Tag: F1

Categories
2020 Racing Season

Racing With Covid, A Look Back at 2020

2020!  You little bewildering bitch!  Where do I even start with 2020? Let’s see, cataclysmic environmental events in all corners of the globe, a global pandemic bringing life as we know it to a grinding halt, political shenanigans not seen in the USA since the civil war era, racial injustices reminding us that the civil rights movement still has a long way to go.  I’m honestly surprised that our Commander In Chief didn’t decide to make America even greater and invade Canada.  Shit we even lost John Prine and Bill Withers.

 

Occupying a small place amid all this chaos, the racing world upheld it’s end of the bargain and produced some truly bizarre moments.  For the sake of being able to look back one day and say, “Holy shit, this really happened,” here is a timeline recap of some of the “Only in ‘20” monkey business.

 

Jan-Feb 2020:  This whole Coronavirus thing still seemed like a distant problem for China and Hong Kong.  I was hearing from Chinese contacts that it was a mess, but I had no idea what was coming.  In fact, I recall a conversation with an ER doctor who equated it to just another season flu.  My takeaway was, millions will be infected, a few unfortunate people will die of complications, but to quote Wooderson, “You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N.” 

 

Wednesday, March 11:  Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tests positive and the NBA season is suspended indefinitely.  On the same day, Tom Hanks goes public that he and his wife have tested positive.  Suddenly this seemed very real, like Contagion real.  If Hanks can get it, are we all going to die?  I was struck with a vision of Cormac McCarthy’s, “The Road” becoming reality.  

 

Thursday, March 12:  On the eve of the season opening Australian GP, a member of Team McLaren tested positive, jeopardizing the entire event.  At this point it felt like there was a tsunami of Covid particles blanketing the earth.  

 

Friday March 13:  With fans at the gates ready for admission, it’s announced that the Aussie GP is cancelled!  All other sports immediately follow suit.  Indycar cancels St Pete’s.  March Madness is cancelled.  It’s a total disaster.  I was still under the impression that the world was overreacting to the flu and didn’t quite grasp the idea of hospitals being maxed out.  In fact, I actually believed Trump when he claimed that we would lick this and all be back to work in two weeks tops!  

 

Saturday March 28:  The world has gone eerily quiet.  There are no planes in the sky.  The freeways are empty.  The air quality is spectacular.  I’ve taken to puzzles and searching for toilet paper online when I’m not serving as a homeschool teacher.  My wardrobe now is strictly sweatpants and a hoodie.  My hair is starting to grow like wild ivy.  In an attempt to pacify it’s sponsors, Indycar is broadcasting an iRace on live TV from virtual Watkins Glen.  I’m so starved for any sort of competition that I’m excited to watch.  Surprisingly, Sage Karam is the class of the field and wins the race easily.  Listening to Tracy, Bell and Diffy call the broadcast with their usual enthusiasm is comedy.  Somehow I get the feeling that PT has never seen iRacing before.

 

Sunday, April 7:  Bubba Wallace “Rage-Quits” the Food City Showdown at virtual Bristol after a tangle with Clint Bowyer and Twitter has a field day.  Bubba tries to down play it by reminding people it’s just a stupid video game, but one of his sponsors, joint/muscle cream Blu-Emo, doesn’t see it this way and fires him (on Twitter of course).  More on Bubba in a minute.

 

Sunday, April 14:  Kyle Larson, arguably the greatest all round oval driver in the world, uses the N-word during a live iRace and is subsequently fired from Ganassi Racing.  Larson immediately returns to his dirt roots and wins 42 of 83 starts.  I certainly don’t condone his behavior and agree that he had to pay the ultimate price, but I suspect that he’s not the only guy in the nascar community who uses this word on a regular basis.  

 

Sunday, April 26:  Denny Hamlin’s seven year old daughter manages to turn off the power to his screen midway through the iTalladega invitational, ending his race on the spot.  

 

Sunday, May 3:  The Greatest Spectacle in iRacing, The Indy i500, is dominated for much of the contest by F1 driver Lando Norris.  It turns out that Lando is an enthusiastic gamer who has spent most of his quarantine time iRacing up to 18 hours per day.  He won the COTA Indy iRace and was looking good to win Indy until Pagenaud, a victim of an earlier Lando tangle, purposely slowed down and wrecked him with a few laps to go.  Again, the social media police went to work and started calling for Pagenaud’s real job. A mini virtual F1 vs Indycar war also ensued. 

 

(Interestingly, the race was won by Aussie V8 Supercup champ, Scott McLaughlin.  Was this the deciding factor that led to The Captain hiring McLaughlin for a season of real racing?)

 

Sunday, May 24:  Factory Audi FE driver, Daniel Apt, replaces himself with a pro gamer as a prank in an official FE iRace and finishes 3rd.  When word gets out that he wasn’t behind the wheel, there was so much backlash that Audi had to fire him from his real job.  

 

Monday, May 25:  George Floyd, a black man, tragically loses his life when a police officer unfathomably suffocates him in broad daylight while being filmed in Minneapolis.  This leads to outrage across the globe and the Black Lives Matter campaign is launched, spearheaded in the racing world by Lewis Hamilton and Bubba Wallace.  Bubba uses his platform to launch a campaign to ban the Confederate flag at Nascar events.  

 

Wednesday, June 10:  NASCAR decides to turn the page on it’s history and officially bans the Confederate flag from all Nascar sanctioned events.  It seems convenient that there are no fans allowed at the tracks, so I’m fascinated to find out how it will be handled when there are 75,000 people streaming through the gates.  They are going to have to hire some tough dudes to work flag patrol in the parking lots.  

 

Sunday, June 21:  Just when it seems that the news can’t get any stranger, a crew member for Bubba Wallace’s 43 team discovers that the garage pull for their stall at Talladega has been knotted and shaped into a noose.  The team member, also a black man, walks up and down the paddock and finds that the 43 garage has the only noose.  Outrage follows and the FBI and Department of Justice are called in to track down the individual responsible for this hate crime.  The next day, with a pickup truck parade waving the Dixie flag just outside the gates, NASCAR shows its solidarity by having the drivers, crew members and officials push Bubba’s car to the front of the grid.  They also painted, “Stand With Bubba” in the infield grass.  Meanwhile, overhead a plane is flying the Dixie flag over the proceedings.  I swear you can’t make this stuff up.

 

Side note- After conducting a thorough investigation, the FBI finds that the noose pull had been there since 2019, so it wasn’t a hate crime after all.  The study went on to report that of the 1,684 garage stalls at the 29 tracks Nascar races at, there were 11 knotted ropes and just one noose.  President Trump immediately takes to Twitter and asks if Bubba has apologized.  

 

And then there was real racing!

 

In F1, it was business as usual as Mercedes continued its dominance of the hybrid era with a seventh consecutive championship for both the constructors and drivers.  Spoiler Alert!  Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes will be the 2021 F1 Champions.  But as with many seasons past when one team is dominant, there are always moments of excitement and intrigue to keep the fans coming back for more.

 

Here are a few of my standout moments:

 

The Austrian GP.  After waiting 4 extra months for the season to get started, F1 was back at the beautiful Red Bull Ring, or Osterreichring for the old school fan.  Regardless of what happened on track, it just felt great to have racing back. As a bonus, it was a chaotic race that involved three safety car periods and multiple penalties for Lewis Hamilton.

 

Back to Back Sundays at Silverstone.  This current configuration of Silverstone is a masterpiece and I’d be content to watch 18 races a year on that circuit.  In my opinion, an outside pass into Stowe is as good as it gets.  The first race was a relatively processional affair until both Mercedes cars encountered delaminating left-front tires in the closing stages.  For Lewis in the lead, it meant having to navigate the final sector on three wheels while Max was closing fast in hot pursuit.  Lewis showed his class by keeping his cool and crossing the line with 5.8 seconds to spare.  The following weekend, Max was the class of the field and scored the first non Mercedes win of the year.  

 

Gasly wins Monza!  Monza was the first shock result of the year as Pierre Gasly won the safety car lottery and drove brilliantly to hold off Carlos Sainz for his first victory.  The historic venue has been good to the little Italian based team as their last and only other win was at Monza with Seb Vettel in 2008.  

 

Mugello, The Nurburgring, Algarve, Imola, Turkey & The Sakhir Outer Loop Added to the Calendar.  That is an incredible list of race tracks and it was a joy to see F1 cars in their element on beautiful circuits with fast sweeping corners and massive elevation changes.  

 

Romain Grosjean Survives a Fireball.  I have to go back to Gerhard Berger’s 1989 crash at Imola to recall such a horrid looking accident.  And like Berger, I’m amazed that Grosjean was able to walk away from piercing a metal armco barrier and stopping from 130mph to zero in about 6 inches.  He then had to extract himself from a burning, mangled cockpit that looked more like a plane crash than a F1 car in a wall.  Incredible luck and proof that the halo is a genius, albeit ugly, invention that will likely save more lives in the future.  

 

Georgie Boy Replaces Lewis and Perez Wins.  What a nice bonus the Sakhir outer loop proved to be.  Let’s face it, probably the most common question in the mind of an F1 fan is what would another driver do in the Mercedes?  With Lewis testing positive for COVID, we got our wish.  But before proclaiming that any driver could beat Bottas and win in the Mercedes, I need to make it clear that Russell is a massive talent in the Max-Leclerc category.  I strongly believe those three are the future of F1.  So, with that being said, it was fascinating to see Russell lead FP1, 2 & 3, and qualify a close second to Bottas.  In the race, Bottas made shit getaway and Russell had the race under control. That is, until the safety car came out and Mercedes completely botched a double stack pitstop.  The stop was so un-Mercedes like that I thought I was having flashbacks to a Colini pitstop in the late 80’s.  Even with having to stop a second time to fit the correct tires on the car, Russell had a shot at victory until a puncture brought him back yet again for more rubber.  The beneficiary was Checho Perez, who brilliantly conserved his tires and won after being in last place at the end of the first lap after getting punted by Leclerc.  It was the feel good story of the year seeing Perez, Ocon and Stroll on the podium and likely was the deciding factor in the Red Bull drive going to Perez.   

 

Biggest Disappointment-  Ferrari finishing P6 in the constructors championship.  This was their worst showing since 1980!  The talents of Leclerc were totally wasted and a lame duck Vettel looked more like a club racer at times rather than a four time champion. 

 

Looking to ‘21, I think it will again be Max chasing the Mercedes cars while Checo has many a lonely run to 4th.  The mid-pack F1.5 battle will be mighty between Ferrari, Renault (Alpine), McLaren, Racing Point (Aston Martin), and Alpha Tauri.  The revamped lineups will be fascinating to watch: Sainz partnering Leclerc in the red overalls,  Alonso joining Ocon at Alpine, Danny Ric joining McLaren and taking on Lando with Mercedes power, Vettel leading the Aston charge and Tsunoda partnering Gasly at the junior Red Bull squad.  On paper it sounds amazing!  

 

Speaking of F1 fantasies, this is my fantasy 2021 lineup with the drivers confirmed for next year:

 

Mercedes:  Latifi, Mazepin

Red Bull:  Mick Schumacher, Tsunoda

Ferrari:  Leclerc, Sainz

Aston Martin:  Lando, Russell

McLaren: Max, Lewis

Alpine: Alonso, Danny Ric

Alpha T:  Gasly, Perez

Alfa Romeo:  Ocon, Giovinazzi

Williams:  Bottas, Kimi

Haas:  Vettel, Stroll

 

Indycar- As always, the Indycar series had a bunch of highly entertaining races with the now customary championship coming down to a battle between Dixon and Newgarden.  They each won 4 races, but JoNew definitely missed out more often in the yellow lotto and couldn’t overcome Dixon’s 3 wins from the first 3 races.  Personal highlights were watching O’Ward and Herta cement themselves as the future of the series, Sato winning a second 500 and the last lap of the Road America 2 race, in which Rosenqvist tracked down a fading O’Ward and snatched his first win with a forceful move down to turn 5.  On the subject of Road A, if Silverstone is my 1A track then I think I’m nominating RA as my 1B.  What a badass place!

 

Biggest Disappointment – Alexander Rossi finishing 9th in points.  Rossi can usually be counted on to lead the AA charge against the might of Penske and Ganassi, but he seemed to have the curse of ‘20 following him around and couldn’t get anything going until the last couple of races.

 

Looking ahead to ‘21, I can’t wait to see what The Captain has in store.  The announced street race in Nashville sounds interesting and at some point in the near future a third engine manufacturer will likely jump into the game.  On the driver front, it will be entertaining to see how Jimmy Johnson and Scott McLaughlin fare in single seaters.  I have huge respect for all that Jimmy has accomplished, but shame on the series regular who gets out qualified by the 45 year old single seater rookie.  Now if he enters an oval race that may be a different story.     

 

MotoGP – The championship that nobody wanted to win.  After Marquez did himself in for the year by crashing out in Jerez and breaking his arm, the championship was suddenly wide open.  Quartararo looked like he was going to dominate after winning both races in the opening doubleheader at Jerez, but more wins were to prove elusive for El Diablo.  In fact, there were 9 winners in 14 races.  Yamaha bikes won 7, but it was the Suzuki that proved to be the most consistent and friendly bike over the course of the year.  Joan Mir, who had two DNF’s in the first 3 races, settled into a great rhythm and pulled off one of the biggest upsets ever.  Before the year started, Mir was a +12500 to win the title.  He only won one race, his first in the series, but his 7 podiums got it done.  It reminds me of the Keke Roberg ‘82 F1 title with only 1 win.  There were so many breathtaking moments that my head is spinning, but the Rossi miraculous escape from the ghost riding Zarco bike is something I won’t forget.  There was also the last corner in Austria when Miller and P Espargaro ran wide fighting each other and Olivera snuck by for the win.  God Bless MotoGP riders!

