Tag: Charles Leclerc

The end of the title race, the start of silly season

Posted on by James Mackenzie

The 2022 season has reached the summer break, but it very much feels like the remainder will be a cruise to the finish for Max Verstappen.

After three races, some fans and pundits were fearing the championship was already over on account of Charles Leclerc’s 46-point advantage over Verstappen.

But fast-forward less than four months and the situation could not be much more different.

A series of calamities – mostly mechanical and strategic – have seen that 46-point deficit for Verstappen turn into an 80-point lead heading into F1’s summer holidays.

Picking up where we last left off – after the British Grand Prix – things were looking a little better for Leclerc and Ferrari.

Redemption in Austria

Image credit: Philip Platzer/Red Bull Content Pool

It was redemption on two counts for Leclerc at the Red Bull Ring.

Firstly, making amends for a frustrating Sprint Race on Saturday where the two Ferrari drivers fought amongst themselves to the extent that Verstappen was able to get away.

But more importantly, it was revenge for the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix. A race that looked set to become Leclerc’s maiden victory, only for Verstappen to controversially snatch the lead away in the dying stages courtesy of a particularly impolite pass on the Monegasque.

On this occasion, Leclerc would be the one doing the passing, overtaking his title rival no fewer than three times as they ran differing strategies.

He then clung on commendably despite a late clutch issue to narrow the gap to Verstappen to 38 points and spark hope of a comeback.

Pain in France

That hope would all come crashing down a fortnight later, however.

Yet another Leclerc pole position preceded what looked set to be a fascinating battle between the season’s two main protagonists.

Verstappen had followed Leclerc closely in the early stages before fading slightly, prompting Red Bull to attempt an undercut.

Image credit: XPB Images.

We would never find out whether or not that would work, though, as Leclerc made the biggest mistake of his season – if not his career – thus far, spinning out from the lead and ending up in a barrier.

There have been rumours and suspicions about a throttle issue contributing to the accident, but these are unproven and Leclerc publicly took responsibility.

Verstappen went on to take a comfortable win and extended his lead to 63 points – an advantage from which nobody has ever lost the title.

Another Ferrari Disasterclass To Round Off Part 1

The heat was immediately taken off Leclerc with another strategic blunder by his team in Hungary, though.

Having passed George Russell for the lead and with Verstappen recovering from 10th on the grid, Leclerc had the chance to keep his ever-so-slim title hopes alive heading into the summer break.

But Ferrari would be having none of that.

A bizarre decision to put their lead man on the hard tyre – and then later the soft – had the top three of Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Russell laughing in the cool-down room.

It dropped him from the lead to sixth and allowed Verstappen to win, despite having spun shortly after passing the helpless Leclerc.

Speaking of Mercedes, that makes back-to-back double podiums for the Silver Arrows and five in a row for Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen will not be concerned with this silly season
Image credit: Getty Images

They appear finally to be gaining an understanding of their new car and – depending on the impact of the new Technical Directive at the Belgian Grand Prix – could truly fight for wins in the remainder of the season.

Something which would be most welcome to prevent the season petering out in total Verstappen dominance.

And Finally, the Silliest of Silly Seasons

Within 48 hours of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the F1 driver conveyor belt had gone into meltdown.

With Sebastian Vettel having announced his upcoming retirement in Hungary, Fernando Alonso shocked the paddock on Monday by announcing he would be filling the vacant Aston Martin seat.

That led Alpine to announce Oscar Piastri’s promotion… Only for Piastri – after a couple of hours of deafening silence – to totally denounce said announcement.

As things stand at the time of writing, it would appear that he will be replacing compatriot Daniel Ricciardo at McLaren next season.

The Honey Badger star that once shone so brightly is now flickering and in danger of being totally extinguished.

It would appear his only hope is returning to the Alpine seat – albeit Renault at that point – which he abandoned at the end of 2020, and perhaps rediscovering some form there.

There is also talk of the French marque going for an all-French line-up, however, with Esteban Ocon being joined by Pierre Gasly.

F1 silly season could see Pierre Gasly move teams.
Image credit: Getty Images

Gasly supposedly has an exit clause in his contract that allows him to leave for a team who are higher in the standings than AlphaTauri – which is currently most teams – and surely can’t be content stagnating in a Red Bull feeder system from which he will almost certainly never gain a promotion again.

The remaining seats to fill are at Williams, Alfa Romeo and Haas.

Nicholas Latifi is expected to leave the sport, with Formula E champion Nyck de Vries and Williams academy driver Logan Sargeant seemingly the frontrunners to replace him.

Zhou Guanyu looks reasonably likely to retain his seat at Alfa, despite the promising Théo Pourchaire waiting in the wings and fighting for the Formula 2 title.

And as for Haas, it would surely only be a desperate Ricciardo – on a significantly lower wage – that could usurp Mick Schumacher.

One race to fall back in love with F1, one to undo much of that, one somewhere in the middle

Posted on by James Mackenzie

For a variety of reasons, including a lot of work and a trip to Mexico, I haven’t been able to write race reports for the first three grands prix this season.

There was also the issue of my falling out of love with F1 at the end of last year, which left me short on motivation.

However, the first race of the year did a lot to counter that.

A Positive Start in Bahrain

Image credit: Scuderia Ferrari

After pre-season testing, I was wary of a season of Red Bull and Max Verstappen domination. All allegiances aside, that really was the last thing the sport needed as it headed into its new era.

