Category: Race Reports

2019 Chinese (1000th) GP report | Hamilton wins with ease

Posted on by James Mackenzie
Mercedes domination and Ferrari politics. Not much has changed in 1000 races.
Lewis Hamilton wins F1's 1000th grand prix.
Image credit: Daimler AG

Lewis Hamilton recovered from a tricky start to the weekend at the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix and ultimately took a comfortable win on what was Formula 1’s 1000th grand prix.

Coming into the weekend, most were expecting Ferrari to be on top. It was somewhat in the balance, with the top two teams having had superiority at one race each this year, but the track layout appeared to favour Ferrari. Particularly considering their straight line speed and the Shanghai International Circuit’s 1.2 km back straight. But it was the Mercedes team who seemed to have the edge throughout the weekend.

The Ferraris had two main problems. Firstly, they don’t seem to be able to release their full engine power consistently on a Sunday. Surely if that’s the case on a grey day in April, they are going to struggle at most races. And secondly, they were losing so much to Mercedes on the long, right-hand corner before the straight, that it didn’t matter anyway. There could be fundamental issues with this car.

Between the two drivers of the Silver Arrows, Valtteri Bottas had held a reasonably comfortable margin of around half a second over his world champion teammate through all the practice sessions. But then Lewis Hamilton did what Lewis Hamilton does. He pulled a bunch of speed from nowhere in qualifying to get within a few hundredths of the Finn’s pole time, then nailed the start and never looked back, sailing off into the distance to claim the honour of winning F1’s 1000th race. The Ferraris meanwhile were struggling – not only with speed but also decision-making…

Ferrari Team Orders: Round 3

That’s three team orders given out in the first three races…and not much to show for them. Charles Leclerc has remained magnanimous and toed the company line thus far, but has certainly given the impression that he has a backbone and won’t stand for this in the long run. In Australia, he dutifully stayed behind Sebastian Vettel in the closing stages despite clearly being faster. In Bahrain, he was asked to stay behind for two laps (for a reason I’m unsure of) but the pass presented itself too easily and he was gone. And now in China, he has been asked to move aside, before being sacrificed in an attempt to slow up Bottas.

At the time, the first part of that was pretty understandable – Vettel had been the quicker driver through the weekend and did appear to be stuck behind his teammate. But once freed, he didn’t get away…the Mercedes did. But the second part harked back to the days of Kimi Räikkönen being left on an incomprehensible strategy, purely to cost a Mercedes maybe a couple of tenths. Ferrari waited too long to order Vettel past and his tyres were already damaged from Leclerc’s dirty air, but it doesn’t look like they were ever going to challenge Mercedes this weekend. All they did was cost themselves a 4th place finish.

It could be argued that without these team orders Leclerc would be significantly closer to Hamilton in the title race than Vettel is even with their favouring of him. Either way, these team orders will only matter if Ferrari solve their car issues. And fast.

A Flying McLaren and a Flying Thai

McLaren came back down to earth with a bang here (quite literally in the case of Lando Norris) after their excellent result in Bahrain. They had said that they expected to struggle in Shanghai and so it proved to be with the drivers only managing to qualify 14th and 15th. And then came the torpedo. In fairness, Daniil Kvyat can count himself quite unlucky to receive that penalty. Whilst a little clumsy from the Russian, it looked the type of crash that would normally be filed under ‘first lap racing incident’. Norris was rejoining the track at a pretty sharp angle and left the other McLaren of Carlos Sainz nowhere to go. Add in a bit of understeer from Kvyat and you have an airborne teenager and three damaged cars. Norris did at least utilise the opportunity to continue his reign as F1’s Resident Memelord.

Meanwhile, his former GP2 rival, Alexander Albon, was not long out of the pit lane and possibly wondering if he was set for a tough race fighting his way into the midfield. You could wonder how a rookie would cope mentally with a big crash in Practice 3 that left him out of qualifying and starting from the pit lane. The answer, in this case, was ‘commendably’. The young Thai driver moved slowly but surely through the field and somehow found himself in the points, then impressively holding off Romain Grosjean’s Haas in the final few laps despite being on far older tyres. These are the kind of performances that could have him entering the frame for a future Red Bull drive. And one that could be not too far away considering Pierre Gasly’s current struggles…

An Underwhelming 1000th Grand Prix

The Grand Prix was fairly uneventful beyond the first few laps, but it was the event itself that particularly disappointed. It had been built up for a long time, with a countdown extending back to last season, but in the end it was something of a damp squib.

It’s a shame number 1000 ended up falling in China. The complexities of getting old champions and cars to Shanghai proved too much, so we were left with just Damon Hill driving his father’s Lotus 49B. It also doesn’t help that the country itself has little to no motorsport heritage. Just look at all the empty stands. The promoters claim it was sold out but that’s only due to them closing huge expanses of grandstand. This should have been a massive event. Race 1000 – that’s the milestone. But for all the build up, in reality it amounted to not much more than a few special helmets, some stickers on the cars and the champagne bottles being painted red.

Still, at least people on Reddit made some cool stuff.

