

    Sebastian Vettel believes that Ferrari can still be a force to be reckoned with in 2018, with their spirit “unbroken despite everything” they have been through.

    “Today, I found it quite inspirational walking through the garage and watching the guys work,” Vettel said. “All the team is fired up and that certainly helps, as the last couple of weeks haven’t been that easy. The spirit is unbroken despite everything.”

    Vettel has only won two races out of the past ten – taking the chequered flag at Silverstone and Spa – and he has been involved in incidents or been the victim of various strategy mistakes in Germany, Hungary, Italy, Singapore and, most recently, in Japan.

    Vettel finished in sixth place in Suzuka after a clash with Max Verstappen early on in the race dropped him to the back of the pack. The German tried to dive down the inside going into Spoon Curve but made contact with Verstappen and ended up spinning. The incident, which was investigated by the stewards but didn’t result in any penalties, left Vettel to fight his way back through the field. He now trails title rival Lewis Hamilton by 67 points with four races still to go.

    Image courtesy of Ferrari Media

    Speaking of the coming together with Verstappen, Vettel said, “I was obviously pushing to pass, I knew he had a penalty, but I also felt that we were fast. I could see that his battery was clipping, while I had saved some energy from mine. I saw a gap and went for it on the inside, he obviously tried to defend and I couldn’t go anywhere, so we touched. However, this is part of racing.”

    F1 now heads to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, where Hamilton has his first chance at winning his fifth world championship. If he outscores Vettel by eight points – so, if Hamilton wins the race and Vettel doesn’t finish second, for instance – then he would wrap up the title.

    “Races like [Japan] are a bit of a hand-over and we know it is difficult from where we are in the points standings, but we don’t have much to lose,” Vettel said. “We have given everything so far and I believe there’s still something we can learn and understand from the car. So we keep fighting and resisting and we’ll see what the other races bring.”

    Image courtesy of Ferrari Media
  • Opinion: Why Fernando Alonso’s charm is wearing thin

    Opinion: Why Fernando Alonso’s charm is wearing thin

    Fernando Alonso has never been the humblest of drivers, nor the most understated. He’s also infamous for his fairly horrendous career choices that have left him frustrated in underperforming cars, which is exactly where he finds himself now. His angered, but often humorous, radio messages during his time at McLaren have turned the Spaniard into the ‘meme-king’ of F1, but his off-the-cuff comments are, to some at least, starting to become repetitive and tiresome.

    If you had a pound for every time Alonso’s called himself the “best in the world” or a performance the “best of his life” you would be very, very rich. These comments come seemingly every race weekend with the two-time champion desperate to remind everyone just how good he is… even when he’s often knocked out in Q1.

    This weekend at Japan he called his qualifying lap “one of the best laps of my life,” saying he didn’t leave anything out on the challenging Suzuka track. That statement is more than credible when taken out of context, but when you add in the fact that he qualified eighteenth and that it’s definitely not the first time he has said that this season… well, this is where I’m coming from.

    Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary. .
    Sunday 30 July 2017.
    Fernando Alonso, McLaren.
    Photo: Steven Tee/McLaren
    ref: Digital Image _R3I4275

    You get the sense that part of Alonso’s reasoning for saying these kinds of things is to tell the world “look how good I am. I’m not bad, the car is”. The Spaniard is well-known for his harsh criticism of underperforming machinery, as Honda found out during their three-year partnership with McLaren. However, these actions, most memorably of which was him shouting “GP2 engine!” over the radio, have already come back to bite him with Honda reportedly denying him an IndyCar drive with a Honda-powered team, not wanting to restart their ever-so-fractious relationship.

    If you turn back the clocks to Alonso’s Ferrari years, he often came across as a bit grumpy and generally anything but humorous. He seems to have mellowed somewhat in his challenging years at McLaren, with stunts like the deckchair and rather questionable camera-work in consecutive years at Brazil increasing his popularity.