With the huge controversy of Abu Dhabi having left a bitter taste in the mouth for many, a runaway championship for the man who earned his maiden title via Michael Masi’s questionable decisions on lap 57 at the Yas Marina Circuit would not have been a good way for F1 to turn over a new leaf.

Whilst Mercedes have faltered, as their dramatic sidepod – or lack thereof – design seemingly left them suffering worse than most with the returning phenomenon known as ‘porpoising’, Ferrari have fortunately returned to the front to give us a title battle.

And armed with a truly frontrunning car, Charles Leclerc has been reminding the world exactly what he is capable of.

A thrilling battle with Verstappen at the season-opener in Bahrain ended up with the Ferrari man on top, the pair having gone wheel to wheel for a number of laps, but Leclerc using the DRS zones smartly and then building a gap to take his first victory since delighting the Tifosi at Monza in 2019.

Image credit: Getty Images

Things fell apart for the Red Bulls late on – Verstappen was forced to pull into the pits and retire just three laps from the end with a lack of fuel pressure, and teammate Sergio Pérez then suffered the same issue two laps later.

An exciting fight for the win – that hinted towards an exciting fight for the title – culminating in late drama, a Ferrari 1-2 and a surprise Lewis Hamilton podium – how many years has it been since those words would make sense together?.. – meant that the start of this season did a decent job of starting to make amends for the end of the previous one.

The Wrong Kind of Drama in Jeddah

The two drivers – who have been rivals since their karting days – were back at it again a week later in Saudi Arabia.

The scene of perhaps Verstappen’s most contentious performance during the title battle with Hamilton last year, this time the Dutchman kept it clean and ultimately took the win.

Image credit: XPB Images

Another battle revolving around the strangely placed DRS zone before Jeddah Corniche Circuit’s final corner produced what could become an iconic photo as both drivers locked up whilst trying not to cross the detection line first.

This time, happily, there was no contact made and we avoided another brake-test-gate like in 2021.

Verstappen eventually found his way into the lead with just four laps remaining in what was probably the marginally quicker car over the course of the weekend, but was actually fortunate to be the leading Red Bull.

Pérez had finally taken his first ever pole position on Saturday – at the 215th time of asking – and was leading the race until he was scuppered by a poorly timed Safety Car.

Although the on-track action was largely entertaining, this was not a good weekend for Formula 1, and on a personal note, undid a lot of the work the race in Sakhir had done in rebuilding my faith in the sport.

Putting aside the questions about whether F1 should be in Saudi Arabia at all, there were plenty more questions to be raised.

The ‘world’s fastest street circuit’ produced a horrible crash for Mick Schumacher. Luckily, the young German escaped mostly unharmed, but the incident solidified the feeling of many that the track is not truly fit for racing.

The fastest street circuit tag was simply a USP for the Saudi Arabian owners, and there is a reason that F1 cars had not previously been forced to fly through 300 km/h+ sections of consecutive blind corners at any point in its 70-year history.

Image credit: Getty Images

And, of course, there was also the missile attack on the Aramco oil plant just 10 kilometres from the circuit.

The drivers were clearly not okay with racing, and held talks with the various bigwigs deep into the early hours of Saturday morning before eventually agreeing to race.

Paddock rumours swirled about drivers and teams being forced to race, with the threat of ‘having a difficult time leaving the country’ if they did not.

Whether or not there was any truth to them, one thing is clear – the race should not have happened.

The irony of pushing on with the weekend in what was an effective warzone mere days after the Russian Grand Prix was cancelled and the drivers had held up ‘no war’ signs in Bahrain was obvious to all and uncomfortable to behold.

Moving onto Melbourne

A fortnight or so later, Formula 1 finally returned Down Under.

At the track where everything fell apart in March 2020, and at a time when the world appears to be moving past COVID, it felt like things had come full circle.

In terms of the F1 season, things also felt somewhat cyclical.

After a – this time very brief – battle with Verstappen, Leclerc dominated the race, if not the weekend, achieving his first ever grand chelem.

Image credit: Foto Colombo Images

He also extended his lead in the drivers’ standings to a mammoth 34 points as Red Bull suffered more reliability trouble and Verstappen had to pull over with a fuel leak.

The 46-point gap between the Dutchman and the Monegasque is far more than anything Hamilton or Verstappen had to overcome at any point during their battle last year, and it feels like the championship battle we all expected is already slipping away.

Of course, there are still 19 or 20 rounds to go and plenty of twists and turns to come.

Mercedes could well solve their problems and return to the battle at the front; there appears to be a lot of potential within the car.

McLaren also showed huge signs of improvement in Melbourne after a painful start to the season and Alpine have been hinting at a challenge at times.

With so much scope for development at this early stage of the new regulations, the playing field has the potential to change dramatically from race to race.

So, who knows? We could yet even end up with a four- or five-team fight at certain grands prix.

A guy can dream… And after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, an optimistic outlook at F1 is pretty much crucial for this writer.

2019 Singapore GP report | Vettel snatches victory from frustrated Leclerc

Posted on by James Mackenzie
A Singapore Ferrari 1-2…just as everybody predicted…
Sebastian Vettel wins the Singapore Grand Prix
Image credit: Motorsport Images

Sebastian Vettel completed a hat-trick of victories for Ferrari with an unexpected turn of speed under the lights at the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix. Coming into the weekend, the drivers, the team and their competitors were writing off their chances – even the ever-pessimistic Toto Wolff said early in the weekend he expected Max Verstappen to be their only competitor.

