What a race!  The Miami Grand Prix was a SUPER race.

Although I haven't been able to watch many of them, I think the Sprint Race Weekends (a venue that holds a short race - say 20 laps) right after 1 practice round before Qualifying Starts) really makes the Grand Prix's more interesting.  I say that because the best teams don't get many practice sessions to get their car set up just right and it gives other teams a better chance, especially if their car is inherently slower than the better cars.

Well, getting right to it - A dumb move by Kevin Magnussen riding way too close on the inside of a corner he never should have been at caused a collision with fellow bottom-feeder, but American, Logan Sargent and caused the American to wreck and end his afternoon.  Dumb move.  Magnussen was penalized and got several more for dumb things on the day.  He just wasn't in the race mentally.  

Anyway, it brought out a yellow flag just a few laps after the leaders had already pitted.  This provided the glass slipper to Lando Norris the super-solid McLaren driver who to this point had never won an F1 race before although had been close a few times.  So, the Orange car came into the pit under yellow (a HUGE time advantage in the 1-stop race - It saves you about 10-12 seconds in a race and that really matters in F1).  He had inherited the lead after the leaders had pitted (he was running about 5th place at the time but had good pace.  So, then the yellow came out, so when they re-started, he had to be careful to not get overtaken by World Champion and multi-race 2024 winner Max Verstappen and other really good drivers too.  He did just that and extended his lead to about 7.5 seconds, which is really impressive overall.  And the young Brit claimed his first F1 win!  A Huge congratulations to him!  He certainly earned it!

Dissecting it a bit more.  IF, Norris had NOT gotten the yellow flag when he did, I do NOT think he would have been able to pass 4 other strong cars and win the race, but who cares as that's part of racing and what makes you watch week in and week out.

But honestly, Red Bull just didn't have their A game this week.  Even though Verstappen won the Sprint race and did qualify on pole, it wasn't the same gas they have come with before.  I just think they were a little off kilter due to only getting 1 hour to set your car up.  That is just a really slim window to do that with the razor thin time margins these guys race to.  Plus Verstappen made a rare error and ran over a bollard pole on track and it damaged the floor of his car and he wasn't the same after this and a piece of the reason Norris was never threatened in this race.

BUT give credit where it is due.  McLaren has probably had better developments come race week than any constructor other than maybe Red Bull.  They got Lando a new car package with upgrades this week and it showed.  I think his teammate Piastri will be really tough in Italy for the next race too.  Will they beat Red Bull?  Not Max I don't think.  He'll be on a mission, but his teammate Perez?  Yeah, he's vulnerable and honestly not driving very well IMO.

I think the Perez vs Verstappen in the same car shows you just how good of a driver Max Verstappen is.  The guy is a world champion for a reason.

So what about the rest?

The Ferrari's were good, but they didn't have the luck you need to do better than 3rd and fifth.  Fifth instead of 4th for Sainz due to a penalty he took trying to pass Piastri.  Just wasn't his day.

Mercedes were ok.  Lewis Hamilton is just a great driver as you'd expect and got more out of the car than it had IMO.  George Russell just didn't have it this week.

The Astin Martins are receding IMO, but Alonso running 9th tells you just how good he is on a car that likely isn't 9th best.

Give Alpine credit for continuing to battle in very tough circumstances and scored their first point of the season with Ocon's 10th place run.  Congrats on that.  It's been a hard season for them.

BUT How bout my man Yuki Tsunoda!  The RB driver finished a tremendous 7th place when he didn't have the 7th best car.  He finished ahead of Russell (Merc) and Alonso (AM) and that is hard to do!

His teammate Ricardo choked during qualifying and as a result started dead last.  But he did finish 15th so he climbed alittle.  I still think this RB (Red Bull little brother team) is a sleeper to challenge Astin Martin later in the year.  But we will see.  If you think Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Astin Martin are all better than the RB team then they should not finish higher than 11th on the grid.  THAT is what makes Yuki's 7th place finish noteworthy to me.

On to Imola and the "Temple of Speed"!  Going to be a fun one!  In about 8 days. 

 

Great stuff like always @Purple88!

First I want to say I like your recaps of the races better than the professional writers.  And that is you doing it for fun vs. it being their jobs.

Oh Lando!  I think almost everyone is a fan of Lando Norris, me included, that was fantastic and like P88 mentioned, the Miami Grand Prix was a SUPER race!  Congrats Lando!!

I also agree on the Sprint Racing and wish there was more of it in F1.

Back to Lando, I agree with P88 that the caution came out just at the right time for him but that is racing and it made the Miami Grand Prix all the more engaging. 

I agree with P88's take on everything else and want to bring up one last driver, Yuki Tsunoda.  It feels like I have more Japanese neighbors all the time and they are all wonderful.  One of my "next door" neighbors and I were chit chatting the other day and I was trying to find some common ground and brought up F1.  I mentioned Yuki and my neighbor immediately said, "I know Yuki" and his face lit up. F1 truly is an international sport and something a lot of sports fans are missing out on. 

One last shoutout to ESPN, they cover these F1 races (with primary sponsor Mercedes Benz) and there are NO COMMERCIALS.  Once you watch a race that way, it becomes the only way to watch a race.  I love me some NASCAR but all the advertising and commercials make that viewing experience pale in comparison to watching F1 on ESPN, it is magnificent. 

From This is Formula 1 on Facebook.

It's nearly midnight in Italy, and Max Verstappen has a Formula 1 race at Imola tomorrow. 
Despite this, he just wrapped up a 3-hour sim racing session for the Nürburgring 24 Hours, finishing in first place. 