    This was furthered by his trip to the Indy 500 last year where he proved he could fight with the best IndyCar has to offer, though it’s tough to say what would’ve happened had his Honda engine hung on until the end of the 200 laps.

    Race driver Fernando Alonso of Spain pulls out of the pit area as he practiced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Wednesday, May 3, Alonso plans to miss the Monaco Grand Prix this year to drive in the Indianapolis 500. 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy) ORG XMIT: OTKMC103

    His antics have gained him countless fans, loving his outbreaks of personality in amongst the supposedly cold, media-trained youth, but you can’t really say it’s helped him in the matter of trying to get a decent drive. Red Bull said they didn’t want him for his trouble-making tendencies and teams like Mercedes have shied away from him for his potential volatile temperament, not wanting to upset intra-team harmony.

    This has left Alonso in the massively underperforming McLaren-Renault that, despite a relatively strong start to the season, has promised much and delivered little. Undoubtedly, Alonso has grown frustrated with this situation and is therefore branching out to find ever more ways to remind everyone of his talent, be it WEC, IndyCar or kart races around his own track. You can’t blame the man for trying!

    The problem is, the world hasn’t forgotten how good Alonso is, and it certainly doesn’t need constant reminders by the man himself to know that. Many drivers and teams would say that they like to do their talking on the track but with a lacklustre package, that’s not really an option for Alonso, hence the situation he has found himself in.

    Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary.
    Saturday 28 July 2018.
    Fernando Alonso, McLaren, puts on his helmet in the garage.
    Photo: Steven Tee/McLaren
    ref: Digital Image _2ST0511

    In truth, words can only get you so far, if you are all talk and no trousers, people are going to start taking what you say with more than just a pinch of salt.

    His charm is wearing thin on quite a few F1 fans, but it hasn’t worn through and maybe the change of scene next year (wherever that’ll be) will be what Alonso needs, effectively pressing the reset button and, hopefully at least, getting him back to being competitive.

    I’ll leave you with a quote from the late great Juan Manuel Fangio that perhaps Alonso should’ve heeded long ago:

    “You must always strive to be the best, but you must never believe that you are.”

  • 2018 Japanese GP Review: Risking It All

    2018 Japanese GP Review: Risking It All

    Early in the morning for most Europeans, Formula One returned to the legendary Suzuka circuit for round seventeen of the 2018 season.

    Lewis Hamilton started on pole once again, the 80th time he has done so in his career. Title rival Sebastian Vettel started from a lowly ninth place after a gamble on the intermediate tyres at the start of Q3 meant they lost precious time on track when it was dry. When the rain then started to fall near the end of Q3, Vettel couldn’t improve and made several mistakes in the slippery conditions. Bottas started behind Hamilton in P2, with a very surprised but happy Verstappen in third. On the other side of the Red Bull garage there was drama as Ricciardo once again had issues with the engine, keeping the car inside the garage in Q2 and resigning him to a 15th place start.

    The race started under clear blue skies, and immediately Vettel began to make up for his poor qualifying by charging to sixth place after just two turns, and fifth place by the end of the first lap. Verstappen had a good start, but at the end of the first lap he locked up his brakes entering the final chicane, pushing the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen off the track as he rejoined. The incident was investigated, and Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for “leaving the track and returning unsafely”.

    2018 Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday – Wolfgang Wilhelm

    After a brief Virtual Safety Car, deployed because of debris on the track after a collision between Kevin Magnussen and Charles Leclerc, Vettel moved up to fourth place and turned his attention to getting past Verstappen for third. He made an overtaking attempt going into Spoon Corner but, in trying to go through on the inside of Verstappen, the two made contact, with Vettel spinning and dropping down to 19th.

    Verstappen survived relatively unscathed, and came into the pits on lap twenty-two to serve his five-second penalty and change onto the soft tyres. Valtteri Bottas made his pit stop the lap afterwards, and switched onto the medium tyres.

