Categories
2024 Racing Season

Bearmania

Two races down, twenty-two to go and while it’s business as usual at the sharp end of the grid, F1 never suffers from a shortage of drama and intrigue.  As I mentioned in my season preview, 2024 is The Year Of The Silly Season and as we’ve witnessed in just a quick fortnight, things are downright silly out there!  

What is going on at Red Bull?  As a fellow buzzard stated last week, this has all the makings of a season of Succession. In Bahrain, we had Jos publicly stating that Horner had to go or else the team would implode and was seen multiple times huddling around Toto Wolff.  And then there was the anonymously leaked email detailing the allegations made against Horner by a female employee of the team that arrived to select media and F1 team personnel during a live practice session.  My hope is that Marko didn’t realize the Netflix cameras were following him when he snuck through the garage to the hospitality center to send The Anonymous Email.  After a perfect weekend on the track for RBR, it was reported that Horner had the support of the Thai board members who possess 51% of the voting rights in the company, in addition to the current sponsors, business affiliates and team personnel.  Advantage Horner.  A week later in Saudi it felt like the news of Marko’s demise was imminent until Max, who had been doing an admirable job of toeing the company line, dropped the bomb and said if Marko goes, he goes.  So who is going to go and what is the better option for the team moving forward?

Who would you rather see go?:

A. Horner, Newey, Ford and a few blue chip sponsors.

B. Max, Marko, and Jos.

If you chose A, skip ahead to 2026 when the team is in disarray trying to come to grips with a new rules package with an 80+ year old leader at the helm. (hmm, sounds a bit like the country on my passport).  Max is pissed, Jos is pissed, and civil war ensues.

If you chose B, skip ahead to watching Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz battle it out for the championship in the 2025 Newey designed car while Max is bringing home a bunch of 4th’s in the Mercedes.  

And in other news, how about Ollie Bearman!  From the category of, You Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up, comes Bearman, an 18 year old Brit who received the shock call up of a lifetime.  For those who don’t follow this sport closely, Bearman is a hot shit prospect who looked destined for F1 after finishing 3rd as a 17 year old in his inaugural F2 campaign last year.  But the thought of an 18 year old getting called up to drive for Ferrari a few hours before FP3 on an incredibly demanding street circuit with the world watching is beyond comprehension.    

I’ve been trying to think of the American sport equivalent and it would be like a Triple A pitcher getting called up to the Yankees (at 18 years old!) and starting the following day AND going 7 innings and allowing 2 runs.  Or a kid getting the call up from the Lakers G league team and finding that Anthony Davis is out that night and he’s up on the board as the starting center.  Suddenly the kid finds himself setting picks for LeBron and finishing around the rim like a veteran.  It’s essentially unheard of!  

As the lights went out, I was locked in on row 6 with both hands ready to cover my eyes.  Bearman made a clean start and aggressively placed his nose up the inside of Tsunoda multiple times on the first lap.  I kept waiting to see a red car go careening into the barriers with carbon fiber and wheels flying everywhere, but Bearman wisely didn’t force the issue and used the DRS to his advantage to slip on by.  Every time the cameras zoomed in on Mr. Bearman in the Ferrari garage, he looked like he was on the verge of passing out.  It was great stuff, and for a final exam in this 48hr F1 driver crash course, The Bear (can’t wait for the bad nicknames) had to soak up the pressure of Norris and Hamilton closing quickly on softs over the final laps.  My first thought was to text out to a few friends that Ferrari signed the wrong Brit for 2025, but I thought better of it.  Regardless, what a cool story and I’m officially on the Bearman Bandwagon for ‘25.  Do the right thing Gene!

In fact, here is a new idea to spice up the show:  At every race after FP2, a blind draw is held to see which team has to run their 3rd driver for the rest of the weekend.  The team can choose which driver to replace and is no longer eligible to be chosen if they have already used the 3rd driver twice.  So 20 races per year, we will get the Bearman scenario.  There is a big logjam of talent waiting in the wings so who knows, maybe one of these 3rd drivers is the next Schumacher. 

In the season preview, BEV had a bunch of questions for each team.  After two races, I think we have our answers:

Red Bull – Will Perez buckle under the pressure of being the perfect #2?  So far he looks like the perfect #2.  As long as Red Bull have a car that is 20+ seconds better than the rest, Perez is perfect.  What happens though if it’s only a 10 second gap?  Will there be an exodus if Horner is forced to resign?  TBD  Did they get too greedy in coming up with a unique new design rather than sticking with an evolution of the old 22 out of 23 race winning warhorse?  No, they nailed it!

Mercedes – At what point do they start to phase out Lewis and put all of their energies and development bits into Russell’s side of the garage?  Looks like Lewis has already phased himself out with another car not capable of getting near a win. Who the heck are they going to sign? Ask Jos.   Do they have the engineering staff in place to regain the upper hand come 2026?  I’m starting to think the answer is No.  They had their incredible 8 year run but this is now three years where they can’t get close to a Red Bull with no end in sight.

Ferrari – Have they found a solution for their long run tire woes?  It seems like they are in a much better place with the tires at the moment.  Same as above regarding Hamilton, at what point do they phase out Sainz?  They got Bearman baby!  After pulling off the Hamilton signing coup, can Fred Vasseur assemble the technical team to return Ferrari to glory?  If Red Bull blows up, there will be a lot of key personnel there for the taking.

McLaren – Will they start the year on competitive footing to make a run at second in the constructors race?  They look much better than last year, but still have a ways to go to surpass Ferrari. Will Piastri make the 2nd year leap and give Norris a real fight for inter team superiority? The leap seems real.  He outqualified and beat Lando in Saudi. I’m still calling it advantage Lando, but let’s see what the next few races have in store.  Can Zak Brown set the record for most blue chip sponsors on the side of a car?  Why yes, of course.

Aston Martin – Will Lawrence Stroll be able to accept being a 5th place team or will he tire of mediocrity and cut bait?  TBD.  Can Lance close the massive gap to Alonso?  No, and his early crash out of the points in Saudi won’t help his reputation much.  And if not, does he keep his seat as long as pops owns the team?  Get Drugovich in there!

Alpine – Who will emerge as the victor in the Ocon v Gasly battle?  Who cares, this team is fighting for survival.  Who is now managing this team and will they last a season?  Seems like everyone quit after they saw the car on track in Bahrain.  Is the Renault board still all in on F1 knowing they could sell the team for a massive sum?  Heads will be rolling, again.

VCARB – Can Danny Ric get the upper hand on year 4 Yuki? Nope.  Yuki owns D. Ric.  Will this be the surprise team who claim a fighting 5th in the constructors championship?  Sadly, no, 6th is their best case scenario.  

Stake – Will the Sauber gang do anything noteworthy this year?  Not unless you consider wheels not coming off during pitstops as noteworthy.

Williams – Will Sargeant become a respectable F1 driver this season in year 2? Not looking good. Is James Vowles the man to lead Williams back into the hunt for race wins?  Seems like a smart engineer, so maybe not wins but respectability.  Can the team retain Albon if they show significant gains?  If he doesn’t go to RBR, he’s probably stuck at Williams.

Haas – When will Gene give up the fight and sell? (Andretti-Cadillac anyone?).  Kudos to Haas for winning the coveted 10th place prize in Saudi.  Hire Bearman.

See you next month with more F1 insanity.

Categories
2024 Racing Season

F1 2024

(Editors note- As I was getting ready to publish, the news that Horner is keeping his job went public. Some of the content below covers what a post Horner Red Bull would have looked like.)

The 2024 F1 season is officially here and fans the world over are anxiously waiting to find out………Who will Mercedes hire to replace Lewis, will Checo keep his Red Bull seat, where will Sainz land, will Horner get sacked at Red Bull for inappropriate behavior, can Lewis and Ferrari win in ‘25??  Yes, 2024 is officially the year of The Silly Season.  Barring some really bizarre circumstances, it’s a foregone conclusion that Max will cruise to a 4th world title so let’s just crown the champ now and get into the good gossip!

I have to confess, I will still attempt to watch every single lap of every race, Max domination or not, but I’m more excited for the game of musical chairs that is about to take place than spending 100+ hours on the couch watching Max look like he’s on a Sunday drive along the coast.  F1 has always been part sport, part soap opera, and this season is shaping up to be a Netflix directors fantasy.  I spent the better part of an hour last night watching the sad plight of Nyck de Vries in his failed Alpha Tauri rookie season in the latest Drive To Survive episode 2, so can you imagine how dramatic it will feel when the heavyweights start swapping around?  Move over Kardashians!  Similar to what the NBA is experiencing at the moment, the actual race broadcast numbers will likely decline drastically due to the predictable outcomes over 24 races, but social engagement through the various platforms should go through the roof when some spicy news hits the wire.  Is there a media insider who breaks the news before the teams announce it?  I want Ted Kravitz dropping Twitter (X) bombs.

To recap, this all got started when Lewis Hamilton shocked the world and announced that after 10 years and 6 world titles with Mercedes, he was trading his silver overalls at the end of the year for the red of Ferrari in 2025.  Interesting side note, after Ferrari announced the signing, their stock price jumped 12%, adding $10 billion in market cap.  Do you think Lewis deserves a raise?  On top of this, Red Bull has very publicly stated that Perez must improve his performance over the second part of last year or he is out.  Can you imagine, a Mercedes and a Red Bull seat up for grabs at the same time?  

This thought calls for a fantasy timeout:  The worst case scenario is that Sainz signs with Mercedes and Perez does enough to keep his seat at Red Bull.  This would crush dreams and put the silly season to rest in seconds.  However, let’s say that Sainz does decide that he is the man to spearhead the Audi F1 project into the future and Perez buckles under the Red Bull pressure, then, oh yes, we would be looking at full scale change of epic proportions.

Under this scenario, here is how I envision it all playing out:  

Two things that seem solid for ‘25 is Ferrari will have Hamilton and Leclerc and McLaren will have Norris and Piastri. From there, let’s get crazy.

Mercedes – Toto smiles that devilish grin and mutters “Fuck You Lewis” under his breath as he signs Fernando Alonso to a two year deal to team up with George Russell.

Red Bull does a deep dive into its past drivers Sainz, Danny Ric, Gasly and Albon and comes to the conclusion that it’s none other than Sainz who they have been missing all these years.  Max, now firmly confident in his place within the team, green lights the move for Carlos to come home.  

Aston Martin – Lawrence Stroll, feeling the strain of world domination slipping from his fingers, signs Pierre Gasly to replace Alsono and tells son Lance that ‘25 will be his last year before moving into management to make way for Honda’s golden boy, Yuki Tsunoda.  

Alpine- Fading into irrelevance, Alpine do the sensible thing and promote academy driver Jack Doohan to team with Ocon.

Visa Cash App RB (VCARB): After finding that Yuki is going with Honda to Aston in ‘26, VCARB promote Liam Lawson to team with the always smiling Danny Ric, forming a Down Under super team.

Sauber-Stake-Audi:  Planning for the future, Audi start working behind the scenes and pry Alex Albon out of his Williams contract while signing Nico Hulkenberg to be their initial guys to launch their assault on the F1 world championship.

Williams:  Seeing the value in Checo as a development driver and North American sponsor magnate, Williams bring in Perez to be the benchmark for young Kimi Antonelli, on loan from Toto for two years.  

Haas – Picking last after all the moves have been made, Haas go with Ferrari academy driver Ollie Bearman to team with the veteran Kevin Magnussen.  

In this world, Bottas, Zhou, and Logan Sargeant are left without seats while Yuki spends ‘25 on the sidelines.  Will this happen?  No way, but I’d love to see it.  

So, back to this business of F1 racing, 2024 style.  We know that Max will be the champ and could conceivably win another 20+ races, but after that, there is a fascinating eight man battle shaping up for second.  Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Perez and Alonso all fighting to fill out the podium will be my focus for the season.  Even if Max is some twenty seconds up the road, the thought of drivers and teams of this caliber duking it out should make for fun tv.  In fact, I’m hoping that Oracle will be left disappointed with their tv exposure figures because the world feed director will spend the majority of the show riveted to this pack of eight.  Max can watch from the trackside screens like the rest of us if he wants to feel involved.   

Why will it be so close (for second, of course)?  This is year 3 of rules stability and the word of the day that you will likely see thrown around is Convergence.  The teams have all had three years to copy each other, hence bringing about convergence from top to bottom, and with zero driver turnover this past year, the engineers have hopefully been able to take the drivers feedback and come up with solutions that plagued their ‘23 cars.  The Ferrari should be nicer to its tires, the Mercedes more predictable on turn in, the McLarens better mid corner and the Aston faster in a straight line.  It’s just too bad that Red Bull appear to have come up with a revolutionary design that has measurably improved upon the all conquering RB19. 