This comes only hours after he secured pole position in F1 qualifying, where he also finished first.
#maxverstappen VIA: [F1GuyDan]

On 5/14/2024 at 3:09 PM, theguru said:

F1 truly is an international sport and something a lot of sports fans are missing out on. 

One last shoutout to ESPN, they cover these F1 races (with primary sponsor Mercedes Benz) and there are NO COMMERCIALS.  Once you watch a race that way, it becomes the only way to watch a race.  I love me some NASCAR but all the advertising and commercials make that viewing experience pale in comparison to watching F1 on ESPN, it is magnificent. 

I cut out the 2 items above of @theguru post that I truly believe in.  F1 is more than just a popular Netflix documentary.  It IS INTERNATIONAL!  That is what makes it so cool!  Racing in 20+ of the best venues in the WORLD with the 20 best drivers in the world with Great Teams.  Really worth your time.  I will say that doing the F1 Fantasy League has upped my appreciation for it as well.

And ESPN has really stepped their game up and as G said, the NO COMMERCIALS is GOLD!  You never have to disengage from the race, and it brings you as close to being there with all the info!  Awesome!

 

On to Imola!  The Italian track is simply beautiful.  When you watch the race and see the setting it's in; it's very picturesque!  Bucket list worthy!  They were not able to race here last season as torrential flooding devastated the area.  F1 to their credit gave millions of dollars to the relief/recovery efforts of the LONG-time venue, as this is one of Ferrari's home tracks.  The Red cars are so popular and been around for so long they have 2 home tracks!  Just more mystique for a great sport!

No sprint race this week, which meant 3 full practices for all teams to tune their cars to the right settings in a track that is mostly tight and fast.  Sounds like a great bar date!!!!

Red Bull came to Italy bruised after not winning (AS USUAL) in Miami but finishing a respectable 2nd and 4th.  But the Milton Keynes, England team came up scratching their heads in really all the practice rounds at Imola.  

While Red Bull was struggling, the Ferrari's were flying with new upgrades they had been holding back for their home race.  Additionally, the orange McLaren cars were super quick as well during the practice rounds.

Qualifying came around and as much surprise as an 8-consecutive pole position effort can be, Max Verstappen, dare I say, stole the spot by 7 one-hundredths of a second over Oscar Piastri from McLaren who had his papaya car flying around the track.  AND had Verstappen not gotten a fortuitous tow from Nikko Hulkenberg, Piastri would have taken pole.  But as we like to say, that's racing, and the better drivers simply get those breaks.  Norris and the Ferrari's were below the 2 at the top qualifying leaderboard.  One setback for Piastri was he was assessed a harsh IMO 3-spot grid penalty for impeding the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

The start of any F1 race is important as many racers try to improve their positions.  Imola is a track where this leads to wrecks, plain and simple.  And why there was a 100% chance the race officials put on a yellow flag probability during the race.  Well, the one thing I know about probability is that until it happens, you haven't crossed that bridge yet.  Such was the case (somewhat unusual case I'll admit) at Imola as the drivers launched hard at the opening standing start beginning of the race and ALL 20 cars made it through unscathed.  Pretty remarkable actually.  The race did not have explosive wrecks but the racing was intense with several battles up and down the grid to pay attention to.

The first was Oscar Piastri chasing and trying to pass the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.  Piastri was clearly quicker, but Sainz did a great job of holding him back.  But in the end due to poor Ferrari management IMO cost the Spaniard the spot and Piastri would finish 4th and Sainz 5th.

At the top of the grid Verstappen pulled out with a roughly 5 second lead on the field but didn't or couldn't push it more than that.  He was on the medium tyres and they were working pretty well for him.  But when he came into the pits and changed to the hard compound types, he had trouble getting them into an optimum working window and towards the end of the race was sliding more than he had grip to turn in the corners.  Enter Lando Norris.  The McLaren driver was second on the grid at the beginning (benefitting from his teammates 3-spot penalty) but fell back about 5 seconds throughout the front half of the race, but when he came out of the pits, also on hard compound tyres, I feel he managed the tyres better than Verstappen did and he slowly closed the gap to the leader from there.  So as the race laps ticked down Norris was closing steadily on the World Champion.  But to his credit, Verstappen knew how to use everything in his bag of tricks from battery power to back marker DRS engaging to hold Norris outside the magical 1 second DRS range to not let the McLaren driver get too close too quick.  The finish line couldn't come fast enough for Verstappen, but he did manage to hold off Norris, but only by roughly 7 tenths of a second.  If there was another lap or 2, the Red Bull was vulnerable.  

It was a brilliant drive from Verstappen really, but for me it was more brilliant the work his team did to get his car improved from the Final Practice to the Race standing start.  They improved the car immensely.  They are the top constructor for a reason.  The Red Bull TEAM earned that win!

Other notes:

I just can't see how Red Bull goes forward with Sergio Perez, their other driver.  To me he has the 2nd best car on the grid EVERY WEEK, but yet again did NOT make it even to the final qualifying round of Q3.  That my friends is sad.  I would sign Carlos Sainz, the current Ferrari driver.  However, that Ferrari contract will end this season as Ferrari has already made the decision to hire current Mercedes Legend Lewis Hamilton.  Quite the shakeup.  I think Sainz would do well there.  He's a good teammate and would push Verstappen, but more importantly for Red Bull would be at the sharp end of the grid to partner up with Verstappen and implement some team strategy, which frankly Red Bull has not really enjoyed for some time.  It's just been Max go win it.

Another battle, I enjoyed watching was the RB of Yuki Tsunoda and the Haas of Nikko Hulkenburg.  Tsunoda has been racing his tail off recently, as I'm not sure he has a signed contract after this season yet.  Well, he deserves one!  Anyway, at the beginning of the race, Hulkenburg used the better outside lane to sneak by Tsunoda and drop the Japanese driver back to 9th after the opening laps.  