The 1000th Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Answering the Burning Questions

Will Charles Leclerc pick up where he left off after his stunning performance in Bahrain? Not quite. But it’s complicated…

With one dominant race each (in terms of pace anyway), who will come out on top between Mercedes and Ferrari this time? Mercedes, pretty comprehensively.

Can Pierre Gasly get his Red Bull closer to its probably rightful place in the top 6? Well, he did get into the top 6… And claimed the fastest lap. But realistically was still a long way shy of Max Verstappen’s pace.

What happened to Bottas 2.0? Will he reappear here? Inconclusive. Was it Lewis lacking early in the weekend or Bottas 2.0? Either way, we know who ended up with the win.

Who will have the best special one-off helmet design for the 1000th GP? For me, the retro simplicity of Daniel Ricciardo’s Brabham-inspired lid takes it.

2019 Bahrain GP report | A maiden victory snatched away

Posted on by James Mackenzie
Oh, Charles.
Charles Leclerc at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Image credit: Ferrari/Colombo

Formula 1 can be such a cruel sport…and we saw it at its most callous on Sunday, as Charles Leclerc was denied a maiden victory at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton picking up the spoils.

Leclerc had driven near enough flawlessly all weekend, barring maybe half of the first lap, and he looked to be heading towards his first victory in the sport, in only his second race for Ferrari. But then came a radio message. “There is something strange with the engine.” And so unravelled a fairy tale.

It wasn’t to be for Leclerc as his engine, down on power due to an injector failure, left him a sitting duck on the straights. Lewis Hamilton almost-apologetically passed him to take the chequered flag, as did Valtteri Bottas, before Leclerc was at least saved a place on the podium thanks to a late safety car caused by a bizarre, synchronised double-Renault-failure. The dignity and grace with which he took such a crushing blow was as impressive as his speed – an incredibly mature head on such young shoulders.

But the story of the day was clear: Leclerc is now undeniably a championship contender. As Sebastian Vettel’s chances slipped away with a spin reminiscent of his struggles last season, the young Monegasque kept his cool and sailed off into the distance. Ferrari have clearly fixed their issues from the first race and, whilst Bahrain has always been a strong track for them, this bodes well for a competitive season. The red cars had straight line speed that their competitors struggled to comprehend and, assuming there is nothing sneaky going on that will subsequently be banned, that is hard to fight against. I expect superiority to swing between Ferrari and Mercedes throughout the year, dependent on tracks and updates, but we now have enough evidence to believe that this shouldn’t be the year of Mercedes-dominance the opener hinted at. And that it could well be Leclerc taking the fight to them rather than his multiple world champion teammate…

The Heir to Hamilton’s Throne?

It is very early days, of course, but the start to Lando Norris’s F1 career has been very impressive. When I say ‘the heir to Hamilton’s throne’, I do not necessarily mean I expect him to be a future five-time world champion obviously – that’s just setting the kid up for a massive fall – but more that British fans will want a new home-grown star to cheer for in a few years, whenever the current superstar decides to hang up his racing boots.

That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be cheering for him already. Norris comes across as a very down-to-earth lad – I mean, he’s normally competing online with Joe Public on iRacing hours before a race – with a good sense of humour. Oh, and he’s pretty damn quick too. There have been many junior careers that have promised much but failed to deliver once at the very top table. Norris has won most series he has entered at the first attempt and, having been given his chance early, has taken very little time to appear settled in F1. Any left wondering about his racecraft or wheel-to-wheel credentials, after he spent a few laps stuck behind Antonio Giovinazzi in Melbourne, had their questions answered this race with both some great overtakes and defensive driving, keeping a former world champion (who is more than double his age) behind him to claim an excellent 6th place.

It should be noted of course that he was not the only young Brit to join the grid this year. George Russell even beat Norris to the F2 title last year. Unfortunately, he is currently hampered with an uncompetitive Williams and a teammate who, should he continue to stay in front of, will most likely be sadly written-off as too injured to to be considered a yardstick. But both he and Thai-British rookie Alexander Albon have been impressing so far. Time will tell who of last year’s F2 top three is really the biggest talent but, in the meantime, we can feel safe that the future of British motorsport looks rosy.

Is Dr. Marko Oiling Up the Guillotine?

Pierre Gasly has to find some speed, simply put, and pretty sharpish too. Max Verstappen on the other side of your garage would be intimidating for most on the grid, but currently he is making Gasly look decidedly average. We know about Red Bull’s – or rather Helmut Marko’s – history of impatience with underperforming drivers and there were the first few comments starting to appear over the weekend about it being unacceptable that they were fighting in the midfield.

Max Verstappen at the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Image credit: Getty Images

All that said, it appears Red Bull are still to fully understand the intricacies of their new car and it appears as if it may be a bit of a diva. So one would hope the Frenchman is given some time to find his feet. Another reassuring factor for him will be that there is not an obvious replacement – surely Daniil Kvyat’s rollercoaster of a career with the Red Bull programme wouldn’t see them rushing to put him back into the senior team and it is certainly too early for Albon at the moment.

