Tag: yuki tsunoda

F1 2022: Red Bull? Ferrari? Mercedes?

The wait for the start of F1 2022 is over. This weekend the season-opening race in Bahrain brings with it the start to a whole new era in the storied saga of Formula 1.

The new regulations have produced not only a completely different visual aspect to F1 but has showcased some of the brilliant engineering and design prowess up and down the paddock. From McLaren’s wavy floor to Ferrari’s scooped side pods to Mercedes seemingly complete lack of side pods the innovation has been cranked to the max.

The three days of public testing around the Sakhir International circuit has revealed at least some of what the picture could look like at the start of the season. The mid-field battle promises to be exceptionally tight with the likes of McLaren, Aston Martin, Alpine, and Alpha Tauri expected to occupy this space.

Williams looks in fairly good shape, relatively speaking, with Haas and Alfa Romeo expected to bring up the rear. For Haas it certainly hasn’t been a straightforward pre-season. First, their equipment and freight were delayed from arriving to Bahrain in time due to a broken-down plane. Then their title sponsor and one driver were removed from the team, which left them with the task of quickly finding a replacement. Although Pietro Fittipaldi, as reserve driver, seemed to be the most obvious choice Haas opted for experience instead and drafted Kevin Magnussen back into the team. The Danish driver brings with him a decent pedigree of being able to get the most out of a car and will be a good barometer for teammate Mick Schumacher.

What then of the top three. There are some who agree that Mercedes starts the season not as outright favourites. In fact, some have penned them down as in third place behind Red Bull and Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton himself has declared Mercedes as not in a position to win races. But we’ve read this chapter before, haven’t we? Mercedes downplays their chances and sandbag on track only to show up at race one and blitz the field. But there may be some truth to Sir Hamilton’s words. Firstly, the porpoising which Red Bull and Ferrari are appearing to manage is still a major problem at Merc. So much of an issue is the porpoising that Merc have taken to sawing off some underfloor strakes in a bid to change the air flow distribution not only on the forward section of the car but also into the underfloor and the rear diffuser. The front-wing angle has also been significantly altered to combat the understeer that has been plaguing the W13 throughout testing.

But Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are not buying the line that Mercedes are struggling. Both point out that the Silver Arrows have made a habit of underplaying their position before the season starts. And despite an apparent consensus amongst the pundits in the paddock that Hamilton and co might not be the quickest the fact remains that only time will tell, literally.

Ferrari starts the season in the best shape they’ve been in for a few years. Without any reliability issues the car has run smoothly, and importantly, it’s been quick in both Charles Leclerc and Sainz’s hands. Yet team principal Mattia Binotto is remaining cautious by insisting that the Italian team remain “outsiders” behind Red Bull and McLaren.

On the final day of testing Red Bull bolted a serious upgrade package to its car and it went quite a bit faster, 7 tenths faster than anything Ferrari could manage. But headline times in testing are just that. It’s only in Q3 on Saturday where everyone’s hand will finally be shown. And as it stands right now it looks as if Red Bull and Max Verstappen are holding all the cards.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

March 14, 2022
F1 2021: British Gp Preview – Hamilton-mania to Propel Merc?

Formula 1 not only returns to the famed Silverstone circuit but also to a full capacity crowd. With the exception of Monza, and maybe Zaandvoort later this year, there is hardly a more raucous us F1 crowd anywhere in the world.

The Silverstone circuit, based in Northamptonshire, is a marvel too. It’s ultra high-speed layout and iconic corner like Copse, Stowe, and the Maggotts-Becketts complex are as iconic as they are demanding. The black and white painted kerbs become little more than a blur as the cars buzz around the English countryside at one of the most magnificent venues in all of Motorsport.

All drivers will have their supporters at Silverstone not to mention the legendary teams such as McLaren and Williams. But it’s expected that none will have a bigger swell of support than Sir Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time champion arrives somewhat on the back foot and not having won a race since the Spanish Grand Prix at the beginning of May. But it isn’t necessarily an unknown position for Hamilton to be in. After all, in 2018 Seb Vettel looked to be running away with the title before fading in the second half of the season. Nevertheless, Max Verstappen and Red Bull are a completely different equation to Vettel and Ferrari. It wasn’t that long ago that Red Bull were reeling off championship titles much in the same way that Mercedes have done in the last seven years. And it doesn’t seem like they have forgotten how to put together a championship title run.