But, from Saturday morning, the red cars showed a sudden improvement after a seemingly very successful aerodynamic upgrade was fitted. Charles Leclerc claimed a stunning pole position, on the ragged edge of adhesion, and in doing so stole it away from his teammate Vettel, who had produced a great first run but failed to improve on his second attempt. Come Sunday, however, it would be Vettel returning the favour in the race as he benefitted from an accidental undercut on his teammate to take the victory.

Behind the two prancing horses out front, Verstappen grabbed what had seemed an unlikely podium thanks to a strategic error from Mercedes dropping Lewis Hamilton from second to fourth. The champion’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, followed him home in fifth with Alexander Albon just behind.

What could have been a thrilling finale, with the Mercedes closing in on fresher tyres, somewhat petered out thanks to a string of late safety cars which gave the Ferraris the breathing space – certainly in regards to tyre life – they required. However, the sight at each of the numerous restarts of two Ferraris and Verstappen heading into Turn 1 at Singapore probably set off some PTSD in a fair few Ferrari fans…

Behind the big three teams, Lando Norris put his recent run of bad luck behind him to claim ‘best of the rest’ and Pierre Gasly will have quietened some critics with a strong run to eighth place. The last points were collected by Nico Hülkenberg, who completed a decent recovery drive after a somewhat overambitious move on Carlos Sainz on the first lap, and Antonio Giovinazzi.

How Did Vettel End Up Ahead?

Leclerc led away from pole and controlled the first part of the race, as the front-runners crawled round Singapore’s abundance of turns painfully slowly, attempting to conserve their tyres. This slow pace meant the field remained close together though and produced some head-scratching amongst the strategy teams as the gap usually created between the top six and the rest of the field was not there for the leaders to emerge into after their stops.

Hamilton called for an undercut on Leclerc but Mercedes didn’t oblige and so Ferrari pitted Vettel to attempt the undercut on Hamilton himself. It was very effective – as it turned out, arguably, too effective. They expected Vettel to make up a second or two but, even with a pretty average pit stop, he made up well over three seconds and when Leclerc emerged from the pits a lap later, he was narrowly behind his teammate.

The young Monegasque was understandably perplexed and irked. He repeatedly came on to the radio asking what had happened, why it had happened and what was going to happen next. No particularly enlightening answers were forthcoming and, try as he might, he could not fashion even a sniff of an overtake and came home a discontented second.

Image credit: LAT Images

Vettel didn’t let the fortunate circumstances dampen his enjoyment of a long-awaited victory and brought out the old one-digit-salute for the first time in over a year. He also likely felt that this was justice for whatever precisely went on during that messy and controversial Italian Q3. Leclerc, after calming down somewhat, did mostly toe the company line and showed maturity in his reaction to missing out on the win through no fault of his own.

Could they have swapped the drivers? Potentially – and apparently that idea was discussed – but Vettel’s excellent out lap put him in the position to inherit the lead. Being told to relinquish a win, after the season he has had and the controversies in Canada and Italy, would surely have crushed him. It was probably the right call.

This will only serve to further increase tensions within the team, though. Imagine if Ferrari had been this competitive earlier in the year…

And How Did Mercedes Get It So Wrong?

We are all used to Mercedes as a no-nonsense, well-oiled machine in the hybrid era but there have been a few slip-ups (no oil pun intended) recently.

Obviously, whilst clearly a chastening weekend for all involved at Mercedes, the German Grand Prix was something of a lottery and they were far from the all only team to be caught out. Here, however, their call to keep Hamilton out seemed clearly foolish to most armchair strategists watching on. The driver’s call to undercut Leclerc would likely have seen him win the race but, once Mercedes had missed their chance to do so, they decided to gamble on going long.

A safety car in the time that Hamilton was still out would most likely have done the job. But this high-risk approach seems to go against the normal Mercedes sensible, efficient ethos – you don’t leave your strategy calls in the lap of the gods, hoping for a miracle. Without that kind of intervention, they were reliant on the out-of-position cars, that hadn’t stopped, holding up the defacto leaders and the world champion’s tyres were always likely to cry ‘enough’ before then.

Lewis Hamilton at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Image credit: Daimler AG

And so it was that Mercedes had to bail out of the gamble and awkwardly ask Bottas – who is supposedly in a fight with Hamilton for the title, remember – to slow down dramatically so he didn’t pass his teammate and drag Albon through with him. James Vowles even worked it beautifully for the memers of the world by using his infamous ‘Valtteri, it’s James’ line again…

Any hope the team had of salvaging something from the situation by utilising the fresher tyres was then dashed by that series of late safety cars.

Is this a case of complacency from the Silver Arrows, with the title all but wrapped up halfway through the season? Are they now focusing on a bigger update for the start of next year so as not to reveal their latest secrets to their rivals? Or have they just been a bit unlucky in the last three races? Whatever the true answer, if they don’t win in Russia next weekend, it will be the longest winless run for Mercedes since the start of the hybrid era.

A Rollercoaster for Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo seemed in high spirits (not that that’s exactly noteworthy) coming to Singapore off the back of a great fourth place in Monza and he then followed that up by sealing a solid seventh position on the grid. It was not to last though as he was disqualified from the qualifying session for a technical infringement.

