Miami GP Race Report

The most exciting drivers' lap ever took place in Miami, full size, two-seater, fully-drivable Lego cars were given to each team.  The drivers seemed to be having the time of their lives and forgot that they were supposed to be waving to the crowds.  A giant Lego minifig (Megafig?) was circulating on the grid too.

The Florida weather was haunting this part of the weekend too.  There was a 40% chance of rain but more importantly if there were lightning strikes in the region there was an alarming protocol of evacuation and Red Flags to follow.

The grid walk was back with Brundle but he struggled to find anyone who could string a sentence together, there was a number of celebrities wheeled out who had no idea where they were.  He found some drivers, who obviously spoke well, and Jack Whitehall.

Initially it looked like a clean start but Norris made yet another mistake and ran wide and off the track, coming back in sixth.  Annoyingly the classification wasn't showing, the FIA really need to sort that out.  Norris was on the radio saying that Max was up to his old tricks.  Meanwhile, at the back, Doohan and Lawson had come together.  Eventually the Alpine came to a stop at the side of the track and a Virtual Safety Car slowed the cars until it could be cleared.

After 14 laps and an intense battle, with excellent defence by Verstappen, Piastri was passed him and into the lead.  The Red Bull driver complained about his brakes, as Norris lined up to take his turn to get passed.  He did and after a lap, Verstappen took the place back, letting Piastri get a strong 8 second lead.    Norris got back to second and we wondered how long it would last.

It was reported that Albon had a water leak (or something) on his Williams, which everyone waited to see what would become of that.  With rain forecast by different teams at different times, Russell made an early call that it was precipitating, although that they have been inside-helmet rain, as no one else saw it.  They can't have had much of a hope of it actually arriving because the pit stops went ahead half way through the race.

Bearman's Haas broke down and he slowed then pulled to the side of the track.  A Virtual Safety Car was called again and several top runners got a cheap pit stop: both McLarens, Hamilton, Russell.  Russell was able to get past Verstappen through it.

A couple of laps later, Sainz was passed LeClerc and Albon was past Antonelli; the Williams were flying.  Tsunoda was given a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. 

Bortoleto was the next driver to retire with engine problems; it seemed like he would be able to get back to the pits but pulled off well out of the way.  A Virtual Safety Car was called for the third time anyway.  Sainz was sleeping when it ended as LeClerc caught him napping and got past and Hamilton took him too.  He asked the team to get LeClerc to move over, they were on different tyres.  It took a while but they did swap positions.  

At the back of the grid, Lawson was also out, the fourth rookie to retire.  To add to the confusion, Ferrari asked the two drivers to swap positions back again.

In the end, it was an easy win for Piastri but it was a one-two for McLaren.  They were over thirty seconds ahead of Russell.  It will be very tricky for Toto if Verstappen does want to drive for Mercedes, to choose which driver to dump.

Verstappen was fourth ahead of an excellent points haul for Albon in fifth, then Antonelli, LeClerc, Hamilton, Sainz and Tsunoda in the points.  Hadjar just missed out on a point as Tsunoda managed to keep five seconds ahead of him to mitigate his penalty.  The two Aston Martins finished last, Alonso ahead of Stroll obviously.

Will McLaren be found to have dodgy parts on their cars before the season is out?  Who knows but their dominance continues and the disappointment in Norris compared to Piastri is becoming more and more apparent.

Miami GP Qualifying Report

Everyone was still recovering from the Sprint and too tired to Qualify.  Silly mistakes were made straight away, the first session had barely started when Albon was noted for a pit lane infringement.  

There were scrappy laps from some top drivers, Russell and Hamilton struggling.  Despite going second fastest, Norris hit the wall.  Verstappen had learnt something from the Sprint event and finished first. The McLarens were a strong second and third. Some drivers, including Russell and Hamilton used more new sets of tyres than they would want to.  Out went Hulkenberg, Alonso, Gasly, Stroll and Bearman.  This was disappointing from the Haas rookie.  The disparity between the Aston Martins and other teams is showing more and more.  Where others were able to learn and improve from the other competitive sessions at Miami, they went backwards.

In the second session, some drivers did well and others made mistakes, locking up on fresh sets of tyres, Hamilton was one of these.  Out went Hadjar, Hamilton, Bortoleto, Doohan and Lawson after an eventless few minutes.

It was close in the last session, with three thousandths of a second between Verstappen and Norris at the front.  LeClerc and Russell had scrappy first laps and had time in hand to improve.  The Williams were looking strong again too.  McLaren were not able to get ahead of the Red Bull.  The Mercedes found a little time at the end.  Unlike earlier, there were no penalties handed out.  They finished: Verstappen on pole, Norris, Antonelli, Piastri, Russell, Sainz, Albon, LeClerc, Ocon and Tsunoda.

The question going into the race would be whether Verstappen has found it in himself to keep it clean and maintain the lead after the first lap without the stewards needing to intervene.

Miami GP Sprint Report

What a difference twenty-fours hours makes!  All pundits' eyes were on Antonelli, any other driver that was previously the big story ("Just look at young Piastri!") is now too old and too slow.  The Mercedes driver came to the track on the Saturday as the centre of everyone's attention.  Also, the Floridian sunshine had disappeared and was replaced by rain.  The track wet was a complete unknown.