 

Biggest disappointment – Marquez missing the year (for my fantasy team) and the factory Yamaha team only winning a single race.  

 

Looking to ‘21, I’m excited to see if Mir can hold up to the pressure of defending the title, especially with the Repsol Honda filling his mirrors.

 

Nascar-  With the three series mentioned above all in my mandatory, must-watch category, I usually don’t have any time to devote to NASCAR, especially if I want to keep my marriage.  However, with NASCAR going back to work before any other series or professional sport, suddenly I was loving the midweek evening Cup races in May.  And to add intrigue to the mix, these guys were starting the races with no practice or qualifying.  They would roll the cars off of the trailer, follow the pace car for a few laps and Boogity Boogity.  Harvick seemed to revel under these circumstances and won 9 of the 32 races.  Hamlin (6), Elliott (4) and Keselowski (4) were the other standout drivers.  Young Chase got hot in the playoffs, winning 3 of the final 5 races to claim the title and gave all at NASCAR headquarters an early Christmas gift, being a young, handsome Southern lad with a famous last name. 

 

So I think this is enough.  I feel fortunate that we were able to have any racing at all.  I can only imagine the work that the folks behind the scenes put forth to make these events happen and I’ll raise a frosty mug of beer as a salute to an amazing job done!  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Rest up, because I think come Jan-March, you will have a whole new set of headaches on your hands.  Go Vaccine.  Go Tsunoda.  Goodbye 2020, you little bitch!

 

Peak Covid Fro
Categories
2019 Racing Season

Racing, Red Bull, and The Inner Workings Of The Mind

The combination of information overload, caffeine and exercise can create interesting dialogue in one’s mind.  Today on a 45 min trail run I couldn’t control the inner buzzard voice in my head that is a constant traveling companion of mine, so I’m feeling the need to let this voice be heard. I believe in the psychology field this is known as a brain dump.  So, I’m excited to dump a few random thoughts on the subject of motorsports.

 

What If?  Ahh yes what if?  These two words can be applied to everything in life, but what if Leclerc won Bahrain, Vettel was allowed to keep his win in Canada, Ferrari didn’t undercut Leclerc in Singapore with Vettel, and Vettel didn’t break down in Russia last week, leaving Ferrari to finish 1-2 with Leclerc getting the win??  That’s a serious (and realistic) WHAT IF!  

 

In this alternate world, we would be looking at Lewis with 6 wins, Leclerc with 5 wins, Mercedes with 8 wins, Ferrari with 6 wins, the momentum squarely with Ferrari and the excitement levels through the roof. Oh well next year.  And to be fair, Lewis has had his share of bad breaks over the years so I guess this levels things out a bit. I think you can make a pretty convincing case that he should have beat Nico in 2016 and Kimi (and Alonso) in 2007.

 

Did anybody see Big Daddy Jos The Boss (aka The Dutch Devil) speak out in a threatening tone against Red Bull this past week?  His boy Max only has one year left on his contract with Red Bull so the rumors should be swirling in the Dutch press rivaling the circus of a LeBron or KD free agency.  In fact what moves the world sporting needle more, Max or Giannis heading into contract years? It is sort of criminal to see Max, a once in a generation talent at the peak of his powers, fighting for 3rd.  Will Ferrari or Mercedes have the nerve to make a serious run at creating a Super Team? What sounds more fun, Max/Leclerc or Max/Lewis? I’ll take either but the thought of Max in red is cool.  

 

Speaking of Red Bull, here is a random flashback:  The last time I tasted a Red Bull was about 9 years ago on a Las Vegas 40th birthday boondoggle for an old college buddy.  It was night two and the group was dragging, so we turned to the dreaded Red Bull/Vodka for assistance. We had paid some silly cover to get into the “exclusive” club at the top of the Palms, and the guest of honor that evening was Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward.  It felt a little weird standing around gawking at Hines and his entourage, but the MC was playing it up and the women were jockeying for position. When it came time for me to buy the next round, I excused myself from a conversation with a Russian prostitute and made my way into the scrum at the bar.  The bartenders had more tricks than Tom Cruise in Cocktail and magically produced 6 Red Bull/vodkas in pint glasses in mere seconds. I was a little shocked when I was charged $180, but hey I was supporting Red Bull and Toro Roso, the Maloof Brothers and getting to spend time with Hines Ward so it seemed like a good deal at the time. 

 

Red Bull Flashback II:  This almost has the makings of a great joke:  What do you get when you put three guys in a room with a bobcat named Alesi and two pallets of Red Bull?  Answer: Complete monkey business. Inspired by the sponsorship on the ‘95 Sauber, my friend Tommy was able to import a few cases of Red Bull from Austria before it was available in the markets and in honor of Heinz Harald Frentzen, we grew our sideburns and drank Red Bull like it was water for a few weeks.  Nobody died.

 

Quiz:  Name the energy drink company that sponsored Jos Verstappen when he drove for Arrows. (See answer below)

 

Back to Current Red Bull F1:  Albon, like Gasly, is miles behind Max on pure pace but he’s been able to get the car to 6th place in his four race trial with forceful passes on the slower midfield cars.  The frustrating thing with Gasly was when he would find himself behind a Renault or McLaren, he seldom found a way by. Advantage Albon. 

 

F1.5:  The midfield really is war.  It reminds me of Indycar in that even if you are generally quicker, like McLaren and Renault have shown of late, you just get sucked back into the chaos on a weekly basis.  Danny Ric looks like a rodeo cowboy trying to fight his way through the field and is testing the structural integrity of his wings and suspension on per lap basis. It’s brutal and fascinating all at once.

 

Current win totals:

Sainz – 5

Norris – 3

Ricciardo – 3

Perez – 2

Magnussen – 2

Kyvat – 1

 

On the subject of Indycar, I enjoyed another excellent year of tough racing on every type of circuit imaginable.  The rookies, Felix, Herta, Santino and to a lesser extent, O’Ward and Ericcson, certainly infused some excitement and should give the established pecking order a few fits next year.

 

Herta has the speed to wrest control of Andretti Autosport from Rossi next year if he has an engineer to work with on the ovals and a strategist and pit crew to execute on race day.  His drive at Laguna was a masterclass.

 

Rosenqvist is all car control and big cajones.  Mid Ohio and Laguna stand out as races where he had the car in a slide practically every corner and managed to keep it off the wall.  If he can calm his inner Nordic maniac over the bumps on street tracks and continue to adapt to the ovals, he should be there with Dixon fighting for the title.

 

Santino!  I thought Santino was going to be a flop and wow was I surprised.  He’s got something special on the ovals as he can run half a groove higher and make audacious passes around the outside.  I have to admit though that he scares me. It’s awesome to see him flat foot it through the accidents in front of him and go wild on the first lap of restarts, but the law of averages tells me that it’s going to come back to bite him at some point.  I feel like he’s going to need to learn respect the hard way, but what a fun addition to the grid.  

 

Felix ended up 6th in points and Herta 7th.  To take the next step forward means beating a Penske, Rossi or Dixon so I can’t wait to see if these kids are ready to go to that level.  

 

With the new kids showing they can get it done if given the chance, I’ve got the following guys in the “Aren’t you getting a bit old to be doing this?” category:  TK, Bourdais, Sato, RHR, Carpenter. I was almost thinking that Power was ready for this list but he closed the year in strong form.

 

And here are the guys in my “Maybe this isn’t the right job for you?” category:  Ed Jones, Marco and Veach. I’m holding off on Leist for now because he’s driving for Foyt, The Williams of the paddock.  

Random thoughts:  It’s too bad FE is sucking up most of the single seater talent outside of F1 because Indycar would have really benefited.  I’m still waiting to see the day when an F1 driver in his prime switches to the silent cars…..It was sad to see O’Ward get plucked by Red Bull and banished to Japan to compete in SuperFormula.  Remember he handily beat Herta in the same Indy Lights squad and was quicker out of the box at Sears last year when they were both in Harding/Andretti equipment……Playing the role of O’Ward and Herta in Indy Lights this year were Askew and Vee Kay.  They appear ready for the next level and one step on the ladder below is Kyle Kirkwood. This kid wins something like 75% of his races and I was super impressed with the way he handled the first lap of the Festival chicane in Portland last year in F2000.  Smooth operator with spatial awareness. I’d sign him to my junior team…..Spare a thought for Ralph Schumacher, who was being touted as a possible 2020 Ferrari driver but now is languishing 12th in points in F2. Sadly he’s still ahead of Giuliano Alesi, son of the greatest driver ever…….In what could be a major coup for F1, Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou looks like he’s a legit professional driver and could probably pound around in the mid field without making a fool of himself.  Where is Bernie to collect the $$?…….IMSA is down to the final race and it’s old man Montoya going for yet another title over the likes of Sud American youngsters Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani. Great little undercover series as usual……I’ve seen Montoya and son in the garage at many GP’s this year. It looks like JPM is trying to take a page out of Verstappen’s playbook and create a 21st century robo driver. Another familiar name at Laguna a few weeks ago was Eduardo Barrichello.  The son of Rubens was racing in the F2000 race and slugging it out in the lead pack…….What can one say about Marc Marquez other than we are witnessing all time greatness…….Spare a thought for ‘Ol 7-Time (Jimmy Johnson) as his reign appears to be over. My favorite highlight is still when he crashed a Busch car head on at the Glen after brake failure at a silly rate of speed and got out, stood on the hood and raised his arms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbkIBWEp91Q    ……And I think that’s it for my rambling.  Sure I could do this for another 5,000 words but I feel like the therapeutic benefit of dumping my thoughts is losing its effectiveness.  Good fun. Bring on the mighty Suzuka. Thanks for reading!

Categories
2019 Racing Season

2019 F1 Summer Break Recap

With the F1 summer break rapidly coming to a close, it’s time to pack away the EDM inspired rainbow spiked kaleidoscope goggles and LED rave gloves and reflect on what’s been a rather one sided processional affair occasionally infused with moments of brilliance.  I think all would agree that the white flags have already been waved. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are the 2019 world champions. Fair play, Mercedes are the best team in the paddock and Lewis is the better man within the team. The results have been pretty staggering:  Ten wins from twelve races, seven 1-2 finishes and a clean 150 point advantage over their nearest rivals. I guess this shouldn’t really feel like such a surprise as Mercedes have dominated the current hybrid era, but I, like many other “dreamers”, bought into the romantic notion of the Scuderia turning the clocks back to the beginning of the century and painting the podiums of the world scarlet red.  I was so bullish on Ferrari prior to Australia that I had Lewis winning 8 races total to 7 for Vettel (Lewis already has 8 wins!) and I made the critical error of picking Vettel and Leclerc over the Mercedes boys on one of my fantasy league teams. Ouch.  

 

So for a quick refresher on how the Silver Arrows team almost achieved perfection, here is a recap of the year.

 

Australia:  Boundless optimism for a great season long fight leading up to the first practice quickly gave way to disbelief by the end of qualifying, and minor depression come Sunday night.  Merc hit the streets of Melbourne in a class of their own and how ‘bout that Bottas? Valteri beat Lewis off the line and left the five time champ in his dust.

 

Bahrain:  LeClerc suddenly looked like a combo of Senna, Prost, Fangio and Nuvolari all in one.  He dominated qualifying and then crushed the rest of the field in the race until a mechanical issue let him down.  Vettel looked lost by comparison and resorted back to spinning the car as soon as he got into a wheel to wheel scrap.  At this point I was totally confused. Ferrari or Mercedes?

 

China:  The balance of power was immediately back to Mercedes, but on a personal level, this weekend was so much more.  I like to refer to this past April 13th as Le 24 Heures du Buzzardry. On that Saturday am I woke up at 3:00am, watched qualifying, drove to the SF airport, flew to Long Beach where I spent the entire day as a fan watching the Indycar and IMSA series in action, and finished my night at a Holiday Inn curled up on a suspect queen bed watching the dull China race live with one eye half cracked open into the wee hours.

 

Baku:  Leclerc looked threatening to Mercedes until he stuffed it during qualifying into the side of a castle likely once occupied by Peter The Great.  This left the door open for Mercedes to cruise to an easy 1-2, with Bottas impressively coming out on top.  

 

Spain:  Did they run a Spanish GP this year?  If they did it must have been a snoozer.  Hamilton beats Bottas for the 5th consecutive 1-2 finish.  On a positive note, for the first time this year Max beats both Ferrari’s to show that the RBR-Honda package is coming along.  In Max We Trust.  

 

Monaco:  These cars are way too fast and wide to race at Monaco so the race was always going to be won on Saturday, which Hamilton duly did, with a scorching lap of 1:10.166.  For reference, Ayrton Senna’s 1988 pole time where the in-car camera looks like it’s on fast forward and he basically admitted later that he was having an outer body experience during the legendary lap, was a 1:23.998.  They may have opened up some of the curbing and slightly changed the radius of a few corners over the years, but when I saw that it felt like a slap in the face. Wow. Go technology! And cheers to Vettel for finally breaking the Mercedes 1-2 dominance with a fine 2nd place.  