Either way,  It will be exciting to watch these guys go into Q2 and Q3 with zero margin for error and then get after it on Sundays.  And if racing for 10th place is your thing, then you are in for a big year!  The 8-pack plus Max equals 9, so we should have the rest of the grid scratching and clawing for that elusive single point awarded to 10th.  (Note – If this sounds boring and you enjoy watching racing to see dramatic finishes for victory, then I recommend watching Moto3 motorcycle racing or go visit your local dirt or kart track.)

Now it’s time for Bulseyeview Wants To Know brought to you by The Onion | America’s Finest News Source:

Red Bull – Will Perez buckle under the pressure of being the perfect #2?  Will there be an exodus if Horner is forced to resign?  Did they get too greedy in coming up with a unique new design rather than sticking with an evolution of the old 22 out of 23 race winning warhorse?  

Mercedes – At what point do they start to phase out Lewis and put all of their energies and development bits into Russell’s side of the garage?  Who the heck are they going to sign?  Do they have the engineering staff in place to regain the upper hand come 2026?

Ferrari – Have they found a solution for their long run tire woes?  Same as above regarding Hamilton, at what point do they phase out Sainz?  After pulling off the Hamilton signing coup, can Fred Vasseur assemble the technical team to return Ferrari to glory?

McLaren – Will they start the year on competitive footing to make a run at second in the constructors race?  Will Piastri make the 2nd year leap and give Norris a real fight for inter team superiority? Can Zak Brown set the record for most blue chip sponsors on the side of a car?

Aston Martin – Will Lawrence Stroll be able to accept being a 5th place team or will he tire of mediocrity and cut bait?  Can Lance close the massive gap to Alonso?  And if not, does he keep his seat as long as pops owns the team?

Alpine – Who will emerge as the victor in the Ocon v Gasly battle?  Who is now managing this team and will they last a season?  Is the Renault board still all in on F1 knowing they could sell the team for a massive sum?

VCARB – Can Danny Ric get the upper hand on year 4 Yuki?  Will this be the surprise team who claim a fighting 5th in the constructors championship?  

Stake – Will the Sauber gang do anything noteworthy this year?

Williams – Will Sargeant become a respectable F1 driver this season in year 2?  Is James Vowles the man to lead Williams back into the hunt for race wins?  Can the team retain Albon if they show significant gains?

Haas – When will Gene give up the fight and sell? (Andretti-Cadillac anyone?).  

With that, here is a Bold Claim:

Horner gets fired, causing Adrian Newey to rethink his place within the team and the world at large.  He’s conquered the world with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, but there is one team outside of England who is the grandest of them all.  They just signed Lewis Hamilton.  Winter and spring in Italy are lovely.  The food and wine in the region is excellent.  The cycling and motorcycling is about perfect.  Maybe, this would be a fun chapter to close out a glorious F1 career?

Fast Forward to 2029:  After Verstappen easily won the ‘24 and ‘25 titles, the Adrian Newey penned ‘26 Ferrari came out and decimated the field, allowing Lewis Hamilton to win his coveted 8th WDC.  Struggling to get anywhere near the pace of the Ferrari in the Red Bull-Ford entry, team Verstappen forced their way out of Red Bull and into the arms of Vasseur to partner Hamilton.  (And cue to the Prost v Senna ‘88 documentary).  In ‘27, Max reasserted his dominance to win his 6th title with little resistance from Hamilton.  In ‘28, Lewis dug deep and used canny old man Niki Lauda style tricks to get into the head of Max, who made a series of bizarre driving errors, allowing Hamilton to steal #9 and retire as the GOAT.  

(Note – The GOAT designation didn’t last long because starting in ‘29, Google F1 entered their AI designed car piloted by Lighting Bigsby, the best AI pilot the world has ever seen, and won an astonishing 734 races in a row without ever making a single mistake. The podium celebrations became slightly awkward but Google remedied it by placing a cute robot into the cockpit who would then go up to the podium and was capable of spraying champagne.  Google even came up with their own company anthem that accompanied each win).

Should I send this idea to the Brad Pitt movie team to save them from making another version of Driven?

Here are the picks:

Verstappen – 19 wins

Perez – 2 wins

Leclerc – 1 win

Russell – 1 win

Hamilton

Sainz – 1 win

Norris

Alonso

Piastri

Danny Ric

Stroll

Tsunoda

Gasly

Ocon

Albon

Bottas

Zhou

Hulkenberg

Sargeant

Magnussen

Do yourself a favor and check out the MotoGP Ducati wars and don’t forget to support your local Indycar series.  Here’s to a safe and exciting season!

Categories
2023 Racing Season

F1 ’23 RECAP

F1 2023 has been relegated to the history books and 30 years from now when I ask my AI companion to tell me in great detail about the ‘23 F1 season, my companion will gaze at me as only a lovable robot buddy can and provide a simple one word answer:  Verstappen.  To that response I will say, “Ah yes, the Verstappen years indeed.  Now buddy, would you be kind enough to draw my bath and prepare my sleeping chamber.”

The RB19 in the hands of Verstappen was utterly dominant and will undoubtedly keep the rest of the paddock up late into the wee hours throughout the winter trying to uncover the secret. What was the secret?  What sort of aero wizardry did Adrian Newey discover that made the car so kind to its rubber, so fast on the straights, so stable in the fast corners, slow corners and on the brakes?  How did Max make it look like a Sunday drive in the park and win 19/22 races while the rest of the field struggled?   I’m envisioning a private room at the Red Bull holiday party deep in the Tyrolean mountains where the top brass and Max are all raising a glass of fine Veltliner and toasting to The Secret.  Meanwhile, Sergio Perez is in the lobby area having an awkward conversation with an admin staffer who has consumed too many Red Bull-vodkas.  

The season got off to an ominous start in Bahrain when it was quickly evident that neither Mercedes nor Ferrari had created a Red Bull beater and in fact, Red Bull had widened the gap. Max led Perez home by 11 seconds, while that old wily Alonso was the surprise of the weekend in his Aston Martin debut, scoring a podium +38 secs to Max.  Sainz was the lead Ferrari in 4th, +48 secs back and Hamilton led the Merc charge in 5th, +50 seconds back.  Sadly after just this lone race, it was obvious that the Red Bull advantage was insurmountable. 

The next race in Saudi Arabia provided a little extra drama when Max had mechanical issues in qualifying and was forced to start 15th, while Checo was on pole.  In the race Perez had a relatively easy time of it, beating Max to the flag by 5 seconds.  It was business as usual in Australia where Max took the win with Perez a messy 5th.  If you want to say that there was a turning point in the season, you have to look at the 4th race in Baku.  Perez arrived looking like the street maestro and flat out beat Max.  He out-qualified him, he won the sprint on Saturday and he won the race on Sunday.  Afterwards, Checo was talking about the drivers championship like he was in it to win it.  Meanwhile, no doubt fuming on the inside, Max claimed that he spent the race messing with his settings and discovered something that he later on admitted propelled him for the rest of the season.  Did he unlock the secret?  Whatever he learned about the RB19 in Baku, he suddenly became a party of one, winning 17 of the final 18 races and setting all sorts of records in the process.  

For those of you who have been around for a while, think about this:  19 wins in 1 season is only one less than 2- time world champion Mika Hakkinen achieved in his career.  It’s mind boggling stuff.  

So is it time to anoint Max as the GOAT?  It’s an interesting thought, but I think I need to see Max switch teams and win again before crowning him.  During my time following this circus religiously, Prost*, Piquet, Schumacher and Hamilton have all won titles driving for more than one team.  Alonso came extremely close, Vettel came reasonably close, and I’m sure Senna would have won multiple titles at Williams had he survived, but I need confirmation that this isn’t another example of Vettel exploiting a Newey design masterstroke.  Remember, at one point Vettel won 4 titles in a row and was looking like he belonged in the discussion, until he was first beaten by Danny Ric at the beginning of the hybrid era within the team and then became a quick driver prone to making horrible mistakes at Ferrari.  I think Max may just be the guy, but he’s not better than Senna or Prost in my eyes until he goes to a competitor, crushes more teammates and wins more titles.  

*The little professor was darn close to winning titles for 4 different teams.  In ‘83 he led the championship in a Renault until the final race, when a DNF handed the title to Piquet in the surging Brabham BMW.  Prost then took the fight to Senna for Ferrari in ‘90 until the infamous Senna Suzuka payback ended that championship in the turn one gravel trap.  

That said, here are a few categories that rank the current crop of 20 drivers based on what I saw this year.  This does not reflect the fact that some of these guys are young and may still be getting better.  

Max Class

Max Verstappen- Complete package.  Crazy quick, ultra competitive, loves driving, doesn’t feel pressure……I could go on and on.

Genius but Human

Hamilton- Amazing feel, may not be quite as motivated racing for second in his twilight years.

Leclerc- One lap wonder, great race craft, might not be mentally ready to take on Max. And hallelujah to that.  I like my Ferrari drivers quick and overly passionate.

Alonso- Relentless, fast, smart, usually leaves a team on bad terms after 3-4 seasons.

Excellent

Norris- Massive talent waiting for the car to give him that first win.  Made too many mistakes in qualifying late in the year when he had the second best package.

Russell- Put in his place by Hamilton this year, Russell is a big talent and seems like a confident, team leader in waiting.

Sainz- Brilliant drives in Singapore and Monza, quick and experienced, good teammate.  

Really Good

Piastri- Fought through a really tough beginning to the season and emerged as the golden child.  Great kid, super quick, needs to learn how to manage the tires in order to threaten Norris.

Gasly- Quick, tough, experienced.  With all the administrative chaos at Alpine this year he kept his head down and got on with it.  Welcome to driving for the French National team!

Albon- The man who finished 3rd to Russell and Norris in the 2018 F2 championship looks like a rock steady driver who will have a long career at Williams.  

Ocon- See comments for Gasly above.  This guy is a fighter who matched Alonso at Alpine.

Liam Lawson- Got thrown into the deep end after the Danny Ric injury at Zandvoort and made the most of his big break.  Essentially matched Tsunoda right of the box and scored points in Singapore, while finishing 11th in Italy and Japan.  

Pretty Good

Perez- Brilliant start to the year unraveled quickly starting in Monaco.  He incredibly failed to reach Q3 eight times over the season and seemed to be crushed by the relentless speed of Max.  Throughout the chaos, he still emerged 2nd in the drivers standings.

Yuki- He’s now a legitimately quick, experienced driver who has earned a 4th season in the merciless Red Bull camp.  Give him a decent car and look out.

Hulkenberg- Returned after a couple of years away playing with his kids and was startlingly quick in the Haas.  Sadly, the tire eating Haas chassis left him fighting for scraps on Sundays.

Average

Stroll- Hard to call P10 in the drivers standings average for young Stroll but seeing that his teammate was 4th and 132 points ahead makes you realize that he had a pretty great package at his disposal.  What is Aston to do if they have aspirations of climbing the constructors standings?

Bottas- Fun guy, bad car.  What can you do?  He doesn’t seem to have much on Zhou which I would like to see if I’m evaluating him for a drive when the team becomes Audi.  

Magnussen- Out qualified by Hulk 15-7 and outscored 9-3.  

Danny Ric- Great to see him back, but other than a nice weekend in Texas, he seemed to have a difficult time matching Yuki.  I know he’s marketing gold, but put Lawson in the seat!

Guanyu- Alfa (Sauber) is like a ghost team out there but the record shows that Z recorded 6 points.  His head to head with Bottas was 7-15 in qualifying, 10-12 in the races, and 6-10 in points.  

DeVries- Got the ‘ol Tost chop rather quickly but didn’t seem like he was making a complete fool of himself.

Yikes

Logan Sargeant- Tough to beat up on a rookie driver in a Williams, but that was a poor season.  Shocking that he’s back for another.  LS left a lot of expensive body work and parts in the tire barriers and guardrails of F1 circuits around the globe.  Out qualified 22-0 and outscored 27-1 by Albon. 

Time For A Rant

There are too many races.  It was amazing to see Drive to Survive propel the sport into the global mainstream, but now Liberty Media are starting to look downright greedy.  I understand that they are in the business of creating wealth for their shareholders, but I feel like they’ve reached the oversaturation point and people are going to start losing interest, especially with Max likely dominating again in ‘24.  It’s hard to tell a great story when all 24 chapters are very predictable and you can see the obvious outcome from a mile away.  Enough with these jetlagged drivers and teams going through the motions week in and week out.  I’m waiting for the day that Lewis Hamilton says, “Hola Mexico” to the fans in Brazil.  Back in the days of 16 races, each one felt like a crucial event towards crowning a champion and the waiting part for the next one generated even more buzz.  (at least that’s how the world felt to me pre internet – lol)

So Liberty Media, I took the liberty to pare your schedule down to 18 races.  Out are the majority of what I refer to as the Paddock Club grands prix, where the circuits and stands are totally devoid of any real soul, but the teams are hard at work entertaining high net worth individuals with the hope of receiving large checks in the form of sponsorship.  Do we really need 4 races in the F1 rabid Persian Gulf region? (I can just hear Zak Brown protesting now)  Therefore, with apologies to all who are affected, the following GP’s have been canceled for ‘24: Saudi Arabia, Miami, Imola, Baku, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.  (Zak Brown has now blacked out standing up and face planted on the ‘93 MP4/8 in the McLaren showroom)

This leaves the following schedule for the Max Domination Tour ‘24:

Bahrain

Australia

Japan

China

Monaco

Canada

Spain

Austria

England

Hungary

Belgium

Holland

Italy

Singapore

Austin

Mexico

Brazil

Vegas – Yes, Vegas is so silly and outrageous it has to stay and become the finale, just to really mix things up.

