San Marino (Imola) Qualifying Report

 All eyes were on Mick Schumacher as his father, in a Ferrari, has history here.  Mick has none, so I'm not sure how much new info he really provided.

As seems to be the norm now, everyone was saying that Mercedes weren't the top team at this track and then they were.  Everyone else made little errors and Hamilton cruised past them.

Usually a red flag adds some drama to qualifying but Tsunoda's spin was so near the start that it had no impact other than giving his engineers a late night.  The impact looked so slow and gentle, perhaps we need a road car going alongside the race cars to show the true impact?  I volunteer myself plodding around in my Honda Jazz to really give the viewers a new perspective on how quick the cars are.

Every season has it's technical trap for teams and drivers - overcut, undercut, refuelling, tire choice...this year it's track limits.  All we are going to hear about is whether a driver is on or off the track.  To combat this, I suggest electrifying the borders of the track.  If you go over it you get a mild jolt of a few volts.  Not enough to cause any long-lasting damage, just enough to put you off your step for a second and negate any advantage you may have gained.  No need to thank me FIA.  Combine this with Bernie's sprinklers and I think we've got a winning format for the sport.

Haas have said that they are not going to spend any money upgrading the car this year.  They were last in qualifying and I can't see that changing.  Both Williams drivers got into Q2 and if Haas aren't bringing any more speed to the party, it looks like they are handing their invitation to the Top 15 Party over to other drivers.  Neither Sauber/Alfa Romeo made it through either.  Can Williams be the quickest of the snails this year?

Q2 saw a gorgeous slo-mo shot of LeClerc flying through the air off of a kerb.  A good reason why you should watch the coverage rather than rely on my missives.  At the end of the middle session, I was very pleased that Russell, in his Williams, qualified ahead of three world champions no less.  And only one place behind Sainz in his Ferrari.

To finish, predictably Hamilton took pole position, as Bonno commented, "That's a surprise innit?"  No trace of irony.  Pipsqueak hopped and skipped like a delighted pre-schooler out of the car.  I think any notion that Mercedes are not on top of this game is phooey.

Going Up

👍 Stroll - spending his Daddy's money wisely, knocks his quadruple world champion team mate out of the parco.

👍 Villeneuve - a corner named after Gilles means I keep thinking that drivers are swinging into or bumping Jacques

👍 Perez - outqualifies his much-lauded team mate.  Horner heaving a huge sigh of relief as I imagine this keeps his boss off his back for a minute or two.  Perez believes that if he hadn't made a small mistake on his final lap he would be on pole, so he's disappointed.  He needs to understand that everyone on the grid bar Hamilton could say the same thing.  Red Bull 2 and 3 somewhat excitingly, with Bottas out of the picture.

👍 Gasly - puts his Minardi in 5th - the home team will be thrilled

Going Down

👎 It still all boils down to a Hamilton vs. Verstappen battle (occasionally with Bottas too) battle in Q3.

👎 New graphics - why do the position numbers change between white, grey and red?  What does this signify?  Does grey mean garage?  Does red mean their lap time is going to be deleted?

👎 Norris - falls foul of the track limits monitoring, from some camera angles it looked barely off the track but from others, he was clearly visiting a local pizzeria.

👎 Stroll didn't set a time and no mention of it

👎 Bottas - where was he?  MIA

Bahrain Race Report

Under the dark, Bahrain skies, Vettel started from the back of the grid but seemed chipper about it, I guess they're paying him the big bucks to race wherever he is doing so.

Ricciardo expects to stand on the top step of the podium this season, definitely steps two and three which seems like a bold claim.  They thought they were going to be best of the rest in qualifying but didn't make it.  If we know anything, it's that he will push to achieve this.

Perez had a total power failure during the formation lap , causing the start to be delayed.  With a long pit straight and a strong headwind, the first corner promised to shake things up a bit but it took the Rookie's Rookie.  Mazepin caused a further delay with his fatal mistake, "Sorry, Dad".  After that safety car, Gasly bumped his front wing off on Ricciardo, which was a real shame but at least a mistake that punished the bumper not the bumpee.  This led to a Virtual Safety Car, now we were desperate for a bit of racing.  

Mick Schumacher left the track, but was able to recover it, not making it a full house retirement for Haas.  Bottas and LeClerc had a ding dong.  Alonso kept up with the top teams well.  To add to the excitement, there was potentially a problem with Verstappen's diff.  These issues do seem to get into his head.

By ten laps in, Bottas had let Verstappen and Hamilton get away, so if Red Bull can't bring it to Hamilton and Mercedes this year, it looks like we can't expect any action from Bottas against Hamilton either.

A late, slightly slower stop for Verstappen gave Hamilton the lead.  There was lots of shenanigans with undercut/overcut pitstops, including an 11 second pit stop for Bottas, which led to Vettel leading after the second stops.  With 16 laps to go, all the pit stops had been taken and Hamilton led Verstappen and Bottas and normal order was resumed.   Vettel attempted to get a Safety Car out by crashing into Ocon but they both managed to keep going.  Is Vettel the new Grosjean?  Vettel got a time penalty which maybe put Latifi higher up the finishing order, giving him more no points than  no points.

With five laps to go, Hamilton made the mistake and locked up, this brought Verstappen into the sub-one second zone giving him DRS.  Hamilton needed Bottas chasing Verstappen and putting pressure on him.  Really Verstappen is racing two against one as his team mate isn't there for him.  With three laps to go, Verstappen took Hamilton but it was at the debatable Turn 4, where the track does or does not have limits.  Verstappen gave the place back to Hamilton under race control orders, would the same have happened had it been the other way round?  I doubt it, then he would have been given a penalty and cue all kind of whinging.  Verstappen just couldn't get back into the one second window.  His chances slipped away, one after the other...reminiscent of Stirling Moss, gentlemen who play fair won't win championships.  He claimed he could have pulled away by 5 seconds to absorb the penalty (not exactly sporting) and Brundle suggested that he didn't need to give the place back in such a poor spot.