 

Canada:  Leave it to Canada and the great city of Montreal to produce a thrilling race.  The Ferrari’s, utilizing their horse & battery power advantage over Mercedes, brought the fight to Lewis and Vettel finally prevailed…….until the stewards decided he didn’t.  I get what the rule book says, but I’m from the “Let the Kids Play” school and would have let Vettel keep the win. If you punt somebody or weave all over the place under breaking I’ll penalize you.  Run off the track, don’t gain an advantage, recover and keep the guy behind you? I give that two thumbs up and a play-on. 

 

France:  Horrible circuit, horrible race.  Lewis wins again to go up 6-2 on Bottas.  

 

Austria:  The 2019 season officially begins!  Max miraculously tracks down Leclerc who had comfortably led for 60+ laps and after a fierce two lap battle, pulls a Nigel Mansell like late breaking whip lunge to take the lead and win in front of the Max Army.  Great stuff.

 

England:  Another exciting race with the Mercedes boys fighting on track, Max and Leclerc continuing their Austrian scuffle and Vettel again losing his mind and punting Max.  On paper it looks like another easy Mercedes 1-2, but I would take a race like that every week.

 

Germany:  Ahh rain, the great equalizer.  Hockenheim was as crazy a race as you will ever see and Max prevailed mainly because he kept the car in between the lines and avoided the treaterchous stadium drag strip-skating rink.  I don’t think I’ve even seen a section of track that slippery before. It’s gimmicky but I kind of like this idea: Every race will have 1 corner where the runoff is freshly paved asphalt with the sprinklers on.

 

Hungary:  A beautiful straight fight between the two best drivers in F1.  Max, after finally securing his first pole position, kept Lewis at bay from the drop of the green when the Mercedes team rolled the dice and pitted Lewis for fresh rubber that left him with 20+ seconds to make up in 22 laps.  This was Schumacher-Ferrari-Hungary 1998 all over again. Lewis put the hammer down and breezed by Max with a couple of laps left for a signature win that has to rate as one of his best. Even watching from my couch thousands of miles away, you could see that driver and car were pushing in perfect harmony and in a zone seldom achieved.

 

Totals:

 

Lewis – 8 wins

Bottas- 2 wins

Max – 2 wins

Ferrari – 0.0 – Goose Eggs!!

 

F1.5

 

Sainz – 4

Norris – 2

Ricciardo – 2

Magnussen – 2

Perez – 1

Kvyat – 1

 

For some, this recap may read as a dreary, sad reflection of another lost season, but if you look on the bright side, 5 of the past 6 races have been excellent, and there is hope for more excitement on the horizon.  Right out of the gate, Ferrari may have a legit shot at glory in Spa and Monza. Max is going to be a force in Austin, Mexico and Brazil. Singapore is always a wildcard race, Bottas flies in Russia and Suzuka is arguably the best rack in the world.  Hamilton may go 9-9, but he’s going to have a battle on his hands most weekends.

 

Silly Season

 

Compared to a year ago at this time, this silly season has been relatively calm with the exception of RBR calling up Albon to replace Gasly from Spa onwards, but the door could be kicked wide open if Mercedes decide to promote Ocon into Bottas’s seat.  This would set off a round of musical chairs with Hulkenberg possibly on the move from Renault and Grosjean in trouble at Haas. Otherwise, it looks like Kubica’s seat at Williams will be available for the right price and it remains to be seen if Red Bull will keep Gasly in the family at Toro Rosso.  If Bottas keeps the drive, Mercedes would likely release Ocon and I could see him landing at either Renault or Haas. 

 

However, if you give me the liberty to create my own silly season, here would be the 2020 lineups for Mercedes, Ferrari and RBR:

 

Mercedes:  Hamilton, Alonso

Ferrari:  Leclerc, Ricciardo

RBR:  Max, Vettel

 

How’s that for 22 entertaining weekends? 

 

Random Thoughts

 

Before the year began, I was intrigued to see how each of the new teammate pairings would stack up, in particular, all of these youngsters in teams against more established vets and after 12 races the picture is pretty clear.

 

Lewis vs Bottas:  Bottas is quick, but it’s business as usual.  Advantage Lewis

 

Seb vs Leclerc:  Seb has more points but I give the advantage to Leclerc.  Yes he’s made a few crucial mistakes but so has Vettel, and for that matter, so has Ferrari!  And why is Ferrari still putting Vettel on the choice tire strategy which often dumps out Leclerc into the clutches of the Red Bull?  Yes Leclerc needs a year to publicly make a few errors, but come on Ferrari, do the right thing and build up the kids confidence.

 

Max vs Gasly:  Yikes! What a route.  I’m excited to see if Albon fares any better

 

Sainz vs Norris:  Norris is darn fast over one lap but hasn’t had a lot of luck in the races.  Carlos is a steady point scoring machine so both drivers are on the up.

 

Kvyat vs Albon:  I would call this a draw, which is why it makes sense to try Albon in the hot seat for 9 races to get a true assessment of what they have.  

 

Ricciardo vs Hulkenberg:  Neither driver is being helped by the underperforming factory team, but Danny Ric has shown flashes of brilliance with a P-4 on the grid in Canada so I’ll give him the slight advantage.  

 

Kimi vs Giovinazzi:  Kimi has clearly had the upper hand over the young Ferrari protege so it could be the kiss of death for the Italian, as I see his F1 career path as Ferrari or bust.  Like his days at Lotus, Kimi is tough to beat when he’s left to do his own thing.  

 

Perez vs Stroll:  Sergio has dominated Stroll in qualifying, but Stroll can score points.  He showed this at Williams, and he’s doing it again this year at Racing Point-Force India-Spyker-Midland-Jordan GP.  Hard to believe but he currently holds an 18-13 point advantage over Perez.  

 

Magnussen vs Grosjean:  Netflix has to be licking their chops as the Haas pairing has gone from one silly issue to the next.  The team is totally lost on tire management so both drivers are looking like morons on Sundays. Tough place to be.

 

Russell vs Kubica:  Williams started the year inexplicably 2 seconds slower than the Racing Point cars so it was immediately clear that this was a lost season.  That being said, Russell has made the most of it and has dominated the Polish prodigy, likely keeping him in the good graces of his German employers and potentially lining him up as Hamilton’s replacement when the time comes.  

 

Final Mention:  If you are an F1 fan past or present, you have to check out Tom Clarkson’s podcast, Beyond The Grid.  It is a treasure trove of F1 gold. His weekly guests cover every aspect of the sport and leave me totally engrossed.  On a recent road trip I did the Derek Warwick, Jean Todt, Alex Wurz triple play and didn’t want to get out of the car when I reached my destination.  Even if the current racing is crap (#DRSSUCKS), the individuals who have made it to the top of this sport are fascinating individuals. Two thumbs way up!

 

On to Spa……………. 

 

 

Categories
2019 Racing Season

F1- 2019 Season Preview

It seems like just a few short weeks ago that Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso were putting the final touches on the 2018 season with a synchronized doughnut display worthy of a perfect 10 score by the judges at the Yas Marina circuit, but here we are with new cars, new rules and regulations, new driver pairings and fresh optimism for a new championship.  The pursuit of building the perfect racing machine is never ending for the ten constructors comprising the grid, so let’s dive right in and make some predictions about where they stand as we close in on the green flag at Melbourne.

 

Disclaimer-  I’ll just get this out of the way now:  F1 cars should be loud and should be a handful to drive, even for a top flight professional who has been racing since the age of five.  Unfortunately, the 2019 cars do not fit this description.

 

The word for the 2019 season is PRESSURE.  F1 is always a pressure packed environment, but I can’t remember a season where you have more young talent trying to fight their way to the top while the established old guard is fighting to keep the status quo.  This will be the ultimate game of driver Survivor and more than one career will be made or broken over the coming 21 events.

 

Constructors Battle:  It’s Ferrari vs Mercedes in a flat out development race that will continue all the way to Abu Dhabi.  I’d love to say that Red Bull Honda are going to join this fight right out of the gate, but I think they will need a season before they are legitimately in the title hunt. The trend the past 2 seasons has been for Ferrari to start the season with a slightly better package, only to lose out to the German marque as the season progresses.  In an attempt to remedy this situation, Ferrari sacked the movie star cool Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal and replaced him with Mattia Binotto. I don’t know too much about Binotto, but he has the look of a hard core engineer so maybe the Scuderia will get back to the glory days of Jean Todt and Ross Brawn at the helm.

 

Driver Battle: The 2019 title fight will be all about 5 time world champion Lewis Hamilton, 4 time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, Dutch Sensation Max Verstappen and the relatively unknown, Charles Leclerc.  Hopefully this will be epic, but what really has me jazzed up are the inter team battles from Merc all the way down to Williams. There will be 10 mini wars taking place in each garage up and down the paddock that will be exciting to track throughout the year.  Here’s a closer look:

 

Mercedes:  Lewis vs Bottas.  We’ve seen this movie before.  Hamilton and Bottas start the year relatively equal over the first quarter of the season, but then the Finn runs into some bad luck (Baku puncture while leading) and before you know it, Lewis is miles ahead in the points and Toto Wolff is referring to Bottas as the “wing man.”  Bottas then seems to become demoralized and is trounced by his teammate after the summer break. With Estaban Ocon waiting in the garage, this will be the last chance for Bottas to prove he belongs with the sports finest team. He is going to need to pull a Nico and rattle Lewis early or else he’ll be looking for work in the mid field for 2020 (if he’s lucky). Prediction for the higher classified car at the end of each GP:  Lewis 16 – Bottas 5

 

Ferrari:  Vettel vs Leclerc.  Team leader Vettel loses the comfort of a compliant #2 in Kimi and suddenly finds himself having to prove his worth against a young man who clearly has some genius behind the wheel.  Leclerc was the 2016 GP3 champ, the 2017 GP2 champ, and last year was the breakout rookie for Sauber. This battle should be fascinating. Vettel still has the speed to win more titles but his racecraft was below average on more than one occasion last year.  Leclerc had the Sauber in positions it had no place being in last year so there will be multiple weekends when Vettel will have to take a backseat to the Monégasque prodigy.  Will they be able to coexist if this happens?  Who will crack first? Prediction: Vettel 14 – Leclerc 7

 

Red Bull:  Verstappen vs Gasly:  Max comes into this season as the true team leader and should thrive without having to worry about Danny Ric stealing his thunder.  Gasly will be desperate to prove to the Red Bull brass that they made the right decision and will be on the limit and then some trying to keep Max in his sights.  He will also be lobbing a healthy dose of schadenfreude at the Toro Roso drivers in hopes of keeping his seat safe. Gasly is legit and will be quick, but I’m calling that this is the year Max becomes the full package and takes the next step towards becoming the world champ.  He reminds me of Senna and Schumacher in his unwavering self belief and dedication to his craft. The guy truly was bred to be in this position and I still believe he will go down as one of the 10 best ever when it’s all said and done. Prediction: Max 16 – Gasly 5.

 

Renault:  Hulkenberg vs Ricciardo:  For Nico, this is a huge opportunity to prove to the paddock  that it’s been his equipment holding him back over the years and he really is worthy of a big time ride.  It’s insane to think that he’s never had a podium after 9 full seasons, but now he’ll face a motivated teammate in his prime with 29 podiums and 7 wins to his name.  For Danny Ric, first he’ll have to be on top of his game to get the best of Nico before he can focus on building a team around him with big aspirations and factory resources.  The Aussie can certainly get it done on the track, but it remains to be seen if he has that ruthless political side that is necessary to bury his teammate and take a team to the top.  Prediction: Ricciardo 13 – Hulkenberg 8

 

Haas:  Grosjean vs Magnussen:  The French artist vs The Viking.  It seems that when the mood is right, the lighting is right, the wine is tasting splendid and she’s giving him the look, Grosjean can deliver big time.  On most others days he’s pretty dreadful. Magnussen on the other hand is all right foot and big balls. It’s a strange driver pairing and I don’t think they are helped by their strategists on race day compared to the rest of the field.  If Grosjean can keep the car off the walls then he should prevail, but if he has a repeat of 2018 he will likely be looking at a career in FE or WEC. Prediction: Grosjean 11 – Magnussen 10.

 

Alfa Romeo:  Raikkonen vs Giovinazzi:  I just love this pairing. At this point Kimi is sticking around purely for the love of driving an F1 car on the limit.  He may be the only guy on the grid without an ounce of pressure and will likely thrive under the circumstances. Giovanazzi on the other hand is an Italian rookie in the unofficial Ferrari junior team going against a man they (Ferrari) just sacked because he couldn’t get the job done next to Vettel.  Talk about pressure! If he can’t beat Kimi on a regular basis then Ferrari will likely go with another option when the time comes to replace Vettel. Prediction: Kimi 13 – Giovinazzi 8.

 

Racing Point:  Perez vs Stroll:  Another intriguing battle pitting a young driver in Stroll out to prove that he’s more than just the son of the team owner against an established vet in Perez fighting to keep his reputation intact.  If Stroll does prove to be a worthy competitor, look for more fireworks along the lines of Ocon vs Perez. Checo made it very clear over the past two years that he will drive his teammate into the wall on a regular basis if necessary.  Here’s hoping for a Carlos Slim – Lawrence Stroll chest bumping, finger pointing argument in the back of the garage at Monza. Prediction: Perez 16 – Stroll 5.