It was a bit wet, drizzly and drivers went out on Intermediate wet tyres to get round to the starting grid.  The rain suddenly got much, much heavier and LeClerc, who was going round (far too fast for the conditions I feel, he should have tip-toed round) hit the wall in a largish smash.  He tried to bring the car back around to the pits but stopped at the end of the pit lane.  Both Ferrari drivers were complaining.  I was surprised that they were not stopped from going out with the car at the side of the track.  Bearman was going at much more appropriate speed and went off but was able to bring the car gently around and back on track.  LeClerc was out of the race.  Hamilton has been facing a lot of negative discussion about his performance compared to LeClerc but in this instance he did a better job in the conditions.  He was pulled up for driving unsafely by the stewards.

The formation lap would be behind the Safety Car and all drivers were on the Intermediate tyres apart from Sainz who chose the Full Wet.  They did a few laps.  Verstappen spun off, lots of drivers complained/fed back and the race was Red Flagged and stopped.

Following a delay for the marshals to sweep water off the track.  They did a couple of laps behind the Safety Car and the drivers radioed in to tell us what the conditions were like.  From all this, the Race Director decided to go for a standing not a rolling start.  With three laps completed of the 18, it would be a short sprint.

Antonelli made a poor start and Piastri came in quick, he fought and he was off and coming back onto the track in 4th.  Despite large rooster tails of water, the drivers were right behind each other tightly.  Lawson and Stroll made up 5 places each.

The race was like watching highlights, everything that would normally happen in a race did, but much closer together.  Albon was desperately trying to get past Hamilton, there was overtaking, pit stops were made.  Tsunoda, running in last place, was the first person to go onto slick, dry weather tyres.  He was followed by Hamilton, which was a bigger gamble as it dropped him into 15th place ahead of Bortoleto, Stroll and Sainz.

Next, Verstappen and Antonelli came in from the front, the Red Bull car was released into the Mercedes, meaning Antonelli couldn't even get into his pit box and had to keep going.  He was awarded a 10 second penalty.  Whilst this was happening there were Yellow Flags then Green again, something had happened on track.  We quickly found out that Sainz had had a big smash with lots of debris on track that drivers were trying to avoid.  We weren't sure whether there would be a Safety Car.  Piastri took a risk and came in early, not waiting to see; then Norri kept radioing in to say how much debris there was on track in the hope that a Safety Car would be called.  Sainz managed to get back to the pits somehow.

It looked like Norris was going to have to pit for dry tyres anyway, especially as Hamilton was powering through the line up and was in third.  As he was in the pits, there were more Yellow Flags, initially this seemed because of the debris but we cut to an Aston Martin in pieces across the track.  Obviously, the world assumed it was Stroll but, no, two times world champion Alonso.  It wasn't his fault, Lawson went into him; in a race where he veered from hero to zero and back again at an alarming pace.

There were three laps left and the pole-sitter, Antonelli, was in 11th.  A replay of Sainz made me think Albon was out from 5th too but luckily not.  With the Safety Car leading the cars to the finish, everyone was very close.  This meant that Verstappen's 10 second penalty took him back to 16th place, ahead of only Doohan.  Somehow, just by keeping his head down Norris won ahead of Piastri, Hamilton, Albon, Russell, Stroll, Lawson and Bearman.  It was a good chance to earn points for those last 4 drivers.  For once the promise of Williams looking strong came true, normally as soon as anyone suggests it there will be an inevitable no points finish.

There were several more investigations announced as well, so the finishing order did not look definite at all.  In the end only Bearman was given a 5 second penalty, which put Tsunoda in the points, which is amazing for him as he started at the back.  Then Albon and Lawson were also given 5 seconds off their race times for not staying above the minimum times set under the Safety Car and bumping into Alonso respectively.  

Hamilton was full of praise for his team's strategic decision to bring him in early.  He was overjoyed for once.

Williams might rue their saviour Sainz, he has made one mistake after another so far this season.  Three cars needed fixing before the imminent Qualifying session, his, LeClerc's and Alonso's.  It would be touch and go.  It was a thrilling Sprint, which made me worry that Qualifying and the Race would be dreary.

Miami GP Sprint Qualifying Report

Formula 1 arrived in Miami for some glitz and glamour.  Lando Norris went for a disco ball helmet design, which was a big hit with my 7 year old.  Now we've been coming to the track for a few years, less is made of how much it is a party.

In the first session, it was very busy on the track at the end.  Tsunoda didn't manage to cross the line in time to put in a final lap and was out.  This must have been disappointing for Red Bull. Norris got held up by his bestie, Verstappen, who seemed to hold up his team mate too, who in turn made some disparaging remarks in the press pen.  Fatherhood must be distracting the driver.  Out went Stroll, Doohan, Tsunoda, Bortoleto and Bearman.  The Mercedes were the two top drivers, then Albon, Norris, Sainz and Piastri.  The Mercedes engine was going great guns at this track.  Doohan was very angry on team radio about his release from the garage during the session, it could have been unsafe and he felt that it disadvantaged him.  Briatore won't like him having been so public in his criticism.  It won't do him any favours.

Unfortunately Sainz made a mistake and had a huge lock-up, going right off track, which meant Williams couldn't keep up the form in the second session.  There were a few bumps to the wall on the back straight, mostly notably by Gasly.  Other than Sainz, who didn't end up setting a time at all, there were no surprises amongst the drivers going out: Hulkenberg, Ocon, Gasly and Lawson.  Norris and Verstappen were quickest.

In the final session, Russell only put in one flying lap and sat on pole as everyone else went out.  It was nip and tuck.  Verstappen took pole from the Mercedes, then Antonelli took it.  We waited for the McLarens to put in quicker times but they couldn't.  It finished: Antonelli, Piastri (looking ever stronger than his team mate, again, even the 7 year old has switched allegiance), Norris, Verstappen, Russell, LeClerc, Hamilton, Albon, Hadjar and Alonso.  Toto Wolff had a huge grin as his choice of replacement for Hamilton came good.  Russell was quick to get to parc ferme to congratulate him.  It was the fastest lap time ever set at Miami.