    By lap 34, Vettel had fought his way back into the top ten, and overtook Grosjean going into Spoon – this time cleanly – to take seventh place.

    After another Virtual Safety Car, this time for the stranded car of Charles Leclerc, Verstappen made an effort to get past Valtteri Bottas for P2. Despite Bottas making an error going into the last chicane and struggling with a blister on his rear tyres, he managed to hold on.

    After fifty-three laps it was a dominant victory for Lewis Hamilton, once again extending his championship lead as Vettel disappointed with an eventual sixth place. Bottas and Verstappen completed the podium, with Ricciardo, Räikkönen, Vettel, Perez, Grosjean, Ocon and Sainz rounding out the top ten. Driver of the Day could only go to Daniel Ricciardo, who finished in fourth after starting from fifteenth.

    2018 Japanese Grand Prix, Sunday – Paul Ripke

    In the drivers’ championship, Hamilton now leads Vettel by 67 points with only four races to go. Next up is the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in two weeks time. If Hamilton outscores Vettel by eight points or more in that race, Hamilton will win the championship.

  • Ericsson considering IndyCar, Super Formula for 2019

    Ericsson considering IndyCar, Super Formula for 2019

    Marcus Ericsson has said he is targeting a move to either IndyCar or Super Formula for 2019 following the loss of his Sauber Formula One race seat.

    Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team

    Ericsson will remain with Sauber next year as reserve driver and brand ambassador, but has said he is also looking to continue racing with a full-time drive in another single-seater category.

    “I want to race at the highest level possible [next year] because I see myself coming back to Formula One in the future,” Ericsson said.

    “To be able to come back to F1, I want to stay in single-seaters and fast cars. IndyCar is the best series to do that in.

    “We’re talking to some teams there and I think it is a realistic target.”

    Most of IndyCar’s 2019 drives have already been settled, although seats are still available at Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, Carlin and Juncos Racing.

    Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team

    Ericsson has also admitted Japan’s Super Formula is “also an option”, and that he would be interested in contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

    But despite insisting on a single-seater programme for 2019 to keep him prepared for an F1 return, Ericsson said that Formula E is not high on his preferences:

    “It is interesting in many aspects but to stay in F1-type of driving it’s maybe not the best one.

    “FE is more of a career move. There are some other options that you can keep on the F1 radar [to] come back.”

    Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team
  • 2018 Japanese Grand Prix Preview

    2018 Japanese Grand Prix Preview

    Round 17 of the 2018 Formula One World Championship brings us to the first and only figure-of-8 circuit on the calendar – the infamous Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix.

    A 17-hour flight from the last race in Russia, this race sees two back-to-back fly-away races – a gruelling prospect for both the drivers and the teams. This, however, is nothing compared to the now almost insurmountable 50-point gap that Sebastian Vettel has to overcome to win the championship after a third placed finish last time in Russia.

    Vettel now needs to win each of the final 5 races and hope that Hamilton finishes third in all of them. If this were to happen, they would end the season dead-level on points, and Vettel would take the title on races won.

    This wouldn’t be a bad place to start would be one of the greatest comebacks of all time in Formula One. Suzuka is Sebastian Vettel’s favourite track, and the German has 4 wins here. All of them, however, came with Red Bull – his barren run here with Ferrari must end this weekend if he is to have any chance of success in 2018.

    Suzuka info graphics – Image courtesy of Pirelli Media

    The 5.8 kilometre circuit took back hosting duties from Fuji for 2009, and has been the host ever since. It did host the race before however, including the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, in which Damon Hill took his sole championship win, a very popular one too, for Williams. And who can forget the championship decider in 1990? In which Ayrton Senna deliberately drove into Alain Prost into Turn One to seal the championship.

    The famous 130-R corner runs over a bridge overlooking the two degner corners and the run up to the hairpin of turn 10 – a genius and beautiful feature from the circuit’s designer John Hugenholtz.