Here are a few final awards to close out the season:

I’m tempted to just say, “Red Bull, well done, take ‘em all home and that’s a wrap, thanks for coming and see you next year.”  But there has to be a few other things to praise so I’ll try to get creative here.

The OpenAI In Season Development Award

McLaren started the year looking like one of the worst cars on the grid by the final race they were arguably the second best team.  Think about this, after the first 8 rounds they had a total of 17 points and they finished the year with 302.  I did a little calculating and if you total constructors points from Austria through Abu Dhabi, here are the totals:

Red Bull – 539

McLaren – 285

Ferrari – 284

Mercedes – 242

In Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri they have an amazing young driver lineup, Zak Brown is a sponsor magnet and they just upped their Mercedes engine deal until 2030. Exciting times ahead for the papaya cars.  

The Grecian Formula Legends Award

It was great to see Fernando Alonso get his hands on a good car again to remind us that he is a master of his craft.  While Ferrari, Merc and McLaren all started the year struggling, Aston Martin came out of the blocks with a well balanced car that Alonso took to 6 podiums in the first 8 races.  Unfortunately, Aston were not able to develop their package as quickly as the teams around them, but Alonso closed the year with an amazing battle with Perez for a podium in Brazil and then passed Yuki Tsunoda on the very last lap in Abu Dhabi for 7th to secure 4th overall in the drivers standings.  

The Ayrton Senna Foundation One Lap Wonder Award:

Sorry Max, The recipient of the ASFOLWA this year is Charles Leclerc. (pan to crowd and see a visibly shaken Max table).  Leclerc, by virtue of his 5 poles, gets the award for always being able to pull out an impressive flier when it counts.  In fact, if you look at pole positions as a whole, Red Bull only beat Ferrari by a score of 14-7.  

The Apprentice Team Chaos Award

Alpine, no surprise, wins the 2023 award for team chaos.  When Alpine CEO and F1 newbie Laurent Rossi went public with the manufacturers intention to be title contenders after 100 races, I’m sure there were more than a few smirks from their rivals up and down the pitlane.  Fast forward a couple of years and after losing Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri to McLaren and Alonso to Aston Martin, suddenly we were told that they may need 120 races.  It was clear from the beginning of this year that they were going to have a very difficult time matching the 4th in the constructors that they achieved in ‘22 and after both cars crashed out of solid points paying positions and ended up totalled against the turn 2 wall in Melbourne, Rossi lost it and called the team amateurish.  Needless to say, these comments didn’t go over well with the Renault board and within a few months Rossi was sacked, team principal Otmar Szafnauer was out, and sporting director Alan Premane, a 30+ year employee of the team dating back to the Benetton days, was sent packing as well.  In the end, Alpine finished a lonely 6th in the constructors championship with Gasly and Ocon each getting one podium.  

Final Thought:  Would Liberty Media and FOM just please allow this Andretti-Cadillac entry already?  In my opinion it’s a win all the way around.  If they are a complete disaster and only last 3-5 years, then you have collected their $200m and everyone gets to say, I told you so, and feel all high and mighty.  If they become a solid midpack team with a GM motor and an American driver, then they are adding real value to the TV/social media world.  And in some crazy scenario that they become title contenders with an America vs the world attitude, F1 views and clicks will get pushed into the stratosphere.  Let’s Make America Great Again!  

Happy Holidays

Categories
2023 Racing Season

F1 2023

Greetings Racefans!  Who is ready for some exciting Formula 1?  I know I am.  I can’t wait to see if Jos Verstappen can win the drivers championship, the constructors championship and the Indy 500.  It’s going to be awesome to see Lewis Hamilton in that silver Mercedes speed through the corners.  I’m predicting that Mr Hamilton wins his 3rd championship.  And what about Gunther Steiner?  That guy is crazy.  How many times is he going to say, “Fucking Hulkenberg!” this season?  Speaking of Fucking Hulkenberg, how does that German guy have a ride again while Danny is a spectator?  We all love Danny, so why no Danny at Haas?  Danny won in the McLaren and the Arrows, so why not the Haas?  I say, “Fuck you Steiner!”  Bring back Danny Ric.  Geez, I’m excited.  I mean, Binotto got his ass fired, so now we get to watch Freddy Vasseur making excuses for those morons in red who can’t decide what tires to use.  And what about Horner and Toto?  I say get those two guys on the track and let them battle it out!  My money is on the big old Austrian oida, even if Horner raced in 14 F3000 races across the 1997-98 seasons.  This is fun!  No one has asked me to write about F1 yet.  Now it’s time to talk Botttaasss Bitch……..

Okay, Okay I’m going to stop this right here.  I confess, I thought I could save a ton of time by enlisting a chatbot to write the season preview, but this is getting a little too sideways.  I attempted to download ChatGPT but didn’t have any luck so I instead went with the “other” chatbot. I think it’s safe to say the good folks over at Google need to stop gathering information from racing site comment sections and online forums and put a little more emphasis on old Autosport articles.  More Nigel Roebuck, less Indydude69.  That said, I am loving this little Chatbot’s style and I am intrigued with where he was going with Bottaasss.  But for something as important as the season preview, I figure I better take the reins back and provide some more restrained and hopefully insightful human thoughts as we embark upon another season.

So the 2023 world champion is……

First, before I crown the champion (hint- rhymes with wax), I need to mention a few tweaks that may slightly alter the status quo.  There are only a handful of people on this earth capable of understanding both the technical and legal rule books that govern F1, so I will try to briefly explain in layman’s terms:

-Porpoising sucks so the 2023 cars will incorporate higher floor edges and have a new set of diffuser rules to play with.

-Going against the traditional F1 ethos of “may the best team win” (again and again and again), there is a new balance of power, sliding scale allotment of wind tunnel and CFD time permitted based on finishing order in the past championship.  So, Williams, being last in the ‘22 championship, will be permitted the most wind tunnel time while Red Bull, due to finishing first, will be allowed the least amount of time in the windtunnel.  Time will tell if it makes a difference.

-There are new DRS zones being added and a few DRS zones being shortened. (Insert straight face emoji)  I wish the rules committee would do a more in depth study of the DRS zones at each circuit and come up with a solution that allows the cars to arrive at the braking zone at the exact same time, or introduce a defense button that can be deployed a few meters after the following car opens its wing so the lead car at least has a fighting chance.  This current DRS system is too easy!  And bring back V-10’s!

If the lone preseason 3-day test at the Bahrain international circuit is anything to go by, Red Bull appear to be a step ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes, Aston may become the new darlings of the midfield unless Alpine have something to say about that, and McLaren are in the shit, again!  The rest are fighting for scraps.   

For a little more in depth look, it’s time for a quick run through the field brought to you by Sunoco Fuel.

Red Bull – In ‘21 it came down to the Masi decision. In ‘22 you could argue that the cost cap breach gave Max the unfair advantage.  Will ‘23 be a straightforward Max walk in the park?  The simple answer is: Yes! The championship core is back together and I see no reason why Max won’t repeat as drivers champion.  They will have to overcome the aforementioned balance of power wind tunnel development disadvantage plus the 10% additional windtunnel reduction penalty due to the ‘21 cost cap breach, but this team is led by the most valuable player in the history of F1, Adrian Newey, and has an all time great behind the wheel.  At this point, these guys are racing into the history books.  Whether they repeat as constructors’ champions will come down to the man known as Checo. At the beginning of ‘22, it appeared that Perez had closed the gap to Max, but as the season progressed and Max was able to find the RB18’s sweet spot, Checo was left in the dust.  This season will be a huge opportunity for Perez to cement his legacy as a top flight driver.  Beating the two red and black cars will be no easy feat, so if Red Bull can pull off the double, Checo will be the unsung hero.

Ferrari – Ferrari, I love you.  But please, find a way to make that rubber last!  The Scuderia have a quick car, an ace in Leclerc and a very good second driver in Saniz, so now is the time to capitalize and win a bunch of races.  Mattia Binotto took the fall for last season’s endless parade of tactical errors, so it will be fascinating to see if they correct their issues under the new leadership of Fred Vasseur.  Mr Vasseur is a battle tested racing lifer, but he will need to have his loyal soldiers in the key spots before he can invoke real change in this tragicomedy.  F1 is always a better place when Ferrari are in the hunt so my dream is a three team battle royal with RBR and Mercedes.  

Mercedes – After 8 straight constructors titles, last year was a bit of a shock to see Mercedes mystified by the W13, but it was no surprise to see them keep digging and eventually win a race.  For ‘23, they will likely take over the primary role as Red Bull hunters, but it’s the battle for superiority within the team that should make for great drama.  There is no denying that Russell is a force, and the final tally last year read Russell 275 points (1 win) to Hamilton’s 240 points (no wins), but if you look a little closer I think Lewis still has the edge.  Like Max, Hamilton has that little bit of extra magic that only a small handful of people possess at the top of professional sport and I’m expecting to see a motivated champion fighting to prove that he’s still The Man.  His legacy is on the line.  Since his debut season in 2007, Hamilton has only been out-scored by a teammate 3 times. (Button 2011, Rosberg 2016, Russell 2022).  If Russell were to beat Lewis again this season in a straight fight, there would be a seismic shift within the team and Lewis would be looking at the end.  I don’t think he’s ready for the end.  Damn this is going to be good!

Alpine – France’s National F1 team seems to be a well managed outfit with two quick drivers, yet 4th in the championship seems to be their ceiling.  I just don’t see how this team will be capable of taking the fight to Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari anytime soon and car manufacturers typically run out of patience when shareholders start griping about cutting costs.  Andretti-Cadillac powered by Renault anyone?  Gone for ‘23 is the polarizing yet often brilliant Fernando Alonso and in his place is Pierre Gasly.  It will be interesting to see how Gasly performs now that he’s finally able to shed his Red Bull wings.  To add a little spice to the mix, word on the street is Gasly and Ocon are not the best of friends.  Two French drivers aiming for top dog status in a French team invokes feelings of passion, romance & violence.  To the winner goes the spoils, to the loser, death!  

McLaren – I think it’s common knowledge that Zak Brown is the best in the business at signing on sponsors, and he’s proven to be so adept at signing drivers that at one point late last year he had the following drivers on the books for McLaren’s F1 and Indycar teams: Lando Norris, Danny Ric, Oscar Piastri, Colton Herta, Pato O’Ward, Alex Palou, Alex Rossi, Felix Rosenqvist and lord knows who else?  He even has Kyle Larson signed to race for McLaren in the 2024 Indy 500.  But, the one area where he may be lacking is finding and employing the right minds to lead McLaren back to glory.  2022 was a pretty miserable year and now McLaren are squarely back in the Formula 1.5 category looking at a massive, seemingly insurmountable gap to the top 3 teams.   In Lando they have a proven driver who looks ready to graduate to a top flight team.  In Piastri they have a rookie with an impeccable junior career resume who is tipped to be big time.  I can’t wait for this battle.  If Piastri comes out of the gate quicker than Lando, then it’s safe to say that he’s a surefire future world champion and Lando will forever be stuck in the midfield.  So much is at stake. I guess that’s why they call it, “Drive to Survive.”

Alfa Romeo– For the next three years, this Swiss based team will be cruising around in the midfield while gearing up to transform into the mighty Audi works squad.  Look out world when that happens!  For now, let’s just enjoy Valtteri Bottas for all his Finnishness and his Chinese teammate Zhou.  An oddball pairing if there ever was, Bottas is still capable of a banger lap when the settings are to his liking.  He reminds me of Jarno Trulli:  Blindingly quick when everything is just right, very mediocre when things are not right.  I’m also expecting Zhou in year two to be solid and consistently quick.  Last year he may have had the worst reliability luck in the 20 car field so he had barely any points to show for it, but his qualifying head to head with Bottas was 8-14 so he’s definitely not a wanker.  Go Zhou.  A competitive Chinese driver in a works Audi F1 car sounds like money raining down into the Liberty coffers.  (Stock tip of the day: Liberty Media F1 Group – NASDAQ – Symbol: FWONA)

Aston Martin – Lawrence Stroll has told anyone willing to listen that he’s building up a war machine capable of world dominance, it’s just not ready to happen in 2023.  Call it supply chain and covid delays.  But by golly when he’s ready, he’s going to paint the world green.  In all honesty, taking on Alonso may lead to Lance’s downfall and a lot of door slamming in the team trailers, but I’m expecting the 41 year old Spanish wonder driver to be in the hunt for the mythical F1.5 drivers title, also known as 7th place.  Stroll Sr does seem to be assembling a solid crew of engineers and this team has a history of overperforming (think Checo winning in the pink Force India), so I’m expecting a significant jump up over last year’s disappointing 55 total constructors points.  

