Tag: red bull racing

2026 United States Grand Prix preview: Antonelli’s title shot, McLaren’s mess and Red Bull’s momentum

The short version

Kimi Antonelli can clinch the championship in Austin, but only if he wins, George Russell finishes ninth or lower, and Lewis Hamilton finishes fifth or lower. At 20 years and 61 days he would be the youngest world champion in F1 history.
Max Verstappen has won the last two races and cut McLaren’s constructors’ lead to seven points. Lando Norris’s sprint crash with Oscar Piastri didn’t help McLaren.
There is no sprint this weekend, and the forecast is hot and dry.

Antonelli: the youngest champion ever, maybe

Antonelli leads Russell by 102 points, 340 to 238. A title in Austin would make him 20 years and 61 days old, taking the youngest-champion record from Sebastian Vettel, who was 23 years and 134 days when he won in 2010.

The maths is stricter than the headline suggests. Five rounds remain after Austin, which leaves 125 points on the table. A win takes Antonelli to 365. If Russell finishes ninth he reaches 240, a gap of exactly 125. A tie on points would go to race wins, and Antonelli would have nine against a maximum of eight for Russell. So ninth is the cut-off for Russell. Hamilton, on 229, must finish fifth or lower, because fourth would keep him inside the gap.

Austin result	What it means
Antonelli wins, Russell P9 or lower, Hamilton P5 or lower	Champion in Austin
Antonelli wins, but Russell or Hamilton finish higher	Title decided in Mexico at the earliest
Antonelli doesn’t win	Can’t clinch this weekend

A win would also end the title hopes of Verstappen (119 back), Leclerc and Norris. Verstappen is mathematically alive unless Antonelli outscores him by six or more.

The catch is that Russell, who is on 238 points, has to have a bad day. He did finish ninth in Singapore, but from the back of the grid after a power unit penalty. Short of a mechanical failure or one of Mercedes’ puzzling weekends, he’s more likely to be on the podium. The most probable outcome is that the party gets postponed.

Red Bull’s surge

Verstappen has taken the last two grands prix and the Singapore sprint, and was second in Baku. He was seven points short of a perfect score across that triple-header. He’s fourth in the standings on 221 points, and Red Bull’s recent form has people asking who really has the quickest race car. Mercedes lead the championship but are still working out the upgrade they brought to Malaysia.

McLaren: how to lose points to yourself

On the final lap of the Singapore sprint, Norris dived up the inside of Piastri at Turn 5 and the two collided. Piastri retired and Norris limped home eighth. McLaren banked one point from what should have been about nine. The stewards took no action, ruling that both drivers contributed.

Norris’s reaction took two days to arrive. On Saturday he insisted the move was on. On Sunday, after finishing fourth in the race, he reversed himself. He said he should never have attempted it, even if the move was on, apologised to the team and said he’d been told off in internal talks. Piastri, for his part, said he wasn’t that bothered by a sprint result. The team principal was blunter, calling the damage to the team material.

Constructors’ points are the cost. The gap to Red Bull was 18 before Singapore, then 11 after the sprint, then 7 after the race. One former technical director estimated the lost points could cost McLaren around $10 million, although how he got to that number isn’t explained, so take it as a ballpark. McLaren are bringing further upgrades to Austin.

Constructors’ standings and the midfield

Team	Points
Mercedes	578
Ferrari	444
McLaren	339
Red Bull	332
Racing Bulls	100
Alpine	68
Haas	30
Audi	23
Williams	12
Aston Martin	7
Cadillac	0

The top four is a proper fight. Ferrari are 105 clear of McLaren, but McLaren and Red Bull are separated by seven. The midfield is less tight than it sounds. Racing Bulls lead Alpine by 32, and Alpine are 38 clear of Haas. The real scrapping is further down. Haas lead Audi by seven, Williams lead Aston Martin by five, and Aston Martin lead Cadillac by seven. Cadillac are the only team still without a point, and with no sprint in Austin there are fewer points to go around.

The weather

After Malaysia and Singapore, Austin should feel like a holiday. Forecasts put highs near 30°C on Friday and Saturday and around 29°C on Sunday. Rain chances are low: about 3% on Friday and 7% on Saturday and Sunday. The only weather problem is heat, which will test tyre management.

Also in the paddock

F1 has signed a 10-year deal for a Rwanda Grand Prix, its first African race since Kyalami in 1993. Haas have also signed Rafael Camara for 2027 to partner Oliver Bearman.

What to watch

A 20-year-old could be crowned on Sunday. Verstappen is chasing a hat-trick of wins. McLaren have a mess to clean up, and the whole thing starts at 22:00 on a hot Texas evening with no rain in sight. Clear your Sunday night and stock up on coffee.