Verstappen was confident that he could make up some places in the Sprint but both Ferrari drivers were despondent that they could do anything in the Sprint or the main event.

Saudi Arabia GP Race Report

With Verstappen on pole, Piastri would be nipping at his heels and whether he would be the world championship leader at the end of the race was being highly predicted.  No one was interviewing Norris.  The other bet was how many Safety Cars there would be and whether the race would be stopped with a Red Flag.

Usher refused to speak to Martin on the Grid Walk; the Saudi money must be sufficient that slebs don't need to get any publicity from their appearance too.  Then his former boss Briatore didn't recognise him; he predicted that Gasly would finish in 6th.

The first Safety Car came quickly as Briatore's prediction came undone.  Verstappen only just held first place from Piastri and had to cut a corner to maintain it, he could possibly have argued that he was forced off the track.  Antonelli did something similar to Russell but clearly did not gain an advantage whether through poor driving or deliberate manoeuvre.  Behind them though Tsunoda and Gasly came together with the Red Bull spinning but was able to keep going in last place and the Alpine slammed into the wall and was out of the race.  However, once Tsunoda came into the pit to be checked out, it was decided to retire him.  Both drivers were equally to blame.

So early into the race, only three drivers took the cheap pit stop: Ocon, Bortoleto and Doohan.  They hoped to go to the end of this short race.

The restart was on Lap 3.  Verstappen backed them almost impossibly up and then sped away.  However, he was simultaneously handed a 5 second penalty for his earlier incident with Piastri.  Brundle was unhappy with this and thought he should have been made to give the place back.

In the Williams garage they were having to manage having two drivers nose to tail in the points.  In front of them Norris and Hamilton were fighting harder.  It would be lap 15 when the McLaren got past.

Approaching the middle of the race, teams were now playing chicken with their pit stops to see if there would be another Safety Car.  Piastri pitted to get some clean air and then Verstappen made his.  McLaren were slow though, negating the penalty.  Both Williams came out very far back.  On Lap 30 LeClerc finally came in from the lead to pit and came out in 5th, not too bad.  Next, it was Lap 34 when Norris pitted from the lead.  There was also the possibility that he went too fast in the pits, or some similar atrocity.

There was lots of overtaking on the street circuit, both at the front and the back of the grid with the rookies getting involved with each other.

Team orders started to come into play at the end of the race.  Ocon, on old tyres, had to let rookie Bearman through.  Sainz was instructed to let Albon into his DRS zone, to try and hold off rookie Hadjar.  Then rookie Bortoleto let Hulkenberg through, in the tense battle for 15th and 16th.

Piastri was moderately pleased with his win and points haul that took him into the lead of the championship.  Verstappen needs to moderate his aggressive driving choices if he is going to get the wins, although I suspect he will continue to blame the car.  LeClerc scored a creditable third.  Norris made up six places, the most of any driver, to finish fourth.  Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton were next, then the mini fight of Sainz, Albon and Hadjar.

As Piastri is now ten points ahead of Norris, I can see that this will end up as a Rosberg versus Hamilton battle, with Norris as Rosberg.  He will have to start sacrificing much more if he is going to achieve his world championship dream.

Verstappen made a short but smiley statement instead of being questioned during the pre-podium interview.  He did not want to defend his early, penalty-receiving move.  He will have to play it cooler if he wants a shot and maybe coach Yuki to support him.

Saudi Arabia GP Qualifying Report

Apart from exhaustion from a triple header, everyone was ready to go racing in Saudi Arabia.

The only drivers to hit the wall in the first session were Hadjar and Albon.  Verstappen was fastest, ahead of the two McLarens, Antonelli and Tsunoda.  Some people looked like they were sandbagging.  Out went the usual clutch of suspects: Stroll, Doohan, Hulkenberg, Ocon and Bortoleto.  The Williams wunderkind of last year had his first lap time deleted and spun into the path of Verstappen on his third.

There were no incidents in the second session.  Albon went out early for his second lap, to cover off any chance of it being red flagged or raining but it didn't pay off and he went out in 11th.  Behind him was Lawson, Alonso, Hadjar and Bearman.  Antonelli continues as the best-performing rookie but should with the equipment he has at his disposal.  Norris was fastest, followed by Verstappen and then Piastri.

The third and final session saw drivers out fairly early to get a lap in, which was a good idea as Norris went over a curb, which propelled him hard into the wall, putting him out of contention and red flagging the competition.  His team mate, Piastri, was just across the line to set his time; for the first time, we saw the Australian's eyes light up inside his helmet.

In the final shoot out, it was between Piastri and Verstappen only Russell put a corker of a lap in and nearly got in the way of things.  The Red Bull took it by one hundredth of a second from the McLaren, with the Mercedes in third.  Behind them was LeClerc (a good showing by the lead Ferrari), Antonelli (does Hamilton wish he'd stayed in that car now?), Sainz (yes, quicker in a Williams than in his old Ferrari seat), Hamilton, Tsunoda, Gasly (who had shown such promise in practice) and Norris with no time set at all.

The FIA were trying out something new with the messages for viewers and letting us know who the last car across the line at the chequered flag was, which is fairly apparent anyway.   I wonder what else they'll come up with this season?