This did 2 things IMO:  1. It forced RB to push Tsunoda to take the undercut strategy, meaning you make sure to come in the pits before your rival and when you exit and before they pit you gain ground on them because of the tyre differential.  RB/Tsunoda did this to perfection, but IMO was a little early, going to the hard compound tyres they felt could make it to the end.  So when Hulkenburg came out of the pits he could see Tsunoda, but he was passed due to the undercut strategy.

2.  While Tsunoda (10th) would beat Hulkenburg (11th) in the race, pitting early made him vulnerable to other good cars behind him.  Lance Stroll, a decent Aston Martin driver, went long on the likely better medium compound tyre, pitting 25 laps (yes 25 laps) later than Tsunoda.  So, when Stroll came out of the pits, he was really quick compared to guys on 25 lap old tires, and he blew by Tsunoda to take 9th place, when Tsunoda likely had the better or at least even car.

 

Verstappen leads in the driver championship 161 points vs 113 (Leclerc), 107 (Perez) and 101 (Norris).

Red Bull leads in the constructor's championship 268 points to 212 for Ferrari.  Interesting here is my focus on the Red Bull little brother team of RB is now at 20 points and where you'd expect them to be in 6th place, but the 5th place team of Aston Martin has 44 points and feel RB can climb into the battle.  We will see.

On to Monaco, the crown jewel for the sport.  It's honestly more about pageantry, parties, awesome yachts in the harbor and seeing signs for the Casinos than actual racing, as who wins qualifying usually wins the race due to the tight streets and the wide F1 cars.  Will be fun to see though!

 

 

 

Monaco still is the Crown Jewel for the F1 Racing Calendar, but it certainly isn't the best race.

Once qualifying is completed, you basically know who is going to win the race.  I have heard some chatter of F1 looking to change the track layout to create a longer straight stretch along the beachfront, which could create a DRS zone and potentially create more or should I say any passing.  I hope they do this, as the race is just a formality at this point.

But even with that said, have McLaren and Ferrari caught up to Red Bull?  Well on a track with no straight stretches, I think the answer to that is probably yes.  Have they caught up overall?  I think that remains to be seen but should make for some highly competitive racing going forward which is what we the fans truly want.  So good for us!!!

The Monaco native, Charles LeClerc, who has sat on pole twice before but never won the race was really the best car through practice and proved it during an entertaining qualifying session.  He finished an eyelash in front of equally brilliant Oscar Piastri, the McLaren driver who has really come on this season and formed a super team with standout Lando Norris as his teammate, who qualified in second place.  LeClerc's teammate Carlos Sainz drove well and finished 3rd with Norris in 4th.  

Mercedes ran well IMO at Monaco and qualified 5th (George Russel) and 7th (Lewis Hamilton), with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen settling for a lowly 6th place on the grid thanks mostly to a car they just had trouble with all weekend long; saying it just didn't have good balance and they couldn't hit a kerb without it damaging the setup.  Well, that is really problematic around a course like Monaco with many kerbs to maneuver around.

The order above that finished in qualifying finished exactly the same way in the race with no passes.  There was a red flag on lap 1 when both Haas drivers collapsed on the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who had perhaps the worst weekend of any driver on the grid.  He has a very good car (even with the kerb issues) and AGAIN doesn't get out of the first round of qualifying (Q1), which is really sad.  AGAIN, just don't see how Red Bull stays with Perez.  We'll see.  But congratulations to Charles LeClerc, as he deserved to win IMO, and that gave me some breathing room in my Fantasy F1 League!!!

While I don't see Red Bull folding here, as their power on the straights and using DRS will come back into the light at many tracks ahead, it does give the regular fan hope that each race will be competitive from here and create some great races going forward!

In the drivers' championship race, Charles LeClerc has cut Verstappen's lead to just 31 points.  And in the Constructors championship, Ferrari has cut into Red Bull's lead and trimmed it to just 24 points.  On to the Canadian Grand Prix in 2 weeks!

 

Well the Canadian Grand Prix must have been a hoot!

The Canadian rains pulled some crazy circumstances out of it's hat!

I have to admit; I was on vacation last week and haven't watched this race yet.

But watched the highlights (tried to link them here but couldn't.

Ferrari spit the bit after a great Monaco Grand Prix, had 2 did not finishes.  Not good.

Mercedes had a great weekend finishing 3rd and 4, but really did better than that IMO.

The McLarens did well going 2nd (Norris) and 5th (Piastri).  But the World Champion we up to the task and outdid his rival north of our border taking the checkered flag in an impressive race.

I'm going to really be interested in the next race in Spain in 2 weeks as would like to see where everyone is on a clean dry track; it's been before Monaco since we've had that.

The Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona was this morning (in America) and it was a fun race!

Lando Norris (McLaren) ran a "perfect lap" in qualifying just nipping reigning World Champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) by an eyelash.  This set up a fascinating standing start to the Grand Prix.

Off the line, Norris moved over and kinda pushed Verstappen one wheel on the grass.  This exchange was just what the doctor ordered for George Russell (Mercedes) as he used 2 slip streams to sling shot around on the high side (he carried all the momentum and speed into Turn 1) and he led the field after the first turn of the race.  This pushed Norris down the field to 3rd and Verstappen to 2nd with Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton in 4th and both Ferrari's to follow in 5th and 6th.

It was a 2-stop race (although Verstappen's teammate Perez stopped 3 times) so strategy was critical as the undercut strategy (pit early on your nearest competitor; get new tires and use that NOW speed to beat them over a 2-lap race where they likely react and pit the next lap) was a powerful tool, BUT it had consequences.