Image courtesy Pirelli Motorsport

October 20, 2026

Ferrari strategy in Singapore: a sound plan, a costly call and a trust problem

The short version

Verstappen won the Singapore Grand Prix by 7.0 seconds from Charles Leclerc. Lewis Hamilton went from third on track to sixth after staying out under the Virtual Safety Car.
Ferrari say they told both drivers to pit. Hamilton says he missed the pit entry, then chose to stay out, and has taken the blame. Both can be true, and the radio that would settle it hasn’t been published.
Ferrari already have more points than in the whole of 2025 (444 against 398). That is real progress. At Ferrari, progress is not a result.

Ferrari strategy has always been a spectator sport, and Singapore added another episode. A split plan, a Virtual Safety Car, a missed pit entry and an apology on the cool-down lap. What it doesn’t settle is the bigger question: when the pit wall and the driver disagree, who is supposed to win the argument?

How the race went

Verstappen took pole, Leclerc was second and Hamilton third. Verstappen and Leclerc started on softs. Hamilton started on mediums, Ferrari’s way of covering both bets on a tyre nobody could read. Leclerc had a run at Turn 1, Verstappen closed the door, and Leclerc stayed within a second for the first 15 laps. Then Verstappen pulled away.

Lap	What happened
Start	Verstappen pole. Leclerc P2 on softs, Hamilton P3 on mediums
19	Hamilton pits from the fading mediums to softs
25	Leclerc pits for mediums, about 9s behind Verstappen
33	Verstappen pits and keeps the lead
39	VSC for Lance Stroll’s stopped car. Leclerc pits for softs, about 17s behind. Hamilton stays out
Finish	Verstappen, Leclerc (+7.0s), Antonelli, Norris, Piastri, Hamilton

Hamilton’s old softs faded. Leclerc passed him, then Antonelli, Norris and Piastri all followed him past. A likely podium became sixth place.

The strategy: clever or chaotic?

Splitting the strategies at the start was defensible. Ferrari were unsure whether the medium or the soft would last, and the sprint, affected by wet running, gave them poor tyre data. The medium turned out to be the worse race tyre, so Hamilton stopped early. That is a plan working as designed, not a plan going wrong.

The trouble came after. One analysis of the race argues Leclerc’s lap-25 stop dropped him in front of Hamilton, who was quicker at that point, and cost Hamilton roughly two seconds. Reports say Hamilton asked to be let through, and offered to swap back, and heard nothing. Vasseur defended the call. Whichever side you take, the optics are the same: two cars, one team, and a driver asking a question the pit wall didn’t answer.

The VSC call

This is the part everyone is arguing about. Vasseur says Ferrari called both cars in for a double stack and Hamilton chose to stay out. Hamilton says the team called him in, he missed the pit entry, and he then decided to hold track position. After the flag he said: “Sorry boys. I let you down today with that strategy.”

There is also a theory, popular online, that the pit call never reached him. The evidence for that is a gap in the published radio, which proves nothing either way. What is reported, though not confirmed by Ferrari, is that Hamilton had asked for the pace of soft-tyre runners at the end of their stints and was given current lap times. If true, that is thin information to base a gamble on.

The cost was real. Vasseur said P2 and P3 were on offer. One analysis has Hamilton losing about 2.5 seconds per lap to Leclerc over the closing stint. Hamilton has taken full responsibility, which deserves to be said plainly. Whether the information he had justified the decision is a separate question, and that’s the one Ferrari need to answer.

Does Hamilton trust the pit wall?

Three recent races tell the story, and none of them paints Hamilton as a rebel.

Race	The situation	Hamilton’s response	Result
Zandvoort	Ferrari didn’t swap him past a slower Leclerc on older tyres	Sarcastic radio, then compared Ferrari unfavourably with Mercedes	P4
Sepang	Pit wall floated an intermediate gamble on lap 5	Declined and stayed on slicks	P3, 4.9s behind Verstappen
Singapore	Called in under the VSC	Stayed out	P6

Sepang was a week earlier, and it taught Hamilton that overruling the pit wall can work. Singapore taught him it can also cost a podium. Neither race proves he distrusts the team. They show a driver who backs his own read when the information is thin, and a team that has handed him thin information more than once. Zandvoort suggests the communication is the pattern, not the exception.

Could Leclerc have won?

Probably not. Verstappen led by about 9 seconds when Leclerc stopped on lap 25 and about 17 when he stopped under the VSC. Leclerc finished 7.0 seconds behind, so on fresh softs he took about 10 seconds back in 23 laps. That sounds promising until you remember Verstappen was managing his race.

Leclerc himself said Red Bull had too much pace in the opening stint. He also thinks he misjudged Verstappen’s early power deployment problems and didn’t spend battery to force a pass. He doesn’t think that changes the result. Had he got ahead at Turn 1, he would have led with the faster car sitting behind him on a track where passing is hard. That’s a long way from a win. The honest answer is that second was the realistic ceiling, and Ferrari got it.