Ricciardo and Renault clearly took umbrage with the penalty but had no option other than to except it and move on, even if it was later revealed to be “after he benefitted from an advantage measured at one microsecond [0.000001s] due to a kerb hit that caused his MGU-K to over-rev on his slowest lap of Q1.” Unfortunately, rules are rules. If you give the teams an inch they will take a mile and if you give them a microsecond they will probably find a way to take a second.

Daniel Ricciardo at the Singapore Grand Prix.

So come Sunday, the Aussie unsurprisingly decided to go for it. He was doing an excellent job of carving through the field, if pushing his luck at points, and looked to have put himself in a net points-paying position but a clumsy move on Giovinazzi left him with a puncture and left him back near where he started.

It was a shame to see. Whilst clearly an excellent driver, at points you have to wonder whether Ricciardo earned his reputation for overtaking by ‘licking the stamp and sending it’ to drivers who would rather just get out of the way of what was normally a faster Red Bull.

Either way, the Honey Badger will leave Singapore, reset and come back fighting again in Sochi.

Answering the Burning Questions

Can Sebastian Vettel recover from a crushing weekend in Monza? He can!

Will the Mercedes or Red Bull be the best car around Marina Bay? Or maybe even Ferrari?! It was mostly just great to see such a fight between all three but seemingly the Ferrari did have an unexpected edge.

How will Alexander Albon cope in his first true head-to-head test against Max Verstappen? It was a solid performance on a very difficult and unforgiving track. But he will need to build on it and close the gap further.

Will Verstappen get through the first corner unscathed this weekend? Yes.

Can Renault keep up the momentum from their strong result in Italy? The car had promising speed but a minor technical glitch and a couple of crashes got in their way.

The Singapore Grand Prix in 120 Seconds

The Strategy View

2019 Italian GP report | Leclerc delights home crowd with second victory in a week

Posted on by James Mackenzie
And the Tifosi goes wild!
The podium at the Italian Grand Prix.
Image credit: LAT Images

Seven days after Charles Leclerc took his maiden victory, but one that was tarnished by a tragedy on a sad weekend for motorsport, the 21-year-old took about as joyous a victory as you could ask for at the 2019 Italian Grand Prix – a first win for a Ferrari at Monza in nine years, in front of a jubilant Tifosi.

Leclerc claimed pole position on Saturday, amid ridiculous scenes where most drivers failed in their attempt to take their final runs. (More on that later.) He started well enough and held off a challenge from Lewis Hamilton into the first corner. But once his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, had spun on lap 4 and was effectively out of the race, Leclerc was left with the weight of Italian expectation solely on his young shoulders.

Mercedes had the strategic upper hand. They could attempt the ‘undercut’ with Hamilton and run the sister car of Valtteri Bottas long, in something of a pincer movement. And so it transpired. Ferrari reacted to Hamilton’s earlier stop and pitted Leclerc one lap later; a good in-lap and a quick stop ensuring that the Ferrari driver came out ahead but Hamilton then set about a charge, ramping up the pressure whilst he had a tyre advantage.

The world champion fashioned two chances. Leclerc defended robustly, to the very edge of acceptability, as he has done ever since Max Verstappen rudely barged him out of the way in Austria. On lap 23, Hamilton got along side on the run to the second chicane and Leclerc squeezed him in the braking zone, leaving less than a car’s width. He escaped a penalty but was shown the black and white flag for unsportsmanlike behaviour – effectively F1’s equivalent of a yellow card in football. So when, on lap 35, Leclerc locked up at Turn One, cut the chicane and made a late move to defend from Hamilton as they rounded Curva Grande, one could argue he was fortunate not to receive his second yellow. But the stewards did not investigate and Hamilton didn’t get another chance as his tyres began to fade.

Leclerc wasn’t in the clear yet though as the second half of the Mercedes pincer was closing in. Bottas, on tyres that were eight laps younger, had been steadily closing the gap and claimed second place when Hamilton himself locked up into the first corner on lap 42. The Finn couldn’t put up as stern a challenge as his teammate, however, and never truly threatened Leclerc, who held on to take the chequered flag and spark fervent euphoria amongst the partisan home crowd.

He becomes the third driver in recent memory to win on their Ferrari debut in Monza; the other two being Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher – not bad company, eh?

Meanwhile on the Other Side of the Garage…

Another Italian Grand Prix, another costly spin for Vettel. And this one was even more costly -both for his standing in the race and within the team.

He has now been out-qualified seven times in a row by his teammate. Some of those, including this weekend where Leclerc seemingly did his best not to give Vettel a tow, have come with a caveat. But it does seem Leclerc just has a bit more speed at the moment and it feels like he has subtly grabbed hold of Vettel’s number one status and is now refusing to let go, like a feisty young pup with his new favourite toy.

This is the latest in a line of mistakes from Vettel, now lasting well over a year, and this one was particularly amateurish. He spun all by himself whilst entering the Ascari chicane and then rejoined the track in an incredibly dangerous manner, taking out the unfortunate Lance Stroll in the process. He put himself in a position to be T-boned by another car, eight days after a young man was killed in that exact way. That’s shocking from such an experienced driver – a director of the GDPA, no less.

In fact, it was quite an amateurish weekend all round. There was the utter shambles of Q3, where seven of the nine drivers ran out of time before starting their final runs as they all jockeyed for position, determined not to be at the front of the train without a slipstream. There was Stroll rejoining the track in exactly the same manner as Vettel, just after being hit by him, and forcing Pierre Gasly into the gravel. And then a couple of unsafe releases to top it off.