 

McLaren:  Sainz vs Norris:  Yet another great case of a veteran at the ripe old age of 24 in Sainz trying to keep his career trajectory headed in the right direction.  To do so, he will have to comprehensively squash British boy wonder, Lando Norris. Sainz didn’t do himself any favors with a mediocre year at Renault alongside Hulkenberg in 2018 so his F1 career now likely depends on leading a McLaren resurgence.  At 19, Lando comes to F1 with a really cool name, a world karting title, the Euro F3 title and a series runner in GP2 under his belt and no doubt will be determined to show that he’s the next Lewis Hamilton. If McLaren produces another dog these guys will likely both be tossed to the scrapheap.  This should be fun. Prediction: Sainz 14 – Norris 7.

 

Toro Rosso:  Kvyat vs Albon:   This is an intriguing battle between two drivers that have not had an easy road to the 2019 F1 grid.  For Kvyat, this is his third go round with the Red Bull brass. The first two attempts obviously didn’t end well but maybe a year away at the Ferrari finishing school has given the Russian the right tools to maximize his talents.  Somebody with some pull at Red Bull obviously rates this guy because getting a third chance is unheard of. For Albon, just getting to F1 has been a minor miracle because he didn’t have a Brinks truck full of cash or factory backing for much of his time in the junior categories and his results were all over the board.  Last year in GP2 was a true breakout for the 22 year old by winning four races so it will fascinating to see how he gets along with the pressure of Red Bull on his shoulders. Prediction: Kyvat 12 – Albon 9.

 

Williams:  Russell vs Kubica:  And bringing up the rear of the field may just be the best interteam battle of them all.  Kubica, essentially driving with one arm after an eight year layoff, is taking on yet another British Boy Wonder, the 2017 GP3 champ and 2018 GP2 champ, Mercedes protege George Russell.  I’ve always considered the Pole to be in the Alonso, Lewis, Vettel class prior to his devastating injury but taking on a kid with the golden boots may be a tall order. I’d love to see Kubica dominate the kid, but if the Williams is consistently bringing up the rear of the field it will likely play into the hands of youth and exuberance.  Prediction: Russell 14 – Kubica 7.

 

So with that said, here are the 2019 Predictions:

Hamilton – 8 wins

Vettel – 7 wins

Leclerc – 2 wins

Verstappen – 3 wins

Bottas – 1 win

Gasly

Ricciardo

Hulkenberg

Kimi

Perez

Giovinazzi

Grosjean

Magnussen

Sainz

Stroll

Norris

Kvyat

Albon

Russell

Kubica

 

And just for good measure here are 5 Bold Predictions:

 

-Last year there was one podium finish for those not driving for Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.  For 2019, there will be………..2!

 

-Kimi Raikkonen will be spotted in a rooftop bar in Singapore drinking cocktails 2 hours before the start of the GP and will then finish 4th.

 

-Liberty Media will make such a mess of the 2021 rules and prize money distribution package that the 2021 grid will be comprised of the following teams:  Williams, Racing Point, USF1, Gentilozzi Racing, Andrea Moda F1, Harding-Steinbrenner, RuSport, Jaguar, Minardi and MasterCard Lola F1.

 

-Vettel is going to toss away a 20 point advantage to Hamilton over the final 3 races and will retire to the German countryside to focus on German Beard competitions.

 

-Lewis will capture his 6th title and will then retire to focus on his global brand and get his first of many plastic surgeries that will eventually lead to him resembling the late Michael Jackson.  The 2020 Mercedes lineup will be Ocon and Russell.

 

Enjoy the season and RIP Charlie Whiting!

Categories
2018 Racing Season

F1 2018 – A Glance in the Mirror

The 2018 racing season has come and gone like Jean Alesi entering the stadium at the old Hockenheimring in the ‘94 Ferrari V-12, blasting past the start finish line at 16,000 rpm and motoring off into the forest for another 1:45 lap.   As we head into the dark days of winter, it’s time for a little reflection to make sense of this latest chapter of the motor racing saga.

 

So what did we learn?  

 

First and foremost, we were reminded that Hamilton and Mercedes are just a little better than Vettel and Ferrari.  I think it’s safe to say that Ferrari arrived in Melbourne in 2017 and 2018 with a slightly better package than Mercedes, but throughout the course of 21 races, Hamilton has been the more consistent operator and Mercedes has gained the edge in the development war.  In fact, there is a trend here that Ferrari will need to address if the Scuderia intend to win another title. Namely, how they interpret the FIA imposed two week summer break. From the outside, it seems like Ferrari goes into the tank each year after the break while Mercedes discover their sweet spot.  Can it be as simple as the Italian based team spending their two weeks bobbing in waves and sipping cocktails while Toto has a secret command center in a small barn in the German countryside where engineers are hard at work 24/7?

 

Check out these numbers-  Through Hungary 2017 and 2018 combined points:

 

Vettel 391

Lewis 401

 

Post Hungary combined points:

 

Vettel 246

Lewis 370

 

To hammer this point home, Lewis has won 11 GP’s after the break to Vettel’s 2, while their pre-break totals are Lewis 9 wins to Vettel’s 8.  This can’t all be down to the circuits in the second half of the season favoring the handling characteristics of the Mercedes over the Ferrari.  There is something else at play here that needs to be examined in more detail. I’m not a sports psychologist, but I have a blog so that makes me qualified to offer my professional opinion on the psychological battle between our two championship protagonists.

 

Here then is the B.E.V Hot Take brought to you by Hanks’s CD’s and VHS Tapes:  Life looks to be one big celebrity jet setting adventure for Lewis while Vettel appears to prefer the quiet life.  Yet when they turn up to the track, it is Lewis who is better able to absorb the pressure and make the correct split second critical decisions that win races and championships.  My advice for Vettel: Quit playing with your garden gnomes and get out to the nearest fashion shows and nightclubs. And while you are at it, get a few tats and date a pop star or two.  Trust me, the weekend at the race track will feel like a pressure free relaxing getaway after all that chaos and you may quit spinning the car out every time you make a little contact.

 

What else?

 

The pursuit of the mythical Triple Crown is alive and well and Fernando Alonso is knocking at the door.  To recap, winning the triple crown of racing involves winning Monaco, Indy and LeMans. Graham Hill is the only driver who has captured this impressive trio to date.  After seeing the way Alonso adapted to driving at the speedway in 2017, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him join Mr Hill in the Triple Crown Club someday in the near future, but winning Indy involves a lot of luck.  Case in point, Mario and Michael Andretti only have 1 win in a combined 45 attempts at the brickyard.

 

Contemplating Alonso’s run at the triple crown and his recent test in the #48 Cup car has me thinking about a few recent drivers with cool well rounded resumes.  We know about the legendary exploits of Mario, AJ, Gurney, Clark and Stewart, who participated in a period when the drivers were men and they would race anything with four wheels and an engine, but here are a few of my favorite modern day all rounders:

 

Juan Pablo Montoya:  F3000 champ, CART champ, Indy 500 Champ, Monaco winner, NASCAR Cup winner, Daytona 24hr winner.  He may be missing the LeMans win, but when you add in a Nascar Cup win, that puts JPM in the Mario-Gurney class.  Shoot this guy was/is so good he tied Dixon for the 2015 Indycar championship and would have won it if not for the silly double points season finale at Sears Point.  

 

Jacques Villeneuve: CART champ, Indy 500 champ, F1 champ, LeMans runner-up, pole sitter and podium finisher in NASCAR nationwide series, made starts in just about every other series under the sun including Nascar Cup, Aussie V8 Supercar, FE, World Rallycross, etc.  Love him or hate him, a young Jacques was exciting.

 

Nelson Piquet Jr:  Okay I can hear you crying foul over this call but look at the total body of work.  South American F3 champ, British F3 champ, F3000 runner up, F1 podium finisher, Nascar Craftsman Truck winner, Nascar Nationwide winner, FE champ, 4th overall in Global Rallycross, many other starts across numerous disciplines.  Young Piquet even randomly entered the 2015 Toronto Indy Lights race for Carlin and put the car on pole but was taken out in the race.

 

Tony Stewart:  Sprint car champ, Indycar Champ, NASCAR champ

 

Robbie Gordon:  CART winner, Nascar Cup winner, BAJA off road legend.  I still think this guy had the natural talent of anybody.

 

Mattias Ekstrom:  DTM champ, World Rallycross champ, two NASCAR Cup starts.

 

Other cool feats:

 

F1 & Indy Car champ:  Emmo, Nige, Mario, JV

F1 & MotoGP champ:  John Surtees

 

Lake Speed – 1978 World Karting champ over Senna and Nascar Cup winner

 

AJ Allmendinger – Atlantic Champ, CART winner, Nascar Cup winner, Daytona 24hr winner

 

Whenever I get into this mode I start to daydream about what Senna would have done post F1.  Would he still be showing up today and strapping on the overalls in IMSA or WEC? Can you imagine how cool it would have been watching him in sports cars or the 500?  Just the thought of seeing him at Laguna in the fan friendly US paddock has me giddy. What a catastrophic loss for all of mankind.

 

Moving Along……

 

When did the FIA announce that there was an official F1.5 series?  Over the past two seasons, there has only been two podiums outside of the Big 3 teams.  Two! And they were both luck jobs (Stroll ‘17, Perez ‘18) at Baku due to the chaotic nature of the circuit.  What blows me away is that we are not talking about the mid 80’s when half the teams were operating on a shoestring budget with a leased Cosworth V8 competing against McLaren and Williams with majorly funded factory turbo motors.  No, we are talking about Williams, McLaren and a factory Renault effort with works engine deals struggling to stay on the same lap in a race. McLaren has the same engine and rubber as Red Bull with Fernando Alonso peddling the car and they can’t stay on the same lap?  Amazing. At least this year the F1.5 action was closely fought and enjoyable to watch. Per the FIA points, Nico Hulkenberg is the 2018 F1.5 World Driving Champion and Renault are the Constructors Champions. Now if you removed the Big 3 from all races that may change the points, but I would need an intern to do those calculations so instead here are the win totals for F1.5

 

Hulkenberg – 6

Perez – 3

Alonso – 2

Gasly -2

Magnussen – 2

Ocon – 2

Leclerc – 2

Grosjean – 1

Sainz – 1

 

Now that’s more like it!  I’m getting a Nico ‘18 F1.5 WDC T-Shirt printed immediately.

On a personal level, I was fortunate enough to spend 2 days at the Long Beach GP, 2 days at the Portland Indycar weekend and 3 days at COTA for the USGP.  Great events all. Long Beach is still the quintessential street event in the US, PIR is still a fan friendly mellow facility in a beautiful setting with a great race track and in COTA, F1 has found a great home.  

 

Tips:

 

LBGP- Sit down at Turn 1 in Grandstand #40 as high as you can get for the race.  During practice, watch the cars from the elevated walking area on the inside of turn 8 and go stand down along the fence at turn 10.  During breaks, check out the expo center and the IMSA paddock. For food and beverage, walk into the harbor and you will have all sorts of choices at regular prices.  In other words, you can probably save $10 for a beer just for walking an additional ¼ mile. Enjoy the local SoCal flavor.

 

Portland – Sit in the Festival Chicane (C-3) as high as you can get for the race.  For practice, walk the entire track and make sure to stand on the outside of T9-10 to get a feel for the speed of the cars and commitment of the drivers.  Buy a paddock pass, take the Portland local rail to the circuit from downtown, and enjoy the outdoors.

 

COTA- Sit in Grandstand 12 down near the apex of T12 for the race.  During practice, walk the T3-7 esses and stand on the berm at the entry to T19.  Be prepared to be blown away. I’ve seen everything on 4 wheels and these current cars are shocking to witness in person.  The cornering capabilities defy the laws of physics. During downtime (and there is way too much downtime for the F1 weekend) seek the Pakistani family food truck on the soccer field and enjoy the best Shawarma you’ve ever had.  After the race on Sunday, walk the main straight and then go check out the local bands set up on the outside of the track at various points having nice little jams.

 

And now for the moment of truth.  Each season I put my esteemed rep on the line by picking the the entire F1 grid;

 

Here were the top 10 pre-season picks:

 

  1. Hamilton – 7 wins
  2. Vettel – 5 wins
  3. Verstappen – 5 wins
  4. Bottas – 2 wins
  5. Ricciardo – 2 wins
  6. Kimi
  7. Alonso
  8. Sainz
  9. Hulkenberg
  10. Ocon

 

And here is the reality:

 

  1. Hamilton – 11 wins
  2. Vettel – 5 wins
  3. Kimi – 1 win
  4. Verstappen – 2 wins
  5. Bottas
  6. Ricciardo – 2 wins
  7. Hulkenberg
  8. Perez
  9. Magnussen
  10. Sainz

 

Postmortem: My hopes of a Max championship charge were dashed early on due to poor driving and the down on power Renault engine.  From the summer break on he was back on form and should have won Brazil if it wasn’t for that meddling Ocon. Next year! Lewis wasn’t into sharing the spoils with Bottas this year and reached a level that left the paddock in awe and likely left his teammate thinking about life after F1.   In the 1.5 field, McLaren were a major letdown and Renault were the most consistent performer. I’m honored to say that I got to witness Kimi defy the odds and win his 21st gp. Props also to my preseason #16 pick Magnussen and preseason #19 pick Leclerc for making me look like a proper fool.  

 

Looking to 2019, the revamped driver lineups have me counting the days to Melbourne.