Bahrain GP Race Report

Other than both Mercedes being handed a one place grid penalty, there was nothing to report before the race started other than that Norris had cheered up.

On the softest tyres, Norris made it up to 3rd from 6th off the start, a little cheeriness goes a long way.  Russell got ahead of LeClerc for 2nd.  Gasly and Sainz were 5th and 6th.  LeClerc was playing the long game in medium tyres.  Bearman made up 5 places.  Verstappen,  Hamilton and Tsunoda remained in the doldrums at the bottom of the points.   

Then the stewards announced that Norris might have been out of position on the grid.  LeClerc had told his BFF Gasly that the Ferrari might be doing a one stop strategy.  It feels like when the competitor is your friend you should still keep schtum as he told the world over the radio.

We then saw a shot of Norris at the start and he was ahead of his slot, which would ruin his race potential.  He was given 5 seconds and told to get passed Russell.

There was plenty of overtaking.  Sainz battled to hold Hamilton behind him and needed DRS to get it done.

When the pit stops came up, it was tricky to find a clear window to bring cars out into, the field was very close together.  Red Bull had a problem with their traffic light hold and release system in the pits and lost out with both drivers.  LeClerc wanted to stay out longer but was overuled by Ferrari.   

By the time the second round of stops came, Ferrari were making up places.  Verstappen had an awful stop and came out in last place.  I'm sure Mrs Stroll will have taken a picture of the screen for the one and only time her son is ahead of the World Champion.

Verstappen and Sainz had a minor coming together and there was a little bit of carbon fibre debris left behind.  Stunningly, this triggered a full Safety Car.  This was just in time for most drivers to take a cheap pit stop.  A cynic would say it was done to affect the outcome of the race.  

This all meant there would be a restart.  Piastri managed to stay ahead but everyone behind him was fighting.  Russell held 2nd and the Ferraris got 3rd and 4th.  Lawson got a 5 second penalty for causing a collision but it really can't have been serious enough for that as it didn’t bring out a Safety Car. Sainz was retired after getting and serving a penalty because his car was too damaged. 

Russell had to reset his DRS settings, which sounded like an engineering ballache and technically challenging and then he was told he might lose his dash.  Lots of the cars seemed to be developing gremlins in Bahrain.  Then the Mercedes lost its gears.

Norris was pushing his way forward in the last laps; overtaking Hamilton by force, then LeClerc.  Because Russell was no longer being correctly and accurately timed, it wasn’t clear when he could use DRS or those (Norris) chasing him.  I would like to have seen Ron Dennis stood out with a stopwatch.  They fought until the bitter end.  Verstappen kept being shown the black and white flag for exceeding lap limits but went on to take Gasly for 6th place on the final lap.

Piastri said he would party to celebrate his victory that night; we can only imagine he had a late cola and risked the caffeine keeping him awake.  In fact, he said he wouldn’t go to the party. Russell's race was "tricky" and Norris found his "messy".  The cool down room was noisy with three geeks discussing the highlights they were shown and calling one driver a "muppet".

Norris left Bahrain, to prepare for the third race in three weeks, still as championship leader but if Piastri continues like this, he won't hold it for long.  It felt like Ferrari did well until you saw that they were behind at the end and they expressed their disappointment.

I watched this event on Channel 4 rather than Sky and whilst the presentation before and after the race is slick, the actual order of the race and timely provision of information was shockingly bad.  There was no word about why Russell suddenly went to last place for a couple of laps.  I didn't understand why Sainz had a penalty, I don’t know if they actually told us.  As it is highlights, surely there is ample opportunity to present the race in a logical manner?  They've really committed to supporting Bearman too.

These triple headers feel relentless and I think by the end of the year we will see some tired drivers and I wonder if it will effect championship ambitions.

Bahrain GP Qualifying Report

With turmoil in the FIA, Sainz bewildered by a hefty fine for a visit to the loo at the wrong time, Alonso's steering wheel fell off when he was out on the track during Practice. 

In the first Qualifying session, Verstappen was complaining about his car; it wasn't right.  The Red Bulls were not through as the final push started.  Albon was knocked out in the final seconds by Ocon and Hulkenberg, he was too cold.  Behind him was Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll and Bearman.  At the front was Norris and Hamilton.

The second session saw Ocon's push to get through being absolutely wasted as he went  immediately in the wall and the session was stopped with a Red Flag.  There were no surprises in the five that went out apart from Sainz, who was comfortably through in 7th.  It was Doohan, Hadjar, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Ocon.

It was harder for all in the final session, with the most pressure on Antontelli and Hamilton who had their first lap times deleted.  Whereas McLaren had been dominant in the first two sessions, Russell was a real contender now.  It was looking strong for him until Piastri did pull something out of the bag to take pole position and he could not be touched.  LeClerc wass third, Antonelli 4th, Gasly 5th.  If you're reading this and wondering where the championship contenders are: Norris 6th and Verstappen 7th.  Behind them were Sainz (finally outqualifying his team mate), Hamilton and Tsunoda.  LeClerc did not expect his place and was glad of the new tyres.  Russell thought it was the cooling track temperatures that helped.  Or were people just not as good?  Norris and Hamilton were both quick to blame themselves but Verstappen explained it away as something with the brakes.

Gasly was hoping that BFFs Lando and Max were going to fight with each other off the line but leave him out of it.  Mercedes were penalised for something administrative on Q2, where I think they released the drivers into the pit lane too early after the Red Flag.  They were each given a one place grid penalty.

If it doesn't turn out to be another dreary procession then it could be a spicy race.