There was also a terrifying F3 crash on Saturday morning which brought into question the presence of ‘sausage kerbs’, with one having launched the car of Alexander Peroni 15 feet into the air. A scary moment, especially with the death of Anthoine Hubert so fresh in minds throughout the paddock, but fortunately Peroni escaped with just a fractured vertebra. It was promptly removed for the rest of the weekend but there must be a better solution for enforcing track limits. I say bring back gravel traps – maybe a relatively thin strip of gravel with tarmac run-offs beyond for safety’s sake.

A Good Weekend for Renault

It has been a trying season for Renault. Expectations were high after the signing of Daniel Ricciardo, with the team claiming they would be aiming to close the gap to the top three teams. But they have produced a mediocre car with poor reliability and found themselves slipping back from where they were last year.

This was a better weekend, however. Renault’s engine has generally been closer to a laughing stock than the class of the field but, for whatever reason, it seemed to work for them at the most power-sensitive track on the calendar. Whether it was the new spec engine which they introduced recently, nailing the setup here in Monza or a combination of the two, the Renault pair were never too far from the front.

Nico Hülkenberg at the Italian Grand Prix.
Image credit: XPB Images

And there were no slip ups on Sunday. The two yellow cars kept their noses clean, avoided the occasional chaos around them and brought home an invaluable haul of 22 points. This instantly propels them up to a comfortable fifth in the constructors and they can now set about chasing down McLaren and aim to at least reclaim what they see as their rightful position as ‘best of the rest’.

A Quick Word on Penalties

It would appear that the teams, the FIA and FOM have agreed on a new approach when it comes to applying penalties in the wake of the controversy regarding Sebastian Vettel’s win-that-wasn’t in Montreal this year.

We can see from incidents such as those between Leclerc and Verstappen in Austria and then Great Britain that the stewards have decided to be more lenient and let the drivers battle it out on track more. Race Director Michael Masi even came out after the race and explained their decisions – which is very refreshing and one of the things I called for in my post addressing the Vettel penalty.

I’m all for the drivers battling it out – I think we all are. But there was one point I noted from Masi’s explanations. He stated that if Leclerc and Hamilton had made contact, when the former squeezed the latter off the track, it would have been a penalty rather than the black and white flag. This seems problematic – it is almost encouraging contact between drivers. In avoiding a dangerous move by another driver, the ‘victim’ of said move is putting themselves most likely off the track and doing the aggressor a favour at the same time. We are in danger of veering towards the diving issue in football where players are required to produce theatrics in order to force the officials to make the right decision…

The Italian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Answering the Burning Questions

Can Ferrari take another win and send the Tifosi wild with a first win in almost 10 years? Yes!

Will Alexander Albon build on his promising Red Bull debut? It was another solid performance but the decision to stay on the outside of Sainz was slightly naive and cost him positions.

Can Sebastian Vettel take the fight to Charles Leclerc and recover some credibility? That would be a pretty resounding no.

The forecast is for rain…could we have another Germany on our hands?.. Sadly not. It rained before and after the race…typical…

Will Max Verstappen bounce back or could we be about to see a string of errors like early 2018? It was a good fight from the back but another somewhat clumsy error at the first corner.

Any more ‘silly season’ twists incoming? Nothing to report.

2019 Belgian GP report | Leclerc takes emotional first victory

Posted on by James Mackenzie
A poignant weekend with probably the right result.
Charles Leclerc points to the heavens after winning the Belgian Grand Prix.
Image credit: LAT Images

The 2019 Belgian Grand Prix came on a weekend where things were put very much in perspective. On Saturday, shortly after qualifying, F2 driver Anthoine Hubert tragically lost his life following a massive accident at the Raidillon swerves. The Frenchman, who was just 22, suffered a huge 170mph impact from the car of Juan Manuel Correa. Lewis Hamilton saw the incident live on TV whilst being interviewed and you can see in his face that he instantly knew it was not good. But these guys are racers. So come Sunday, they race. It’s all they can do.

Charles Leclerc was a childhood friend of Hubert – as were Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon – so it seems fitting that the next day he should take his maiden F1 victory. It was long overdue anyway.

Under such difficult circumstances, it was an incredibly mature performance. Leclerc got away well from pole position and – after a safety car period caused by a Max Verstappen crash – started to open up a gap as his teammate, Sebastian Vettel, struggled with his tyres. After the German pitted early, on lap 15, the race pace of the Mercedes cars became clear and Hamilton started to close on Leclerc. Whilst Ferrari had held a significant advantage over one lap throughout the weekend, their race pace had always looked less convincing. And so proved to be the case.

When the front two pitted, Vettel inherited the lead but was asked to move aside for the younger Ferrari driver. Credit to Ferrari that they have stuck by their mantra of team orders benefitting whichever driver requires them rather than solely their de facto number one. Whilst Vettel’s status as de facto number one is becoming increasingly under threat, he was still to play a crucial role in this race.

He held the rapid Hamilton behind him for around four laps, in which time Leclerc had stretched his advantage over the world champion to nearly seven seconds. It appeared for a few laps that they had reached something of a stalemate but then the Ferrari tyres began to fade fast and Hamilton was suddenly catching by more than a second a lap. Leclerc kept his head, negotiated back-markers, made no mistakes and narrowly held on for a well-deserved victory. Valtteri Bottas, after a fairly anonymous race, completed a sombre podium as Vettel pitted for new tyres to claim the fastest lap along with fourth position.