 

Mercedes:  Lewis vs Bottas

Ferrari:  Vettel vs Leclerc

Red Bull: Verstappen vs Gasly

Renault:  Hulkenberg vs Ricciardo

Haas:  Magnussen vs Grosjean

McLaren:  Sainz vs Norris

Force India:  Perez vs Stroll

Sauber:  Kimi vs Giovinazzi

Torro Rosso:  Kyvat vs Albon

Williams:  Kubica vs Russell

 

A Christmas Wish List:  

  • A harmonious mating of the Red Bull chassis and Honda powerplant
  • Revised aero that actually works and allows closer racing
  • Leclerc magic
  • Kubica on pace with Russell
  • More than 1 podium for the 1.5 class

 

In Indycar, I’m counting the days to see Rosenqvist and O’Ward get in there and mix it up with the old guard.  

 

Now, it’s time for hibernation.  Until March.

 

Categories
2018 Racing Season

F1 – The Silliest Season of All

Over the past month I feel like the racing news and action has been coming at me faster than the Penske PC-23b motoring across the row of bricks at Indy back in ‘94.  Every time I pick up my phone to check the latest, which is approaching borderline unhealthy numbers, I’m left feeling like I’m sitting in the 3rd row at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico as the World of Outlaw cars are hot lapping.    

 

On the track we have this intriguing Drive For 5.  Scott Dixon just bagged his 5th Indycar title, Lewis Hamilton looks to be on his way to 5 F1 titles, and Marc Marquez is close to claiming 5 MotoGP crowns.  But as usual, it’s the silly season that is proving to be irresistible clickbait for me every time I feel the urge to pick up my damn phone. And because of the historical significance of the moves taking place off the track, I’m feeling the need to recap the facts and intersperse my own narrative, or good old fake news, to spice it up a bit.  This blog is supposed to be entertainment after all.

 

So, here is a unique perspective on what has really transpired behind the scenes:

 

The Silliest Season Of All

 

Danny Ric had just captured the Chinese and Monaco GP’s in thrilling fashion and clearly had the upper hand on his struggling teammate, Max Verstappen, when suddenly the tables were turned at the next race in Montreal.  In post race interviews, Danny alluded to an unspecified equipment deficit to his teammate and added a knowing wink to the camera for good measure. Over the next six races leading to the summer break, Danny had 2 DNF’s and zero podiums, while Max had 3 podiums, including a win in Austria, making Danny the forgotten man at RBR.  It still seemed like a foregone conclusion that Danny would sign a new contract with the team that had supported his career since the junior ranks, especially after calls to Mercedes and Ferrari were unsuccessful, but Danny was having second thoughts. His only goal left was a title and time was no longer on his side.

 

Hearing grumblings from his engineers on the inside that all might not be rosy at RBR between Danny and management, Cyril Abiteboul formulated a plan and immediately boarded the Renault corporate jet and set off for an undisclosed island in the Indian ocean where Ricciardo was rumored to be holed up.  After 36 hours of travel spanning a 10 mile archipelago in a dingy with a crazy local guide hopped up on khat, Cyril found the Aussie dead drunk in a bamboo hut.

 

He tried calling his name and throwing towels on Danny in an attempt to wake him, but soon he too was overcome with fatigue and dozed off on the couch in the next room.  The next morning Cryil woke to a freezing sensation and quickly realized that Ricciardo was dumping a pitcher of ice water over his head and having a good laugh about it.  

 

Over breakfast and throughout the rest of the day, Arbiteboul sold Danny on the potential of Renault and more importantly, the satisfaction they would get from kicking a little Red Bull ass.  Danny liked what he was hearing, and after Arbiteboul agreed to drink a potent local concoction out of his lucky racing boot that he always travels with, Danny signed and it was game on for the silly season!

 

Christian Horner was home in England sipping tea and speaking to his wife Geri about her upcoming Spice Girls reunion tour when the phone rang and the reporter asked for his thoughts on Danny signing with Renault.  Horner thought it was a joke and hung up, but seconds later Helmet Marko texted him a picture from Danny’s Instagram account showing the Aussie smiling on a beach in a Renault shirt with a pretty girl on his arm and a spider monkey in his lap with the caption:  “A new chapter begins now.” Horner panicked for a few minutes before regaining his composure and phoning both Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. Both men seemed excited by the prospects, but then Jos Verstappen’s name appeared in his phone and he knew what was coming next.  Jos was on speaker with Max and the family lawyer and after exchanging pleasantries, they cut to the chase and reminded Christian that they had an out should RBR sign either Alonso or Sainz. Christian tried to appease the Verstappen’s by stating that he would never consider calling either Spaniard, and hung up a frightened man.  After a quick conference call with the Austrian brass, it was decided then that the next man up was Pierre Gasly. When Horner rang Gasly, it was clear that Pierre was at an all night rave on Ibiza and after delivering the news, Gasly yelled into his phone over the banging house beat, “Je t’aime Christian!” and promptly hung up.

 

When Fernando received the call back from Horner saying there was no deal, he knew his F1 career was over, as both Vettel and Lewis have No Fernando clauses in their contracts.  The thought of driving around in an uncompetitive car where one cannot even engage in wheel to wheel racing without sacrificing huge chunks of time no longer appealed, so he phoned Zak Brown and said it’s time for a new adventure.  Zak sensed that his days of collecting fat McLaren checks were rapidly coming to an end, so he did what any great salesmen would do and promised Fred a fun filled year in Indycar with a top team, momentarily forgetting that Honda have McLaren on a worldwide 100 year boycott.  Zak then quickly filled the Fernando void with a call to the latest Red Bull castoff, Carlos Sainz, and made the shrewd move to drop Stoffel Vandoorne and roll the dice on boy wonder Lando Norris.

 

At about the same moment that Fernando was deciding his fate, Lawrence Stroll was meeting with his accountant and was being reminded that his Williams bill was rather large and his ROI was nill.  Mr Stroll wasn’t happy seeing Lance mope around the house over the summer break so he decided then to do what any respectable racing father would do, he bought Force India. Williams was hurting his family’s reputation, and with Force India in the portfolio, it’s a win-win giving Lance the opportunity to live out his dreams and allowing Sr a place at the table in shaping the future of the sport.  

 

The previous night Esteban Ocon had gone to bed feeling on top of the world.  He was just 20 and had the F1 world in the palm of his hands. But his euphoria quickly gave way to fear when he awoke and saw that his Twitter and Instagram accounts were blowing up with news of Ricciardo signing with Renault and the Strolls buying Force India.  He then noticed that Toto Wolff had called and left a message. He put the phone on speaker, hit play and held his breath. “Scheisse Esteban, vee have no options any more. For now vee schadenfreude Valteri and see what happens ok? Call me. Auf Wiedersehen.” Ocon was shocked.  One minute he was deciding on two solid contract options for 2019 and suddenly he was faced with the reality of keeping George Russell company in the Merc simulator for a year. This wasn’t in the cards, but Ocon meditated on it and resolved to come out fighting at Spa.

 

With the passing of a wild four week summer break that will forever change the F1 landscape, the circus reconvened in Spa and everybody got back to the business of extracting speed from these insane machines.  It seemed that the 2019 driver market was for the most part settled and it was time to turn our attention back to the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari for the title. Ocon quickly reminded us that he’s the real deal by qualifying an amazing P3 in drying conditions. On Sunday Vettel slipped streamed past Lewis on the first lap and motored on to a resounding win and looked to be the clear favorite heading to Monza the following weekend.  Scoreboard: Lewis 231 – Vettel 214.

 

Ferrari confirmed their speed at Monza by locking out the front row of the grid, sending the Tifosi into a frenzy.  This should have been an amazing moment in the Ferrari garage, but there was a problem. The wrong man was on pole. The team had made a strategic error in track placement and it was Kimi who benefited from Vettel’s tow, producing the fastest lap ever recorded at 163.78mph (previously held by Montoya – Monza 2004).  Lewis was third, but it seemed that the race was destined to be a Ferrari parade.

 

As the lights went out both Ferrari’s made good getaways, but Lewis was in the slipstream and  applying the pressure. The leading trio managed to get through the treacherous 1-2 chicane still intact, but as they rounded the flat out Curva Grande, Lewis had a fantastic tow and made his move to the outside heading into the left-right Variante della Roggia.  Vettel moved to block, but they were now side by side under heavy braking. Lewis released his pedal a fraction earlier and found enough grip to make the corner and avoid taking to the curbs. Vettel suddenly found himself getting squeezed and after making brief contact, lost control and spun to back of the field.  

 

While Vettel was busy lighting up the rears in a cloud of smoke and rejoining at the tail end of the train, it was now Kimi vs Lewis with Monza glory on the line.  Lewis slipped streamed past Kimi into turn 1 on lap 4 after a brief safety car period, but Kimi was feeling racey on this day and tracked Lewis down through the Curva Grande, making an around the outside move stick and pulling away in clear air.  For a man who seldom passes anyone this was a great move, and perhaps spurred on by the energy of the Tifosi, Kimi quickly built a gap knowing all too well that a win at Monza would solidify his place in the team and earn another contract in the most coveted seat in all of motorsports.  

 

Only Mercedes had other plans and masterfully placed Bottas in front of Kimi after the leading pair made their one and only stops, allowing Lewis to apply the pressure and forcing Kimi to cook his tires while struggling to find a way past the sister Mercedes.  After ten laps, Kimi was defenseless with massive blisters in his rears, and Lewis pounced.

 

This was a heartbreaking defeat for Ferrari on home soil.  What should have been a 1-2 turned into a Lewis win and a points deficit that was going to be hard to make up.  Scoreboard: Lewis 256 – Vettel 226.

 

Later that night over triple cappuccinos and endless Marlboro’s, Maurizio Arrivabene broke the second place constructors trophy over his knee and screamed, “Kimi is Finito!  Call Leclerc.”

 

Over the next ten minutes, Arrivabene welcomed Leclerc to the Ferrari team in a scene right out of The Godfather.  He spoke of trust, loyalty, family, but also made it clear that the #1 seat was there for the taking, that the current #1 was showing signs of weakness, and that a Ferrari man can never show weakness.  Leclerc sounded excited but was audibly nervous as the enormity of the task was sinking in for the mild mannered 20 year old.

 

Leclerc:  I will try my best Mr Arrivabene

Arrivabene: Please Charles, you call me commendatore.  And I do not want your best, only titles will do.  

Leclerc: Yes sir I’ll be a great teammate to Sebastian

Arrivabene:  It’s commendatore Charles.  Please call me commendatore.

Leclerc: Of course commendatore

Arrivabene: Very well.  As I was saying, I don’t want another Rubens, another Massa, another Kimi.  I want a Schumacher Charles! Cappice? Can you be a Schumacher??

Leclerc:  I was just a small boy when Schumacher raced but I’ve heard his name before

Arrivabene:  Ah mama mia

Leclerc:  But I know I can beat Lewis sir, I mean commendatore.

Arrivabene:  That’s my boy.  I’ll send the plane to bring you to Maranello tomorrow morning to sign your contract.  Ciao

 

Arrivabene’s final act that evening before focusing on a bottle of grappa was to call Kimi and fire him over voicemail.  

 

While still trying to process the news, Leclerc phoned Sauber team boss Frederic Vasseur to tell him that he got the call.  Vasseur was sad to learn that he was losing his ace, but a light bulb was going off as they said their goodbyes. Kimi may not be the quickest anymore, but he puts butts in the seats and would significantly enhance their profile as they hit the sponsorship trail.  The very next morning Vasseur was able to track down the reclusive Finn preparing his dirt bike for a day of trail riding in the Swiss Alps and said, “Kimi I want you for 2 years, $30 million,” to which the Finn replied, “Ok sure” and hung up.

 

And just like that, the F1 world keeps spinning with a new frontier just over the horizon.

 

The End

 

2019 As We Know It

 

Mercedes – Hamilton, Bottas

Ferrari- Vettel, Leclerc

Red Bull – Verstappen, Gasly

Force India – Perez, $troll

Renault – Ricciardo, Hulkenberg

Haas – Magnussen (tbd), Grosjean (tbd)

McLaren – Sainz, Norris

Sauber – Kimi, TBD (Eric$$on, Giovinazzi, Vandoorne)

Toro Rosso – Major TBD (Kvyat??  – 3rd time’s a charm)

Williams – TBD ($irotkin, Kubica, $Markelov$, Ocon, Russell, Dale Jr, Jeff Gordon)

 

COMING SOON

-Beware…. Here Comes Indycar

-Fernando and the Triple Crown

-F The DRS

-Portland Indy Reflections

 

Be safe out there and Get Well Wickens!

Categories
2018 Racing Season

And The Race Goes On

With Indy and Le Mans in the books and the F1 season about to kick into hyperdrive, it’s time for a pause to reflect on what we’ve seen and what we can look forward to.  

 

Fernando Alonso–  It’s official, Fernando Alonso is the LeBron James of racing.  He’s universally regarded as the best in the business yet is hamstrung by a weak team that can’t get him to the top.  His two championships in 17 years seem like a massive underachievement when considering his talent, much the same as Lebron’s 3 titles in 15 years.  And just as LeBron reminds us of his brilliance annually by dragging his Cavs to the Finals each of the past four seasons, Alonso steps out of his day job and goes on to lead and contend in his maiden Indy 500 and then wins Le Mans outright in his first attempt.  And now, like LeBron, the big news of the summer will be all about……….. The Decision!