The Ferrari tax

Context matters. In 2025 Ferrari finished fourth with 398 points, with no wins, and Hamilton had no podiums. This year they are second with 444 points, two wins and a seven-time champion who is third in the drivers’ standings. Mercedes have 11 wins, so Ferrari are clearly the second-best team on the grid and clearly not the best.

That is the Ferrari problem. Anything short of a win is failure, a seven-time champion in red adds extra scrutiny, and every sketchy call arrives with an audience. Sepang’s slick gamble and Singapore’s split-and-pray plan did the team no favours.

And then there is Vasseur

Strong rumours have been circulating since late September that Ferrari’s senior leadership has a succession plan to ease Vasseur out after this season. Nothing has been confirmed, and nobody has ruled it out either. Ferrari moved quickly, saying within days that they have full confidence in him. Both drivers backed him publicly: Hamilton called him a fantastic leader and Leclerc said he trusts him. Vasseur says his relationship with CEO Benedetto Vigna and chairman John Elkann is a very good one. Christian Horner, a man with time on his hands, called Ferrari a dream job.

None of that is confirmed, and Ferrari have publicly backed him. But the story hasn’t gone away for weeks and reappears after every race. Smoke isn’t fire. Still, a team that issues a vote of confidence and then has to repeat it a week later is telling you something. No change has been announced at the time of writing. Austin is next.

📸 courtesy Ferrari Media

October 14, 2026

2026 Singapore Grand Prix preview: Mercedes need answers, the FIA needs dry weather
The short version
- Round 17 is the final sprint weekend of 2026.
- George Russell, last year’s winner, starts Sunday’s race from the back after taking a fifth power unit. Kimi Antonelli leads him by 84 points and cannot clinch the title this weekend.
- The FIA says it has found the cause of Sepang’s software failure. Nothing new is planned for Singapore, and a further wet-weather update is due before Austin.
Mercedes: a penalty and a question

Mercedes were quickest in two of three practice sessions at Sepang, then lost their pace in qualifying. Deputy team principal Bradley Lord blamed a mix of the new upgrade, track temperature and surface. He said the drivers were on the throttle in slow corners, which hurt tyre temperatures. Marina Bay has plenty of slow corners.

Russell’s lap-50 retirement was a mechanical failure on the power unit side, Lord said, and the root cause is still unknown. The replacement is Russell’s fifth unit of the year, beyond the four-unit allocation, so he starts Sunday from the back of the grid.

Antonelli leads 320 points to 236. Singapore offers 33 per driver (eight for the sprint, 25 for the race), which is not enough to settle anything. The earliest he can clinch is the US Grand Prix on 25 October. Even then he would need to outscore Russell by at least 42 points across the two weekends, out of a maximum possible swing of 58. A long shot, but not a closed door.

What the FIA found at Sepang

The FIA’s review is complete. It blames a bug in the power unit software that limits electrical power around the lap. In the wet a 250kW reduction applies, and some cars running low revs in certain sectors lost more power than intended and could not recover it. That is how a formation lap became a car park. The FIA says it found the fault within minutes and sent teams a revised configuration during the red flag. It rejects the suggestion the code was never tested, saying it ran in simulation and in first practice at the Belgian and Dutch Grands Prix. Whether a bug that sailed through those sessions counts as tested is a question for the philosophers.

For Singapore no further changes are planned. If it rains, cars revert to what reports call the Malaysia configuration, though they don’t say whether that means the original or the patched version. A further wet-weather update is due before the US Grand Prix.

The forecast is less settled than the software. There is chance of rain at 30% on Friday and 40% on Saturday and Sunday. Humidity could reach 83% at the start of the race. Weather forecasts in F1 are proving less reliable than the Aston Martins at this stage. Things could change.

Ferrari: a podium, a stall and noise upstairs

Lewis Hamilton’s third place was his first podium since Silverstone, and it followed a scare. His car stopped on the straight during the formation lap and had to be restarted. Ferrari still can’t explain why, and Fred Vasseur said on Sunday he had no clear answer. Ferrari are second on 405 points, 151 behind Mercedes.

The leadership story has not moved. Ferrari said on 29 September that it had made its choices and had full confidence in Vasseur. Hamilton said on 1 October that “there are also people above” the team principal, and Vasseur called his relationship with Benedetto Vigna and John Elkann a very good one. No change has been announced as of Thursday.

Red Bull and McLaren

Max Verstappen arrives with Red Bull Ford’s first win and first pole, level with Lando Norris on 188 points. Red Bull sit 18 behind McLaren in the constructors’ table. Singapore remains a gap on his record: four podiums, three of them second places, and no win.

McLaren concede the MCL40 may not suit Marina Bay’s slow 90-degree corners, and say the latest upgrade hasn’t delivered in Baku or Sepang. They did win here in 2024 and clinched last year’s constructors’ title at this race.