Monaco’s first-ever race winner immediately dedicated the victory to Hubert. This is a young man that has already experienced so much tragedy in his 21 years: he lost his godfather and mentor, Jules Bianchi, in 2014; his father died a day before the 2017 Baku F2 race; and now long-term friend Hubert. The fact that he won both races a day after such losses shows the way Leclerc sees the world – he just wants to make them proud.

Yesterday, once again, he did so emphatically.

More Mixed Emotions at Red Bull

Image credit: Getty Images

Verstappen’s excellent run of results eventually came to an end with a race start more reminiscent of his early 2018 struggles. After another poor getaway, he went for a gap that was closing quickly and very reliant on Kimi Räikkönen, firstly, knowing he was there and, secondly, being pretty generous. One of those two requirements was not satisfied and the Red Bull pitched the Alfa Romeo up into the air. Verstappen continued but the damage done to his steering saw him go straight into the barriers at Eau Rouge.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the garage, newly-promoted Alexander Albon was having a debut race to remember, for the right reasons. He was forced to start from the back of the grid as Honda trialled a new engine. This meant no ultimate qualifying lap to truly gauge how he was matching up to Verstappen but he appeared to be holding his own through the practice sessions and, on race day, would show why Red Bull have chosen to give him this chance.

After a steady first half of the race, making slower progress through the field than he would have liked, he suddenly came alive on the soft tyres. A cunning move around the outside of Daniel Ricciardo was followed by a piece of sheer bravery as Sergio Pérez forced him onto the grass down the Kemmel Straight at over 200mph on the final lap. He kept his foot in and took sixth place, which would become fifth after Lando Norris’s retirement.

From the back of the grid to fifth in his first race for Red Bull? I imagine he’ll take that. Christian Horner and Dr Helmut Marko will be very pleased with a performance that justifies their latest driver swap, or certainly goes along way to doing so in one race.

And More Bad Luck for the Luckless Lando

What does Lando Norris have to do to catch a break?!

At a weekend where it looked like McLaren were struggling – having never really been inside the top 10 during Friday or Saturday – Norris dealt with the first corner drama perfectly and found himself emerging from it in fifth. He then set about holding onto that position and did so expertly. Many watching – and Norris himself, he admitted after the race – were expecting those behind to close in on him. Especially once Pérez, armed with an in-form Racing Point, were up to sixth. But it never happened.

It was a drive that thoroughly deserved what would have been the best result of Norris’s career so far, but it wasn’t to be. Just one lap from the end, his Renault engine decided it was done for the day and Norris ground to a halt. To add salt to the wound, Leclerc finished the race just behind a gaggle of drivers that, if they had been lapped, would have been classifield below Norris and seen him eighth rather than 11th.

This is just the latest in a run of misfortune that has cost him countless points. A slow pit stop in Hungary; mechanical failures in Germany, France and Canada; a poorly-timed safety car in Britain. But the bad luck will surely end and the potential he has is clear to see. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him up in fifth place again before the end of the season…and this time at the chequered flag.

The Racing Point Update Seems to be On Point

Having somewhat disappointed – or at least been pretty anonymous – this season, the update for Racing Point that hinted at progress in Hungary, showed this weekend that it has certainly pushed them up the pecking order.

Pérez into Q3 and Lance Stroll into Q2 is better than they have generally managed, respectively, this year. And a solid double points finish on Sunday with a deserved sixth place for Pérez, who had to pass a fair few cars on his way, bodes well for the remainder of the season and for the future of what is a team starting afresh since Lawrence Stroll’s buy-out last year.

Answering the Burning Questions

How will Alexander Albon cope with his promotion to Red Bull? Very well, it turns out!

And how will Pierre Gasly do in the Toro Rosso? A solid run to ninth on what was an incredibly hard weekend for him.

Can Ferrari finally win a race? Yes!

Will we find out who gets the Mercedes seat for 2020? (And the Renault one potentially…) Yes and yes. All as expected with Bottas confirmed for Mercedes and Ocon moving to Renault.

Can F1 pick up where it left off with another excellent race? It was another good race, if a very sad weekend for the sport.

The Belgian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

2019 British GP report | Hamilton wins for record sixth time

Posted on by James Mackenzie
History for Hamilton, fun for the fans.
Image credit: Getty Images

With some help from a fortunately timed safety car, Lewis Hamilton took a record-breaking victory at the 2019 British Grand Prix.

Having been pipped to pole position by his teammate Valtteri Bottas on Saturday, Hamilton came out of the blocks quickly and looked thoroughly determined to make amends. After a few laps getting increasingly close to the Finn’s gearbox, Hamilton made his move with a clever cut-back through Brooklands and looked to have the job done. But Bottas had other ideas. With the passionate home crowd still roaring, he pulled back alongside Hamilton and regained the lead into Copse Corner.

That was to prove the championship-leader’s best opportunity as he spent the rest of the first stint generally between 0.5 and 0.8 seconds behind. But when Bottas pitted on lap 16, Hamilton and his team saw an opportunity to mix up their strategy. He stayed out as long as he could, knowing that Bottas would need to stop again, with the aim of a one-stop race and the hope for a safety car. The latter duly obliged. By that point however, Hamilton had already put himself into a commanding position.