Mercedes haven’t had an answer to Red Bull for a good few months but they have a fairly big upgrade package to run on the car this weekend. It isn’t only on-track where they’re looking for some answers either. There is also the matter of who Hamilton’s teammate will be for 2022. As is usual there are a slew of rumours making the rounds with the most vociferous of them suggesting that a certain George Russell will be announced this weekend as a works Mercedes driver for 2022. If you were to ask Valtteri Bottas the Finn believes that he has more than a good chance of retaining his seat. An argument can easily be made for and against that. It would make sense for Toto Wolff to maintain the peaceful status quo with Bottas. But they also need to think about the future. And who better for Russell to learn from than Hamilton?

Rain or shine Lewis Hamilton has always been something special around the Silverstone track. He wants to win everywhere but none more so than on home soil. As impressive as Verstappen and Red Bull have been in 2021 a win at the British Gp will be a significant step towards the title. Not only will it mean an extended points gap but also it will unquestionably introduce, if not intensify, any grain of doubt in Hamilton’s mind. And there is every expectation that Red Bull will be the car to beat at Silverstone.

A full capacity crowd anywhere is a rarity these days, almost a novelty. Another novelty will be the re-jigging of the weekend’s format. Friday’s first free practice session remains unchanged but is followed by qualifying at 7pm. This quali session will determine the grid for Saturday’s 100km sprint race. Free practice 2 will take place on Saturday at 2pm while the sprint race is scheduled to start at 5:30 pm. It is important to note than there are no mandatory pitstops in the sprint race and that only the top three will earn points. Also, the finishing order of the sprint race will be taken as the starting grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Teams will also not be able to make any changes or adjustments to the cars as they enter parc ferme at the end of the first practice session. The new format, including the sprint race, is considered a trial run. There are some fears that the sprint race will amount to little more than a high-speed train, so says Hamilton, but it’s certainly worth it to see what might come out of it.

July 12, 2021
F1 2021: Monte Carlo Gp Review – Max Wins Monaco

On the very first of 78 laps of the Monaco Grand Prix Mick Schumacher accounted for the only overtake of the race by audaciously passing his Haas teammate into the Lowe’s hairpin for eighteenth place. Otherwise the race around the Monte Carlo streets was fairly unspectacular in literal terms.

But in terms of the story that is the 2021 championship Monaco delivered on the drama. It kicked off on Saturday afternoon as Charles Leclerc secured pole in a surprisingly quick Ferrari. But the Monegasque’s joy was tainted as he clouted the barriers on the exit of the swimming pool in the dying seconds of quali. Potential damage to the gearbox could mean a five place drop on the grid should it need to be replaced. However, after inspection Ferrari was happy to continue as is. Unfortunately, a sighting lap before the start of Sunday’s race revealed an issue with a rear drive shaft which was enough to end Leclerc’s race before it even got started.

Though Leclerc’s spot on the grid remained vacant Max Verstappen was effectively in P1 with Mercedes’s Valtteri Bottas in P2. As expected, the Red Bull easily held off Bottas at the start and from there controlled the pace without any real or sustained pressure from behind. Carlos Sainz, running third, did well to salvage Ferrari’s day. In fact, the Spaniard began to close the gap to Bottas around the time the pitstops rolled around. But he wouldn’t have to fight much longer with Bottas as the Finn was forced into retirement at his first stop. An effective cross-threaded wheelnut meant that Bottas tyre couldn’t be changed which guaranteed his retirement.

Elsewhere, Hamilton’s lacklustre qualifying performance left him down in seventh. Promoted to sixth due to Leclerc’s non-start the Brit made zero progress. In fact, after the round of pitstops his lack of pace meant that he fell behind Perez, Vettel, and Gasly. A clearly irate Hamilton demanded answers from his team. The answer he sought was fairly simple – he was simply too slow to compete with the Alpha Tauri and Aston Martin much less the Red Bull.

Bottas’s retirement promoted Sainz to second with McLaren’s Lando Norris in third. A stellar stint before his first stop meant that Perez leapfrogged several cars to run a close fourth. Checo briefly challenged Norris but McLaren’s superstar kept his head well despite struggling on the hard compound tyre.