Barcelona is a great track, but it is known to be hard on tires.  And with Pirelli (tire manufacturer) sending the 3 hardest compound tires to the race (every team and driver has the same 3 compounds - hard, medium and soft) it made a difference in what type of tire you put on your car as how it performed in the race.

What do I mean?  Well, if you pit early (on the undercut strategy); you likely put on the hard tire for a longer stint run as you have just gone on a shorter stint to "undercut" your opponent.  But even if you pass your nearby competitor, it played out that some ran longer on softer tires and thus avoided needing to use the hard compound tires and stayed on the better performing softer (medium and soft) tires.  Case in point:  George Russell was battling with the Ferrari's and chose to come in before his teammate Lewis Hamilton did.  Russell was forced to put on the hard tire for the last long run of the race.  His teammate chose to run longer on the medium tire and could therefore choose to put the soft tire on at the last pitstop.  And he was able to pass his teammate and finish on the podium for the first time this season!  Congrats Lewis Hamilton!  Mercedes is on the march!

Max Verstappen drove the race he had to; he gained ground (about 7 seconds total) on the field after he passed Russell on Lap 3 and used that advantage to hang on as a hard charging Lando Norris chased him down at the flag only trailing by a scant 2.219 seconds.  That tells me that Norris really had the best car and if he had just held his position at the start that Verstappen would have overtaken him, but I firmly believe that today Norris would have overtaken him at the end. 

BUT NOW WE HAVE A SEASON!  It's not just how many seconds will Verstappen win by today.  McLaren have really improved.  Mercedes is really charging!  I think today will light a fire under Ferrari.  SO, it's going to be fun as the next race is a Sprint Race in Austria just 7 days away!  Gonna be fun!

 

What about the rest of the field:

Tough day for Ferrari - Leclerc was a lap away from passing Russell for 4th place, but they were easily the 4th best team today.  Not where they want to be.  Sainz did his best in his home race but simply didn't have the car to compete and the prancing ponies finished 5th and 6th today.

Even tougher day for Aston Martin - a Non-factor is being kind.  Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were just driving around with nowhere to go.

Sergio Perez (Red Bull) again had a disappointing weekend.  Fair question:  Is Perez/Red Bull the 4th best team right now and Verstappen just covers up all their faults or is it that Red Bull is the leading team and Perez can't get the job done?  You tell me!

Best weekend of the season for Alpine.  Gasly and Ocon did well to finish 9th and 10th.

REALLY disappointed with the RB team effort this weekend.  They had upgrades that should have been labeled backgrades.  They were really bad.  What now RB?

Williams - perhaps they can move to serving drinks to the winning teams as they sure ain't winning anything with that sled they put out on the track this weekend!

On to Austria!

What a finish, Max and Lando got together at the end of the race which knocked Lando out of the race (he was 2nd) and sent Max to 5th (he was first the whole race).  George Russell with his 2nd win in F1 was there to pick up the pieces.  And I am excited to hear @Purple88's breakdown of this one.  It was exciting!

Holy Cow @theguru!  The Austrian Grand Prix is a venue I would sell a lot of my possessions to get to go to one day.  Just one of the most picturesque places F1 or anyone races really.  It has it all a lot of relief (high topography to low topography), 3 (count them 3) DRS zones (which give you better racing IMO) and a racing surface that makes you accountable for how you treat the tyres.  Can't just be a first grader and do anything you want (Lance Stroll).

The weekend started like most others knowing reigning world champion Max Verstappen would likely be a hard guy (and Red Bull - a hard team) to beat.  But the orange cars of McLaren have really come on and at the Spanish Grand Prix (last weeks race), I feel had a slightly better car and a rising driver to battle the world champion in a risingly confident Lando Norris, who by all accounts is really good friends with Verstappen.

This weekend also saw the 3rd Sprint of the season, where you only get 1 practice hour instead of 3 and you maximize that hour and continue to tweak your setup up until the green flag at the Grand Prix on Sunday.  I love these Sprint weekends because it gives you more variability in the racing I think.

But reigning World Champion Verstappen was very focused and led the practice hour; led Sprint Qualifying putting him on pole for the Sprint with both McLarens behind him in 2nd and 3rd.  Verstappen (and the field) got away cleanly in the Sprint (24 laps long), but Verstappen could not break the 1 second threshold for DRS to give someone behind within 1 second roughly a 12 mph boost down or in Austria up the straightaway.  This played into Norris' hands, and he dove inside Verstappen inside the eventful Turn 3 and led the Dutchman out of it; but Verstappen got DRS on the immediate straight stretch down the hill and felt Norris didn't do a good job to make Verstappen go the long way around and Verstappen dove down the inside of Norris in Turn 4 and retook the lead.  Thing was; Norris' teammate Piastri was trailing the lead 2 cars the whole way and when Verstappen slowed up Norris in Turn 4 Piastri whipped around the outside with all the speed and momentum he had.  It was thrilling to watch!  But the McLarens from that point really battled themselves more than they needed to and didn't focus on Verstappen and the Champion drove away to a 4.5 second win with the McLaren's in 2nd and 3rd.

This set up for a good Grand Prix Qualifying later that Saturday.  It went largely as you'd expect with Verstappen outdueling Norris by about 4 tenths of a second.  Piastri was penalized for exceeding track limits and shuffled down to 7th place.  But field was set for Sunday; however most had to feel Verstappen had this one in the bag as the Austrian Grand Prix is known as "The Red Bull Ring" with a HUGE metal Red Bull statue in the middle of the venue.  It's pretty cool.

Sunday came and all cars made it through the opening few laps although Charles LeClerc of Ferrari had to pit on the first lap after an opening lap brush up with Piastri who was flying early on.  LeClerc just couldn't get alot consistently right this past weekend and could only recover to 11th at the line. 