    The first sector is one of the most challenging and technical sequence of corners in F1 – the fast chicane of turns 3 and four leads to a quick left in turn 5, before a short braking zone into turn 6, and running nearly flat-out through turn 7.

    The twisty and fast-flowing nature of the track is something the drivers relish – it was described by Kevin Magnussen last year as a “real driver’s circuit.”

    With the balance of horsepower shifting last time in Sochi in Mercedes’ favour, it would seem that Ferrari have all but given up on their 2018 challenge and started focusing on their 2019 car. Despite the fact that this is a very technical track, power is needed, so let’s hope the Scuderia have at least remembered to bring some reliable spark plugs this year. Red Bull have been strong traditionally here over the years, and given how well Max Verstappen performed in Russia – carving his way from 19th to fifth in the first seven laps – don’t count him out of a win.

    Whether Ferrari still believe they have hope this year or not, Sebastian Vettel certainly won’t give up on this title challenge, but with a team that has seemingly turned their attention to next year at a track where Mercedes have dominated for the last four years, expect more joy for Mercedes, and another dagger to Ferrari.

  • Mercedes Team orders: All About The Racing?

    (?image courtesy of Pirelli Motorsports)

    Today, September 30, marks a sad day for some Formula 1 fans. Hamilton took another victory, but for him to achieve win it was ‘necessary’ to sacrifice Bottas.

    Nearing the halfway mark of the 2018 Russian GP Valtteri, painfully obviously, let Lewis past through after being asked to do so by the team. This led to a lot of controversy, with even some Hamilton fans dismayed.

    In no way is this disrespecting Lewis, let’s make that clear. He drove sublime all weekend and throughout the race he showed that he was very fast. Bottas, however, took pole position after a mistake from the Brit in his final qualifying lap. This gave the Finn his best opportunity of the year so far to fight for the win, one he really needed and definitely deserved.

    What made this team order so frustrating for many was the fact that Lewis didn’t necessarily need to win. Vettel was behind him, the only thing Lewis needs to become a five-time world champion. Instead, Mercedes decided that Lewis needed that extra position due to a blister on his rear-right tyre, with Bottas then having to defend from Vettel behind them.

    Another reason was the fact that Bottas is really quick around this track. He won his first race here in 2017 and he always just seems to dominate here, hence a lot of fans rooting for the Finn. To see him lose the chance for his first victory this year because of team orders made it even more painful.

    On the other hand, for the drivers’ championship it can be seen as being the right choice. Mercedes and especially Hamilton really need the points to stay ahead of Vettel in the championship. However, this reason still doesn’t make this decision the right for me.

    Bottas asked over the radio if they were going to end the race in these positions. “Affirm,” he was told. It sounded like he was expecting or at least hoping they would switch those places back as Vettel was nowhere near them anymore.

    Toto Wolff decided to speak over the public team radio after the race: “Valtteri, this is Toto, difficult day for you and a difficult day for us,” he said. “Let’s discuss it afterwards.”

    On Twitter the team reacted to some of the angry comments. “We don’t feel embarrassed or ashamed. We stand up to our decisions and are accountable for them. We made the call for Lewis’ drivers championship, to maximise our advantage.”

    Bottas definitely looked very gutted after the race. Hamilton knew that as he at the same time seemed to feel sorry for his teammate. Who wouldn’t?

    The question now is: should team orders be banned? For the sake of the sport, it would be better. Let the drivers do their thing and if they decide for themselves they want to help their teammate, that’s fine. If he doesn’t, you’ll get an amazing battle.

    For the teams however, it stays necessary. Not only because they can keep the drivers from crashing into each other, but also because they always keep the teams’ interest in mind.

    Another PR disaster for Mercedes then, not because of an incident, not because of something the drivers said. All because of an unnecessary sacrifice.

    What are your thoughts?

  • F1 2018: Russian Grand Prix Preview

    F1 2018: Russian Grand Prix Preview

    Twisting and turning through Russia’s “summer capital” is the Sochi Autodrom, the first and only F1 track built in the country.