Equally as impressive, and voted driver of the day by the fans, Seb Vettel drove an extremely impressive race to deliver fifth place to a struggling Aston Martin team. Aston Martin’s chief strategist Bernadette Collins brilliantly called Vettel’s overcut strategy which means staying out longer than your immediate rivals. The consistent Pierre Gasly was sixth ahead of Hamilton in seventh. Lance Stroll converted an alternative strategy of running the opening stint on the hard tyre to a fine eighth place finish while Esteban Ocon was ninth. Antonio Giovinazzi capped a fine weekend for him by scoring the final point on offer in tenth for Alfa Romeo.

It was a day to forget for Daniel Ricciardo who not only qualified fourteenth but also had to endure the indignity of being lapped by his McLaren teammate. Fernando Alonso’s struggles against Alpine teammate Ocon continued as he finished thirteenth overall.

At the front focus was still required from Verstappen to keep it clean and out of the barriers. But apart from this the Dutchman was all but cruising. A Monaco race win is arguably on the bucket list of all F1 drivers and now Verstappen has ticked that box. What’s more, for the first time in his F1 career he finds himself in the lead of the driver’s championship.

It is uncharted territory for Verstappen. But it is also uncharted territory for Merc who hasn’t faced a sustained challenge since Ferrari bossed the first-half of the 2018 season. Though the racing may not have been top-notch in Monaco it certainly has set up the 2021 championship in a very sumptuous way.

It took Mercedes and Hamilton five races to build a gap of fourteen points over Red Bull and Verstappen, which was completely reversed in the space of one afternoon. It indicates just how fickle a points-lead can be and it indicates too that every single point is important in 2021.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

May 25, 2021
F1 2021: Bahrain Gp Review – Hamilton vs Verstappen

In recent history there could hardly have been a more exhilarating start to a Formula 1 season that what was produced in Bahrain in 2021.

Saturday qualifying already put not only the paddock but fans around the world on notice that the season opening race was bound to be something special. Max Verstappen delivered a stunning lap to take pole position from Lewis Hamilton by nearly four tenths ons second. Not only did it set the stage for an epic race battle but it also confirmed that for the first time in years Red Bull were hitting the ground running.

But the more than one hundred days of waiting didn’t seem to be enough for the racing gods as the first start of the race was aborted. Unfortunately for new Red Bull driver Sergio Perez it was because his car had decided to switch itself off on the formation lap. The Mexican driver was able to restart his engine but was consigned to a pit lane start.

After another formation lap the race got underway with Verstappen leading cleanly from Hamilton. It was Valtteri Bottas who was under most pressure as he fought off the fast starting Charles Leclerc. But the Ferrari was too canny for the Finn and snatched third place on the road. Elsewhere Lando Norris pulled off a stunning move in the first sector over new McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo. But the racing wouldn’t even last a full lap before the safety car was deployed to enable the recovery of the Haas driver’s car who is not Mick Schumacher. Curiously, he had spun off by himself and crash into the turn 3 barrier.

The racing resumed on lap four with Verstappen able to pull a couple of seconds clear of Hamilton. Behind Leclerc and Bottas, at this stage third and fourth on the road, Pierre Gasly was running ahead of Norris and the returning Fernando Alonso. Norris, clearly in a racy mood, quickly passed Gasly. The Alpha Tauri driver was immediately under pressure too from Ricciardo and subsequently lost his front wing and ruined any chance of scoring a decent haul of points.

While Hamilton pitted on lap 13 for hard tyres Red Bull chose to extend their first stint for a few more laps. But the undercut, read fresh tyres, proved decisive as Hamilton leapfrogged Verstappen into the lead of the race as the first round of pit stops shook out. The Dutchman was able to close the nearly seven second gap to Hamilton but didnt overtake the Mercedes driver before Hamilton opted, just 16 laps later, to visit the pitlane for a second time. It appeared that the Mercedes was working its tyre far more than the Red Bull with the advantage seemingly swinging towards Verstappen. By this stage Valtteri Bottas, already off the front running pace, had suffered a slow pitstop which put him well and truly out of contention.

Fernando Alonso’s return to F1 ended before the chequered flag as the Alpine driver was forced into retirement by a suspected brake issue. Nevertheless, the show carried on with a not-so-uncommon mistake from Seb Vettel which saw the Aston Martin curiously bump into the back of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine on lap 44. Vettel not only picked up some slight front wing damage and a red face but also a ten-second time penalty for causing a collision.