Haas – By doing the right thing and dumping Moneybags Mazespin and bringing back the loveable K-Mag, Haas immediately jumped back to respectability in ‘22 and had a few decent weekends to show for it.  As is almost customary, they came out of the gate fast (in Bahrain, MAG qualified P7 and SHU P12), but by the end of the year they were circulating at the back.  I know that F1 is bloody difficult, but they need to reevaluate the people in charge of in-season development and spend their money wisely.  Go Cost Cap!  For ‘23 Gunther has replaced the up and down Mick Schumacher with the hopefully reliable hands of Nico Hulkenberg.  The Hulk has always been a steady, quick driver in midfield cars so it will be interesting to see how he stacks up with Magnussen.  At 30 and 35 years of age respectively, these two will be the old dogs on the grid.  

Alpha Tauri – Arguably, the most amazing piece of information coming into the ‘23 season is that Yuki Tsunoda is getting a 3rd year to prove to this team, famous for firing its drivers, that he’s worthy of taking the Perez Red Bull seat in the next year or two.  I’m all for Yuki, but he must have friends in high places to keep Trump, I mean Tost, from uttering his favorite words: “You’re Fired!”  Paired with Yuki will be the intriguing Nyck de Vries.  It’s been a long and winding road for the ‘19 F2 champion and ‘21 FE champion, but de Vries brings a ton of knowledge of the inner workings at Mercedes and knows how to pedal a race car.  He should be a great asset to the RBR family and once again, this is likely a win or go home intersquad teammate battle.  You can say that F1 is boring on the track, but man it’s cutthroat and requires humans to dig deep.  I love it!

Williams– Is there anyone for Williams to beat this year?  Albon did a nice job hanging around the top 10 on multiple occasions last year looks to be in his prime, but can the team take the next step?  Just leaping the Haas and Alpha T teams would feel like winning the Super Bowl for the second most successful team in the sports history.  For those of you new to this, Williams has 9 constructors titles and 7 drivers titles!  But F1, like life, never stands still and now Williams find themselves at the back.  Hoping to avoid being at the very back of the grid will be American rookie Logan Sargeant.  Not an easy task, but LS has shown some flashes of speed in the junior categories and I think he will gain more respect than his predecessor, Nicolas Latifi.  That said, it will be a minor miracle if he can survive the next couple of seasons and earn a contract somewhere else up the grid. Go USA.  

Armed with that knowledge, now it’s time for some BOLD PREDICTIONS!

-Max achieves the unthinkable, essentially the equivalent of tossing a perfect game, and wins all 23 races.  And you might as well throw in 23 poles and 23 fastest laps. 

-F1 learns how fickle the American sporting public can be and sees its ratings plunge to pre Drive to Survive levels due to the predictability of the Max parade.  This causes most American companies to pull their sponsorship deals.  The tech bros also quit buying million dollar suites and the predominant appearance of the typical fan at the 2024 Miami GP is a shirtless male in a Speedo with crooked teeth, cigarette hanging out and a Fosters oil drum can in hand.  To compound this misery for Liberty and F1, the new Netflix series produced by the Drive to Survive folks about the PGA Tour turns golf into the next big thing.  Suddenly for $900,000, you can get a cabana hosted by Paris Hilton on the 18th fairway of the Phoenix Open with hot tubs, unlimited locally sourced organic food and beverage, a state of the art virtual golf simulator, a shaman, yoga mats, meditation chamber and of course, 5G wifi.  

-The FIA and F1 hold a press conference in Manhattan to announce the 11th and 12th teams to the grid and lo and behold, it’s Penske-Porsche and Ganassi-Honda.  Michael Andretti then makes a $1 billion dollar offer for Alpha Tauri but Helmet Marko counters back at $6 billion.  Sadly, some things aren’t meant to be.  

-Felipe Drugovich subs for the injured Lance Stroll in Bahrain and finishes an amazing 5th place.  Lance returns for Saudi Arabia and finishes 16th and one lap down.  Lawrence Stroll then shocks the paddock by sitting his son for the remainder of the year.  It’s not without personal repercussions as Mrs. Stroll files for divorce and claims that her settlement money from the split will go towards getting Lance back in F1.  

-One unlucky Dutch fan is killed and three others are hospitalized after ingesting too much orange smoke omitted from smoke bombs in the grandstands at Zandvoort while celebrating Max’s 3rd straight victory on home soil.

-One down and out team principle will become tabloid fodder after its revealed that following the Vegas GP, he hosted an all night coke fueled party in his suite attended by expensive call girls, wealthy degenerate gamblers and Ted Kravitz.

I’ve seen the future and I can tell you that the following will be your 2023 finishing order from top to bottom:

Verstappen – 15 wins

Perez – 2 wins

Hamilton – 3 wins

Leclerc – 2 wins

Russell – 1 win

Sainz

Alonso

Norris

Gasly

Ocon

Piastri

Bottas

Stroll

Magnussen

Zhou

deVries

Hulkenberg

Tsunoda

Albon

Sargeant

Here’s to hoping that my premonition of the Max Army painting the world orange doesn’t come to fruition and we are instead treated to a season long three team mega fight for the championship with the midfield only separated by a couple of tenths.  With 23 races on the books, that equates to something like 138 hours of sitting in front of the tube listening to the good folks at Sky Sports, so for the Love of God, make it exciting!  I wish I was going to be attending one of these 23 GP’s, but this new surge in popularity has made things difficult for the common fan and to be honest, I’ve seen the mountaintop and it ain’t Vegas or Miami.  

Don’t forget to support your local Indycar series.  This year is looking to be fantastic.

Categories
2021 Racing Season

F1 Down To The Wire

And then there were six.  The final stretch to decide a champion is upon us.  Six races over eight weeks.  Lewis vs Max.  Mercedes vs Red Bull.  Time to brace the family for Crofty and his Sky Sports cohorts yelling in the living room throughout the weekend.  Netflix must be licking their chops.  This F1 season has been great theatre to date and the final act is guaranteed to have more plot twists than a season finale of ……..Dallas?  (I feel like I’m dating myself a little with that reference, but has anyone done it better?).  

 

So how is this going to shake out?  As I type, Max is sitting with a scant 6 point lead over Lewis, but the pace of the Mercedes at the last round in Turkey looked ominous.  Seeing that this is now my 40th year of being an unapologetic F1 junkie, I’m going to dip into my memory of championships past, and predict the future for you, the Bulseyeview reader.  

 

Austin – Lewis has dominated the US round at the bumpy Circuit of the America’s, winning five of eight races, and he will do so again next Sunday in front of a full house.  More importantly, this new free flowing, stress free Bottas, coming off a feel good win in Turkey, will hold Max at bay and bring home a 1-2 for Toto’s boys.  Max will be best of the rest and finish on the bottom step of the podium in 3rd. (Lewis fast lap)  

 

Points – Lewis 282.5 – Max 277.5  

 

Note – the last time we had half points awarded in a race during a championship, Niki Lauda defeated Alain Prost  in 1984, 72 – 71.5, due to the Monaco GP being called early because of extremely wet conditions.

 

Mexico – There is something about the Honda engine at 7,300 ft above sea level and Max on a circuit without a lot of rubber on the racing line that makes for an unbeatable combination.  Max strikes back with a resounding win to swing the championship back in his favor.  Perez, urged on by the boisterous home crowd, beats Bottas and follows Lewis home in 3rd.  The Ferrari boys have a P5-P6 weekend to close the gap to McLaren.  (Max fast lap)

 

Points – Max 303.5 – Lewis 299.5

 

Brazil – It wouldn’t be Brazil without chaos, so heading into turn 1, Lewis from p2 on the grid goes for a gap up the inside and Max turns in on the Mercedes.  Lewis makes contact with his right front to the left rear of Max, sending the Red Bull into a spin.  Lewis continues in p1, Max remarkably doesn’t get collected by the rest of the field and rejoins in the back.  Lewis incurs a 5sec penalty for his troubles.  It’s looking like a Mercedes 1 -2 until with 10 laps to go the skies open into a downpour.  Bottas immediately spins off.  Lewis ignores a call to come in for intermediates and does a two minute lap.  Out of nowhere, Carlos Sainz emerges through the spay and wins his first race.  Lewis recovers to p6, Max winds up p7.  (Lando fast lap)

 

Points – Max – 309.5 – Lewis 307.5

 

Qatar – The Losail GP in Qatar will be run under the lights on a high downforce, 16 turn track prone to having sand storms.  F1 has never raced here before, but this feels like a Red Bull type circuit with low grip and many slow to medium speed corners.  Lewis will be brilliant, but Max will control the pace and take the win on a circuit that is almost impossible to pass on.   Leclerc will be a surprise 3rd place for Ferrari, giving the Scuderia the constructors lead over McLaren. (Lewis fast lap)

 

Points:  Max – 334.5 – Lewis 326.5

 

Saudi Arabia – The Saudi street track is being worked on 24/7 to be completed in time for the Dec 3-5 weekend, but sadly, it will be discovered that the tarmac wasn’t finished properly and the F1 cars will tear the circuit to bits by Saturday FP3.  Think Dallas GP ‘84.  Race control will do everything in their power to make the race happen, but after 12 cars crash during a delayed Sunday morning qualifying attempt, the race will be cancelled.    

 

Points:  Max – 334.5 – Lewis 326.5

 

Abu Dhabi – So here we are, down to the final race to decide if Max will win a first title or Lewis will claim a record 8th world title.  The Yas Marina circuit has undergone a much needed facelift, opening up a few corners to make it a quicker track.  This favors Mercedes, and Hamilton and Bottas lock out the front row of the grid.  Max will start P3.  If they finish in this order, Lewis will be champion.  If Max can overtake Bottas, he will win the title by 1 point!  This is amazing.  As the lights go out, they get through T1 somewhat conservatively and fall into line as they qualified, Lewis, Bottas, Max.  It’s looking like the tires are holding up well so it’s going to be a 1 stopper.  Red Bull blink first and attempt to undercut Bottas near mid distance.  Mercedes cover the following lap and keep the Red Bull at bay, just.  Now Max will have to pass Bottas on the track to take the title.  Hamilton has checked out.  Max can get close, but the dirty air hurts his tires and the Mercedes has a HP advantage in the two DRS zones.  With 5 laps to go this is starting to feel like 2010 all over again when Alonso in the Ferrari couldn’t find a way past Vitaly Petrov in the Renault, handing the title to Vettel.  Max keeps the pressure on, but Bottas is resisting.  Will this go down as Bottas’s finest drive as a Mercedes driver?  The short answer, NO.  On the very last lap, Bottas runs wide in the second to last right hander, allowing Max to flick to the right and make a lunge in the final corner.  Bottas closes the door and the two collide.  It looks like a blatant move.  Bottas is out on the spot.  After what seems like an eternity, Max renters the track minus a left front wheel.  The injured Red Bull is crabbing and sparking as Max sees the waving checkered flag.  Max is 200 yards from the finish line and a world title when suddenly, the orange McLaren of Lando Norris accelerates beautifully off the last corner.  To complicate matters, Sergio Perez is tucked under his rear wing trying to take the position.  In a blur, Lando veers left and passes Max just before the line.  Perez hears the radio at the last second and slams the brakes to keep behind Max.  It’s pure confusion for a few seconds until it sinks in.  Lucky Lewis is champion again.  In the commentary booth, Crofty has lost the plot completely and DiResta is resorting to unintelligible Scottish slang.  For Max, it’s heartbreak.  He quickly unbuckles himself just over start finish and starts sprinting down the side of the live track back to the final corner to find Bottas.  The fine folks at Liberty Media and Netflix are beyond ecstatic.  On the pit wall stand, Horner is exchanging heated words with Toto.  Jos Verstappen and Helmut Marko are seen passing behind them on a scooter heading towards the scene of the crime both clutching what appear to be large socket wrenches.  It’s pure pandemonium as Hamilton brings his winning car into parc ferme.  The Brits in the grandstand across from the pits are going wild.  The Dutch army are chucking beers.  Lewis can’t get out of his car as he’s overcome with emotion…………   (Lewis fast lap)

 

Points:  Lewis 352.5 – Max 349.5

 

The Fallout

 

In the weeks following this insane finish to the ‘21 season, the FIA assumed the role of judge and jury and doled out some draconian penalties.