The circuit and the tyres

Marina Bay is 4.927km, with 19 corners and 62 laps, and Hamilton holds the lap record: 1:33.808, set last year. Every edition up to and including 2023 had at least one Safety Car, 24 deployments in total, but 2024 and 2025 had none. Russell won last year’s race from pole without one, so the old certainty has been downgraded to a tendency.

Pirelli bring the C3, C4 and C5 (hard, medium and soft) again and expect a one-stop to be the preferred strategy. The soft may get a look from more than one team on Sunday. With a single practice hour, the sprint is where teams will learn how it behaves.

Midfield

Team Points
Racing Bulls 90
Alpine 68
Haas 27
Audi 17
Williams 12
Aston Martin 7
Cadillac 0

Racing Bulls lead Alpine by 22 after Alpine failed to score at Sepang. Fernando Alonso’s eighth place there was Aston Martin’s best result of a difficult season and cut the gap to Williams to five points. Cadillac remain the only team without a point, though the sprint pays down to eighth, which gives the back of the grid a second chance this weekend.

Sepang showed what happens when everything that can go wrong does. Marina Bay, with its humidity, one practice hour and a sprint thrown in, is a decent venue for a rematch. Bring a towel.
October 8, 2026
2026 Bahrain Grand Prix: Verstappen wins Sepang’s long, wet afternoon as Russell’s title hopes fade

Formula 1 came back to Sepang after nine years and found it much as it left it: hot, wet and unpredictable. What nobody expected was a software problem. By the time the field was finally racing, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia had already been through a thunderstorm, a red flag and an emergency software update. Max Verstappen was the only man who seemed untroubled by any of it.

The Dutchman had been quickest in all three parts of qualifying. His 1:35.130 put him three tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton. It was his first pole of the season and the first for the Red Bull-Ford partnership, and Ford’s first pole since Rubens Barrichello’s Stewart at Magny-Cours in 1999. Isack Hadjar qualified third but took a five-place engine penalty, which promoted Kimi Antonelli to third on the grid. Mercedes had brought an upgrade to Malaysia and looked baffled by it. George Russell qualified eighth and started seventh.

A storm arrived just before the scheduled start, and the start was delayed by 40 minutes. When the field finally left on the formation lap on intermediates, the queue bunched up and several cars nearly stopped. A number of them, Verstappen and Hamilton among them, then would not go again. The drivers had their feet on the throttle and nothing happened. The red flag came out.

The explanation is simpler than it sounded on the radio. Nearly half of a 2026 car’s power is electrical, and the way that power is deployed is governed by standard software the FIA supplies. That software had a flaw nobody had found, because this season has produced almost no proper wet running to test it. When a car slowed to a near standstill, the bug stopped the electrical power from being released again. FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis admitted the software had not been tested as thoroughly as he would have liked. His engineers wrote a fix on the spot, sent it to the teams, and the teams loaded it onto every car. The fix itself took about 20 minutes. Getting the race restarted took 53. Sergio Pérez compared the experience to a rental kart running out of time. Fernando Alonso, whose Aston Martin has failed to finish half its races this season, joked that nobody had ever stopped a race on his account.

When they finally got underway, only nine cars started on intermediates, among them Verstappen, both Mercedes and Hadjar. The Ferraris, the McLarens and most of the midfield gambled on slicks. Piastri, Stroll, Hülkenberg and Bortoleto lost their nerve and pitted for intermediates before the standing start. The Mercedes pair got away better than Verstappen, and Liam Lawson flew into fourth. The slick runners lost time by the lap, and Leclerc, having clipped Hülkenberg, gave up and pitted at the end of the first lap.

Verstappen passed Russell on lap six and was all over Antonelli when Valtteri Bottas beached his Cadillac in the Turn 13 gravel. The safety car came out just as slicks had become the faster tyre. The leaders got a cheap change onto slicks and the gamblers got a reprieve. On the restart Verstappen went around the outside of Antonelli at Turn 1, and Russell took his teammate at Turn 5. Antonelli eventually repassed Russell on lap 21 without any help from the pit wall, and Verstappen’s lead had grown to 11 seconds by the second round of stops. Alex Albon’s stopped Williams brought out a virtual safety car and then a full one. Verstappen pitted, briefly lost the lead and took it back a lap later when Antonelli stopped. With four laps left he controlled the restart and won by 2.3 seconds. It was Ford’s first Grand Prix victory since 2003.

Ferrari needed a good afternoon and got one. Hamilton went from the front row to 15th on the slick gamble, worked his way back to fifth by lap 22 and passed Hadjar into Turn 1 three laps from home for his first podium since Silverstone. Leclerc came from the pit lane on lap one to finish fourth. After a week in which the Italian press was openly writing Fred Vasseur’s successor’s name, a 27-point haul will not settle the question, but it gives his critics less to work with.