Things progress as most would expect up until lap 52 of 71 when Verstappen came into the pits for the last time and his team had a terrible pit spot by their standards.  It was 6.5 seconds.  That is an eternity in F1.  Case in point.  Verstappen had just over an 8 second lead going into the pits, when he came out he had less than a 2 second lead.  And it was (as they say) ON at that point.  For 2 weeks in a row, the McLaren seemed to be just a little bit ahead of the Red Bull later in the race, but obviously not by much.  But Norris continued to narrow the lead and got within that magical 1 second zone to get DRS boost around the track.  This started a 5-8 lap cat and mouse duel with Norris trying to set up Verstappen for the pass.  During this fascinating set of laps Verstappen (IMO) on several occasions moved twice going into the breaking zone, where most passes are made.  For example, going up the main straight most stay in the middle of the track and then vere wide to get a good run on the next corner.  When your being chased and you have pressure on you the rule is that when the guy behind you makes a move you are allowed to move once.  I feel Verstappen moved twice on several occasions in his defense vs Norris.  This enigma of friends vs competitors boiled over at the GREAT Turn 3 on Lap 64 where in a controversial exchange Norris' right front came into contact with Verstappen's left rear wheel and the effect was immediate.  Both drivers suffered punctures and they were a considerable way from pit lane so they both babied their cars into the pits.  It was REALLY dramatic!  Norris, himself, decided to retire the car as it suffered too much damage to continue in the race.  Verstappen limped in and changed tires and got back out on track in 5th place.  He was soon levied with a 10 second "Causing a Collision" Penalty.  WOW!

Once the dust settled from the top 2 taking themselves out George Russell (Mercedes), Oscar Piastri (McLaren) and Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) inherited podium spots.  And even though Piastri was quicker, the field ran out of time to catch Russell, who wins his 2nd Grand Prix!  Pretty Epic!  Mercedes is on the uptick - no doubt about it.  They are still behind Red Bull and McLaren for pace, but just goes to show you if you keep your head down you never know what will happen.  For Russell, a GREAT Weekend!

Other Notes:

1. Well you can't go any further without talking about "the incident" between Verstappen and Norris.  Both teams come to the side of their specific driver, but to me Verstappen was at fault.  He is very aggressive and NEVER let's anyone by.  BUT that is why he is World Champion.  World Champions don't always behave in the most just and fair manner IMO, but they win.  Case in point.  Through the incident yesterday Verstappen extends his Championship lead over Norris by 11 points.  That shouldn't happen, but alas "what are you going to do about it".  I have seen in the past that overall F1 generally doesn't do alot about it other than putting a time penalty to whom they feel is in the wrong.  This makes next week's British Grand Prix High Drama for a "Rematch" so to speak, although Norris will be in a brand-new car.

2. How about the Haas'!!!!!  Man, they were really good yesterday!  Hulkenberg and Magnussen finished an awesome 6th and 8th with Hulkenberg out-dueling other Red Bull Sergio Perez.  Great job!

3.  I'll say it again; how can Red Bull keep going with Perez when Carlos Sainz is available?  You can't beat a Haas and you have a Top 4 car (easily).  Come on man!!!  You see great car dynasty's fall over time.  IMO the decision to resign Perez is a move that will put the reigning constructor champions on the back foot sooner than later.  When is the last time he had a good weekend?  Just the facts....

4.  The rest were really ho-hum also driving around really.  Not much to comment on.

On to the Legendary Silverstone Racetrack in the final leg of an F1 Triple-header!!!

Lewis Hamilton won today for Mercedes.  First time in a very long time for Hamilton.

Max Verstappen finished second and Lando Norris finished third.

The 2024 British Grand Prix was a treat and one of the most exciting races the last couple of years.  I am looking forward to @Purple88 weighing in. 

22 hours ago, theguru said:

The 2024 British Grand Prix was a treat and one of the most exciting races the last couple of years.  I am looking forward to @Purple88 weighing in. 

WHAT A RACE!  In my opinion, the 2024 British Grand Prix was the best F1 race since the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi, where Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fought to the bitter VERY controversial end that saw Verstappen ultimately walk away with his 1st of 3 World Championships!

The British Grand Prix IMO is the true crown jewel on the F1 calendar.  Britian supports more drivers and teams than anyone else and all seem to love the tracks unique characteristics.  The track is called Silverstone.  After World War II, Britian had no racetracks and too many airfields.  So, they turned Silverstone, a RAF base, into a racetrack in 1948 and the rest is history.  It has a very memorable layout with corners that they give names to.  Pretty neat and lots of home-grown celebrities in attendance.

Also characteristic to this track is the British weather - unpredictable and ever changing.  We saw that all weekend with the Grand Prix hit twice with rain events and one of those required the use of the intermediate tyre to deal with.

The weekend started with 3 practices sessions that Lando Norris and the Mercedes drivers seemed to excel at the top of the speed charts.  During Qualifying World Champion Max Verstappen went off track and across the gravel speed trap and damaged his floor setup (which is a big deal for F1 cars).  He wasn't the same after that.  This set up a 3-man duel with both Mercedes cars (Hamilton and Russell) and the McLaren of Lando Norris.  Norris would make an error on his last lap and Russell out did Hamilton to take a historic first home Grand Prix pole for the Brit AND a 1-2-3 sweep for British Drivers in Qualifying.

On to the race.  Russell led Hamilton off the line and Verstappen used a great sweeping wide move to outmaneuver a blocked Norris to overtake to 3rd place.  This stayed until the first rain event, which was relatively light, but tricky as the track was slick, but not enough rain to put on intermediates, even though a few including Charles LeClerc (the Ferrari driver who had a woeful weekend).  Ferrari's not in the Top 3 right now for sure.  They spend alot of $$$ to not be in the Top 3 so I'm sure they are worried right now and should be.