 

-For being judged to have intentionally taken out Max in Abu Dhabi, Bottas is fined $3m and is suspended for the first 3 rounds of the ‘22 championship.  Interestingly, new Alfa-Sauber team owner, Michael Andretti, drafts in his new Indycar driver, Romain Grosjean, to partner American rookie Colton Herta while the Finn serves his suspension.

 

-For running down a live track to confront Bottas, Max is fined $2m and is placed on triple probation.  Nobody really knows what triple probation is but it sounds serious.  For throwing punches directed at Bottas, Max is stripped of his 3rd place race points, thus giving Lewis a comfortable 352.5 to 334.5 final points tally.  

 

-It was confirmed by eye witnesses that local Yas Marina security officials were able to thwart Jos Verstappen and Dr Marko’s attempt to assault Valtteri Bottas, but local police requested to hold them over for questioning over the following days.  Somewhat mysteriously, presumably orchestrated by the top boss, Dietrich Mateschitz, the Verstappens and other RBR top officials reportedly arrived at a local airfield on Sunday night and departed on an unidentified jet to an unidentified location.

 

-Lost in the shuffle, Lando’s last lap gift of second place gives McLaren a 1 point edge over Ferrari for 3rd in the constructors championship.  Zak Brown is later spotted shirtless in the garage slamming Heinekens and chest bumping startled engineers.  

 

-On a personal note, after Netfilx air Drive to Survive Season 4 in March ‘22, being an F1 fan becomes all the rage, particularly in blue state America.  It takes a little prodding, but I decide to come out of the closet and tell the world my big secret.  Immediately, I find myself the man of the hour at cocktail parties and Sunday bbq’s.  Suddenly everyone from the mailman to the soccer moms at the park have an opinion on Danny Ric’s shortcomings in the McLaren   For the first time in my life, admitting that I’m a racing junkie doesn’t give the public the impression that I spend my Sundays tanking beers in a lazy boy chair watching Nascar for 5 hours.  It’s a little strange, but I enjoy my time in the sun.

Categories
2020 Racing Season

F1 2020

Editors Note- All of the drivel that follows was completed prior to Tom Hanks, Rudy Gobert and a member of Team McLaren contracting COVID-19 and setting off a chain of events that has thrown the world into chaos.  The author was too lazy to make any updates or edits.  Enjoy.

 

F1 2020 has such a futuristic ring to it.  Who knew when I attended the Long Beach GP in 1981 that I would be sitting here 39 years later still totally geeked up about F1 and motorsports in general.  A lot of drama has unfolded over this period so before I hand Lewis Hamilton his seventh drivers title, equaling the great Michael Schumacher, and award the Mercedes team their 7th straight constructors title, I want to take this back to the very beginning of my journey. 

 

I came across this gem over the holidays while visiting my parents and had to snap a picture of the legendary Team Bulshut 912.  My dad, AKA The Condor, is on the left while his buddy and ace peddler Pete Shutts is on the right. This was my introduction to motosports when I was a snot nosed, blond haired, stick thin child of the ‘70’s.  In my mind this car was capable of winning LeMans and I used to love heading to Sears Point or Laguna to watch the SCCA Porsche club in action. In fact, I still remember getting tossed around the back seat sans seat belts as my dad navigated the corkscrew during some parade lapping.  

 

When my dad wasn’t pursuing his amateur hobby as a driver, we were at the track watching the professionals at work.  From 1977 to 1985 I think we probably hit every Can-Am, IMSA, and Trans-Am race at Sears and Laguna. I can still envision Keke Rosberg in ‘80 and Teo Fabi in ‘81 drifting their Budweiser sponsored Haas Lola Can-Am cars through modern day T10 at Laguna.  And the sights and sounds of a 20 year old Al Unser Jr flat footing the white Frissbee through the original T2 at Laguna in ‘82 for the entire afternoon is still one of the coolest things I’ve seen.  

 

For Buzzard Purposes, here is the top 8 of the Oct 19, 1980 Laguna Can-Am Race:

  1. Al Unser Sr! (52:25.460)
  2. Keke Rosberg (+2 secs behind)
  3. Elliott Forbes-Robinson
  4. Geoff Brabham
  5. Danny Sullivan
  6. Bobby Rahal
  7. Rocky Moran
  8. Al Holbert

 

I love the thought of a 41 year old Al Unser Senior, oval master and Indy winner in ‘70, ‘71, ‘78 & ‘87, showing up to teach the road racing specialists how it’s done.  Keep in mind, Keke Rosberg was the F1 world champion just two years later. 

But I digress as I’m heading down a rabbit hole where there is no return.  It’s time to stomp on the brake pedal like I’m Patrick Depilliar hurling the ‘78 Tyrrell Cosworth 008 toward the Queen Mary Hairpin at “The Beach”.  (Note to self- Write a well researched book on Can-Am, IMSA, Trans-AM and it’s place in pop culture from ‘70-’80). 

 

However, before I get to the business of F1 2020, I do think it’s time to revisit my Top 10 F1 Drivers List from ‘81-Present.  It’s been a few years, 7 to be exact, and we’ve now had time to reflect on the career of Alonso, Vettel’s 4 straight titles and subsequent down years and Hamilton’s blitz of the record books.  Digging through the archives of this esteemed blog, I see that on May 22, 2013, I did a full Top 40 list and even managed to include a picture of Rick Springfield to make a point. My Top 10 at that time were:

 

  1. Senna
  2. Schumacher
  3. Prost
  4. Alonso
  5. Vettel
  6. Mansell
  7. Piquet
  8. Hakkinen
  9. Raikkonen
  10. Lauda

 

Note- I had Lewis #12 at the time and added the following commentary:

(1 WDC, 21 Wins):  Might be one of the best talents of all time but hasn’t quite figured out how to be the best in the mental department.

 

Interesting!  Was I punishing him for dating a Pussycat Doll and transforming his appearance into that of a mainstream pop celebrity?  He was out scored by McLaren teammate Jenson Button over the 2011-2012 seasons so that may have played a factor as well. Regardless, I guess Lewis has won me over because he is the big mover on this revised list. 

 

Revised Top 10 (1981-2020):

 

  1. Senna
  2. Prost
  3. Hamilton
  4. Schumacher
  5. Alonso
  6. Mansell
  7. Piquet
  8. Hakkinen
  9. Vettel
  10. Verstappen

 

Sure you probably think I’m nuts and if I had a readership greater than 25 people I would likely receive death threats, but here is my “Hot Take” rambling rational:

 

I think I will always have Senna on top as long as I’m making lists.  I have sort of talked myself into the notion that Senna was sent from another universe so I don’t feel compelled to defend his accomplishments.  

After some contemplation while wandering in my local woods, I’m now inclined to call Prost the second best I’ve seen.  He won 4 titles in a very competitive era, including beating Senna in ‘89 as McLaren teammates, and could easily have won two more if Renault didn’t fall apart late in the ‘83 season and Lauda didn’t pip him by ½ point in ‘84 after only receiving half points for his win in the legendary wet Monaco GP.  From 81-84, Prost won 16 races. Piquet is next up with 9 wins (including the titles in ‘81 and ‘83). Recovering from the ‘83 & ‘84 heartbreaks, The Professor buried Lauda in ‘85 to win the title, Rosberg in ‘86 (title #2), Johannson in ‘87, split titles with Senna in ‘88-89, during which time their win totals were Senna 14 to Prost 11 while Prost scored more total points, smoked Mansell in the ‘90 Ferrari, bettered Alesi in ‘91, sat out in ‘92 after getting sacked by Ferrari for likening the F643 to a truck and returned to whip newcomer Damon Hill and win the ‘93 title for Williams.  He then called it a career with 51 wins, the most ever at that time, and had a 25.25% win rate during a time when mechanical dnf’s were still commonplace! Bam that is sick!  

 

The Hamilton vs Schumacher battle for #3 is a coin flip.  They both set the F1 world ablaze immediately, with Hamilton just missing out on the title in his rookie season before winning it all in his second.  Schumacher had an arguably more difficult path to the top because he had to contend with Mansell and Senna in ‘92 and Prost and Senna in ‘93. Once he had those three legends out of the picture, he became the dominant driver of his generation.  

 

Here are five categories that I used to make the difficult call:

 

  1. Speed:  Even. They are the only two drivers with more poles than Senna, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

  1. Race-craft: Advantage Lewis.  Hamilton can slip a 71” wide Mercedes through a “72 gap that Schumacher likely would have made a mess of.  

 

  1. Team Building:  Advantage Schumacher.  Nobody was better than Michael at guiding the engineers and mechanics to achieve perfection.  Ironically, Michael played a major role in bringing the Mercedes team up to speed which allowed Lewis to step in a win immediately.  

 

  1. Win Rate: Advantage Lewis:  Hamilton 33.6% win rate. Schumacher 29.55%.  Only Fangio, Ascari and Jimmy Clark have a higher winning percentage than Hamilton’s insane 33.6% clip.

 

  1. X-Factor:  Hamilton is at one with a car on the level of Senna and Prost.  He’s a genius behind the wheel and I hope we get to see him race in other disciplines at some point.  Shumacher was the most dedicated driver that I’ve ever seen. Pre Schumi, drivers were enjoying a round of golf using the putting mats review products for our advantage or a poolside cocktail after Friday practice.  Schumi raised the bar from a fitness, testing and data analysis standpoint that all current drivers adhere to today.  

 

Alonso gets the #5 spot nod for winning two titles at Renault and clobbering all teammates.  I’ll keep Nige at #6 over Piquet at #7 because Nige drove with such fire and passion. The flying Finn Mika checks in at #8 over Vettel at #9 and Verstappen at #10.  

 

Vettel was unbeatable in the amazing RBR car from 2010-2013 and he won a GP in a Toro Rosso, but the countless unnecessary errors over the past 3 years, losing out to teammate Ricciardo in 2014 and Leclerc in 2019 are major flaws that cannot be ignored. 

 

Apologies to all of the 1 time world champs from ‘81-2019 out there with great resumes (K Rosberg, Lauda, Hill, J Villeneuve, Raikkonen, Button, N Rosberg), but I’m going with Max in my 10 slot.  He’s managed to win 8 races during this period of Mercedes domination and has done so in a fashion that says surefire world champion. I’m trying to preempt the bandwagon and expect him to be in the Hamilton/Shumacher/Prost discussion when it’s all said and done.  

 

With that out of the way, here is a quick look at F1 2020!

 

As we head to Melbourne, it feels like a continuation of the 2019 season.  We still have the Big 3 with Mercedes on top and the tightly bunched F1.5 pack battling for 4th in the constructors championship.  The only driver changes are Ocon replacing Hulkenberg at Renault and Latifi replacing Kubica at Williams. The team principals are all back.  The rules and regulations are all the same. Let’s hope that the racing resembles the second half of last year and not the beginning.

 

Here are a whole bunch of questions that I have for each team:

 

Mercedes:  Will it be a cakewalk to 7 constructors and drivers titles in a row or is Verstappen a legit threat?  Can Bottas 3.0 give Lewis a real fight for the title? This is the final year of Hamilton’s contract so will he be back for 2021 or will the allure of Maranello be too tempting to pass up?  Is Mercedes still in F1 for the long run or will they concentrate on FE in the coming years?   

 

Ferrari:  So many questions with this team!  Were they sandbagging in testing? Is their engine legal? Will they shift their focus to Leclerc now that he’s signed long term and Vettel is in a contract year?  Will they even be allowed out of Italy if the dreaded COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country?

 

Red Bull:  Is Max, Red Bull and Honda ready to take on Hamilton and the might of Mercedes?  Is Albon going to be able to mix it up in the top 5 or will he be having many a lonely run to 6th place and looking over his shoulder at the Red Bull junior pipeline?

 

McLaren:  Is McLaren still the clear-cut 4th best constructor and have they made any gains on the Big 3?  Will Sainz again outscore Norris by a wide margin or will Lando use his rookie lessons to close the gap?  They were dead even in qualifying last year but Norris seemed to have the poor luck on Sundays.

 

Renault:  Will this large scale factory effort finally start to see progress and jump back into the 4th place slot or will another difficult campaign trigger a board rethink?  Will this car be enough to keep Ricciardo in place for next year? This is a contract year for Ricciardo and if Vettel is not retained at Ferrari and Hamilton stays on at Merc, he could be #1 on their shortlist.  Will Ocon continue where he left off at Racing Point? I rate Ocon as the #3 young gun behind Max and Leclerc so it will be fascinating to see how he compares to Ricciardo.  

 

Racing Point:  Was their testing pace real and is Perez the best bet to win the F1.5 championship?  Can Stroll come to grips with his poor one lap qualifying pace and make a big leap in the midfield pecking order?  His race pace seems solid but he’s under-performing on Saturday afternoons and in this tight midfield race that’s the kiss of death.  This team always performs well when they have a budget in place so expect good things.