    The 5.8-kilometre circuit takes the drivers past some impressive structures, among them a number previously used for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the stadium used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, showing how Sochi has turned into both a popular destination for tourists and a great sporting town.

    Each of the four races held at the circuit since its debut have been won by Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton winning the first race in 2014 and Valtteri Bottas taking his first win in F1 for the world champions in 2017.

    This Mercedes dominance is a trend that may well end this year. Sochi is generally a power track, and we have seen the Ferrari engine overtake the Mercedes engine this year. If Mercedes are to win, then, they will face a stern test from the Prancing Horse.

    Großer Preis von Russland 2017, Sonntag – Steve Etherington

    Christian Horner has said that Russia will be a race to forget for Red Bull, as they are expecting engine penalties and they are even thought to be returning to the B-Spec Renault engine after several teething issues with the engine used in Singapore. It said a lot when even the works Renault team themselves didn’t use the new spec engine, nor did their other customer McLaren.

    This weekend will be the home race of Williams driver Sergey Sirotkin, who scored his first point of the season in Italy after Romain Grosjean’s disqualification, and he will hoping to add more to his tally. He certainly got some positive attention in Singapore with some brilliant defending against Sergio Perez, only for Perez to seemingly swing across the track and hit him. This, however, will be another tricky weekend for a Williams team that has suffered one of their worst ever seasons in F1 this year.

    Races around the Sochi Autodrom generally don’t toss up much drama, but the first chicane is something to keep an eye on. It is a place which has seen a crash in each of the four races in the circuit’s short history, the most notorious being Daniil Kvyat twice hitting the back of Sebastian Vettel. It was a home race to forget for Kvyat and he was demoted to Toro Rosso after the race, giving way to the astronomical rise of Max Verstappen.

    Großer Preis von Russland 2017, Sonntag – Steve Etherington

    Sebastian Vettel arrives into the weekend some 40 points behind Lewis Hamilton in the championship, meaning that he realistically has to win each of the remaining six races of 2018 to be in with a realistic chance of claiming a fifth title.

    It will be a tough challenge, but Ferrari’s championship demise has been of their own doing once again this year, and if there is to be a miracle turnaround for Vettel, it is one that must start in Sochi.

  • F1 – Antonio Giovinazzi joins Kimi Raikkonen at Sauber for 2019

    F1 – Antonio Giovinazzi joins Kimi Raikkonen at Sauber for 2019

    Alfa Romeo Sauber have confirmed Ferrari junior driver Antonio Giovinazzi as their second driver for 2019 alongside the returning Kimi Raikkonen.

    Giovinazzi deposes Marcus Ericsson, who had been with the Swiss outfit for four years after debuting in Formula One with Caterham in 2014, while Raikkonen and Charles Leclerc have effectively swapped seats for next year.

    Ericsson will continue with Sauber as their reserve driver and as a brand ambassador.

    Having stood in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein at the start of 2017 for two race, Giovinazzi is no stranger to the Sauber set-up.

    He will be the first Italian to drive permanently on the grid since Jarno Trulli’s ill-fated spell with Caterham ended in 2011.

    Giovinazzi says he is honoured to represent the team and made reference to himself and the famous brand Alfa Romeo’s Italian roots.

    “I am delighted to be joining the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team. This is a dream come true, and it is a great pleasure to have the chance to race for this team. As an Italian, it is a huge honour for me to represent a brand as iconic and successful as Alfa Romeo in our sport. I am very motivated and cannot wait to start working towards achieving great results together.”

    Sauber chief executive Frederic Vasseur was delighted to have replaced the Ferrari-bound Leclerc with a like-for-like swap.

    “Together with Alfa Romeo, we are delighted to welcome Antonio Giovinazzi, who will take the place of Charles Leclerc. We have already had the opportunity to work with him in the past and he has proven to have great potential. We are very determined and motivated. Our target is to continue progressing and fighting together for positions that count.”