Even without a safety car, he was about to pit and rejoin a couple of seconds behind his teammate. Hamilton could then have sat behind Bottas, waiting for him to pit again and he showed just how much extra pace he had when he set the fastest lap on the last lap of the race, despite being on 30-lap-old hard tyres.

Bottas was actually fortunate to retain his 2nd place as those behind him had also pitted under the safety car and he was the only driver in the top six that needed to pit again. As it was, some antics from those following made his job far easier.

The Action Behind the Mercedes

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen picked up where they left off in Austria and this time the young Ferrari driver was going to make sure he gave as good as he got. He defended magnificently – at times towards the boundaries of acceptability, but always within them – lap after lap, in a battle that will likely be remembered for a long time to come and continues what is shaping into a fantastic rivalry. However, for all his excellent work, the Red Bull team produced a quicker pit stop which edged Verstappen out in front. Leclerc was not done though and immediately seized on a mistake by the Dutchman to regain his position. They then continued their fight until the safety car, where a delayed stop for Lelerc left him down in 6th.

Sebastian Vettel benefitted the most from the safety car and found himself up in 3rd on a weekend where he had been consistently off the pace. Verstappen, having been let past his team mate Pierre Gasly, began to close the gap on Vettel and on Lap 37 he made a move around the outside of Stowe. He was ahead but had ran slightly wide which allowed the German to close back up as they approached the chicane at the end of Vale. Vettel aimed for a small gap that was barely there and, once Verstappen had fully closed it off, was over-committed and had nowhere to go but into the back of the Red Bull. In desperation, he locked up and slammed into Verstappen’s gearbox, sending him flying sideways over the chicane.

Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen collide at the British Grand Prix.
Image credit: Formula 1

Verstappen impressively kept the car moving through the gravel and would recover to 5th, whilst Vettel had damaged his Ferrari more significantly and, once a ten-second penalty had been added on, would finish dead last.

It is another high profile mistake from the four-time world champion and will increase the pressure on him even further as we approach the German Grand Prix – the scene of his infamous crash last year that caused a swing in the championship he would never recover from and marked the beginning of this series of mistakes that has now run the length of an entire season. His young teammate has seemingly rectified his qualifying issues – having said he had changed his approach after the Canadian Grand Prix – and is now looking thoroughly the stronger Ferrari driver. Indeed, despite the issues with strategy and slow pit stops that were out of his control, he recovered to finish 3rd after the drama had unfolded ahead of him, and described it as “the race I enjoyed most in my F1 career”.

More Drama Throughout the Field

The action was not limited to the front six cars. Lando Norris continued his excellent form to run as best of the rest early on in the race, having passed the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo and then held him off impressively. However, it was his teammate, Carlos Sainz, who was the biggest benefactor of the safety car in the midfield, with it promoting him to 7th place, having started 13th. The Spaniard then did well to hold off an eager-to-divebomb Ricciardo for the final few laps and inherited 6th after the Vettel-Verstappen incident. The safety car sadly had the opposite affect on Norris who was left in the same situation as Bottas – but without a Mercedes to recover the lost time of a second stop – and ended 11th.

Haas had another weekend to forget. Amid ongoing dramas with their joke of a title sponsor, Rich Energy – seriously, they formulate tweets that read like a Donald Trump parody account – their two drivers crashed into each other on the first lap and were then soon forced to retire. What looked a promising season, when they qualified in 6th and 7th at the season-opener, has turned into a nightmare. They are now on average the second slowest car, particularly on Sundays as they continue to struggle with the tyres, and Romain Grosjean is surely wearing his team’s patience paper-thin with his current run of errors – even managing to spin into the wall at the pit exit during Practice 1.

A Few Extra Shout-Outs

The sheer amount of action in the race has left little room for much more analysis, so just a few quick words for those who deserve them.

Pierre Gasly had a long-overdue but nonetheless much-improved weekend. With the aim of helping him find some form, the Red Bull bosses decided he would be given Verstappen’s setup, with just the ability to tweak a few aspects to his liking. It seems to have worked wonders as he was the faster Red Bull through the practice sessions, came much closer to matching his teammate in qualifying and then finished a season-best 4th, having been in amongst the action of the top 6 throughout the race. He now needs to keep this up to reduce the rumours around his seat as silly season heats up.

Image credit: Red Bull Racing

Daniil Kvyat, having been somewhat put in his place on Saturday by teammate Alexander Albon, slowly but surely made his way up from 17th on the grid to finish an impressive 8th. Albon though was unfortunate on Sunday and further enhanced his reputation through the weekend on a track where he took the victory in F2 last year.

Speaking of last year’s F2, the 2018 champion, George Russell, continued his clean sweep over Robert Kubica on Saturday and then converted that to a best-ever finishing position of 14th in the race. Williams are slowly closing the gap on the midfield and it is Russell who is generally passing any cars that drop near him.

Although Hamilton’s 26 points were the only ones gained by British drivers at the British Grand Prix, Norris, Russell and Albon are all showing that British motorsport – or Thai-British motorsport in Albon’s case – has a very bright future.

Answering the Burning Questions

Can Red Bull and/or Ferrari take momentum from their performance in Austria and challenge Mercedes again? Ferrari looked closer earlier on but come race day it was Red Bull who may have challenged, had Verstappen been able to pass Leclerc. Mercedes were most likely in a class of one again though.

Will there be another controversial stewarding decision to make? The Vettel penalty was pretty much a slam dunk and the fact nothing between Leclerc and Verstappen was even investigated is pleasingly consistent.