 

Alpha Tauri:  It’s interesting to see Alpha Tauri, formerly Toro Rosso (and Mindardi), sticking with the same experienced lineup as the previous season.  Franz Tost traditionally churns through drivers like our president does staff members so it’s odd to see Kvyat and Gasly back. Gasly certainly had a roller coaster season in ‘19.  Starting at Red Bull, he looked totally lost and his days in the sport seemed numbered. After returning to Toro Rosso, he immediately looked like the next great Red Bull driver. With an improved Honda engine and continuity on all fronts, will we see AT pull off some midfield shock results?

 

Alfa Romeo:  The boys from Switzerland started ‘19 looking good but faded as the year progressed.  It took Giovanazzi half the season to come to grips with the pace of Kimi but he now looks poised to challenge the 40 year old Finn.  Who will be the last man standing?

 

Haas:  Will Team Netflix continue to struggle mightily with their Pirelli rubber and force Gene Haas to call time on this team? Will Gunther Steiner lose his mind and sock Grosjean in the chops after his first off of the year?

 

Williams:  Does Williams have a car capable of joining the midfield race?  They have a good one in George Russell so the more in the midfield the merrier.  Is the experienced rookie Latifi more than just a young man with a big budget? He finished runner up in last years F2 championship with 4 wins and he hails from Canada so hopefully he’s a pleasant surprise.

 

With all of those questions still to be answered, here are my predictions for the year:

 

  1. Hamilton – 10 wins
  2. Bottas – 5 wins
  3. Verstappen – 4 wins
  4. Leclerc – 2 wins
  5. Vettel – 1 win
  6. Albon
  7. Perez (6 F1.5 Class Wins)
  8. Sainz (5)
  9. Ricciardo (4)
  10. Norris (3)
  11. Ocon (1)
  12. Gasly (2)
  13. Stroll
  14. Kvyat (1)
  15. Kimi
  16. Russell
  17. Giovanazzi
  18. Magnussen
  19. Grosjean
  20. Latifi

 

Here are 5 BOLD predictions for the season:

 

  1.  COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world forcing the FIA to take drastic measures after Australia and run all of the remaining 21 races on spec simulators.  GP’s will be held in an undisclosed warehouse with all the drivers lined up along a wall in team hats. Each team will also be able to draft in a person off the streets to partake, creating a grid of 30 drivers.  The SIM races will still be televised and streamed online.
  2. Vettel crashes in the first corner at Melbourne and decides to retire rather than race on the F-ing sims.  
  3. In the first sim race, Kimi gets so frustrated after spinning out for a 3rd time he decides to run the course backwards and is tragically virtually killed after swerving to avoid the oncoming leader, George Russell.  
  4.  To everyone’s surprise, the 2020 F1 World Champion turns out to be a 14 year old gamer drafted in by Red Bull from Poland.  He’s never driven a car before but loves drinking Red Bull and staying up late. 
  5.  Most shocking of all, television ratings and streaming hits dwarf anything ever seen before from live racing in real cars on real tracks.   Kids under 20 from around the globe jump on board and the 14 year old Pole, Simon Warzyzankowski, becomes the most recognizable sporting figure on the planet and signs a $500,000,000 contract to remain a Red Bull ambassador and lead sim GP driver.  

 

I said they were bold!  IF we do race outside in real cars on real tracks, I’m excited to see the additions of Zandvoort and Vietnam on the calendar.  The thought of 100,000 Dutch Verstappen buzzards converging on that little beach community in the dunes will be incredible to witness.  The fact that the upgraded circuit looks like a RBR type of track makes it all the better. On paper the Vietnam layout looks unlike anything I’ve ever seen and my prediction is that chaos will be the word of the day.  And what if Albon is performing well? Could we get an Albon Army making the trek from Thailand?  

Well let’s get it on and don’t forget to support your local Indycar series.  It should be a banner season stateside.

Categories
2017 Racing Season

F1 2017

If intrigue, excitement and drama are your thing, then F1 2017 may just be the show you’ve been waiting for.  The immortal David Bowie summed up this new season best with the simple lyric:  

 

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

 

Mercedes enjoyed three years of complete domination with a relatively stable rules platform, so it was time to wad up those regulations and toss them in the bin and start again with a clean sheet of paper. The result is we now have cars that look fast standing still, rear tires so wide I sometimes think I’m looking at James Hunt wheeling the ‘76 McLaren, and lap times that will likely make these the fastest road circuit cars ever produced by man. It appears that the FIA came to the same conclusion that fans throughout the world had discovered, F1 had lost it’s edge and something drastic needed to be done.  It’s still the pinnacle of motorsport with technologically insane cars being driven by fantastic drivers, but the sights, speeds and sounds no longer elicited F1 worthy passion among the paying customers.

 

F1 cars had also become too easy for a professional driver to handle, so now we have cars with a little beast in them that may test a drivers mental and physical abilities to the max.  Remember when drivers used to occasionally pass out after climbing out their cars (think Nelson Piquet in the ‘82 Brazilian GP), let’s hope for punch drunk drivers climbing the podium steps on buckling knees.  

 

Year over year change among drivers and staffers is the norm in the vagabond world of the F1 paddock, but this year is just downright crazy:

 

  • Button is retired and living in LA
  • Manor has gone the way of AGS, Coloni and Forti Corse and is now history
  • Williams have a driver (Lance Stroll) who was born the year that Hakkinen won his first title
  • Paddy Lowe is a Williams employee
  • James Allison is a Mercedes employee
  • Ron Dennis (The Ron Dennis) has been ousted at McLaren and replaced by American Zak Brown??
  • The reigning world champ, Nico Rosberg, is home changing diapers
  • The cars are 4-5 seconds per lap faster
  • AND BERNIE HAS BEEN OUSTED (by Americans no less)

 

Much has been written about Bernie, but here is my two cents:  Bernie has to be considered among the greatest negotiators and marketeers in modern history.  He took a Euro-centric sport with a passionate fan base and brought it to the world in the form of a slick two hour TV show that has been second in viewership only to soccer for 30+ years.  When I went to my first GP in 1981 at Long Beach, it didn’t seem a whole lot different than going to a Can-Am race at Laguna.  For a few extra bucks we could walk into the garage and stand over the informal Ferrari mechanics prepping Gilles Villeneuve’s car for practice or get Alain Prost to sign a hat.  Believe it or not, at the end of the weekend the mechanics would sell the shirts off their back or spare car parts just to make a few extra bucks.   What Bernie did, for better or worse, was take F1 and package it as a super exclusive, luxury product that appealed one’s desires.  It was sex, danger, and immaculately prepared exotic cars racing on immaculately prepared racing circuits in glamorous spots around the globe.  Only the rich and powerful or the beautiful could be granted access to the inside to rub shoulders with the great men who had the courage and skill to drive these cars.  Big time companies flocked to get their names in front of this massive audience and the marketing dollars spent promoting this brand, especially in the tobacco days, was staggering.  Team owners, engineers and drivers in the span of a decade went from hard core racers with dirt under their fingernails to filthy rich celebs receiving knighthoods.  Bernie had so much leverage he could threaten race promoters who were resisting his exorbitant race fees by yanking them off the calendar and replacing them with government backed races in developing countries that would pay anything just to be included in the exclusive club.   

 

I once read an interview with Eddie Jordan where he said something to the effect that Bernie even managed to sell F1 twice during his reign to venture companies for astounding profits, only to repurchase the shares back for pennies on the dollar in negotiations so clever that there should be a case study in all business schools for the next 50 years.  

 

But as Bernie’s empire was chugging along seemingly unchallenged, the world changed with the advent of the internet and social media.  Suddenly the common man had thousands of entertainment options at his fingertips and F1 had real competition. Bernie appeared to be too stubborn to react to this threat and quickly became an 86 year old out of touch with his customers.  Change was needed.  Insert Liberty Media and Chase Carey.  It seems very odd to me that an American company with zero knowledge of the sport decided to take it off Bernie’s hands and finally put him to pasture (or to a Brazilian coffee farm with his young wife to be exact), but we’ll just have to sit back and watch what happens.  In my F1 observations over 35+ years, Americans and F1 don’t go very well together so maybe we haven’t seen the last of Bernie yet.  

 

Bernie or no Bernie, the show must go on and looking ahead to the business on the track, here is what I think we know:

 

The Big Three

 

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are in a battle for supremacy.  Ferrari look like the cars to beat after 8 days of testing in Barcelona, but this is not the first time that Ferrari have won the testing world title only to fail when it really counts.  After last years debacle, it would be nice to see the Scuderia return to the front, but the competition won’t rest and the main storyline about this year is going to be about development.

 

Mercedes:  Until properly dethroned, Merc still feel like the team to beat with Lewis ready to take back the title.  Bottas should make an excellent #2 and score podiums on multiple occasions.

 

Red Bull:  No driver pairing is more exciting than Ricciardo and Verstappen.  Ricciardo seems to have the upper hand over a lap in qualifying, but Verstappen is brilliant over the course of a race.  With Newey fully back on board, I have high hopes as the year unfolds.

 

Ferrari:  Vettel went semi mad last year when things didn’t go his way and Kimi is 37, so Ferrari better hope it has the car to beat to keep these two engaged.  I don’t think they have the technical strength of the two teams above to keep pace with developments, but they may grab a few wins early on.

 

The Dirty Mid Pack

 

Force India: I love it that Force India is going pink in the name of the all mighty dollar.  In terms of dollars spent versus results on the track, this may be the best racing team in the world, but it will be tough to retain the 4th spot in the constructors championship.  But make no mistake about it, they will be easy to spot on track.  Perez is now an excellent driver in the prime of his career and Ocon is tipped to be a star so it will be fun to see these two fight it out.

 

Williams: Williams appear to have an excellent car to start the year but my concern is the drivers.  Massa was out the door on his way back to Brazil and Stroll was in F3 last year, so I have a hard time believing that these two will be extracting the max out of this package.  Those in the Pro-Massa camp point out that he was a monster in the high downforce 2008 cars so maybe these new cars will suit his style.  Stroll had a horrendous first week of testing with three offs but returned for week two as a solid performer.  “Just let the car do the work son – and keep the checks coming please.”

 

McLaren: McLaren, McLaren.  What is one to say about this downtrodden mega team?  Sure we can blame it all on Honda, but it’s sad to see Alonso and Vandoorne waste their talents with this project.  This was supposed to be the year that they threaten the big three but now it looks like a few points are all they can hope for.  

 

Toro Rosso: Toro Rosso had a pretty subdued test, but I have high hopes for Carlos Sainz with a Renault 2017 spec engine.  These guys are a clever bunch and have produced a car that looks the part of a regular point scorer.  After a tumultuous 2016, it will be interesting to see if Kvyat can settle back into just driving on the limit and forgetting about all the external BS.  That poor guy looked rattled last year after his demotion.  

 

Haas: I like this Grosjean – Magnussen pairing and with the Ferrari powerplant looking strong, these guys should be in the battle for the coveted 4th place in constructors.  One thing I don’t like is they don’t have a bunch of Billy Bobs in their crew.  Shoot they may need them this year with these bigger wheels.  Maybe the POTUS can tweet out that Haas needs American workers!

 

Renault:  The team likely to make the biggest gains this year from last year.  Renault have now had a year to hire and plan and they should start seeing results.  Hulkenberg is a top 10 talent and Palmer was showing signs of speed last year towards the end of the season.  Renault don’t often fail in their F1 forays and I would not be shocked to see this team performing as the 4th best team by years end.  

 

Sauber:  Where is Heinz Harald Frentzen when you need him?  Sauber have fallen on hard times and are now propping up the back of the grid.  They have a very fast driver in Wehrlein who occasionally had the Manor in places it had no business being in last year, and Ericsson seems to have pace, so it will be fun to see if these guys can find somebody to attack.  

 

Now, for the moment of truth, the championship predictions:

 

  1. Hamilton – 7 wins
  2. Ricciardo – 4 wins
  3. Verstappen – 3 wins
  4. Vettel – 3 wins
  5. Bottas – 2 wins
  6. Kimi – 1 win
  7. Massa
  8. Perez
  9. Sainz
  10. Ocon
  11. Hulkenberg
  12. Grosjean
  13. Stroll
  14. Kvyat
  15. Magnussen
  16. Alonso
  17. Vandoorne
  18. Palmer
  19. Wehrlein
  20. Ericsson

 

Five Other Random Predictions:

  • Verstappen gets in a punch-up with Lance Stroll after being taken out of the lead while trying to lap him
  • Chase Carey quits his job at Liberty Media after two months of dealing with the piranha club
  • Zak Brown becomes the McLaren Honda fall guy and is working for Penske by 2018
  • Bernie plots a successful coup and is back in charge by Belgium
  • Nico Rosberg signs to replace Kimi for 2018, citing new challenges

Enjoy the season!