Russell had the worst of it. He was running third on lap 50 when his power unit failed, his third retirement of the year. Toto Wolff said the failure had nothing to do with the safety car and apologised on the radio. Antonelli now leads by 84 points with seven Grands Prix and a sprint remaining. The arithmetic still allows a comeback. Russell needs to outscore Antonelli by around twelve points every weekend from here, and he himself called a fightback exceptionally unlikely. The Italian has eight wins and a teammate with an unreliable car. Short of something dramatic, the title is his.

Further back, Lawson’s seventh and Arvid Lindblad’s tenth put Racing Bulls 22 points clear of Alpine, who failed to score. Esteban Ocon ran sixth early and finished fifteenth. Red Bull closed to within 18 points of McLaren. Alonso’s eighth place is Aston Martin’s best result of the season and moves them to within five points of Williams. Lance Stroll finished twelfth, which at Aston Martin this year counts as news.

Honourable mentions go to Lawson for the start of the day, Hadjar for climbing from eighth on the grid to fifth, Norris for recovering to ninth after a trip through the gravel, and Pérez, who reached the flag after seven pit stops.

Singapore follows next Sunday. Mercedes have a week to find the speed they lost here, Red Bull arrive with momentum for the first time this season, and Vasseur will face the same questions again.

Media courtesy Pirelli Motorsport

October 4, 2026
F1 2022: Singapore Gp Preview – Asian Challenge Awaits

This weekend marks the first opportunity for Max Verstappen to win the 2022 drivers world championship.

While it is a mathematical possibility, the permutations though are a bit of a long shot. For Verstappen to claim his second title he would have to win the race, which is by no means an impossibility. But with a Verstappen win Charles Leclerc would have to be ninth or lower and Checo Perez fourth or lower (without fastest lap) for the title to be won. Singapore can often be an unpredictable place and coupled with Ferrari’s unreliability it isn’t an impossible permutation. Nevertheless, with all being equal and the Ferrari engine staying in one piece Verstappen’s title glory may not come in Singapore this weekend.

The South-East Asia venue, first introduced in 2008, has had its fair share of spectacles over the years. Who could forget the infamous crashgate scandal in which Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. was ordered to crash to benefit then-teammate Fernando Alonso. It ended with a lifetime ban for team principal at the time, Flavio Briatore. But Alonso kept the win and celebrated it as such.

As the first ever night race on the F1 calendar the Marina Bay circuit is an amalgamation of medium to slow speed corners, interrupted by a lengthy start/finish strait. The proximity of the barriers in combination with one of the longest laps on the calendar and the stifling humidity and heat makes the Singapore Grand Prix one of the biggest mental and physical challenges of the year.

Seb Vettel has been the most successful driver around these parts with five wins in total. The last of those victories, and his last win to date, came in 2019 as a Ferrari driver. And unless something truly dramatic happens it’s unlikely that Vettel’s Aston Martin has the performance capability to put him anywhere near the front. Then again, the Singapore Grand Prix has seen a total of twenty-one safety car deployments since 2019.

The prevalence of the safety car means that quick thinking in terms of strategy could yield results. Mercedes, somewhat renowned for its efficient strategies, should be primed then to take advantage of any such opportunities. While it refrains to be seen how the Merc performs on the Singapore streets, the team seems confident that it will be able to compete. The performance on other street tracks this year, like Miami, Baku, and Monaco, were quite dreadful but as the season has progressed so too the Merc engineers have begun to understand how to get the most out of the car. But it remains a big ‘if’ for Hamilton and/or Russell to push for the top step of the podium.

September 22, 2022
F1 2022: Italian Gp Review – Five in a row for Verstappen

No penalties, no safety cars, no traffic. There is seemingly nothing that can stop Max Verstappen’s determined march towards a second world title. The win at Monza this week makes it five in a row for the Dutchman who is driving and performing to an unmatched level of excellence.

The vociferous Tifosi was buoyed by a stunning pole position from Charles Leclerc on Saturday. And with Verstappen relegated to seventh, thanks to penalties, they would’ve believed it possible that a Ferrari driver may just stand on the top step of the famous podium come Sunday. But such was the pace of Verstappen that it all be negated his five-place grid drop within a handful of laps.

Leclerc started cleanly from pole with George Russell, promoted due to several penalties applied to others, challenged briefly. Ultimately, the Mercedes driver simply didn’t have the pace to live with either Verstappen or Leclerc.

For the first time in quite a while Ferrari’s woes cannot be blamed on a bizarre strategy call. As Verstappen slotted into P2 by lap 5 it was clear that the Red Bull pace wouldn’t be beaten in a straight-out fight. As it were, Vettel’s retirement from the race, with a suspected ERS issues, on lap 12 prompted the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC). It gave Leclerc and Ferrari the opportunity to opt for alternative strategy and they did. The Monegasque swopped his soft tyres for mediums while Verstappen stayed out. Being on the alternate tyre gave Leclerc at least some chance to upset the Red Bull apple cart, even if it was a long shot.