When that first rain came it was like a light switch to turn the McLaren's on and they both (Norris and Piastri) powered past Verstappen and the Mercedes drivers.  It was impressive.  This lineup stayed the same until the second rain stint came, which was heavier and mandated the use of Intermediate tyres, but the problem for the top 2 teams of McLaren and Mercedes was they had both drivers within about a second and a half of each other.  Most F1 good pit stops are roughly 2.5 seconds to be safe and since you can't, by rule, back up other drivers on track, the teams had a choice to make of making the second car take another lap and tip toe around the track on slick tyres or lose a second or two and double stack in the pits.  McLaren chose poorly and chose to send Piastri around for a very slow lap and pitted Norris for Inters.  The Mercedes double stacked their pit stop and while Russell who had been passed by Hamilton did lose a few seconds it wasn't that bad and they all continued on the Intermediate tyre.  They made so much ground on Piastri that they nearly lapped him.  So, it cost Piastri going from 2nd to 6th.  A big drop.  Not long after this pit stop a very unforeseen and very unlucky malady struck the Mercedes of George Russell.  His water pressure system in his car failed and he had to retire his car.  A brutal end to your home race for a guy who was still battling for the lead really.  Hate that for him.

So, the Intermediate tyre stint played out with Norris leading Hamilton and Verstappen with Piastri passing the other Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.  Verstappen was the first to pit to take Intermediates off and put on the hard compound tyre and even though he had a few slick issues, he clearly made the right call.  Mercedes was next to act with Hamilton coming in for new Soft tyres, but there was still quite a ways to go on the softs.  Norris missed that pit window and had to make another lap on Inters and when he came into the pits, he had to avoid the Ferrari pit crew which cost him time and he (Norris himself) made the call to go to new soft tyres, when he had saved a new set of Mediums.  The delay of the 4.5 second pit stop was immediately seen when Norris was passed by Hamilton for the lead in the race and the fans went wild!  Verstappen was in 3rd and Piastri in 4th.  With about 10 laps to go the soft tyres were starting to go for Norris, but Hamilton likely brought his tyres into temperature better and they ultimately lasted longer than Norris' did.  Verstappen had plenty of tyre wear left and he was charging up the field and ultimately passed Norris for second place.  He tried to put pressure on Hamilton, but Hamilton did a masterful job of keeping his tyres alive and outdistanced Verstappen for the win.  Hamilton's first win in 2.5 years (at his home track no less) (they even call one of the straights on the track Sir Lewis Hamilton Straight!)!  VERY Impressive!  Hamilton is an All-Time F1 Legend IMO.

For Verstappen, it really shows he is a great driver as well as he likely should have been down in about 5th or 6th this weekend, but he made every right call at the perfect time, and it made all the difference.  It's why he is and will be again this year a World Champion. 

For Norris, it was another series of errors for a younger driver who is supremely talented.  But to not put on the new set of Medium tyres will be hard to live with I think.  I was yelling at the TV when he didn't put on the mediums!  Laughing.  Lewis Hamilton in the cool down room after the raced asked him that exact question and he really didn't have an answer.  Wow!

Piastri ran well also for McLaren who still had a great weekend.

Other notes:

1.  Niko Hulkenberg with Haas is the best racer outside the Top 4 teams (and I include the great Fernando Alonso in that group for this moment in time).   He qualified 6th and brought his Haas home in 6th.  A GREAT feat by the German.  Hulkenberg will leave Haas after the season and join the Sauber team who will be known as Audi in 2026.  A great move by the new Audi team!

2. Aston Martin had a good weekend for a change with both drivers scoring points in 7th and 8th respectively.

3.  While I do think Sergio Perez, in the other Red Bull, did help his teammate Max Verstappen get data on the hard tyres earlier in his race to give him confidence to put them on to Verstappen's car and ultimately earn 2nd place.  Perez hasn't scored significant points in eons.  Again, this just isn't what Red Bull needs IMO.  Verstappen gave Perez a vote of confidence but did so IMO because he knows he can beat him anytime he wants to.  That's good for Verstappen; it's not good for Red Bull.

4. Logan Sargeant, the American Williams driver, had a good run up to 11th.  The highest I can ever remember him being.  But there are rumors he will be replaced mid-season.  

There's a week off now after the 3 consecutive races before they go again in the Hungarian Grand Prix.  Not a circuit that has a ton of passing if my memory serves correctly.  So, it will be interesting.

 

The Hungarian Grand Prix was pretty darn eventful and DEFINITELY entertaining!

Here is a link to the highlight (I hope it works, F1 is tricky):

HIGHLIGHTS: Enjoy the action from a controversial Hungarian GP as Piastri claims maiden F1 victory | Formula 1®

Qualifying was really tough with intermittent rain throughout, so the drivers had to weigh going full throttle vs losing grip and hitting the wall.  Pretty darn tough.