Japan GP Race Report

The drivers were full of talk about how much fun driving at Suzuka is, the media commitments felt less of a burden and they were enjoying being on track.

Sainz had been given a three place grid penalty for impeding Hamilton, it had rained overnight and was cold for the start of the race: that was the pre-race news.  There would be no race news.

It was a clean start with Norris defending well from Piastri.  The top ten remained as they were but behind them there were overtakes a plenty.  Alonso got Gasly, Tsunoda took Lawson, Hulkenberg passed Sainz and Bortoleto, the great prodigy, fell back three places to last.

Stroll was the first to pit in the slow Aston Martin.  He went to the hard tyres and came out in last place.  Of the main runners, on the one stop race, Piastri came in first, followed by what was the top three.  Ferrari made very slow stop for LeClerc.  Norris and Verstappen nearly came together as they exited the pits, the McLaren going on to the grass.  They both blamed each other.  This meant that Antonelli was leading, followed by Hamilton, Hadjar and Albon.

There was so little to watch that we were given a shot of Gasly's mum watching the race.  She would have been disappointed to see the team orders which asked him to move over for Doohan.  It never happened though.

The top three pretty much held stations once all the pit stops had happened.  Behind them Antonelli put in a series of Fastest Laps.  Tsunoda was the Driver of the Day.  It was an easy win for Verstappen and an easily held second and third place for McLaren, Norris holding off Piastri.  Hadjar did well for 8th in his Racing Bull, followed by Albon and Bearman,  The rookies were doing well.  Alonso was just outside the points in 11th but his team mate was last.  Is this finally the year he gets sacked?  Tsunoda was 12th ahead of Lawson in 17th.

It was a very disappointing race, with little to no action.  At least we will be swiftly moving on to two more races in the next fortnight.

Japan GP Qualifying Report

Obviously all the talk at the Japanese Grand Prix weekend, home of Honda, was Tsunoda's move to Red Bull and Lawson's demotion to his seat at Racing Bulls after only two races.  Despite heavy online support from drivers current and old, this must have felt like an awful setback to the Kiwi.

As they went into the Qualifying sessions, grass fires had plagued the practice sessions.  Rain was forecast overnight though.  Doohan didn't shut his DRS during one practice session and had a 300kph crash.  He was winded but did not have concussion.  Villeneuve was very critical of this.

In the first Qualifying session, Antonelli was having problems getting his tyres up to temperature and Hadjar was in pain with the positioning of his seat belt.  It was tight at the bottom.  Out went Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Ocon, Doohan and Stroll.  A poor showing for the Aston Martin driver.  Antonelli got it together and proceeded in 8th.  Both Racing Bulls were through, which meant Lawson was able to get his Racing Bull out of the bottom five, when he couldn't do the same with his Red Bull.

With 8 minutes to go the second session was stopped because of a grass fire.  It was nip and tuck in the middle.  Out went Gasly, Sainz (with an investigation for impeding pending), Alonso, Lawson and the Tsunoda.  That will certainly put a smile on the faces of his supporters.

The final session was a battle between the two McLaren drivers and Verstappen, behind them it didn't seem to matter so much.  Verstappen snatched pole from Norris at the last second, behind them was Piastri who drove an awful first sector and couldn't make it up with two subsequent purple sectors.  To finish the top ten was LeClerc, Russell, Antonelli, Hadjar, Hamilton, Albon and Bearman.

I only noticed that the Red Bulls were in their white Honda livery for this race, so I had spent the whole time confusing them with their sister team.

Drive to Survive - Season 7 Review

Can we guess who, in the whole entire world of F1 was the second person to appear on the new season of D2S?  Yes!  A Spice Girl!  Newly Posh Spice, formerly Ginger, Gerri Horniwell.  Also making a career change comback is Claire Williams, who now seems to be a pundit for the show.

There was an interesting snippet where Sainz and Hamilton were "caught" discussing  Mercedes drive for the 2025 season; Lewis was advising that he didn't think the team were going to win again.  Carlos said that he had not heard from the team boss so felt an offer of driver there was unlikely.  It seemed a very sad start to the season already.

The release of the cache of messages and emails that were sent to team principals and every member of the press about Horner's alleged misbehaviour was a key selling point for the series.  He was looking hunted already on the show but it was starting to look like D2S was on Horner's side but also did manage to make him look a little shady.  It seems like it was a very long time ago and all has been forgotten now.  Geri's face could not have looked more tense if she was taking Ozympic.

The editor and director didn't seem to know what direction they wanted to take the first episode, was it all about Sainz's departure from Ferrari or Horner's failure to depart from Red Bull?  It finished with Sainz beating Red Bull at Australia.

In the second episode, they brought up the name Lando "No Wins" Norris.  I've never heard this, neither had Jenson Button.  Having created a little extra jeopardy for the McLaren driver, in episode three, they went for George Russell.  I don't think there was ever any question that George Russell had a drive at Mercedes in the 2025 season but it was played that he was contending for the lead driver position.  There was a lot of comment about how he needed to step things up to achieve this.

Where it used to be that Netflix were lucky to be embedded in the right team at the right time, they are now staging increasingly awkward interactions between drivers and their team principals and other staff.  It's really taking away from what was a somewhat serious sporting documentary.

The episode felt rushed, Antonelli's announcement coming hastily at the end and Toto Wolff not looking completely confident in his decision.

Episode four can't have been easy viewing for Logan Sargeant.  It was his crash highlights, with Williams Team Principal, James Vowles, listing the parts he had gone through.  The title was "Carlos Signs".  We didn't know that Sainz had backed out of the first signing with Williams.  It was the second coming of Briatore.  Some of us remember him from the first time around and his no holds barred support of Schumacher.  Those younger will remember crashgate, when he was the engineer of Piquet Jr deliberately crashing to enable Alonso a late-career win.