Verstappen would swop his softs for mediums on lap 26 and hand the lead of the race back to Leclerc. Again, Ferrari made a clever call to pit Leclerc for second time, this time giving him fresher, and hopefully quicker, soft tyres. With 20 laps to go Verstappen stayed out on his older mediums. But despite Leclerc’s tyre advantage he simply was not able to close the gap to Verstappen. A late race retirement from Daniel Ricciardo prompted the deployment of the full safety car on lap 48. The seemingly innocuous retirement of the McLaren became slightly more complex as the car remained stuck in gear and therefore unmovable by marshals. As it were, clearing the McLaren took longer than expected and the race eventually finished behind the safety car.

While ending a race behind the safety car is not the optimal conclusion there was little else race control could do. There are some who say that a red flag should have been brought out, however this option is reserved only for serious incidents and as the very last resort.

Behind the top three of Verstappen, Leclerc, and Russell the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz recovered, yes from penalties, to a solid fourth place. Lewis Hamilton and Checo Perez, also felled by grid penalties, were fifth and sixth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris in seventh and Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly in eighth. But the drive of the day was delivered by ninth place finished Nyck De Vries. The Dutch Formula E champion was drafted in on Saturday morning after regular Williams driver was told to be suffering from appendicitis. With very little time behind the wheel De Vries delivered a stunning drive to finish with points on debut. He surely hasn’t done his chances of being in that Williams for 2023, any harm either. Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu was tenth at the chequered flag.

After a sprint of three consecutive races Formula 1 takes a collective breath before heading to Singapore in two weeks’ time. Remarkably, such has his dominance been in 2022 that Verstappen will arrive in South-East Asia with a chance of wrapping up the driver’s world title.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

September 12, 2022
F1 2022: Dutch Gp Review – 4 in a row for Verstappen

It’s four in a row for Max Verstappen who once again stood on the top step of the podium at the Dutch Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver had to work a bit harder for it, but his tenth win of the season is in the bag. Although he started cleanly from pole Verstappen had to overcome not only an out-of-character pacey Mercedes duo but also a virtual safety car (VSC) and a full safety car to take the chequered flag first.

But first the race itself deserves some unpacking. And where better to start than with Ferrari’s failing championship bid. On Saturday it seemed that both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had stepped up to the plate. After all, both drivers were less than a tenth of a second off pole position. The stage seemed to be primed for a battle royal. Alas, the Ferrari pace seemed to be restricted to qualifying as Leclerc couldn’t keep tabs on Verstappen from second on the track. For his troubles Sainz had a coming together with Lewis Hamilton that damaged his floor and cost him some downforce and balance and, ultimately, pace. But this wasn’t even close to the worst part of Sainz’s afternoon. First, the Spaniard arrived in the pitlane to a team of mechanics who were still carrying tyres out of the garage. Sainz lost an inordinate amount of time waiting to have his tyres fitted. Next there was a dicey moment when overtaking Esteban Ocon with a stricken Valtteri Bottas parked up near the end of the start/finish strait. This though didn’t get Sainz a penalty but what did was an unsafe release in the pitlane later. The five-second penalty simply added insult to injury on what was already a genuinely poor afternoon. Again, through yet more operational errors Ferrari are masterminding their own demise.

It was going much better at Mercedes. In fact, for a good portion of the race Hamilton had a real shot at winning it. But a bizarre series of events for Yuki Tsunoda, which included the driver stopping the car and then being told to continue by his team. The young Japanese driver then entered the pitlane to have his seatbelts refastened before being released. Moments later he was told to stop the car which prompted the appearance of the VSC.

Leading up to this Verstappen had stopped for medium tyres while Hamilton had opted for hard tyres to carry him to the end of the race. As it stood, Verstappen would have to stop and need to overtake both Mercs, on track, to win the race. The VSC however gave Verstappen a cheap stop and he emerged still in the lead. But Hamilton’s pace was still impressive, and he was still well on course. That is until the full safety car was deployed to scoop up Bottas’s Alfa.

At this point both Verstappen and Russell stopped for soft tyres while Hamilton stayed on the medium. As it were, Russell made the call to switch tyres himself while Hamilton made no such choice. It was clear very quickly that Hamilton would be a sitting duck. And it was confirmed mere seconds after the race restarted as Verstappen swept back into the lead of the race. Russell and Leclerc too passed an irate Hamilton a few laps later. While Russell had taken his own initiative to call for the soft tyre Hamilton blamed the team, using the some colourful language, for not giving him the correct tyre compound.

As it were Verstappen, Russell, and Leclerc occupied the top three positions while Hamilton trundled home in fourth. Checo Perez was fifth in the other Red Bull ahead of Fernando Alonso in sixth and Lando Norris in seventh. Carlos Sainz dropped down to eighth, due to his penalty while Ocon, in ninth, made it a double points scoring day for Alpine. Lance Stroll was tenth for Aston Martin.

There’s hardly any time to recover as the F1 paddock heads to Monza this weekend for the sixteenth round of the season. Verstappen arrives at Ferrari’s home track with a gigantic, and perhaps unassailable, lead of 109 points over Leclerc. With the championship titles seemingly out of their reach can Ferrari give their beloved Tifosi something to cheer about at the cathedral of speed?

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

September 5, 2022
F1 2022: French Gp Review – “Atta boy Max”

Max Verstappen has taken back-to-back victories at the French Grand Prix and with it a sizable lead in the driver’s championship standings.

It wasn’t all Red Bull all the time though as Charles Leclerc scored an impressive seventh pole of the season. The Ferrari driver lead cleanly from the start of the race too and held his own against Verstappen. For more than ten laps it looked well within Leclerc’s hands in terms of pace. So much so that Red Bull pulled the strategy call by bringing Verstappen in on lap 17 for hard tyres. Although Leclerc stayed out the pressure of a Verstappen undercut loomed large. So large that it prompted Leclerc into pushing harder on his worn medium tyres which ended with the Monegasque driver in the barriers on lap 18. Initially it seemed like the spin couldve been triggered to a throttle issue, as experienced in Austria. However, Leclerc explained post-crash that it was driver error.

The race re-started on lap 22 with Verstappen leading from Hamilton, Perez, and Russell. By this point Carlos Sainz, starting from the back due to engine penalties, has recovered to P5. The Spanish driver delivered an impressive turn of pace. Soon, he was on the tail of Russell and well in contention for the podium. Strangely, Ferrari decided to pit Sainz. Much to the bewilderment of…all. It dropped Sainz to P9. Despite a 5-second penalty, for an unsafe pitlane release, Sainz recovered to P5. But there’s little doubt that Ferrari fluffed a certain podium result.

Elsewhere, a tasty battle between Checo Perez and George Russell for the final step on the podium. A bit of wheel-banging and a subsequent radio rant from Russell was brought down a notch by the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car. The recovery of Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo brought another opportunity for Russell. In quite a cunning move as swept past slow moving Perez. After the race, the stewards confirmed a software glitch that prompted a double message of BSC ending. It may have been to blame for Perez’s slow reaction, but it was no less opportunistic and cutthroat from Russell.

Up ahead Lewis Hamilton delivered a solid drive into second place some 10 seconds off leader Verstappen. While Mercedes did benefit from an absent Ferrari the double podium finish is a testament to their reliability.

Behind Sainz in P5 was Fernando Alonso while Lando Norris was seventh for McLaren. Homeboy Esteban Ocon was P8 ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in P9. In P10 Lance Stroll salvaged the final point on offer for Aston Martin.

Verstappen’s win, the 27th of his career, and Leclerc’s retirement gives the Dutchman a ominous 63 point lead in the drivers’ championship points table. Ten races remain in the 2022 season and whole lot of points on the table. But if Ferrari do not clean up their act Max Verstappen May well be shining the plaque on his second driver’s title trophy.

July 26, 2022
F1 2022: French Gp Preview – Vive la France?

Formula 1 heads to the circuit with acres of tarmac run-off but, sadly, not much as entertainment. The Paul Ricard circuit in France has, to put it mildly, not delivered the most memorable or exciting race since its re-introduction to the F1 calendar.

The circuit is more of a purpose-built test track than it is a racing circuit. Nevertheless, it has a spot as a 2022 race and brings with it another opportunity to score points. In terms of pace there is little to choose between Red Bull and Ferrari. However, what has separated the two teams is reliability. Whereas Red Bull suffered some failures in the opening part of the season the mechanical gremlins have continued to plague Ferrari. While Charles Leclerc did win in Austria he not only did so while managing a throttle issue but also with the knowledge that teammate Carlos Sainz’s race had ended a literal fireball. In fact, so prevalent has Ferrari’s reliability issues been that the win in Austria was Leclerc’s first since the Australian grand prix in early April. Ferrari has the pace to trouble Red Bull as shown throughout the season. Add to this that Italian team also seems to be kinder to its tyres, as proven in Austria, and the fact that Leclerc is more than capable to taking the fight to Verstappen and you have the makings of an epic championship fight. It remains to be seen however how much Ferrari can rectify, or at least, mitigate the reliability woes.

The Paul Ricard circuit is never going to be at the top of most people’s list when ticking off favourite racetracks. But Mercedes is not going to be too unhappy with going to Le Castellet this weekend. Like Austria and Silverstone this circuit too has a fairly smooth surface. And based on recent races the Mercedes excels on track surfaces such as this. The picture could’ve been slightly better for Mercedes in Austria if they’d had a cleaner weekend, read crashes in quali, but what was noticeable is that even in conditions that alleviate some the W13’s Hamilton was still well off the fastest pace. There’s no doubt though that they’re set for a good weekend in France, barring crashes or unreliability. The question is whether it will be good enough to challenge either Ferrari or Red Bull.

The mid-field battle in 2022 has been a sight to behold. At several points during the last race in Austria there were four cars abreast, fighting tooth and nail for positions. And that, throughout the race. There is no denying that in the last few races Mick Schumacher has come into himself and is driving beautifully. The test for him now is to maintain his form and prove his ability to consistently score points, should the car allow for it.

It hasn’t been quite the season that Pierre Gasly would’ve been expecting after the highs of the last few seasons. The Alpha Tauri is not in-tune with the new regulations, and it shows in the fact Gasly finds himself in 13^th place in the driver’s standings with a paltry 16 points to his name. There’s an opportunity for him, on home soil, to deliver something worth mentioning. Surely, if a driver can perform better anywhere it is at his home race.

It’s a home race too for Esteban Ocon. The Alpine driver deserves to be mentioned far more than he has. His teammate Fernando Alonso has been vaunted and highly praised for his driving prowess, and rightly so. But Ocon is quietly showing the two-time champion the way with nearly double his points tally of 52 to Alonso’s 29. To regularly be beating someone of Alonso’s caliber is no small thing.

The much-maligned Paul Ricard circuit has received its fair share of criticism for being nothing more than a damp squib. But let’s err or the side of optimism and pin the hopes on the new 2022 cars and the expectation that it just might deliver a French grand prix to remember.

July 19, 2022
F1 2022: Canadian Gp Review – Methodical Max Wins Again

For the first time since 2019 Formula 1 returned to the man-made island of the Ile de Notre Dame and the Canadian Grand Prix.

What lives in the memory bank for the famed circuit Gilles Villeneuve is the great Michael Schumacher’s dominance and the fact that it is the site of Lewis Hamilton’s first win. Amongst other indelible memories the rain in Canada also features quite prominently in the recollection, not least of all due to the 2011 Grand Prix.

The rain made its presence known in 2022 as well but confined itself to Saturday qualifying this time around. Although there was no monsoon level of rain it was enough to produce a spicy qualifying session. Checo Perez’s mistake in Q2 confined him to second half of the grid while teammate Max Verstappen was peerless as he headed to a comfortable pole position. But elsewhere Fernando Alonso snatched a front-row starting position for the first time since 2012 while Hamilton put his Mercedes in fourth alongside the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher too delivered stand-out performances to qualify fifth and sixth for Haas. Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc was relegated to the back of the grid owing to penalties for new power unit elements.

Race day saw the return of pristine sunshine albeit on a green track. Verstappen led easily away from pole and quickly gapped Alonso in second. On lap 8 the weekend went from bad to worse for Perez as the Mexican driver was forced into retirement with a suspected gearbox issue. The stricken Red Bull prompted the deployment of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) which allowed Verstappen to swop his medium tyre for the hard compound while Sainz and Alonso opted not to take the cheap pitstop.

A handful of laps later, on lap 15, another VSC was called upon. This time it was to recover the Haas of the luckless Mick Schumacher. Schumacher had been running solidly in the lower end of the points paying positions before retiring with a mechanical problem. The opening stint of the race didn’t produce the meteoric rise through the field that Leclerc would’ve hoped for. Nevertheless, by lap 21 he was running seventh after choosing not to pit under the VSC.

By lap 35 the race had seemingly settled with Verstappen comfortably in the lead from Sainz and Hamilton with George Russell and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top five. While Verstappen had stopped on lap 8 Sainz with fresher tyres was able to close the gap to the leader to around six seconds. On lap 43 Verstappen opted for a second stop and emerged just behind Hamilton. The Dutchman made short work of the Mercedes though and was back into P2 by the end of the lap.

On lap 47 Yuki Tsunoda exited the pitlane with cold tyres and acquainted himself with the barrier at the exit of the pitlane. This prompted the deployment of the full Safety Car and allowed Sainz not only a cheap pitstop but put him right on the back of Verstappen with much fresher tyres at his disposal.

The race resumed on lap 55 and try as he might Sainz could not snatch the lead from Verstappen. Despite running mere tenths ahead Verstappen absorbed the pressure from Sainz to take his fifth win in the last six races. While Sainz was second a clearly chuffed Hamilton was third for Mercedes.

George Russell, in fourth, underlined a good day for Mercedes while Leclerc recovered to fifth overall. Esteban Ocon was sixth for Alpine ahead of the Alfa Romeo duo Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu in seventh and eighth. Fernando Alonso finished only ninth after a post-race five second penalty for weaving on the back strait. Lance Stroll, racing at home, was tenth for Aston Martin.

The start of this season was blighted by two DNFs in three races for Verstappen which saw him 46 points behind then-points leader Leclerc. A few months and string of sublime drives later the reigning champion now enjoys his own 46-point lead in the standings. So far, it’s been a mature and blindingly quick Max Verstappen that has turned up in 2022 clearly with the intent, and currently the form, of defending his title.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

June 20, 2022