But the cream rising to the top was mostly orange in color with the McLaren drivers of Lando Norris (Pole) and Oscar Piastri (second) ahead of a gaggle of other drivers (Verstappen, Sainz, Hamilton and Leclerc).  Who's missing from this group?  The Mercedes of George Russell, who along with his Mercedes team were found anxious and lacking in preparation.  As Russell was one of the first drivers to return to the track after brief and relatively light rain during Qualifying 1 session.  And because of this the track was still drying out and he couldn't go full throttle IMO on the first lap.  That's on him.  But he stayed on track and made his way around for another hot lap, BUT his team didn't fill his car with enough fuel to make it around another lap and he had to back out and ultimately did not make it out of Q1.  What did that mean?  Well starting in 17th place meant he had zero shot at winning the event and likely could only hope for as high as 7th during the race (he finished 8th).  Who else, you guessed it; the guy I've been harping on for some time now, the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who misjudged the grip going into Turn 4 and hit the wall pretty darn hard in Q1.  He already  set a time to at least make it to Q2, but they Red Flagged the session and afterward is when Russell's shenanigans happened. And the field overtook him by about 3/100ths of a second.  EVEN WORSE to me were the boneheads at Alpine, who chose not to go back out after the Perez Red Flag (chose not to go out because they thought their times were good enough to make the next session, but that was foolish really).  And they were easily escorted to the very bottom of the grid.  Pretty darn embarrassing if you ask me.

On to the race, from the standing start, in the apex of Turn 1 was Piastri on the inside, Norris sandwiched in the middle and Verstappen flying on the outside.  It was intense.  Verstappen went wide to avoid contact, but Norris had to lift off the throttle to ensure not to make contact and Piastri was the winner of this outcome, and he led Verstappen and Norris out of the first turn.  Verstappen was told by his race engineer to give the spot back to Norris (as he likely gained an advantage going off track), but I'm unclear if F1 asked him to do that or just allowed Verstappen to do it.  I'm sure there's a lot of talk of that.  

Piastri pulled out to about a 3.5 second lead with Norris about 3.5 ahead of Verstappen who was about 2-3 seconds ahead of Hamilton.  Hamilton chose to pit for the first of 2 pitstops early.  This undercut strategy worked well, and he ended up ahead of Verstappen after the 2nd set of pitstops but on older tyres.  Hamilton was gaining some on Norris in second, so McLaren chose to bring Norris in the pits first to try to stave off a Hamilton overtake on an upcoming pitstop to prevent the undercut.  But Piastri was in the lead and by the time the next lap finished and Piastri came out of the pits he was behind Norris.  MOST F1 teams allow the leader on track to have first preference in the pits, which would have been Piastri in this case, but it didn't play out like this.  McLaren then asked Norris to give the place back to teammate Piastri.  Norris then extended his overall lead.  I mean, Norris did nothing wrong and Norris not Piastri still has a chance at the Championship this year, NOT Piastri.  But alas, McLarens bosses appealed to Norris' team orders saying he would need Piastri on his side down the road.  With 3 laps to go Norris slowed down and let Piastri pass him; and followed team orders.  Would World Champion Verstappen have done that; I say HECK NO he would not have.

Meanwhile, Verstappen was flying ontrack on hard tyres.  He caught Hamilton in 3rd but had eaten up alot of his tyre wear IMO.  He tried several times to pass and did once but ran wide in the S curves and Hamilton got the place back.  This set up a late lunge overtake attempt at Turn 1 that Verstappen was found to be out of controll and he cut across the front of Hamilton's car and clipped the Mercedes front right and slightly launched him into the air.  REMARKABLY, both cars seemed to be ok, but LeClerc overtook Verstappen in the aftermath, and it ended that way.  1. Piastri, 2. Norris, 3. Hamilton, 4. LeClerc, 5. Verstappen, who was generally in a really foul mood all day today.

With Piastri winning today makes 7 different drivers to win a Grand Prix this year.  That hasn't happened since 2012.  This season has had many turns, but I admit, I did not see this coming with so many different winners.  I really like it and am leading my fantasy pool by 200 points now.  So, there's that.

Now on to one of my very favorite venues - SPA in the Belgium Grand Prix this coming week.

Going to be a hoot!

 

Fun article following the Hungarian Grand Prix:

Pressure builds on Verstappen as Red Bull's advantage wanes - ESPN

A few of the best exchanges:

And if there happens to be anyone who doesn't like the way he goes racing, or anyone who takes offence at the comments he makes over team radio, or anyone who thinks he should approach his craft in a different manner ... well, https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/40610809/red-bull-verstappen-blasts-critics-tense-hungary-gp

"Well, that's some gentle introduction," Lambiase said, pointing out Verstappen's aggressive lap times.

"No, mate, don't give me that [edited] now," Verstappen responded. "You guys gave me this [edited] strategy, OK? I'm trying to rescue what's left. [edited]"

Asked by Sky Sports after the race whether he would apologize to his team for the radio exchanges, Verstappen said: "I don't think we need to apologize; I just think we need to do a better job. I don't know why people think that you cannot be vocal on the radio. I mean, this is a sport.

"If some people don't like that, then they can stay home."

Pressure is rising at Red Bull.  Still think Verstappen is firmly in control of the drivers' championship, but the constructor's championship is still up in the air in my opinion.

Belgian Grand Prix in 5 days!

The Belgian Grand Prix is definitely a race venue on my bucket list.  Nestled in the Ardennes Forest is just magnificent sight lines.  Add that to arguably the most perfect F1 track ever built makes for savored weekends to take in this the last Grand Prix prior to the well-deserved month-long summer break (Dutch Grand Prix won't run until the end of August).

A little piece of the mystic of this track has to do with it usually has a weather variable compared to races that basically run in the desert; so, you know year out what to plan for.  Not so in the beer bucket list country of Belgium!  And so, it played out that after pretty cloudy cool conditions on Friday practice led to pretty dismal conditions with rain and wind and the like for qualifying.  Always tough to pull your strategy cards out for these conditions.  But through the clouds to rain and wind, World Champion Max Verstappen had everyone covered through qualifying by upwards of half a second.  Man, that's all day in F1 arenas!  BUT the Dutchman would take a strategic 10 spot-grid spot penalty for exceeding engine replacements, as he replaced his super-charged engine for the 5th time this season (all teams/drivers get 4 changes prior to penalties).  So, Verstappen had to start way back in 11th, but he's made up more than that before (same scenario played out in 2022, with Verstappen starting 14th and he still won this race).  So, the field knew there was a hard charger coming from behind to watch out for.  Charles Leclerc pulled an amazing lap out of his hat to qualify behind Verstappen and inherit Pole Position.  Quite a feat for what looked like a good car but below the leaders.  Well done! 