Bottas's lead over Norris was so vast that he could pit on the penultimate lap and go for the extra fastest lap point without losing finishing place points.  A dominant race by the Mercedes and Verstappen.

Alonso managed just over half the race before retiring with brake problems, we want to see him fighting before he throws in his F1 towel.  Gasly just couldn't recover his race and finished with a DNF.  As did Latifi who was the only car behind him...is there an advantage to doing this???

There should also be a special mention to rookie Tsunoda who got two championship points in his first race.

Going Up

👍 Aston Martin safety car - absolutely gorgeous....if anyone needs a gift idea...

👍 Midfield battles - this might be a season where we don't watch the podium finishers much

👍 McLaren - it's not orange it's papaya.

👍 22 races to go this year - it's an epic season

Going Down

👎 Journalists all had to ask whether to call Sir Lewis Hamilton, "Sir Lewis".  He didn't want to say, "No, need to call me sir, " but equally he couldn't say, "Absolutely, now bow, low, lower, lower still."

👎 Aston Martin livery looks very similar under the lights to Mercedes.  Hope it's better in day light.

👎 Mr Pitstop Princess spends the first race of every season googling the sponsor's names: "Who's Cognizant?  Ricciardo has Splunk on his shirt."

👎 Track limits - Hamilton believes they're not for everyone.  Just because you've been gaining an advantage at Turn 4 for most of the race doesn't mean that the Regulations and Supplementary Regulations have been changed.

👎 Leading more that 5,112 race laps - a F1 record broken this race by Hamilton.  Not really a triumph for Hamilton, more an indictment of the state of the sport at the moment and ammunition for those who call it the most boring non-sport.  If Hamilton truly does wish to be challenged in his car, as a driver, I'm sure he has plenty of opportunities to drive other cars.

👎 Do we think Fernando dyes his hair and beard?

Bahrain Qualifying Report

 I was definitely surprised by how close the field is during qualifying, which does make me wonder why the backmarkers aren't closer to the mid-field if such leaps are possible.

LeClerc's 4th place shows that he is determined not to be shown up by his new team mate, Sainz and that Ferrari have spent their development tokens judiciously and can hopefully bring the race to Red Bull if not Mercedes.

Back a place, in 5th, it was a great showing from Gasly, who continues to drive his Alpha Tauri into contention and put the car in better places than it deserves.

We have high expectations from the McLarens this year.  They are covered in sponsors, so there should be some decent money being spent by the team on improvements and their trajectory last season was up, up, up.  This year we will be watching the battle between determined youthfulness and experienced senior (much like Alonso and Stoffel or Button and Magnussen/Perez/Hamilton, so McLaren's signature driver line up).  Ricciardo secured 6th ahead of his team mate Norris, which is a little victory straight off the blocks.

Also outdriving the car was Alonso in 9th place.  It's not surprising he is in front of over-hyped Wolff-backed Ocon.  Even though the prodigal son returns to Renault, I'm sure the personnel comings and goings and technical changes alone mean it is not the same team and he is not jumping back in his championship-winning car to regain former glories.  I'm not going to hold his age against him (much), historians will wave the 1950s drivers Farina, Fangio, Chiron and Fagioli at you, who were taking home the silverware into their 50s.  Brabham, Hill (Graham) and Mansell were winning in their 40s but with the whippet-thin, muscle and sinew F1 physique required in this millennium, is 40 too old now?  There is also his long sabbatical to consider, whilst the list of driving competitions entered is impressive there are not many trophies to show for it and it was dogged with technical difficulties.  So well done on 9th.

Going Up

👍 Murray Walker quote on the Williams' halo.  With F1 becoming increasing multi-national, could a plucky British attitude garner Williams more support?

👍 Mazepin's spin.  Ensuring Russell a place in Q2 through a yellow flag.

👍 Minardi - really doing very well.

👍 Verstappen - seems to be growing into his face at last

Going Down

👎 Mazepin - just looks like a wrong 'un

👎 Perez - finishes 11th and beaten by the Red Bull Second Seat Underdog Gasly.  They chose the wrong tires.

👎 F1 Crackerjack mash-up - the high jinx of pushing David Coulthard's face into his 50th birthday cake by Max Verstappen leaves all of pining for the glamour of racing back in the day.

2021 Predictions

 Throwing my hat into the ring...here for the record are my predictions for the 2021 season...

🏁 Perez too will look abysmal compared to Verstappen and Red Bull will have to have a long hard look at themselves whether perhaps their second seat is undrivable.

🏁 Alonso will quit F1 for good at the end of the season.

🏁 Mick Schumacher's legacy from his father will either be the full Jos Verstappen (Max) or Jonathan Palmer (Jolyon).

🏁 This will be Bottas's last season as a Mercedes driver.

🏁 Verstappen will win the drivers' championship.

I think I've been bold and haven't shied away from the difficult questions.  Let me know your predictions in the comments.

Abu Dhabi GP - Championship Results

1. Evel Marque - 1,123
2. Je suis Charlie - 1,105
3. PickedInAHurry - 1,048
4. The Hope Fulls - 1,043
5. BottHaas - 1,010
6. Jack the Lad - 878
7. The Pitstop Princess - 792
8. Hippy F1 - 738
9. Ferrari Rocher - 714
10. Francesco Bernoulli - 544