There were some episodes where the focus was so obvious I had nothing to comment on about it.  The one where they gave them phones to film on and focused on the brotherhood was sweet. Then they moved on to the Danny Ric Story.  Someone, probably Will Buxton, made the point that if he had only stayed at Red Bull and not left to go to McLaren, he could have been world champion.  You could see that Netflix were sad to lose him from the show and this was his grand finale.

With Steiner gone, the production team were looking to the returning Briatore to bring some fire.  You could see he was tired with the idea.  One episode was Haas vs. Alpine.  Ocon really presented that he chose to go to Haas.  This was contrasted with Flavio calling him "a spoilt brat"; then we saw someone in the Haas factory questioning his appointment there.

The final episode tied up loose ends with Verstappen winning the Drivers' Championship and McLaren winning the Constructors'.  As well as the number of drivers leaving teams.  The bizarre outpouring of emotion at Hamilton leaving but only for Ferrari, not forever, was shown.  He was allowed to do doughnuts, what will they do when he finally quits F1?  Shoot him, embalm him and set in a glass tomb in Stevenage?

Didn't mention: Sargeant being dismissed, Newey leaving Red Bull.

China GP Race Report

As with the Sprint race, Lawson was going to be starting in the pit lane.  Oil had been spilled on the main straight as well.  The worst indignity though was Brundle having to interview a Chinese influencer dressed as a unicorn.   He interrupted Antonelli and Bearman chatting, they claimed they were discussing the wind direction but we all know they were talking about Fortnite.

Several drivers were under investigation before the race even started, for not performing their practice race starts correctly.  Given that the rule had only been clarified that morning, there was no excuse.

It was racy but clean off the start.  The action had to play out over a few corners before we definitely knew the running order.  Norris overtook Russell for 2nd.  As LeClerc was overtaking Verstappen, he slightly bumped the rear of Hamilton.  I don't know how Hulkenberg lost 7 places off the start.

The first retirement was Alonso in his Aston Martin, as his brakes caught fire and then went completely.

As the first round of pit stops came and went, Norris lost out to Russell as Piastri pitted first.  A lap or two later, he took the place back.  The Williams were among the cars who didn't go early and Albon led the race on his birthday, not for very long though.  LeClerc was due to change his front wing but didn't.

Unusually and surprisingly, Hamilton spotted that he was holding his team mate up as he struggled with tyres.  He radioed in and the cars swapped places.

There were various bits of overtaking, as cars tried to get back into some kind of regular order.  LeClerc commented on how good the Mercedes were running.

The overtaking petered out towards the end of the race.  Doohan received a penalty for pushing Hadjar off the track.  Tsunoda's front wing broke of it's own accord and he had to pit for a new one.  Norris's brake went long and he would have to ease up.  Verstappen took 4th place from LeClerc with 3 laps to go.

Norris's brake situation became critical with 1 lap to go.  We barely saw his team mate all race.  McLaren managed their one-two finish. Russell fought a little harder and got the last podium place.  Antonelli won Driver of the Day for starting 8th and finishing 8th.  His family must have rung up a large phone bill.

After the race, some of the checks revealed some necessary disqualifications.  Hamilton was first, for blocks for being too small.  LeClerc and Gasly for being underweight.  

Ocon ended up with 5th place and Bearman in 5th so that was a big points haul for Haas.  Antonelli was 6th.  Albon was 7th and Sainz was 10th, so some points for Williams.  We'll have to hope that the next track suits them better.  Stroll was the other points finisher in 9th.  If the big teams are going to make cock-ups, you need to be ready to pick up the points.

For the rookie report: Doohan was scrappy and penalised for it, Lawson had a could-do-better 12th, I don't think we've seen Bortoleto's face yet.

China GP Qualifying Report

Hot on the heels of the first Sprint of the season came Qualifying.  Doohan had been awarded a fine and 2 penalty points for his collision with Bortoleto at the end of the Sprint.  He then went on to spin on his first attempt to put in a timed lap.  I can't see Briatore being happy with his performance so far.  With 2 reserve drivers at Alpine, he needs to make rapid improvements.

LeClerc made a very scrappy lap in the first session and Norris had a time deleted.  Both had to rely on their second and final attempt.  The track got better and better as more rubber was laid down.  The name at the top changed with every car past the chequered flag.  Norris managed to get the McLaren to give the fastest lap, which should have been a confidence boost after a dodgy weekend to that point.  Behind him was Hadjar and Tsunoda in their Racing Bulls, definitely catching some eyes with Lawson finishing last.  Out went Gasly, Bearman, Doohan and Bortoleto with him.

The second session was incident-free.  Again the Racing Bulls finished well, Hadjar 4th and Tsunoda 5th.  Out went Ocon, Hulkenberg (former team mates next to each other on the grid), Alonso, Stroll (still not out-qualifying his geriatric team mate) and Sainz, who was unable to improve his first lap time set.  Hamilton has now laid down a clear marker for how quickly a top driver can fit in with a new team; Sainz is not living up to it.

After the first round of laps set in the final session, only Antonelli had any drama, with a lap deleted for exceeding track limits.  Piastri put in a record lap for the track to secure his first proper pole.  Russell put in a good lap too to be alongside him.  Norris aborted his final lap and finished 3rd.  Then it was Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton, LeClerc, Hadjar, Antonelli, Tsunoda and Albon.