The embattled second Red Bull of Sergio Perez would again take the hard way to do something when he nipped Alex Albon by 3 one-thousandths of a second to even make it into Q3.  He was VERY fortunate to do that IMO.  But he used that opportunity to run very well and finish qualifying at 3rd place and moved to the front row with Verstappen's grid penalty.  The McClarens and Mercedes seemed to be running with a parachute on their backs with the rain and just couldn't fine tune their set up settling for an adjusted 4th and 5th then 3rd and 6th on the grid, respectively.

But the sun came out tomorrow and it was a glorious weather day for the Grand Prix, which again made for drama because the teams did not have any time to prepare for this.  So, both drivers and teams had to use their wits and strategy was again King around this grand old track.  From standing start, Charles Leclerc was the beneficiary of a position battle between 2nd and 3rd place between Hamilton and Perez.  One Hamilton would ultimately win.  Lando Norris had a poor Turn 1 outing; dipping onto the gravel losing him precious track position and by the time nearly 1-2 laps were through Verstappen was right on his gear box.  NEVER a good situation.  He held him off until Verstappen undercut Norris on the first set of pit stops and Norris never recovered finishing behind Verstappen who battled the whole way finishing a disappointing 5th and 6th. 

LeClerc didn't have the car to finish at the front but drove, in my view, a terrific race to finish in 4th.  That left the Mercedes drivers and the other McClaren of Piastri to battle it out.  After the first set of pit stops, it became clear to George Russell (Mercedes) that he would have a very difficult time following the other leaders strategies and getting on the podium.  So they decided to go with a one-pit stop strategy.  So when Piastri and Hamilton pitted for a second time, that left Russell out in front by a considerable distance, but on older tyres.  So as the race neared conclusion, Russell led his teammate who was closing on him by roughly 7 tenths of a second every lap and would be in contention to pass with roughly 4-5 laps to go in the race.  Piastri was behind Hamilton and was just hammer down and trying to catch the Mercedes, which he ultimately didn't do finishing 1.173 seconds off the leader, but still a heck of an effort and Piastri is clearly dangerous to win more races/podiums this season!  Well done.

So, this left the Mercedes pair to duke it out and Hamilton had a few great runs on Russell, but Russell beautifully used his battery energy to just create enough separation in critical areas of the track to keep in front to the end.  And he stole an incredible win from the field and takes Mercedes to the Summer Break in style.  Hamilton was visibly upset after the race.  His words said one thing, but his body language said another.  Saying among other things: "Why didn't I get the choice of going 1-stop?".  Well, that's for a closed door meeting I suppose!  GREAT STUFF heading into the break.

What else?

It was the top 8 drivers and everybody else.  Meaning:  Fernando Alonso in 9th place was roughly 50 seconds off the lead.  While the top 8 were the cars from Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McClaren, who are now WAY out in front.  They have been competing so hard against each other that now they have put a MAMMOTH gap between themselves and the rest of the field.  I don't see that changing much heading forward.

Enjoy the break; recharge your batteries; BUT IMO there will be some BIG announcements coming before the Dutch Grand Prix in 4 weeks times.  What could some of those announcements be?  Perhaps:

1. Carlos Sainz STILL has not made a choice as to where he will drive next year.  I would think this is a terrible weight on his shoulders.  I look for him to make a move over the break.  AND this will lead to other moves solidifying the 2025 F1 driver grid.

2. To Perez or not to Perez; that is the question!  It's time; I've been calling for this for what seems like 2 months now, but Red Bull must call the ball right now on Perez's future.  One would have thought it was already done with RedBull signing Perez to a new contract.  But this is BIG MONEY sports were are talking about.  The difference in 1st and 2nd place in Constructor Prize Money is 10 Million alone.  I'm told the Perez buy out is 5 million.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Verstappen is alone out there on the track.  When he was 20 seconds up on the field it didn't matter; now it does and Red Bull is seeing that and Mercedes, McClaren and Ferrari and coming.  You're move Red Bull.  And doing nothing is as big as making a move.

Who could they move into that seat you ask?  Well, its risky honestly with reserve driver Liam Lawson or former RedBull driver Daniel Ricardo currently on the junior RB team.  Are those great choices?  Honestly, NO.  But I just feel RedBull needs to change things up.  Perez is broken at the moment IMO and his confidence shot.  Is their best move to just keep pumping Perez up?  I personally don't think so.  Even if Lawson/Ricardo don't do well; Red Bull will be seen as attemping to give themselves a chance to win the Constructors Championship.  If they don't and Perez stays south; well it'll be a tough news conferenence and an even tougher Board Meeting!  The Constructor Championship is now down to just 42 points.  This time last year is was over a 200 point lead!  Will be interesting!

BREAKING NEWS:  GEORGE RUSSELL DISQUALIFIED FROM THE BELGIAN GRAND PRIX!!!

The article I just looked at states Russell's car was found underweight and Hamilton promoted to winner.

I'M STUNNED!  Evidently, they didn't "fully drain his car of the fuel in it for the final weigh in".  It is a violation and once all the fuel was drained the car was underweight.  WOW!  Hate that for Russell; he drove a heck of a race, but the rules are the rules.  They were under weight by roughly 3.3 pounds.  

Have a great break!  It's nice for me to begin high school football during this time too, and enjoy my nearly 300 point lead in my Fantasy group!  HA!