I’d advise Gasly not to start watching the new series of Game of Thrones though…just in case…

The Bahrain Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Answering the Burning Questions

Was Australia a blip for Ferrari or is there a more fundamental problem with this year’s car?Would appear pretty safe to say it was a blip.

Is Bottas really rejuvenated and now a force to be reckoned with? Jury’s out. Normal Hamilton dominance was resumed this race but apparently Bottas had a plastic bag stuck in/on the car for a portion of the race which hampered performance.

Will the new regulations provide better racing at a track with a better potential for wheel-to-wheel racing? That was certainly a great race and with a good amount of on-track battling. Looks promising.

Can Leclerc push on from a mixed first weekend for the Scuderia and properly take the challenge to Vettel? Yes. And then some.

Will the Ricciardo-Hamilton/Avocado&Ham bromance continue? Saw no evidence of any further bromancing.

2019 Australian GP report

Posted on by James Mackenzie

Apologies for this being a bit late – there will be another post later which will explain why. But yes, the first race of the season – the 2019 Australian Grand Prix – is done and dusted…and produced probably as many questions as it did answers. So, let’s get into it.

Bottas Victorious

Well then.

All the very clever people who thought they had cunningly deciphered pre-season testing would appear to be wrong. Obviously I’m not included in that… *Hastily deletes predictions post.* Ferrari certainly didn’t have the fastest car in Melbourne. There are rumours of an issue with the Power Unit but whether it was that or just not getting the set-up right all weekend, the red cars were nowhere. They were a similar distance from Hamilton’s pole lap last year and then only won the race due to some luck with the safety car, before turning up in Bahrain with the quickest car. Most fans will be hoping that they can get to the bottom of the issues so we can have a close season-long battle battle like last year.

It has since transpired that Lewis Hamilton’s lack of pace was at least partially caused by damage to the floor of the car. But either way, it was the Finn who got the better start and then didn’t put a foot wrong and deservedly topped the final results. The newly-bearded Bottas signed off his win by saying over the radio, “To whom it may concern…f**k you.” He really does have a new steel this year, to go with his new beard, and hopefully he can keep that going through the season to take the fight to his teammate and shake off the ‘wingman’ and ‘Robottas’ tags.

Charles Leclerc had a bit of a shaky start to his Ferrari career, nearly colliding with the sister car at the first corner and then running wide whilst chasing Max Verstappen. But came good towards the end of the race and gave Ferrari their first headache, that he had been hoping to cause them, as he was asked to stay behind Vettel after having closed on him rapidly, showing that he may well cause him some problems this year.

Honda on the Podium

I came across this photo comparison on Reddit and it does quite nicely illustrate the transformation of Honda in the last two years. They were a laughing stock in their time with McLaren…but redemption is sweet. The paddock now accepts that, whilst the Japanese company understandably had to play catch-up having started their engine programme years after the other manufacturers, the McLaren philosophies hampered them considerably.

They have joined up with Red Bull, after a successful trial period with their little sister team, Toro Rosso, and instantly flourished, gaining a podium at the partnership’s first attempt. Verstappen made mince meat of Vettel down the straight and, potential Power Unit issues for the Ferrari or not, that would have seemed incomprehensible as Alonso was ranting about his GP2 engine not all that long ago.

I’m happy for them. And glad that we now have four competitive engines in the sport.

The Midfield Order is Anyone’s Guess

It looks as if Haas may just have the edge. But they conspired to throw away a strong finish at Melbourne through failing to put a wheel on properly yet again! Will those kind of issues cost them the privilege of claiming best of the rest, as they did last season? They were also quicker at Melbourne than most other tracks last year. The rest of the midfield was covered by a few tenths in qualifying and formed a nice train for much of the race too. Lando Norris was unfortunate to get stuck behind the long-running Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi, which cost him his shot at breaking the record for the youngest debut points-scorer. Kimi Räikkönen put in the experienced, solid performance you’d expect and Nico Hülkenberg did what he does and finished higher up than his car probably belonged (and not on the podium obviously). Renault have some work to do on this year’s car but it would appear to have potential. It was a real shame to hear the clearly-audible groan of the crowd as Daniel Ricciardo fell down a gutter and destroyed his front wing mere seconds into the Grand Prix. The Aussie home race curse might just be real.

The Hulkenberg train at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix.
Image credit: Formula 1

Have the Regulation Changes Actually Made a Difference?

As Norris sat stuck behind a visibly-slower Alfa Romeo lap after lap, even with the new, more powerful DRS, you started to wonder if these new regulation changes, aimed at reducing ‘dirty air’ and making it easier to follow and thus pass the car ahead, had actually done anything. The midfield train, shown above, then added to those doubts. But I will withhold judgement for now as the traits of the Melbourne circuit have always made it one of the hardest to pass on. It is a street circuit with a layout that doesn’t lend itself to much overtaking and the many support races mean the F1 rubber that would normally be laid down over the course of the weekend is removed ahead of race day. Some of the drivers have made comments indicating an improvement so let’s see how things shape up after a few different circuits.

The Australian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds