F1 Madness

Tag: sebasitan vettel

  • F1 2019: US GP Review – Six Titles for Hamilton

    F1 2019: US GP Review – Six Titles for Hamilton

    The 2019 American grand prix wont go down as one of the most exciting races but it will undoubtedly be remembered as the day when Lewis Hamilton became a six-time Formula 1 world champion.

    Valtteri Bottas made the perfect start from pole position and drove a stellar race to take the seventh win of his career. The victory in Texas makes 2019 Bottas’s most successful season to date in which he will finish as runner-up in the driver’s championship.

    Max Verstappen ran comfortably second for the opening stint of the race while Hamilton, starting fifth, made relatively short work of both Ferrari’s of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. A cunningly slow formation lap from Bottas had meant that neither Ferrari was able to get their medium compound tyres in the operating window that subsequently saw them struggle for grip.

    In addition to struggling for grip there was clearly something amiss with Vettel’s Ferrari as Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo easily passed him. Vettel appeared to be recovering and closing the gap to the McLaren and Renault ahead of him but a few laps later the German driver suffered a startling right-rear suspension failure. It didn’t get any better for the Italian team as Leclerc ran a distant fourth for the remainder of the race without ever having the pace to threaten even the last step of the podium.

    Up front Bottas and Verstappen opted for a two-stop strategy while Hamilton banked on a one-stop strategy. However, unlike in Mexico a week earlier Hamilton was not able to hold onto the lead. On lap 52 a charging Bottas swept past his teammate and into the lead. Hamilton’s problems weren’t over though as Verstappen too closed to within less than a second of him in the closing stages.

    However, the Dutchman never got close enough to attempt an overtake and eventually finished third while Leclerc trundled home a distant fourth.

    2019 United States GPAfter being squeezed off the track, forced into the pitlane on lap 1, and being plumb last Alex Albon drove a brilliant race to bring his Red Bull home in fifth. The Thai driver, only seven races into his Red Bull career, has grown in confidence at every race weekend and seems to be a shoe-in to remain at the team for 2020.

    Daniel Ricciardo too delivered an impressive driver to finish sixth in the Renault ahead of the ever-impressive McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz in seventh and eighth. Nico Hulkenberg was ninth while for a second straight week Daniil Kvyat was given a last-lap penalty for causing a collision. Sergio Perez, the casualty of the collision was promoted to tenth as a result of the Russian’s penalty.

    One of the most beautiful things about sport is that it cannot be predicted. There was simply no way to know that the young boy from humble beginnings in Stevenage would one day become a six time Formula 1 world champion.

    There will be those who protest vehemently against the idea that Hamilton is one of the greatest drivers in the history of the sport. And while opinions can certainly be made they cannot be quantified. But titles can and Lewis Hamilton has six of them.

    All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport
  • 2018 Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Round Up

    2018 Hungarian Grand Prix: Friday Practice Round Up

    Coming into the weekend Red Bull looked the favourites for the 2018 instalment for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Come Free Practice 1 on the Friday and they showed that they were in the running from the outset with Daniel Ricciardo taking the honours in the first practice session. Free Practice 2 was more of the same up front, this time with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking the top spot.

    Free Practice 1

    Red Bull showed they were fast as soon as their cars hit the tarmac in the morning session. At the end of the session it was Daniel Ricciardo running an older spec Renault engine that took the top spot with a 1:17.613. Ricciardo’s time came courtesy of the soft compound tyres. The Red Bull driver ran the medium and soft compound tyres during FP1.

    Just narrowly missing out on the top spot in FP1 was the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel with a session best time of 1:17.692, just a mere 0.079s ff the pace. Vettel only ran the soft compound tyres. Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari finished 4th fastest behind the other Red Bull of Max Verstappen. The top 3 drivers being covered by just 0.088s.

    It was quite a lively session with the green track proving challenging with the lack of grip in places. Marcus Ericsson spun twice in the Sauber. It was not just Ericsson that was caught out. Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso, and Max Verstappen also had off track excursions courtesy of  spins.

    If drivers were not spinning off the track they were locking up. Notable lock ups from Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes as well as Sauber test driver Antonio Giovinazzi.

    Both Mercedes drivers struggled for grip around the tight and twisty Hungaroring while Renault appeared best of the rest despite the Ferrari customer teams receiving new power units.

     

    Free Practice 2

    The fight between Ferrari and Red Bull continued in FP2 with Vettel topping the time sheets with a fastest time of 1:16.834 on his qualifying simulation. Max Versatppen in the Red Bull was just 0.074s off Vettel’s benchmark on his qualifying setting a time of 1:16.908. Daniel Ricciardo was 3rd fastest ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in 4th.

    Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished in the same spot as they finished in FP1, with Hamilton in P5 and Bottas in P6. Romain Grosjean got his Haas in P7 ahead of the Renault of Carlos Sainz in 8th.

    Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso and Esteban Ocon in the Force India rounded out the top 10.

    The session has fewer spins than FP1. The big one was McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne who spun at T5 after dipping a wheel on the grass just before turn-in.

    Both Mercedes cars could not get a representative qualifying simulation time with Hamilton more than half a second off the pace.

     

  • F1 2015: Season Finale Review – Abu Dhabi, that’s a wrap

    F1 2015: Season Finale Review – Abu Dhabi, that’s a wrap

    As far as thrillers go the Abu Dhabi grand prix isn’t quite going to make the list of most memorable races. Though visually spectacular the Yas Marina circuit has brought the 2015 season to a close in fairly mundane manner but still provided several talking points.

    In only the second time in its seven year history the Abu Dhabi grand prix was won from pole position. First place on the starting grid belonged to Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg which he easily translated into the race lead as the sun began to set over the Yas Marina circuit. On the track it didn’t turn out to be a wheel-to-wheel battle between Rosberg and teammate Hamilton but rather a tactical fight through pit stop strategy.

    In the first round of pitstops Hamilton followed his race leading teammate into the pitlane only a lap later, effectively mirroring his strategy. However, with the constructor’s and driver’s title in the bag the Mercedes team allowed its drivers some leeway in strategy calls and racing up to the chequered flag. Lewis Hamilton took advantage of the rare freedom to extend his second stint on the yellow side-walled soft tyres. At one point Hamilton even considered running a one stop strategy and going to the end on his tyres. This strategy was quickly dismissed as impossible by his race engineer and Hamilton pitted to fit a set of the soft Pirelli tyres.

    Abu Dhabi 2015_StartThis strategy left Hamilton nearly twelve seconds behind race leader Rosberg. Although the three time champion was able to run with the fresher tyres in the closing stint of the race, he was only able to halve the pace to the leading car. The race concluded with Rosberg leading Hamilton home with a comfortable gap of just over eight seconds. This latest one-two finish Rosberg and Hamilton makes it the twelfth of the year for Mercedes.

    Not too far behind the Mercedes pair Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen delivered a strong drive to finish third. The Finn turned a good pace but never enough to challenge for victory.  While some will make a note that he finished the season in fourth place on the driver’s standings Raikkonen couldn’t care less of his ultimate position in the championship unless it’s position number one. Never one to sugar-coat reality Raikkonen, by his own admission, has labelled his season as distinctly “average.”

    After a strategic error in qualifying Sebastian Vettel was forced to start in fifteenth. The German was able to recover to take fourth place for Ferrari. Sergio Perez, who started on the second row of the grid in fourth, brought his Force India home in fifth ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh in the other Force India while Felipe Massa struggled to an eighth place finish for the Williams team. In his final race with Lotus before heading off the American Haas team was Romain Grosjean who made the best of his supersoft tyres in the closing stages. Daniil Kvyat secured tenth and the final point on offer for the Red Bull Racing team.

    Nico Rosberg_Abu Dhabi 2015_Podium2It wasn’t a race blighted by too many incidents however Fernando Alonso incurred a drive-through penalty for hitting the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado into turn one as the race got underway. In the pitlane Valtteri Bottas clipped the back of Jenson Button’s McLaren after an unsafe release by the Williams pitcrew. It resulted in a damaged front-wing for Bottas and five second penalty. The Finn eventually finished a lap down in thirteenth.

    Dutchman and rookie driver Max Verstappen showed up to the race as his ever-aggressive self and set about overtaking as many drivers as possible. However, his spirited overtaking proved a bit too much as race stewards penalised him with gaining an advantage after going off the circuit in a pass on Jenson Button. As the penalty was imposed after the race it dropped the teenage sensation to sixteenth place.

    In Brazil Hamilton was the quicker of the two Mercedes in the race but couldn’t find a way to overtake Rosberg. But here in Abu Dhabi Hamilton has been shaded, in terms of pace, for the entire weekend. For Nico Rosberg the season couldn’t have ended any better. Six pole positions and a hat trick of victories is an incredible run of form. It begs the question as to where this prodigious form has been the entire season. Is it as a result of a release of pressure or has Rosberg at long last found something that Hamilton has no answer for?

    (Images courtesy of Mercedes AMG F1 Team & Pirelli Motorsport).