 

Big Wheels

Categories
2016 Racing Season

F1 2016

When the checkered flag flew at Abu Dhabi just a few short months ago, for the first time in my life I was happy to see a season come to an end. Mercedes were celebrating their 32nd win over the past 38 grands prix and F1 had never been more processional or predictable.  Only Ricciardo with 3 wins in 2014 and Vettel with 3 in 2015 have provided any sort of resistance to the Silver Arrows 1.6 litre, V-6 turbocharged hybrid parade.  It’s an extremely complicated formula, one that an automotive engineer must find fascinating, but for the common fan who wants to see a fight on the track, the past two seasons have been a letdown.  Seriously, enough with this formula!  Quiet F1 cars that are aerodynamically unable to follow each other, where the goal of the driver is to save fuel, tires and energy should be crushed into a large cube and recycled immediately.  Shame on you FIA.  This is a senna_1985_estorilsport that is supposed to evoke passion and stir the soul.  Senna, Schumacher, Mansell, Ferrari, Villeneuve, Monza, V-12’s screaming, impossibly late breaking, mind numbing acceleration, adrenaline, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  Somehow, sadly, F1 seems to have moved away from it’s core.  I get it, the world moves on, interests change and a business has to keep up with the times or face extinction, but I feel like a quiet F1 car being raced at 8/10’s has been stripped of it’s identity and may as well be an LMP1 sportscar.  Have you ever punched the air and let out a battle cry at the sight of an Audi quietly whooshing past?  Neither have I.  

 

But it’s Spring again and optimism abounds.  Here is my worst case/best case scenarios for F1 2016.

Thumbs Down_Skin ColorWorst Case

Let’s start with the negative:  The worst case scenario is simple, it’s 2015 all over again.  Mercedes domination, Nico unable to mount a challenge to Lewis, Vettel playing the lone role of occasional spoiler, Kimi in the woods (or in the bar), Williams and Red Bull unable to challenge Ferrari, Renault down on power, McLaren Honda bringing up the rear.  Repeat- Fernando Alonso in a McLaren Honda bringing up the rear!  That almost feels difficult to type and makes me nostalgic for the short lived ‘94 McLaren Peugeot partnership.  There’s also the little issue with money, or lack thereof, and the threat of Sauber and Force India going the way of Simtek and Forti Corse is a very real possibility.  And with wholesale changes coming again in 2017, we may see a freeze on development after Barcelona in May and be stuck for the remainder of the year with a spaced out field.

 

Thumbs-up-clip-artBest Case

Let’s be real here, Mercedes are going to win the Constructors and Drivers championships again but maybe, just maybe, Nico will ride his three straight win momentum into the new year and he will take the fight to Lewis all the way to the finale.  And maybe Ferrari really has an engine equal to Mercedes and a chassis so kind to it’s tires that Vettel becomes a legit rival and ups his win tally to 5 and occasionally splits the podium on merit.  And if Ferrari have dialed out their 2015 understeer woes and give Kimi a car where he can say, “Don’t talk to me I know what I’m doing,” the Finn may just be able to keep Vettel within in sights and pounce when there are issues.  That is my hope for the front.

 

Where I really think we may see an improved show is in the four team battle for 3rd in the constructors championship.  This is now year three with essentially the same rules and regulations, so Williams, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India have been fine tuning their package and improving upon their weaknesses now for some time and my hope is that they start the new year on equal footing.  Think about it, with the exception of Old Man Massa, Bottas, Ricciardo, Kyvat, Max, Sainz Jr, Perez and Hulkenberg will be fighting for 5th in the championship and more importantly, Kimi’s seat at Ferrari.  The 21 race audition to partner Sebastian at Ferrari in 2017 will be fierce and should provide some great racing throughout the season.

 

In the fight for P13, I have faith that Renault and Magnussen in particular will be up to the task and McLaren, Sauber and occasionally American newcomers Haas with their 2016 Ferrari powerplant will be mixing it up and fighting for the occasional point or two.  If McLaren-Honda find a way to improve and graduate into the pack above, then we are in really solid shape.

 

And Manor… Yes even Manor is cutting the gap to the front and it will be interesting to see if Mercedes protege and reigning DTM champion, Pascal Wehrlein, looks like the next big thing.

 

What is New:

 

Pirelli will now have 5 compounds of rubber, Ultra Soft, Super Soft, Soft, Medium and Hard, that they will be bringing into the mix.  Drivers will have to select the 3 compounds that they want to use for a race weekend weeks in advance so there is the possibility for varying strategies, at least in the beginning before everything is worked out to a science.  There may also be more pit stops in the cards.  What will undoubtedly be a crucial decision made by brilliant engineers sounds to me like ……..wait for it……..toilet paper shopping at the local mart.  Hmm let’s see, ultra soft, super soft or soft?

 

Pit to driver radio communication has been restricted in an attempt to put more control into the hands of the driver.  I love this one. Citing article 20.1 of the sporting regulations, the FIA has drawn up a 32-point list of permitted transmissions from pit to car.  The thought of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner looking over their allowed 32 point list during a race is comical.  And how is the FIA going to police this?  “Ah Christian, yeah, we have you on tape adding the words Eagle Nine to sentence number 18 on your last call so we are going to have to bring Daniel in for a 10 second stop and go.”  Only in F1.  And I can guarantee you that an allowed transmission will become codeword for “Multi 21 Seb.”

 

Knock out qualifying now has more knocking out.  The basic format of three sessions over the course of an hour remains, but now in the second half of each segment, a car will be knocked out at 90-second intervals.  This sounds fast and furious but I’m hoping the TV producers will be able to find the cars on the knockout line letting it all hang out to advance.  And let’s hope the guy most recently knocked out won’t be cruising back to the pits on the racing line as the next guys are going flat out.  Sounds chaotic and I can’t wait to see this at Monaco.

 

Baku, Azerbaijan is on the calendar!  In what looks to be a made for TV race where they are only building seating for a few Formula1_Circuit_Baku.svgthousand cronies of Bernie, F1 will be racing down Baku Blvd on a track designed by who else, Herman Tilke.  I’m sure it will look cool on TV with the Caspian Sea as a nice backdrop and we will get to see scantily clad women in hot tubs just yards from the track on yachts with names like The Jolly Oiler, but come on now, let’s get a GP back in France.  

 

   

There are now 21 races!  This almost seems like over-saturation to me.  My fear is it will start to feel like Nascar where the driver says things like, “Well the 24 car was about a 9th place car today so we’ll just move on to the next one.”  A Grand Prix used to feel like a rare and wonderful thing, where one bad race could make or break a championship, and I fear that the sense of urgency derived from a 16-18 race calendar may vanish.  Plus how am I supposed to explain to my wife that I now have to watch 21 GP’s on Sunday and Qualifying on Saturday?  

 

The yellow cars are back.  After stepping into the shadows as an engine supplier over the past 5 years, Renault are back as a full blown factory effort after purchasing the Lotus team.  This year will likely be low profile season as they gear up for 2017, but the French team has a history of winning and will hopefully be giving Baby Dietrich and his Red Bull team the bird soon enough.  And for the good of the sport, let’s hope they can find the next Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux.  The motorsports world is a better place with flamboyant Frenchmen driving F1 cars.

 

Alain Prost (F), Renault RE 40 B and RenÈ Arnoux (F), Ferrari 126 C3 at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix 1983.

 

The Americans Are Coming!  I’m not sure how many card carrying Americans are actually a part of the new Haas F1 team, but the team is backed by American businessman Gene Haas and based in Kannapolis, North Carolina.  Seldom does a first year team ever have any success in F1, but Haas has gone the practical route by having Dallara design the chassis and integrating it with a 2016 Ferrari powerplant.  On the driver front, the team pulled off a coup by hiring the experienced and fast Romain Grosjean and pairing him with Esteban Gutierrez.  My hope is in addition to scoring a world championship point in year one, they employ a crew of local North Carolina Good ‘Ol Boys to work as tire changers with the flyaway race team.  The F1 pit lane could use a little dose of redneck to spice up the show.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

I feel like the pecking order this year is pretty predictable with Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams leading the way, but the one dark-horse is Toro Rosso.  For some reason I’m getting some buzzard vibes that this team may break out big time.  Their switch to a 2015 spec Ferrari engine came very late in game as far as designing the car for this year, but they racked up the second most miles to Mercedes in testing and I love that driver pairing.  Max got all of the accolades last year and rightly so, but Sainz Jr is ridiculously fast and just needs more reliability.  I won’t be surprised if either of these guys finish in the top 6 at Melbourne on pure pace.

 

One the subject of future stars, I’m expecting the Big 3 in 2022 to be Verstappen, Sainz and Van Doorne.

 

Where are the sponsors?  I’m looking at the sidepods and wings of these cars and I’m scratching my head wondering how any of these teams are still in business?  I know that the annual payout is substantial, ranging from $150 mil to the top teams down to $50 mil for the likes of Sauber, but where is the rest coming from?  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I miss the days of big tobacco racing!  

 

Will this be the final race in Austin?  When new government officials were elected last year they slashed their annual Grand Prix subsidy from $25 mil to $19 mil, thus placing the future of the race in severe jeopardy.  But hey, they are having a T-Swizzle (Taylor Swift for you unhip people) concert this year on the Saturday after qualifying so there will be plenty of people pouring through the gates.

 

Finally, is there a Ladbrokes over/under for how many races it will take before Alonso finally loses his mind?  I’m predicting at Hockenheim in July, Alonso will pull the car off the track, chuck the wheel, slam his helmet against the sidepod, karate kick the engine cover and walk off into the forest never to be heard from again.

 

2016 Predictions:

 

  1. Hamilton – 10 wins
  2. Rosberg – 6 wins
  3. Vettel – 4 wins
  4. Raikkonen
  5. Bottas
  6. Verstappen
  7. Massa
  8. Ricciardo – 1 win
  9. Sainz
  10. Kvyat
  11. Hulkenberg
  12. Perez
  13. Magnussen
  14. Alonso
  15. Nasr
  16. Button
  17. Palmer
  18. Grosjean
  19. Ericsson
  20. Gutierrez
  21. Wehrlein
  22. Haryanto
Categories
2015 Racing Season

The 2015 F1 Fly Away Report

The 2015 season opening fly-away races are in the books and the teams now head back to their bases for arguably the most important three weeks of the year.  The development race for Barcelona is on and will likely decide how the remainder of the year will play out.  It’s Mercedes vs Ferrari. Renault and Honda working to save face.  Williams trying to keep the mid pack at bay.  I can’t wait to see who has found a couple of tenths to reshuffle the order yet again.

For the drivers it’s time to pack their Speedo swimsuits away for the more temperate climates of Continental Europe and pray that their teams have found the magic solution that will propel them to glory and riches.

Here are some general ramblings:

To Sebastian Vettel (& Ferrari):  I apologize (kind of).  I have publicly flip flopped on Vettel’s driving talents so many times over the past year that I’ve killed any chance of ever running for public office.  I can already see the debate playing out:

Bul Bulifant:  “So in conclusion, my aim is to help Americans collecting false disability get back into the $10/hr working pool to restore some dignity to their lives!”

Opponent:  “That all sounds great but what about a little blog you had years ago where you anointed Sebastian Vettel the equal of Senna, then after one bad season lumped him in with Pastor Maldonado, only to get back on his bandwagon when he restored honor to The Scuderia?  My good people, is this the sort of man you want running your Country?”

Back to Vettel- I had him in my pre season #7 spot and admittedly, the 4 time champ has made a fool out of me.  Ferrari in general have totally surpassed my expectations, much to my delight.  Having the red cars in the game is always great for the sport, particularly when they are the challenger.  There is something that just brings out the passion in all F1 devotees when an underdog Ferrari wins.  It’s as good as it gets.  I’m not about to place Vettel back in the rarefied air of Alonso-Hamilton, but he’s back in ‘the discussion”.

Here is “the discussion” that I have in my head from time to time:

Q: If you were a F1 team manager and could not hire Lewis or Fernando, who would your next three calls be to?

A: Knowing what I know this very second, I would call in order:  Ricciardo, Vettel, Bottas. (sorry Nico).

It appears that after a horrible start, Kimi may have found his rhythm under the desert lights in Bahrain so it will be fascinating to see who gets the upper hand in the team moving forward.  Seb looks to have more outright pace, but Kimi is a metronome over a race distance and may provoke Seb into more errors like we witnessed last weekend.

Credit also to Ferrari’s new technical director, James Allison, who clearly is a guru when it comes to art of designing a car that is kind to it’s tires, andArrivabene their new Team Boss, Maurizio Arrivabene, who brings some much needed machismo back to keep the ranks fueled with passion.