Horner, TP of Red Bull, thought it would be all about strategy and not about starting position, batting off comments about Lawson.

I don't think it will be long before LeClerc really starts complaining.  Could Fred have already been setting things up in deference to Hamilton's preferred style?

An early prediction is that Tsunoda will get a mid-season call up to the Big Team, Red Bull.

China GP Sprint Report

In the morning there was no news from Sprint Qualifying but Hadjar and Gasly did something wrong on the way to the grid.  Albon was also being investigated and fined for not returning some cameras and footage because of the new wing rules that came into force this weekend.  Pirelli had also changed the mandatory tyre pressures, which would need a lot of management by drivers.

Hulkenberg would start from the pit lane after changing his suspension, which meant that Lawson would be last on the grid but not absolute last.

Hamilton got off to a great start, cutting off Verstappen.  Norris locked a wheel and dropped back to 9th.  Throughout Sprint Qualifying the time bar kept failing and the same happened during this race, which is very frustrating.  Gasly and Sainz made up a few places.

By lap 9 of 19, Verstappen was right up behind Hamilton and tyres were beginning to go.  You either had to manage the tyres and not gain position or risk losing them to stay ahead or push ahead.  At the back, they were two abreast across the track with most of the rookies up against each other.  Piastri crept closer to Verstappen and Hamilton escaped the DRS zone.

It looked like Sainz was out of the race and brought in to pit but they sent him out again, it meant he was last.  Were Williams using this session as Free Practice?

With 4 laps to go, Piastri got past Verstappen (who admitted afterwards that he let him by) but Norris was struggling and conversations were happening on the radio, where it couldn't be solved.  LeClerc was right behind Russell for 4th position but he was carrying a problem.

Hamilton secured his first victory for Ferrari, albeit a Sprint, followed by Piastri, Verstappen, Russell, LeClerc, Tsunoda, Antonelli and Norris, as the points finishers.  It was a quiet race for the Racing Bull but successful.  Bortoleto and Doohan came together on the last lap and spun.  I think the rookies' behaviour will have an impact on the races for a while to come.

A lot of the drivers seemed to be surviving, which would make for an interesting race.

China GP Sprint Qualifying Report

It was a beautiful sunny Friday in Shanghai for Sprint Qualifying and I think it caught a lot of fans off-guard that the second race of the season, and in a double-header too, would be a Sprint weekend.

The first session saw Hamilton put in the quickest lap with Doohan, Gasly, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Lawson going out.  The Kiwi complained that he "could not get the tyres down".  I expect Gasly, Ocon and Hulkenberg had high hopes that this was the year that they weren't all out in the first session of every session.  I caught myself realising that the Haas were now green and then remembered Hulkenberg had moved to mark the back with a different team this season.

In the second session, it looked like all the promise Williams had made at the first race of the season was disappearing, with Sainz out.  But Albon put in a great lap to get through in 7th.  Hadjar gave his team mate Tsunoda a slip stream to get him through but didn't set a lap time himself.    Out went Alonso, Bearman, Sainz, Bortoleto and Hadjar,  Norris was quickest.

The third and final session had a funny end.  Norris didn't set a particularly fast lap and pitted to withdraw from the contest.  Hamilton was fastest (and surprised), followed by Verstappen (spicy), Piastri, LeClerc, Russell, Norris, Antonelli, Tsunoda, Albon and Stroll.  Hamilton was presented by some strange Pirelli gismo for this endeavour.

How many times will Tsunoda outqualify Lawson by many many places before he gets called up to Red Bull?  Lawson had nothing much to say to the press other than "um" and "frustrating."

Russell thought the Sprint will be an interesting race.

Australia GP Race Report

The Brits were having a lovely time down under, talking about the rain.  The drivers put in a lot of laps before stopping on the straight to get a feel for the wet track.  Only Hamilton went out on Intermediate tyres; everyone else was on wets.  Bearman and Ocon had spins.  It looked pretty grim for the drivers and dignitaries stood on a small platform for the anthem.  A rolling start had been predicted but it was barely raining when the start came.

Hadjar, having got his Racing Bull into a starting position of 11th, just outside the top 10, spun on the formation lap and knocked his rear wing almost off.  That was one rookie out of the race.  He had a little cry at the side of the track.  Still crying as he got back to the pit, Lewis Hamilton's dad smelt a whiff of publicity and greeted the greeting boy to put a hand on his shoulder.

At the end of the 2nd formulation lap, it was time to go for real.  Lawson and Bearman were making starts from the pit lane but it seemed a safer option on this day.  Norris was quick to start pulling out a lead, with no spray in his face.  Verstappen overtook Piastri for 2nd but before the 1st lap was complete the second rookie of the day exited the running.  Doohan spun his car, losing it and dragging the car backwards down a wall, which immediately triggered the medical car and thus the Safety Car.  LeClerc had made up 2 places in his Ferrari.

Under the Safety Car, last year's winner and new-to-Williams, Sainz, spun his car, also into the wall.  He blamed it on a "torque surge".  It was a comfortable 6 laps for Norris before they went racing again.  As it hadn't actually rained for a while, the next challenge would be deciding when to change to slick tyres.

Another rookie, Antonelli, also spun but managed to regain the track unscathed.  Most overtakes were made when the driver in front made a mistake.  Piastri was able to get 2nd back off Verstappen when he went too close to the curb.  

The best radio of the race, and probably of the season, will go to Ferrari.  When LeClerc radioed in to complain (there was a lot of complaining on the red radio) that his seat was full of water, was there a leak?  His engineer said: "That will be water."  He commented that those were "words of wisdom".