By now Verstappen once again found himself in second place but with fresher tyres than Hamilton. It seemed for all money that the Red Bull would catch and pass the Mercedes and take victory. Verstappen closed the gap and by lap 53 had his best shot of taking back the lead. But the Dutchman, while overtaking Hamilton around the outside of turn 4, had run off the track. Ever the sportsman Verstappen returned the place to Hamilton but also in the process relinquished his chance of getting back in front. There has been much controversy over the enforcement of track limit at turn 4 by the FIA stewards during the race. A clip on social media shows Hamilton exceeding track limits for 29 of the 56 laps without sanction. Naturally, the lack of enforcement of the track limits rule in this case has led to much heated debate online.

Nevertheless, Hamilton drove a stellar race to somehow eke out 26 laps on a set of tyres. There are those that will look at the result and see Hamilton as the victor and dismiss it as just another win for the Brit. But this one he really had to work for, he really had to earn. And the fact that Red Bull clearly had the quicker car makes Hamilton’s drive a genuinely impressive one. He had no business winning that race but he did anyway. That was a champion’s drive.

While Verstappen finishing in second just seven tenths of a second behind Hamilton it was Bottas who trundled home in a disconsolate third. Lando Norris drove an impressive race to finish fourth ahead of Perez who went from the pitlane to fifth on his Red Bull debut. Charles Leclerc was sixth for Ferrari while Daniel Ricciardo brought his McLaren home in seventh. Carlos Sainz was eighth on his Ferrari debut ahead of rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda in ninth for Alpha Tauri. Lance Stroll scored the final point on offer in tenth in what was a decidedly underwhelming weekend for Aston Martin.

The 2021 Bahrain grand prix and the battle between Hamilton and Verstappen could not have delivered a better opening to the season. There is great hope that this is merely the opening chapter in what could be an epic fight glory in 2021. One down, twenty-two to go.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

March 29, 2021
F1 2021: Bahrain Gp Preview – Red Bull Ready?

The 2020 Formula 1 season was groundbreaking and will be remembered for many reasons. Not least of all being that it was run and completed in the midst of a global pandemic. While the world is still fighting the battle against covid-19 Formula 1 is readying itself for a record-breaking 23 race season in 2021.

Ten teams, twenty driver, and hundreds of team personnel will kick off F1 2021 F1 with the least amount of testing ever run before a new season. A total of three days was all the teams were prescribed to shake off the dust and begin the process of understanding what the respective factories have produced for the new year.

The new racing season will start at Bahrain’s Sakhir International circuit this weekend. It’s a circuit well known to all with an interest in Formula 1 and one that, more often than not, produces an adrenaline-charged and engaging race under the flood lights. It isn’t the first time that Bahrain has hosted the season opener either. Back in 2006 the first race of the season was moved to the Middle Eastern track as Australia played host to the Commonwealth Games that year.

Though the circuit might be familiar there are several enticing questions that accompany the start of the 2021 season. Mercedes has been the dominant force of the hybrid era, which was underlined by their utter command of 2020. Nevertheless, their ‘struggles’ in pre-season testing has been well documented. Lewis Hamilton himself appears convinced that Red Bull has the quicker car heading into the season and he isn’t often a man that utters untruths. Nevertheless, it remains a near unfathomable concept that Mercedes does not have the pace to occupy the front row of the grid nor the top step of the podium. But if it is the case then F1 fans are in for a monumental championship season.

Nothing so far has suggested that the Red Bull is anything but a very quick car. In the hands of Max Verstappen, and perhaps even Checo Perez, it won’t be too bad a bet to stick some money on them for a win this weekend. If it is assured that Mercedes and Red Bull will occupy the top of the timing sheets then it is equally unsure as to which team comes next.

There is quite a bit of excitement around McLaren but there is also an expectation that Ferrari has taken a step forward, especially on the power unit front. How will Fernando Alonso do in his first race back in the sport? And how will the rookies Mick Schumacher and the ever-exciting Yuki Tsunoda fare? Alpha Tauri turned an eye-catching pace in pre-season testing. But was it all just for show?

The permutations and questions are seemingly endless of the eve of the new Formula 1 season. But that is what is building the 2021 season as possibly one of the most exciting in many a year. Simply put, it isn’t nearly as predictable, very little is a certainty, and you cannot afford to miss a single second.

All images courtesy of Pirelli Motorsport

March 22, 2021