Will McLaren continue to cement their place at the front of the midfield? Yes. Norris was unfortunate whilst Sainz was fortunate. Renault were certainly closer but it’s McLaren who came out with the most points.

Is Gasly capable of a decent result that would alleviate at least some pressure? Yes!

Can Hamilton make amends for last year’s British GP disappointment and send the home crowd wild? And if so, will he crowdsurf again? Yes and yes.

The British Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

2019 Austrian GP report | Verstappen takes dramatic victory

Posted on by James Mackenzie
An end to the Mercedes domination…and what a way to end it.
Max Verstappen wins the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix.
Image credit: Getty Images

Many criticised the sport in the wake of an uneventful race in France but, just seven days later, Formula 1 reminded the world of the drama it can produce with an action-packed 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, a last-gasp pass for the win and obviously some controversy to boot.

The youngest ever front row promised excitement into the first corner but, after Max Verstappen got away horribly, Charles Leclerc was left unchallenged and all the drama unfolded behind him with Lando Norris even momentarily passing Lewis Hamilton for 3rd. The following laps produced some good racing as Hamilton, Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel worked their way past the slower cars, before the usual top five started to break away from the pack and the race somewhat settled down.

Leclerc appeared comfortable at the front but was forced to pit slightly early to cover off Bottas – something that would prove decisive later on. Hamilton and Verstappen aimed to go long in their first stint but the Briton put paid to his chances by clipping one of the many unforgiving kerbs around the Spielberg track and damaging his front wing. The younger man in the Red Bull made no such mistake however and re-emerged in 4th with tyres 10 laps fresher than those ahead of him.

Verstappen then set about chasing Vettel, passing him with about 20 laps remaining and suddenly the masses of orange in the crowd realised there was the chance of an unlikely victory. Bottas proved easy to dispatch – the Mercedes had been short of power throughout as they struggled with cooling – and he was right on Leclerc’s tail with four laps to go. On Lap 68, Verstappen dived down the inside into Turn 3, allowing Leclerc a Ferrari’s width on the outside and they drag raced along the back straight with Leclerc coming out on top. One lap later, Verstappen made the same move but this time did not leave the room, taking the lead and then the victory – the first for a Honda engine since Jenson Button in 2006.

“Hard Racing” or “Not the Way You Overtake

As you would expect, Verstappen and Leclerc had very different views on the overtake. They both immediately came on the radio; Verstappen claiming Leclerc had turned in on him and Leclerc asking “what the hell is that?”

Image credit: DPPI

The stewards decided to investigate, with the result only being confirmed as a Verstappen victory three hours after he had taken the chequered flag. And so the conversation of what the rules should be and how they should be enforced reared its ugly head once more.

It is very easy to see why Ferrari and their fans could feel aggrieved. There have been two fairly similar incidents in which they have somehow lost out on both occasions, despite being on opposite sides of the two. Vettel was penalised for not leaving Hamilton a car’s width in Canada and the obvious differences between there and here are that Verstappen was fully in control of his vehicle and that Leclerc was fully alongside his rival. Both of which you could reasonably expect to further cement a penalty.

Personally, whilst I’m glad the result stood – the sport didn’t need another overturned win fiasco and Leclerc deserves a better maiden victory than being told three hours after the fact – I can’t help feeling that Formula 1 has contradicted itself. After the Vettel penalty, there was a lot of talk of ‘the letter of the law’ and so on, but now it’s about ‘the way to interpret the rules’. I refer back to my post after the Canadian Grand Prix and my opinion that the stewards should be a consistent panel of respected figures who are accountable and explain exactly how and why they have come to their decisions. There is no point having thousands of regulations if they are not airtight and leave so many situations that are open to interpretation – that has been the case in the three most recent races and they all appear to have been dealt with differently. It is obviously far easier said than done but a reasonable number of more iron-clad rules and a stable stewarding presence is surely the answer.

Whatever your opinion on the incident though, it could well turn out to be an infamous moment that defines the beginning of an intense rivalry. One that could even dominate the sport for the next decade.

McLaren Prosper Whilst Mercedes Faulter

McLaren continued their good run of form and excellent progress this season with 6th and 8th place finishes. Both impressive drives in very different circumstances. Norris showed his star potential again by qualifying 5th and then mixing it with the front-runners for a few laps before settling into a very solid 6th and holding off the other Red Bull of Pierre Gasly – yet another disappointing performance from the under-pressure Frenchman. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz fought admirably from the back of the grid to end up 8th.

Lando Norris at the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix.
Image credit: DPA

To have had two great races back-to-back on such different tracks as Paul Ricard and the Red Bull Ring shows how much progress McLaren have made and, for all his undeniable talent, there is a distinct freshness to the team since Fernando Alonso’s departure. They are enjoying the challenge of their revival without the pressure that Alonso puts on a team. There are no politics; it’s just racing. And they continue to punch above their weight, or at least their weight of recent years.

Mercedes, however, finally had an off-week.

It’s unlikely to prove a huge turning point, as the unique combination of high temperatures and altitute, twinned with a very short track, meant they had cooling issues throughout the weekend. Their engines were not at full power and they were even having to do a considerable amount of ‘lift and coast’ during the race, where the drivers lift off the throttle up to 400m before the corner.

But certainly it bodes well for some more competitive races whilst temperatures are likely to be higher in the summer.

The Austrian Grand Prix in 60 Seconds

Session Progression

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.