 

Will McLaren really partner with Andretti Autosport to field a car for Fernando in the Indycar series?  Fernando has been making it pretty clear that he’s bored stiff with the status quo of F1, so what better way to get the racing juices flowing again than changing his name to Freddy and coming to America for a year to mix it up with the Dixons and Powers of the world?  It would be a coup for Indycar and fantastic for racing fans the world over. The transmission slipping that Alonso is currently driving his tail off for 7th place at best in F1, so let’s flip the script and get him over here slugging it out on the Phoenix oval, the Detroit motocross street track, and the classics like Road America and Long Beach.  I have no doubt that he would grab a handful of wins in his first year and delight the North American audiences, but it’s the anticipation of seeing him react to getting Charlie Kimballed into the wall at a high rate of speed or finishing 13th after leading 40 laps due to unlucky yellow flag strategy that also has me intrigued. In 1994 Indycar had three former world champs in the field and people lined up at the gates waiting to get in, let’s hope that in 2019 we get another champ back into the series to help restore a little glory.

 

Max Verstappen– I’ll admit it, I thought this was the year that Max was going to break out and contend for the title with the flair of a young Nigel Mansell.  The reality is Max still needs more time in the Red Bull finishing school. To quickly recap his year:

 

Australia – Off the pace 6th (+21 to D Ric in P4)

Bahrain – Crash in Q1.  Made a great start from 15th but attempted an aggressive move on Lewis that led to a tire puncture and later had to retire.  

China– Red Bull had him in a position to win late after taking fresh rubber but Max grew impatient and tried to overtake Lewis in a place where it wasn’t on.  Danny Ric slipped by and went on to a brilliant win. To make matters worse, Max made a crazy lunge on Vettel that resulted in both cars spinning. Result P5.

Baku – The Baku Bamboozle!  After spending much of the race trading paint and rubbing wheels with Danny Ric, Max tried to shut the door on his teammate with a double move into turn 1 that resulted in both cars out on the spot.  It was an awful move that remarkably didn’t boil over into a civil war between teammates.

Spain – Workmanlike P3, +26 to the winner Lewis, but -24 to Danny Ric

Monaco – Incomprehensibly stuffed a potential race winning car in practice and couldn’t partake in qualifying.  Started last, but drove sensibly to P9 while Danny Ric won the race.

Canada – Solid P3, +8 to winner Vettel and -12 to Danny Ric.  

 

That recap reads like a rap sheet for the local juvenile delinquent causing mayhem in his neighborhood.  Max is better than this! I’m intrigued that Red Bull didn’t allow his dad and entourage to attend Canada and he had his best race of the year.  Is there a little rift growing there? My prediction is Max settles into the European season and reminds us why he’s the brightest young talent in the sport.

 

Other F1 Takeaways:  

 

Over the first seven races we haven’t seen the wheel to wheel fighting among the Big 3 that I was hoping for because passing is next to impossible due to the aero package, but at least it’s now difficult to predict who will have the best car on the Thursday before the race weekend.  To date it’s Ferrari 3 wins, Red Bull 2 and Mercedes 2 and I expect this ebb and flow to continue into the Summer break.

 

The second pack (Group B) has been ultra competitive as expected, but it’s disappointing to see them so far down the road from the Big 3.  Last weekend in Canada Nico Hulkenberg won best of the rest but was lapped by Vettel. Renault appear to be separating themselves from the rest, but over the first 7 races McLaren, Force India, Haas and even Toro Rosso have all taken turns as the Group B top dogs.  

 

Charles Leclerc has become very handy with three top 10’s over the past four races.  It’s one thing to get lucky due to attrition and score big points when you’re a backmarker once, but to do it 3 times in a Sauber is impressive.  Yes I’ll go on record and say that Bulseyeview was wrong in my assessment that the young Monegasque didn’t look impressive when I saw him drive in Austin last year.  He’s on the books at Ferrari and should have Kimi worried that next year the Finn may find himself on a jet ski in the Med with a Marlboro dangling from his lips during the Monaco GP weekend.  

 

Another driver doing nothing to hurt his reputation is Esteban Ocon.  He is currently holding a 5-2 advantage over Perez in qualifying on Saturday afternoons highlighted by a P6 on the grid in Monaco and a P8 in Canada.  Whipping that pink special around Monaco to 6th on the grid has to be in the running for the Ayrton Senna “I’m in another dimension” Qualifying Award. Force India have been somewhat swallowed up by the midfield this year, but Ocon is going to make Mercedes think long and hard about how to handle the career of this rapid 22 year old.  

 

Top 3 Drives of the Year:

  1. Danny Ric slicing through both Mercedes and Vettel to win China
  2. Danny Ric winning Monaco with a MGU-K failure
  3. Pierre Gasly finishing P4 in Bahrain, beating the likes of Hulkenberg and Alonso by over 30 seconds.

 

The silly season is upon us and Red Bull just kicked it into high gear with the announcement that they will sever their partnership with Renault and go with Honda for next season.  Will this have any effect on Danny Ric returning? And will this give Red Bull the works advantage that they’ve been seeking? Stay tuned. With 4 titles in 12 years you can’t say that the partnership wasn’t successful, but Renault produced a clunker in 2014 when the turbo hybrids were introduced and they’ve been playing catch up since.  One can only play “What If” over the thoughts of Red Bull having a Ferrari or Merc powerplant over the past 4.5 years.

 

Who’s on the Hotseat?

 

I think it’s safe to say that Brendon Hartley is officially on the hotseat.  Is anyone surprised? With Marko and Tost presiding over the Red Bull driver program like headmasters at a military academy, any young kid that takes a check and slaps a Red Bull sticker on his visor is officially on the hot seat.  It’s highly likely that Hartley will be gone before the years end but he can take solace knowing he’ll join some illustrious company with names such as Alguersuari, Bourdais, Buemi, Kvyat, Luizzi, Speed, and Vergne.

 

Romain Grosjean?  Romain has had a combo of awful luck, terrible errors and a teammate who is getting on with it.  The crash while in a nice points paying position under yellow in Baku has to go down as one of the most boneheaded moves of the decade.  Lucky for Grosjean, most of the F2 kids seem a little too raw and Haas has 0.0 interest in putting an American in the seat.

 

Finally, anyone employed by Williams is on the hotseat.

 

Over on this side of the pond, the Indycar season has been solid week in and week out, but has been lacking in the barnburners we’ve grown accustomed to that can induce gnawing on a couch pillow.  The new car looks great and the emergence of Rossi and Wickens joining Newgarden as the young guns of the series bodes well for the future. It’s funny though, early in the year it seemed that this new wave was about to take the series by storm, but look at the last 5 races:

 

Indy Road – Power – 37 yrs old

Indy 500 – Power

Detroit 1 – Dixon – 37

Detroit 2 – RHR – 37

Texas – Dixon  

 

Throw in 39 year old Sebastian Bourdais’ win in St Pete’s and you have the venerable old guard still running the show.  It must be the old man dad strength required to muscle these beasts around a bumpy track with no power steering that keeps these guys at the top of the game.  

 

The championship appears to be headed to a showdown between Dixon and Rossi but as we know, momentum in the Indycar series can shift like the breeze.  

 

Cool Thought – Waiting in the wings is American Colton Herta and Mexican Pato O’Ward.  If I were running the show (wink wink), I’d pull a Bernie and move mountains to get both of these kids good rides next year and do whatever it takes to get McLaren into the series. I think we’ve seen this movie before but in case you need a refresher, here’s the premise:

 

You have this North American racing series and you cast a couple of winning Canadians, a handful of Americans young and old, a Mexican upstart and you pit them against well known drivers from the rest of the world, including a former world champ still at the peak of his game, and you will be looking at box office success.   

 

Lastly, if you like great racing and a spectacular silly season, MotoGP is the place for you.  We haven’t even reached July yet and a good portion of the grid has already signed contracts to ride elsewhere in 2019!  This may take a while to recap but for those of you scoring at home, here are the moves so far that I can recall:

 

  • Lorenzo out at Ducati and in at Honda to partner Marquez
  • Pedrosa is looking for work
  • Petrucci is in at Ducati to partner Dovi
  • Yamaha- Keeping Rossi and Maverick
  • Suzuki – Iannone out, Moto2 rider Joan Mir in to partner Rins
  • KTM- Zarco joining Pol Espargaro
  • Aprilla – Iannone landing on his feet to join A. Espargaro
  • Tech3 is becoming a KTM satellite team
  • And on and on it goes.  

 

Look for Marquez to capture his 5th MotoGP title in 6 years and make a strong case for being considered the G.O.A.T!

 

Enjoy the summer and stay safe and cool out there.

Categories
2018 Racing Season

F1 2018 Preview

Happy days it’s March again.  Time for Spring weather, longer evenings, March Madness, sundresses (can I still say that?  Ok let’s call it shorts) and F1. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of March. For the true F1 fan, it’s a time for optimism and hope.  Hope that the engineers of the contenders have got all their sums right and are busy at work producing a car that is worthy of fighting the silver cars from Brackley.  Optimism that we are going to witness a fascinating 21 grand prix season with more plot twists and turns than a season of “Falcon Crest.” I’m not going to beat around the bush here, my gut feeling tells me that we are in for a burner of a year.  I’m talking 1981 vintage, or maybe more appropriately, 1986, where we had Prost in the McLaren snatch the title in the last round from Mansell in the Williams while Nelson Piquet was only 3 points adrift in the sister Williams. And don’t forget the the 4th player that year, young Ayrton in the difficult Lotus-Renault, who managed to grab 8 poles, 6 podiums and 2 wins out of the 16 rounds that comprised the championship.  Sound familiar? The buzzardly winds emanating out of Europe are speaking to me and I like what I’m hearing.

 

You may be asking why?  Why am I so bullish on 2018, with these gently whispering hybrid motors, that dreaded dirty air, and the hideous halos bolted over the drivers heads?  How can I make such a claim without even seeing true testing times due to rain and snow rendering Barcelona testing pointless to date? Bottom line, I’m betting big that Renault has made enough gains to allow Red Bull to fight Lewis and Seb from the green light in Melbourne all the way to the giant nightclub finale that is Yas Marina.  I witnessed the beginnings of this perfect storm brewing from the grandstand in Texas last fall, where Lewis and Seb were dueling for the win while Max was coming from last to third, and I envision 2018 as the continuation of this battle. Remember, over the last 6 GP’s of 2017, Max and Lewis were level at 100pts each. There are so many factors that are contributing to this perfect convergence of competitiveness, with 3 transcendent drivers leading 3 legendary teams, that I can’t wait to get to Melbourne to see this play out.  

 

THE BIG 3

 

It’s borderline crazy to publicly state that anyone will touch Mercedes in this turbo V-6 hybrid era, as Mercedes has racked up a remarkable 63 wins out of 79 races, but as we enter year 5 of this engine formula, it’s time for Ferrari and Renault to step up their game.

 

Mercedes-   Everything’s in place for Merc to continue their winning ways.  Lewis has nothing left to prove and is now driving for the record books and his love of competition.  He’s chasing history with 29 more wins needed to tie the Great Michael SchumiSchumacher and seems to be relishing the opportunity to fight with Max and Vettel.  Bottas is driving for his career and it will be fun to see which Bottas shows up this year? The 2017 car seemed to have a narrow set-up sweet spot that Lewis could drive around when necessary, but after a solid start, Valteri came back from summer break inexplicably a few tenths slower than Lewis and didn’t regain his form until Lewis had clinched the title.  I advise Bottas to pay Nico a visit to learn which buttons need to pressed to get under Lewis’s skin.

 

Red Bull-  As I mentioned above, if the Renault engine only gives away 2 tenths a lap to the Mercedes engine, then Adrian Newey’s chassis in the hands of Max and Ricciardo will be able to take the fight to Lewis.  Max is signed long term with the team and is primed to take over the sport. He may already be the best in the business at wheel to wheel racing and both his qualifying and race pace is phenomenal. Ricciardo is driving for a contract and will be desperate to keep up with Max.  He’s already been publicly lobbying for a seat at Mercedes so the interteam battle will be fascinating to watch. If he can step up into the Lewis, Seb, Max realm, then we will be in for a battle royal as Danny-Boy (or Rickey Rocket) is the most exciting overtaker in the game.

 

Ferrari-  Seb won 5 races last year and led the championship through much of the summer, but then made a critical error in judgement at the start of the Singapore GP and was further let down by mechanical issues in Japan that derailed his hopes of a 5th title and glory for the Tifosi.  It will be very interesting to see how Seb copes with Lewis and Max making life difficult for him. Seb seems to turn into a lunatic in a split second so his therapist may be the secret weapon that gets him back to the top. I’m envisioning the first 3 corners of last years Mexican GP becoming a theme in 2018.  And then there’s Kimi. Kimi’s best days are now well behind him and he’s officially a Ferrari employee trying to score constructors points and help Seb win the crown. I hope he proves me wrong and we see the Kimi from Monaco last year on a regular basis, but I’m afraid that 2018 will be Kimi’s last in the sport.

 

The Next Three

 

Last year there was a pretty significant gap from the big three to the rest, my hope is this year a next three or B league scrum forms that is swarming 15-20 seconds down the road at the flag from the leaders and making for great tv.