McLaren:  It was obvious McLaren were in trouble heading to Melbourne, but did you honestly think that they would be 3-4 seconds a lap off the pace?  When they took to the track on the first Friday of the year, I thought I was witnessing the ‘97 Mastercard Lola in the hands of Riccardo Rosett instead of the long awaited reunification of McLaren and Honda.  But credit to McLaren and Honda, they are chopping away at the seemingly insurmountable deficit and suddenly look like they will be a welcome addition to the Force India, Toro Roso, Sauber, Lotus wars by Barcelona.

(editors note:  Good luck dealing with Maldonado guys.  He’s the new Andrea De Cesaris)

Here is a quick look at Q1 over the first 4:

Australia:  Hamilton 1:28.586  Button: 1:31.422   Deficit (2.836 secs)

Malaysia:  Hamilton 1:39.296  Button: 1:41.636   Deficit (2.34 secs)

China:  Hamilton 1:38.285  Alonso: 1:39.276  Deficit (.991 secs)

Bahrain:  Hamilton 1:33.928  Alonso: 1.35.2  Deficit (1.272 secs)

As you can see, the gap is coming down significantly and equally impressive, Fernando seems very calm and composed over the situation.  Maybe he’s simply mellowing with age or maybe he knows that Honda are going about their business in the polite Japanese manor of not clobbering the competition right out of the gate and will unleash their true potential in the coming months.  Personally I think this could be the story of the year.  If they can get to the Williams and Red Bulls by year end that will be a phenomenal comeback, equivalent to coming back from 28 down in an NFL game.

On the inter team battle, Button and Alonso look to be evenly matched.  Granted the sample size of 2 races (Fernando missed race 1, Jenson DNS race 4) is too small to draw any real conclusions, but for Button to hang with Alonso for two races is impressive.  Alonso is the undisputed teammate killer.  From his days starting at Benetton he’s crushed:  Trulli, Villeneuve, Fisichella, Piquet, Grosjean, Massa and Kimi.  Only Lewis was able to match the pace of Alonso and if Button can keep it close, that will be a massive achievement and justification that the team was wise to keep the old Brit around for a few years before sending him off to the WEC pastures.

Renault and Red Bull:  What a terrible start to the year!  It’s obvious that Renault have done a very poor job of developing this 2015 engine and are clearly behind Merc and Ferrari, but for all of the Red Bull goons, from Christian Horner all the way up to Dietrich Mateschitz, to publicly bash their partner and threaten to quit the sport entirely if they can’t have their way is despicable.  Did they not just win 4 straight Constructors titles while powered by Renault?  Hasn’t history proved that different makes and manufactures rise and fall from glory?  Afterall, Renault have “only” powered 12 constructors champions over the last 25 years.

It’s a bummer to see Ricciardo stuck battling for 7th place at the moment while the talented Kvyatt is experiencing a horrific beginning to his season, but I expect Renault to make some improvements and the Red Bulls to be mixing it up with the William’s boys soon.

(ed note:  If Baby Dietrich does pick up his toys and “fly’s” away because Renault can’t win every year, I will never order a $27 Red Bull & Vodka in a Las Vegas strip club again.  Do you hear me now Dietrich?  On the bright side, maybe Gene Haas will be able to poach a bunch of RB guys for the soon to be Next American F1 Fiasco.)

Hamilton is #1:  Unfortunately for us, the folks on the couch staring bleary eyed at the screen while scratching, biting and picking, Nico has regressed from last year and Lewis is now the clear cut Number 1 driver for Mercedes.  It seems that last year when Lewis dropped out of the opener and Nico won, Lewis was unsettled and started pressing early due to his deficit in the points and the fact that Nico was remarkably quick in qualifying. This year, it’s the other way around.  Lewis is the relaxed champ doing his thing and Nico is slumping while he tries to come to grips with the pace of Lewis.  Nico desperately needs a win to get his confidence back but with Lewis 4-0 in qualifying and 3-0 in race wins, and the double points race at the end of the year off the table, I’m officially crowning Lewis Hamilton the 2015 F1 World Driving Champion.  Well done lad.  Now just quit spraying down the podium girls with the bubbly.  This isn’t a wet t-shirt contest.

(editors note:  I just had a great flashback to the wet t-shirt contest in the movie “Hot Dog”.  If you have never seen it, do so at once.)

Toro Toro:  The Toro Rosso kids have been mighty impressive.  Poor reliability with the Renault powerplant has let them down but I’m calling both lotusVerstappen and Sainz future F1 winners, and the coolest young paring since Hakkinen/Herbert in the ‘92 Castrol Lotus.  The way they came out attacking in Australia had me believing I was witnessing the next Senna and Prost.  In his first ever Q1 session, 17 year old Max Verstappen was P4!  And not to be outdone, Sainz Jr finished Q3 in P8!  In Malaysia they finished the race P7 and P8 in their Renault powered chassis while the Renault powered Red Bulls finished P9 and P10.  Now before I get too crazy and go online to order a Verstappen helmet hat, I should call out that in Bahrain they did seem to be going backwards.  But my question is, was that a result of the engine just not getting it done or are these two beginners not able to provide the feedback necessary to develop a car?  I’m hoping for a rain race to see what sort tricks they have in store.

 

Buzzardly Yappings:  Both Sauber and Lotus look to be back with sensible cars after last year’s disasters and Nasr is another rookie who knows how to peddle a race car.  Grosjean is now the steady seasoned pro and Pastor is certifiable Loco en la Cabeza  …….It’s nice to see Williams still competitive after their years out in the wilderness, but I’m fearing that last year was their high point and they will slowly regress back to the midpack when RB and McLaren get their acts together……This new formula works for TV but the thought of a quiet F1 car still doesn’t sit well with me and certainly doesn’t make me want to rush out and buy tickets to travel to Austin for a snoozer.  Although Austin has enough other things going on to make it a great trip no matter how wimpy the F1 cars are now……There goes Bernie again threatening to drop Monza and add Baku.  With Bernie’s current sanctioning fees, I have a hard time understanding why anybody would even consider hosting a F1 race unless, of course, the man behind the race is a small endowed megalomanic trying to capture the love of a Hollywood starlet….On the subject of financial irresponsibility, why would 20130426-forma1-james-huntsomebody invest in keeping the former Maurissa (now Manor) team going?  My only thought is that Stephen Fitzpatrick must be trying to emulate the legendary Lord Hesketh and have an excuse to throw parties at races…….What happened to blue chip sponsors?  I know the sport took a massive hit when tobacco advertising was banned worldwide, but one would think with the US markets trading near all time highs and companies flushed with cash, some of these teams would be able to tap into the tech sponsorship pool.  Get some slick salespeople with Brit accents to start setting up some meetings at The Rosewood on Sandhill Rd and sell these young techies on the F1 “cool” factor……Where is Schumi??  In this day and age of constant media scrutiny, how has the condition of F1’s all time winner been kept under wraps for so long?  I’m fearful that the lack of news means he’s not doing well but that man is a warrior so I’ll hope for the best.  So sad and a reminder that life can change instantly so I better quit trying to be an amatuer F1 journalist here and get out side and enjoy the day.


Let’s hope for a great show in Spain and I’ll get back to you for more buzzardly talk before Monaco.

Categories
2015 Racing Season

F1 2015

With the rise of the self driving Google electric car just a decade or so away, I’m viewing the coming years as the swan song for motorsports as we know it.  Sure there will still be underground petrol heads engaging in club racing activities in places such as Siberia, but in general, the world will soon cease caring about man’s pursuit of driving excellence.  Therefore, I’m aiming to cherish F1 2015 as if it may be the final season.  And why not, the computers have won, so let’s just enjoy it while we still can.

If you were turned off by the dominance of the Mercedes W05 in 2014, I’d advise you to take up a new hobby to fill your Sunday’s in 2015.  Mercedes are back with a dominant car and should continue on with their winning ways.  But if you prefer to buzzard by the glass half full belief that it only takes two cars to make a great race, here are a bunch of random thoughts as to why this year will be mega.

Nico Rosberg has learned from his mistakes.  Last year Nico surprised the paddock with his pace and had Lewis reeling for much of the year.  In qualifying Nico beat Lewis 11-7, but Lewis still seemed to have the edge at stringing together quick laps on fading tires and pressured Nico into two critical errors while leading.  But Nico is a cerebral man who will have spent his winter addressing his weaknesses and will come back fitter and more mentally prepared to deal with his freakishly talented teammate.

I see this Mercedes situation as the McLaren-Honda team of ‘88-’89 all over again.  In ‘88, Senna (the freak of all freaks) came in and overwhelmed Alain Prost with his sheer speed and audacious on track etiquette.  The Professor took his lumps, went into his lab and came back to beat the mighty 1988-McLaren-Honda-MP4-4Brazilian the following year in part because of his mastery of psychological warfare.  I expect Nico to do the same.  This mano-a-mano battle should be fascinating.

Ferrari, Vettel and Raikkonen, the three biggest letdowns of 2014, are now one big happy family.  After last years embarrassing campaign, Ferrari have cleaned house and brought in an ensemble of highly paid personnel to restore glory to the Scuderia.  Most notably, their new lead driver Sebastian Vettel.  The fact that the 4 time World Champion had his helmet handed to him by Ricciardo last year was downright shocking.  I’ll admit it, after foolishly proclaiming Vettel the equal of Senna, I’m now officially in the buzzard camp who believes that 100% of Vettel’s success was due solely to the ingenious diffuser that Adrian Newey had bolted on the back of that Red Bull.  This will be Seb’s chance to restore his reputation and emulate his German idol, Michael Schumacher.  Sebs new best mate, Kimi, is coming iceman2_1280off having his helmet, steering wheel, ass and balls handed to him by Alonso but should benefit greatly by having a 2015 car more tailored to his driving preferences.  When Ferrari started designing this 2015 machine, Kimi was their lone contracted driver so I’m expecting the Iceman to deliver the goods once again.

Kvyat!  There is a high likelihood that Russia will be able to lay claim to a GP winner by years end. (note: Will there ever be an American F1 champ again?).  It will be fascinating to see how Daniil Kvyat fares in the spotlight.  One thing’s for certain, he will be feeling the heat quickly if he’s not a match for the sensational Daniel Ricciardo and young Max Verstappen is lighting it up in the junior team.

McLaren.  Remember last year when the Red Bull could barely complete three consecutive laps in testing with a myriad of teething issues and then showed up and placed 3rd in the opening round? (note: Ricciardo was later DQ’d for some minor infraction).  I have a feeling that while it may take time for the Honda package to come together, the car is fundamentally quick.  Button and Magnussen both have been quoted as saying that all of last year’s issues have been sorted and they have laid down some quick lap times in their limited amount of track time.  And of course if the car is a dog, it will be great to watch Alonso vs Ron Part II.

Bottas.  2015 is the year that Bottas cements his status as a future champ.  Keke, Mika, Kimi and soon……BOTTAS!  Let’s get the clear booze out now and start celebrating.  I wish he could accomplish this feat driving a Williams but I think he’s going to have to slip into a seat at McLaren in a year or two to get the job done.

Toro Rosso!  The Helmut Marko/Franz Tost driver finishing school has their two most exciting students to date.  If there were ever children bred to be drivers, Verstappen and Sainz Jr are it.  Young Max is the product of the legendary Dutch Devil and his Belgian karting mom, Sophie Kumpen. Carlos-SainzCarlos Sainz Jr is the product of…well…Carlos Sainz, the legendary Spanish rally driver who I believe is the inspiration for the Dos Equis “World’s Most Interesting Man” commercials.  I can’t wait to see how they fare in the big time.

Mexico is back!  It’s so cool to see the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez back on the calendar.  Sure the track had to be Tilkefied to some degree, but judging by the track map it’s still a unique circuit that should produce a great race.  Kudos to Bernie for bringing Austria back last year and Mexico this year.  That place Mexicowill be packed with Perez mania in full swing.

Drivers have to keep their helmet colors!  I know that I sound a little neurotic for calling this out but these drivers who change their colors every other race drive me nuts.  I want to look at a car for a split second and say Arnoux, Fabi, Boutsen, Alboreto, Alliot, De Cesaris, Warwick, Tambay, Cheever, Laffitte, etc.  Their helmet is their identity and they should be proud of their colors.

 

Having said that, here are the picks to take to the bank:

 

  1. Hamilton – 9 wins
  2. Rosberg – 7 wins
  3. Ricciardo – 3 wins
  4. Kvyat – 1 win
  5. Raikkonen
  6. Bottas
  7. Vettel
  8. Alonso
  9. Massa
  10. Button
  11. Hulkenberg
  12. Grosjean
  13. Perez
  14. Verstappen
  15. Maldonado
  16. Nasr
  17. Sainz
  18. Ericsson
  19. Merhi
  20. Stevens