On Lap 34 another old timer, crashed, the oldest of timers, Alonso, again scraping it down the wall and the Safety Car came out.  A lot of drivers pitted immediately but not the 2 McLarens in the lead at the time.  There was a 2nd tranche after.  Everyone went to dry tyres apart from both Haas.  After a few laps though and with McLaren having discussed the weather and decided that maybe they should put on intermediate tyres, Haas came in and put on dry tyres.  Clearly no one knew what the weather was going to do.

Back to the rookies, previously unmentioned Bortoleto, was awarded a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release.  

The rain came suddenly out of nowhere.  Initially it looked like the 2 McLarens out front had come together as we cut to them both running and wide and spinning.  Verstappen took the lead.  It became clear that this was the rain hitting the track.  Norris pitted and many others followed him.  Piastri, however, was beached on the grass.  With the crowd roaring him on, he did everything he could to try and get back on the track by rocking backwards and forwards until he got purchase.  Luckily, he was right in front of the pit lane entrance.  Verstappen would have to do another lap before he pitted but he was not in the lead but was told to stay out.   That looked a good move but then we saw how much it was raining at the end of the lap and he only just made it back safely into the pit.

Both Ferraris were left out on dry tyres.  A Safety Car came out to give them a free stop if they wanted it as 2 rookies, Bortoleto and Lawson came to a stop at the side of the track, having spun in the wet conditions.  The scarlet cars did choose to come in for a change of tyres.  Hamilton had said it was "dangerous" to stay out on dry tyres, which made it almost obligatory for his team to bring him in.  Having been reasonably polite over the radio so far, this was his most pointed barb at the time, that they pitted him at the wrong time.

Whilst the camera was trained on drivers overtaking Gasly and pushing him out of the top 10, Antonelli was pushing Albon for 4th place.  With 2 laps to go, the world was watching Norris and Verstappen battle for 1st place but behind them Anontelli took Albon.  It was announced that the rookie was going to be investigated for an unsafe release at the same time.    He was given 5 seconds., all Albon needed to do was stay within that parameter.  It was close but they finished Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Albon, Antonelli, Stroll (a quiet points finish), Hulkenberg (a great climb from the back of the grid), LeClerc, Piastri and Hamilton to finish the points.  Outside were Gasly, Tsunoda (who deserved points for that race), Ocon and Bearman.

Russell had a very quiet race for 3rd place and a podium; it almost fell into his hands although he must have handled the wet conditions well.  It's tough having your first Formula 1 race in the wet.  There were 6 retirements with 14 cars finishing, including 2 rookies, 1 in the points and 1 not. Antontelli started 16th and finished 5th, which was outstanding.  With the point for fastest lap now gone, I think the FIA should now bring in my old scoring system of giving a point to the driver who makes up the most places from their starting grid place.

4 different teams in the top 4 also holds promise for the season.

In other news, Mick Schumacher has been replaced standing next to Toto Wolff by Valteri Bottas, who is also trying to look very serious during the job.

Australia GP Qualifying Report

There are several drivers in contention for World Champion before they start racing in earnest this season.  Piastri has it the toughest this week, not only being the driver who needs to step it up the most to stake his claim within his own team, it is also his home track.  There is already extra demand for time from the media as it is the first race of the year but he will be needed to comment on racing in Australia too.

My son asked me who I thought would take pole for this first race of the season and I honestly had no idea.  Someone from Ferrari?  Someone from McLaren?  Someone from Mercedes?  There's also Williams in contention for two top ten places.

With so many rookies, it would be well to get a first lap in before anyone crashed and brought out any flagged restrictions on pace.  One of them, Bearman, immediately reported a broken gear box.  Lawson also had a poor Qualifying and went out with him, putting in a weak performance and going wide after aborting the lap.  Something went wrong, whether driver or mechanic fault, on Antonelli's car and he the car was very low sending up sparks and he went out too.  He had broken the bib of the car.  Along with the three rookies, was Ocon, newly driving for Haas and Hulkenberg, newly driving for Sauber.  Norris put in the quickest lap.

Nothing much happened in the second session, Bortoleto had a big off but saved it, still ending up in 15th in his Haas, still beating his team mate Ocon.  Doohan was next, then Stroll, with his team mate Alonso ahead of him.  In 11th was the best rookie, Hadjar for the Racing Bulls.  The end of the session was dicey as Hamilton spun his Ferrari on track.  With less than half a minute to go, he got going, which allowed some drivers to put in a quicker lap.  Norris took 1st place from his team mate at the last gasp, putting him in pole position to take pole position.

In the final session, it was busy at the top to start.  Norris's second hot lap time was deleted for veering off the track with all four tyres.  Halfway through Verstappen held pole position, followed by Russell, LeClerc, Piastri, Albon and Tsunoda, six different teams.   With four minutes left, everyone piled out of their garages.  Piastri took pole, then Norris snatched it off him.  Nobody could take if off them; it was a papaya front row.  Behind them was Verstappen, Russell, Tsunoda in his Racing Bull, Albon in his Williams, LeClerc beating Hamilton, Gasly then Sainz in his first outing for Williams.  Most improved definitely goes to Williams.  Everyone seemed very happy for them.  The range of different constructors in the top ten promises a great season.

There was a strong forecast for rain for race day, which no one was looking forward to.  A nice clean race to get a feel for each cars' strengths and weaknesses would have been preferable.  Hamilton was going to go home and study the rain settings for the Ferrari that evening.  It will be a big challenge for the rookies.