 

McLaren- McLaren and Alonso, I officially welcome you back to sharper end of the F1 grid.  My how we’ve missed you! I have a hard time seeing McLaren returning to their winning ways this year, but I can see Alonso playing the role of pest all season and grabbing a podium or two when the cards fall his way.  My feeling is it was such a late switch to the Renault powerplant that they won’t truly be up to speed until next year, but we can count on Alonso constantly starting on row 3 or 4 and going for any and all gaps. Vandoorne had a really low key rookie campaign and has the great misfortune of being teamed with a teammate crusher, but he showed signs of pace and will now be on display for the world to see as he navigates the battles in this fierce Next Three pack.  We need competition for Max in the future so let’s hope that he is a star in the making.

 

Renault-  It’s time for Renault to stop making excuses for their lack of competitiveness as they have been building up over the past two seasons and start delivering.  This is a factory team with huge resources and I’m sure the company board will start asking questions if they have nothing to show after 2018. In Hulkenberg and Sainz, they possess two drivers in their prime of their careers with much to prove.  For Hulkenberg, it’s a trip to the podium! It’s hard to believe that Hulkenberg is the F1 record holder for the most GP’s without a podium. And for Sainz, he’ll be driving to reclaim his seat at Red Bull and another chance to take on Max. The brilliance of Carlos has been hidden a bit at Toro Rosso and he’s still prone to a foolish mistake 1-2 times per year at the start of a race, but beware of the Spaniard as he now has a legit top 8 car to work with.  Here’s hoping for some epic Alonso-Sainz battles that spill over into the paddock and Spanish media. “Que estabas pensando idiota!?!?”

 

Force India-  If intersquad battles are your thing, then look no further than Force India as the upstart Ocon looks to gain control of the team over the experienced Sergio Perez in his second full season.  At one point last year after a scary coming together on the run down to Eau Rouge at Spa, Ocon tweeted:

 

Damage limitation today, we were having a good race until Perez tried to kill me 2 times! Anyway he didn’t manage to do so ending up P9!

 

Ok this might not have the significance of Senna driving Prost into the wall down the straight at Estoril in ‘88, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.  Perez is a consistent, rapid driver who is top notch at managing tires throughout a race, but Ocon seems to have that special something and is on my radar as a future champion.  He is the property of Mercedes after all, so I could see him taking

This is getting awkward
This is getting awkward

over for a underperforming Bottas or a retiring Hamilton in the next 2 years. In Austin this past year he was on my buzzard radar all weekend and he passed everything that I’m looking for in a driver, including a dirt track moment in the mist where he kept his foot down and fought a massive 4 wheel drift for a few hundred yards.  What is it about the French GP driver? Overall, I’m predicting that Force India’s run of 4th place constructor championship points finishes is under threat from McLaren and Renault.

 

The Rest

 

What is one to do with the remaining four teams that compromise The Rest?  It seems like a lot of money spent just for the honor of being an F1 backmarker.  Miracles can happen though, as Sebastian Vettel demonstrated in the Toro Rosso by winning at Monzo in the wet in 2008.  Or how can one forget Fisichella’s win in the wet in Brazil in 2003 in the lowly Jordan-Ford. Fisi’s next best finish that year was a 7th on his way to 12th in the championship, while Jordan finished 9th out of 10 teams.  On paper the remaining four teams are all very professional racing outfits well stocked with brilliant engineers and talented drivers, but for various circumstances, are still chasing that elusive 1-2 seconds per lap necessary to be a real player.  In other words, sadly, there isn’t an AGS or Andrea Moda to marvel at the incompetency.

 

Williams- It’s sad to see this iconic, historically great team fall into this category but F1 can be a cruel business.  Williams start the year with two inexperienced young pay drivers in Stroll and Sirotkin attempting to extract the maximum out of Paddy Lowe’s first true design after a wildly successful spell at Mercedes.  Winning seems to follow Paddy so keep your eye on this package, but we may be left wondering in the coming years just how good the FW41 really was. It’s just disappointing to see a team that has Nigel-Mansell-Cappitted Jones vs Reutemann, Piquet vs Mansell, Hill vs Villeneuve, running drivers with no chance whatsoever.  I personally feel that they would have been much better off with an old man lineup of Massa and Kubica, or could have done something really cool like going after Felix Rosenqvist and Josef Newgarden. I think I know what Frank and Patrick Head would have done. In fact, any and all motorsport personnel decisions should be based on the question, well what would Frank and Patrick do?   

 

Haas- For a team to start from scratch and achieve what Haas has in their first two years is nothing short of amazing, but as they embark on year three, I’m still seeing them resigned to the 8th placed constructor.  Their partnership with Ferrari has been very beneficial in getting started and in Grosjean and Magnussen they have two drivers capable in getting after it. When Grosjean has a car to his liking he’s a top 10 talent, but his seemingly never ending frustration with the brakes supplied by both Brembo and Carbon Industrie have got to be sorted out immediately.  With Magnussen, they have an uncomplicated second generation racer who has a heavy right foot and no problem telling a rival to, “suck my balls” on tv after a race. Let’s see how long Gene Haas is happy to spend billions just to be #8 in this ultra competitive environment.

 

Toro Rosso-  Wouldn’t it be amazing if Honda got it right this year and propelled their little works team into the fight?  That would be about par for Alonso as he’s usually in the wrong team at the wrong time. Honda was showing signs of real progress towards the end of last year and I found it very telling when Brendon Hartley stated that his ‘18 Toro-Honda has more power than the Renault powered car that he drove at the end of last year.  But this is Scuderia Toro Rosso (formally Minardi) after all, so I expect that they will be relegated to keeping the Williams and Haas cars honest while the drivers fight each other to avoid the dreaded Franz Toast call into the office. Pink slips anyone? Gasly will have a lot of pressure because at 22 years old and the 2016 GP2 champ, his reputation will be at stake if he’s playing second fiddle to Hartley, who at 28 is a dinosaur by F1 rookie standards.  Hartley, with years of factory Porsche WEC and F1 simulator work may be an excellent development driver, but it makes me ask the question: Has the Red Bull young driver pipeline gone dry?

 

Sauber-  And last but not least, it looks like it will be Sauber yet again.  However, with a new significant Alfa Romeo partnership and access to more Ferrari components, this team should be able to avoid getting lonely out there and set their targets on Toro and Haas.  I’ll be very curious to see how Ferrari protege Charles Leclerc fares in his highly anticipated rookie campaign. He looked like a surefire next big thing in GP2 last season, but when I saw him drive in the damp FP1 in Texas, I wasn’t very impressed.  He was tender footing around at the bottom of the time sheets and did nothing that says future world champ. Hopefully he proves me wrong. If he routs veteran teammate Marcus Ericcson and scores a handful of points then he very well may be in Kimi’s seat for 2019.  

 

So after unloading that stream of consciousness, here are the official Bulseyeview picks for 2018:

 

  1. Hamilton – 7 wins
  2. Vettel – 5 Wins
  3. Verstappen – 5 wins
  4. Bottas – 2 wins
  5. Ricciardo –  2 wins
  6. Raikkonen
  7. Alonso
  8. Sainz
  9. Hulkenberg
  10. Ocon
  11. Perez
  12. Vandoorne
  13. Stroll
  14. Grosjean
  15. Sirotkin
  16. Magnussen
  17. Gasly
  18. Hartley
  19. Leclerc
  20. Ericcson

 

Enjoy the Show!

 

Categories
2017 Racing Season

Find Your Way Back

Last weekend I rubbed shoulders with Mika Hakkinen at Laguna Seca, booked a trip to Austin for the USGP, moved into first place of my hotly contested racing fantasy league and watched an amazing Indycar show at the tricky triangle.  The previous weekend I was inspired by the Marquez/Dovi duel at the Red Bull Ring and Kyle Larsen’s mind melting feat of 2nd at The Knoxville Nationals in a 410 Winged sprinter on a Saturday night and 1st the next day in The Cup race at Michigan.  And do I need to remind anybody that Spa is this weekend?  I guess what I’m trying to say is motorsport has found it’s way back into my heart and I’m feeling the need to peck the keys and preach the good word.

 

Motorsport, This song’s for you!

So where do I start?  I have such a blank canvas to work with here.  Because modern motorsports takes quite a bashing on a regular basis, I’ll begin my soliloquy with all the good that exists out there.  

 

The Good

 

We have a legit title fight on our hands in F1 between Vettel and Hamilton!  We’re talking Ferrari vs Mercedes.  Two drivers at the top of their game with a combined 7 world titles already in their trophy cases having at it not just to be the 2017 champion, but to improve upon their place in the Pantheon of the Greats.  Lewis has been sublime on Saturdays with 6 poles to Vettel’s 2, but Seb has been the more consistent operator of the two when it counts and they are currently level at 4 wins apiece.  They started the year a little too friendly towards each-other for my liking, but after rubbing wheels at Barcelona and Lewis then giving Seb the infamous Baku Brake Test, which brought out another episode of “Seb’s Gone Wild” from the normally happy go lucky German, it’s now game on for the final 9 races.  

  • Prediction:  Lewis wins 4, Seb 2, Bottas 2, Max 1.  Trophy to Lewis!!  (Thank God they don’t have a Ladbrokes down the street)

 

Fernando Alonso!  You would think that with a best finish of 6th in 11 races and a DNF at Indy, this year would be considered a complete and utter catastrophe for the Spaniard.  While it must be incredibly frustrating to be in Alonso’s shoes, his reputation as the best in the business has actually gained momentum.  His entire month of May at Indy was just a thing of beauty.  He quickly assimilated to the hang loose world of Indycar and was peddling that cool looking McLaren-orange Dallara like a seasoned Brickyard vet in a matter of hours. In the race he was going to be right there at the finish if it wasn’t for yet another Honda, albeit a HPD built motor, going kablamo and leaving him walking back to the paddock to a rousing standing

A Little R&R
A Little R&R

ovation from the locals  In his regular job, ALO has crushed his highly regarded rookie teammate Stoffel Van Doorne, climbed into a grandstand in Montreal to chill with his peeps after a DNF, set the fastest lap of the race in Budapest and then stole the parc ferme show by reenacting a scene from Brazil last year when he decided to sun himself in a lounge chair after being stranded out on track yet again.  Bravo Mr Alonso for showing us your prodigious skills and newfound sense of humor.

 

Sato wins Indy!  If you have been a regular reader of this blog over the past 5 years, you will know the great admiration that I have for Japanese F1 drivers of the past.  When pressed for my top 5 of all time, Sato is #2 behind the almost mythical Ukyo Katayama.  Witnessing Sato make an outside turn 1 pass stick in the closing stages of The 500 and cross

Ukyo The Great
Ukyo The Great

the row of bricks to take the checkered flag was certainly the high point of my season and something I will not soon forget.

 

Robert Kubica is back!  No not back in a rally car or touring car or some wacky WEC prototype, Kubica is back and ready to resume his F1 career that was tragically cut short six years ago.  After what at first seemed like a publicity stunt by the Renault team to give their former driver a go in a 2012 machine at Valencia, Kubica stunned when he immediately got down to business and made easy work of their regular test driver on hand with no ill effects from the injured arm.  Things really got serious when Kubica was called into the post Budapest test a few weeks back in the 2017 car and he acquitted himself very well.  Considering that he had never sat in the car prior to the test, he was able to do a couple of race distances without putting a wheel wrong and proved that if he can Kubicahandle the Hungaroring, then he’s fit to go.  We at Bulseyeview are hoping and praying that Renault does the right thing and hires the Pole for 2018.  

 

Indycar has a 5 man battle for the title with 3 races remaining and a new bonafide American star!  The Newgarden/Penske combo has the look and feel of a budding dynasty and Jo New’s pass on Power at Mid-Ohio must have made Nigel Mansell drop his 5-iron and applaud.  That fake to the left and cross-over to the right was right out of the Nigel playbook.  Alexander Rossi is also looking like Honda’s favorite son so we may soon see the day of Rossi in a Honda vs Newgarden in a Chevy fighting for Indy glory.  It will be Mikey vs Little Al, Mears vs Sneva, AJ vs Parnelli all over again.  On second thought……..

  • Prediction- Jo New will do just enough to hold off that wily Dixon at the treacherous double point finale at Sears Pt.  Chip will then fire Kanaan, Chilton and Kimball for not looking out for their mate.  Michael Andretti will switch to Chevy, leaving Rossi and Sato to join Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist at Ganassi.

 

Like Indycar, MotoGP also has a 5 man battle for the title with plenty of races still on the calendar!  Marquez, Maverick and Dovi each have 3 wins while Rossi and Dani P are hanging around and staying within striking distance.  Johann Zarco has also shown that he is a man to be reckoned with in the future with a few brilliant rides.  These riders are the last of the maniacs in motorsport and we are lucky to have them in our midst

  • Prediction- When Marquez is not sliding into the gravel on his rear end he’s next to impossible to defeat, so I’m going Marquez, Maverick and Dovi.   

 

Other good things worthy of a mention:  

  • Force India continuing to punch above their budget as best of the rest and their driver combo of Perez and Ocon pushing each other to the limit (and sometimes beyond)
  • Carlos Sainz P9 overall in a Toro Rosso
  • Kyle Larson taking Nascar by storm
  • Indycar rolling out a 2018 car that looks cool and based on Montoya’s feedback, should put more emphasis on driver skill
  • Pirelli World Challenge continuing to gather momentum
  • Penske announcing a full fledged assault on IMSA’s top prototype class with two factory Acura’s, one driven by JPM and Dane Cameron
  • Felix Rosenqvist driving everything under the sun and winning wherever he turns up.
  • Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris looking like the surefire can’t miss next Max Verstappens
  • Next generation drivers with names such as Alesi and Herta winning races in competitive series.
  • The Road to Indy Mazda ladder system  
  • Kamui Kobayashi

 

The Bad

 

Hands down, the most disappointing aspect of the 2017 season is Red Bull’s lack of pace.  If we were treated to Max and Ricciardo mixing it with the Mercs and Ferrari’s on a week in and week out basis, this season would be epic.  I really do think that these two drivers are the key to take F1 to the next level.  Max is like a ticking time bomb ready to go Senna all over us and Ricciardo is the right there in the Lewis, Alonso, Vettel class.  They started the season about 30 seconds slower over a race distance and have more than halved that gap, so if we can just find a few more tenths here and there then they are going to make life miserable for the boys in Silver and Red.  Tickets to Spa are sold out with the Max Army arriving in force so one can only hope that the game begins on Sunday.  

 

Seb Bourdais breaking his pelvis while attempting to qualify for The 500.  Leading up to Indy, Bourdais had been the feel good story of the year for Dale Coyne Racing.  Reunited with his engineer Craig Hampson from their glory days at Newman Haas, they started out the year with amazing strategy calls and won at Homestead and then followed it up with a 2nd at Long Beach.  At Indy, Bourdais had a rocketship and would have likely been a contender for the Borg-Warner trophy until his wicked crash put an end to his season.

 

Quick Easy Quiz to see if you are paying attention: (see answers at the bottom)

 

  1. Name 5 former Indycar winners who sported glasses?
  2. Where was Mika Hakkinen’s first GP?
  3. Who has more Knoxville National Titles between Sammy Swindell and Danny “The Dude” Lasoski?
  4. Did Max Verstappen win the 2014 Euro F3 Title?
  5. Who won the 2017 Long Beach GP?

 

A couple of other bad things to mention:

 

  • The tragic passing of Nicky Hayden from a bicycle accident.  After all of those brutal falls at high speeds, a fricken bicycle accident?  RIP Kentucky Kid.
  • Pay drivers (yes I’m talking to you Lance)
  • Quiet F1 engines
  • DRS zones. Do you remember the days when a pass was a pass?  Think Prost/Senna Portugal ‘88 or Montoya/Schumacher Brazil 2001 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ikq2G-qakY)
  • Fuel Saving
  • The Nascar debri yellow with 10 to go
  • Halos.  These guys signed up for danger so let’s keep it that way
  • Dirty Air

 

A final thought.  Every week it seems like a new major manufacturer is planning to join Formula E.  This almost feels like the manufacturer led breakaway series that we were hearing about a few years back.  The current on track product certainly doesn’t merit being considered a threat to F1, but when you see that Mercedes is dropping the DTM to go electric racing, Porsche is disbanding their Le Mans program to join the fray, BMW is on board, Jaguar, Renault, etc., suddenly this becomes a big deal.  The manufactures will want to win, drivers will want to get paid and the big independents like McLaren and Williams may see this as a new revenue stream for their coffers.  Even Ferrari is turning to hybrid technology for their road cars.  So what if we suddenly see a Max Verstappen or Daniel Ricciardo decide to spearhead a Porsche or Mercedes entry for top $$?  Will that start the fan migration over to the E-side?  I currently don’t watch E but do closely follow their results because the driver lineup is very impressive.  I would say top to bottom, FE is  is on par with Indycar at the moment.  If suddenly a few major stars are in the field, my curiosity would be too much to resist.  Say what you will, but my estimation is 70% of the people who are sitting in the grandstands or watching at home are doing so because of their allegiance to the drivers.  I want to see the best, so if suddenly the best are in FE, that could spell big trouble for F1 as we know it.

 

The Lights Go Out and ……….WHOOSH!!

 

Enjoy the Races!

 

Quiz Ans:  1. Rahal, Moore, PT, Bourdais, JV.  2. Phoenix ‘91. 3. “The Dude”. 4. No – Ocon. 5. Hinch

 

Rare Condor Sighting!
Rare Condor Sighting

 

You Sure You Want to Do This Mika?
You Sure You Want to Do This Mika?

 

Categories
2016 Racing Season

F1 2016 Reflections

Witnessing 21 GP’s in a 37 week span has left me in a bit of a daze.  Toss in 16 Indy car races and 18 MotoGP’s in the same time-frame, on top of the millions of bits of information being spewed out of my iPhone on a daily basis and it’s a recipe for a classic case of information overload.  In an attempt to reminisce and pick out important moments that tell the story of F1 2016, I’m just seeing a streaming highlight reel of the lights going out and cars leaving starting grids, first corner melees, pitstops, DRS assisted passes, sparking skid plates, Max Verstappen, opposite lock, grid girls, Max Verstappen, Bernie’s face, Vettel temper tantrums, my wife giving me a dirty look, Max Verstappen, buzzards racing for a podium ceremony, Ricciardo drinking champagne from a boot, Massa waving a tearful goodbye while Verstappen goes by around the outside of somebody in the wet and finally, Rosberg celebrating the title.  Seriously, what just happened there?  

In the same 37 week span that Donald Trump pulled off the political shocker of a lifetime, Nico performed a minor miracle of his own by taking the fight to teammate Lewis Hamilton and winning the 2016 title.  Similar to the Donald/Hillary battle, Hamilton won the popular vote with 10 wins to Nico’s 9, 17 podiums to Nico’s 16, and 12 poles to Nico’s 8, but Nico was the more consistent performer week in and out and had zero mechanical DNF’s while Lewis suffered one lone catastrophic engine failure while leading in Sepang.  Lewis also had 3 qualifying mechanical issues and quickly went through his five engine allotment, causing him to take a mere 55 grid spot penalty at Spa and start dead last, gifting Nico a Sunday afternoon drive in the park.  And then there were the multiple flubbed starts where Lewis looked like he was dragging an anchor as he struggled to find the bite point in his clutch.   

 

Political Conspiracy Theory:  Mercedes did swap crews before the beginning of the year and one has to wonder if this was the determining factor that tilt the balance of power in Nico’s favor.   

Was there an unseen wave of discontent sweeping through the Mercedes garages among the rank and file employees over Lewis’s me-first antics and elitist celebrity lifestyle that we the fans were not aware of in our left leaning coastal enclaves?  We may never know until Lewis writes his tell all memoir, but it made for an intriguing battle for the sport’s most coveted prize.

 

And then the fun really began.  I’ll be honest, other than Max’s drive in Brazil and the Ricciardo/Max tussle in Malaysia for what ultimately led to the win, this was not a season for the ages.  But when a world champion retires unexpectedly in late November, igniting a raging silly season debate, all is good in the F1 world again.  So in the name of fun and games, here is my quick and dirty version of Nico’s Retirement Trickle Down Musical Chairs.

-Lewis needs a rapid partner, Merc wants a German, so Vettel comes on board

-Ferrari need an ace so they go buy out Ricciardo

-Red Bull want a constructors title so they grab Alonso

-McLaren need a #1 so they hire Bottas

-Williams then grab Perez claiming long term stability

-Causing Force India to go get Carlos Sainz Jr

-Toro Roso then grab Pascal Wehrlein

-And place Pierre Gasly with Manor

Damn I was hoping to include Renault, Haas and Sauber in this but it’s just not working out.

So here is my 2017 Grid:

Mercedes: Hamilton, Vettel

Red Bull:  Max, Alonso

Ferrari:  Ricciardo, Kimi

McLaren: Bottas, Vandoorne

Force India:  Sainz Jr, Ocon

Williams:  Perez, Stroll

Toro Roso: Wehrlein, Kvyat

Haas: Grosjean, Magnussen

Renault: Hulkenberg, Palmer

Sauber: Ericsson, Nasr

Manor: Gasly, LeClerc

Totally farcical, but you can’t tell me that you wouldn’t be counting the days to Melbourne if that was the new lineup.  

One thing is for certain, there is new talent coming up through the ranks and the departures of Nico, JB and Massa are going to open doors for these new kids to show their stuff.  In fact, there should be a new rule against a driver overstaying his useful life and keeping the new blood from moving up.  At a certain point around 35, a driver really is just pounding around for dollars and doesn’t possess the same passion and fire that he (or she) had at 25.  It’s human nature in any sporting endeavor.

So, the new rule is as follows:

No driver shall be able to participate in a F1 race over the age of 35 unless they have been granted a past champions extension.  To be granted this extension, a past F1 World Champion can elect to continue racing for an additional season over the age of 35 for each championship that they have won.  For instance, Alonso is 35 but has two titles so he can race to 37.  Jenson Button at 36 just used his 1 year champions extension so he is timed out.  Massa at 35 is also timed out.  And I hate to say it, but Kimi at 37 is also one year past his expiration date.  

Message to Massa and JB:  Thanks for entertaining us for many years and a heartfelt congrats on all of your successes, now off to sports cars you go.  I hope to see you piloting a Ferrari GT or prototype machine a track near me soon.

Now back to the subject of Nico deciding to turn in his gloves after finally reaching the pinnacle at the relatively young age of 31.  There has been plenty of speculation, but in my opinion it sounds like he sold his soul to beat Lewis and just doesn’t have it in him to dig that deep again.  Fair enough, champions seldom repeat in any sport and F1 drivers are no different.  Here then, is a look back at how a few noteworthy past champions defended or headed for the hills following a title run (from 1981-Present):

1981 – 1982: To close out the ‘81 season, Nelson Piquet in a Brabham snatched the title from Carlos Reutemann and Jacques Laffitte at the final round in the parking lot of Caesars Palace.  The next season, Brabham switched from a Cosworth V-8 to a BMW Turbo powerplant and Mr Piquet, not keen on being a test mule, finished a lowly 11th in the championship.

1984 – 1985:  In the ‘84 season Niki Lauda clearly tempted the law of averages to beat Alain Prost by ½ point for the title, because in ‘85, Prost won the title and outscored Lauda 73-14.  Note- Lauda was 36 years old during the ‘85 season.  Note II:  Former 1980 world champion, Alan Jones, came out of retirement with a solid Fosters beer belly to drive around in the original Haas F1 team.  

1987 – 1988:  Nelson Piquet won the ‘87 title after two seasons of insane psychological warfare with teammate Nigel Mansell and decided to bolt for Team Camel Lotus and teammate Satoru Nakajima.  In ‘88 Piquet drove for dollars to 6th in the championship, just ahead of Ivan Capelli and Derek Warwick.

1992 – 1993:  Ah the glory days of bizarre behavior and driver feuds!  Nigel Mansell blitzed the field in ‘92 in the potent Williams FW14B and then decided to leave F1 altogether for CART!!  Alain Prost, who was fired by Ferrari near the end of the ‘91 season and sat out ‘92, was drafted in to continue the Williams dominance with Damon Hill as his teammate and won the title in his sleep.  And to top it off, Prost then retired for good with his 4th title to make way for Ayrton at Williams in ‘94.  ‘93 Fun flashback –  Ayrton  was partnered by Michael Andretti for 13 rounds with an under-powered Cosworth V-8 and a young lad named Schumacher won his first GP in Estoril.

1995 – 1996 – 1997:  After winning the ‘94 and ‘95 titles for Benetton, Schumacher left the team to restore glory to a Ferrari team in disarray.  This opened the door for Damon Hill to beat his rookie teammate Jacques Villeneuve to the ‘96 title while Schumi finished 3rd, some 40 plus points behind Hill.  Damon Hill then couldn’t put together a deal with Williams to defend his title so he spent the ‘97 season plunking around in a Arrows-Yamaha and finished a lowly 12th in points!

Mika Hakkinen:  After striking a deal with Ukko, the Mythical Finnish God of the sky, weather and crops, to win the ‘98 and ‘99 titles over Schumacher and finishing a fighting 2nd to Schumi in 2000, Mika lost the fire in 2001 and hung up his helmet at the end of the season.  Age – 33.  Perhaps Mika accelerated his motivational curve by 2-3 years due to too many years of being sponsored by Marlboro and West?

Michael Schumacher:  After rewriting the record book at Ferrari, Michael was defeated by a young Alonso in 2005 and 2006 and decided to go play with motorcycles.  Note: In 2005, Michael Schumacher was 36 years old!  And of course then the crazy SOB came back at 41 to take on Rosberg at Mercedes for 3 years.  (But then again Michael did qualify for 7 extra years of racing due to his 7 titles!)

Alright enough with the history lesson.  We know that Kimi won a title at Ferrari and the following year was no match for Massa.  The lesson here is Nico is not unique to running out of motivation.  It’s happens, and good on him to get out while he’s on top.  It must burn Hamilton to know that he isn’t going to get the opportunity for revenge.  

The question of the day is:  Will Nico be able to stay away for good as he has indicated?  Changing diapers and hanging out with the wife is great and all, but to go from F1 hero to domestic dad in a week will be a shocker.  Especially when Ferrari may be looking for a Kimi replacement at the end of next season.  Like many before him, he may have to ease into this retirement business with the DTM or a LeMans program.  Then again who knows, I saw him trying to lead the Tifosi through ‘Seven Nation Army’ on the podium this year so maybe he has the German pop charts next in his sights?

 

Well Happy Holidays and here’s to hoping that 2017 will bring about another golden era of the sport.  The driving talent is there and the new cars look pretty awesome on paper, so let the design race begin and bring on Melbourne.

And a shout out to Simon Pagenaud, Marc Marquez, and Jimmy Johnson for taking care of business.