None of us are experts given there’s only a couple of dozen people int he world who know what it’s like to drive an F1 car
… but that won’t stop me giving an opinion.
Norris scrubbed more speed off in the gravel than Piastri and was able to enter the track early and regain control. Have to put that down to the luck of the draw because you’re fighting for survival when your off the track in the wet.
However had Piastri decided he was never making the corner and just kept his wheel straight, instead of turning when he re-entered, he may not have spun and lost all that time. He’d have just ended up down the slip road and would have lost 2nd place.
Now, screenshots can absolutely be misleading, but this looked like a deliberate attempt to steer the car. But who knows what he was feeling. The issue was Max was there. So had he just steered right or kept straight he may have felt he would hit Max, and then what would people be saying? This is all split second stuff. Maybe, had he kept it straight, or attempted to, it might have snapped right and crashed.
I’m fortunate to own a copy of Maurice Hamilton’s book “Race Without End” which chronicled Team Jordan during the 1993 Formula One season. There wasn’t anything controversial or scandalous revealed in the book (besides what is already known what happened in the Japanese Grand Prix that year), but it did give a nice inside view of the various aspects (engineers, mechanics, marketing personnel, truck drivers, even the chefs) of a small F1 team trying to take on the behemoths during the 90s.
And 1993 was a tumultuous year for the Jordan F1 team, after the highs of their inaugural year in 1991, 1992 had them falling back to earth. 1993 had them trying to claw back with a brand-new engine from an equally small manufacturer (Brian Hart’s 1035 V10), a young rookie driver in one seat (Barrichello), and a revolving door of drivers in the second one (two of them being veteran drivers ending their F1 careers in that car, another driver’s entire F1 career lasting about 500 yards). 1993 was looking like it would be as bad as the previous season, later in the year they hired an F3000 Japan driver named Eddie Irvine…and then Suzuka happened.
So many new race teams came and went during the wild “DNPQ”-era of F1, Eddie Jordan’s team was pretty much the only small upstart that survived that time and continued on for many years to come (but it came very close to ending after the first season). It’s a testament to Jordan’s perseverance and ability to navigate through the tough world of F1 that his team raced there for so long.
Hamilton’s book painted a very sympathetic picture of a group of individuals grinding through to try and compete in a very high-pressure and very competitive venue like Grand Prix racing. So I was definitely happy when I watched Eddie Jordan’s team finally get that first F1 win after years of trying at the chaotic Belgain GP in '98.
James is right, this was s*** news to wake up to .
Here we go Hamilton has a bit of confidence now! I really hope we get a solid Ferrari v McLaren v Mercedes v Max this year!
I’m not expecting too much from this Sprint but it gives me hope the main race will be good if we get a good mix of teams/drivers like the sprint qually.
I don’t think anyone can touch McLarens race pace, but that shouldn’t matter too much for the sprint. Just depends if the others destroy the LF early.
Is Max’s driving style so unique that no one else can drive it? Riccardo’s been the only one close and you could argue that was before Red Bull built the car to suit Verstappen’s preferences. It’s been 4 drivers since then. None of whom I’d claim to be potentially world class but I also wouldn’t put any of them as Q3 qualifiers in a car capable of Q1.
Well, didn’t take long for Hamilton to get Ferrari their first sprint win. I have mixed feelings on if I want to see success with the prancing horse or not. I think seeing him win with a 3rd constructor would surpass Michael Schumacher in so many ways. It’s always impressive to witness greatness, but part of me want Michael to retain that title above him. Maybe just nostalgia…
Sainz looked totally awful, felt bad for him. Only some last lap shenanigans gave him any positions. Was surprised at Leclerc struggles relative to Hamilton and Norris struggles relative to Piastri.
Wonder what race day with full length stints will produce?
It appears that the Red Bull is pretty much underivable for anyone but Max. Probably better that Yuki didn’t get promoted as Liam is having a miserable time.
Poor Liam. I can’t even imagine arriving at that team, getting the break of your life to get into a top team, and arriving you realize “holy shit, this car is super tough to drive and Max is absolutely on another planet”. Hope he can pick himself up, make the changes, and start getting along with the car.
The RBs look tasty for the GP. Hamilton looking more and more comfortable while Charles looks very uncomfortable in that car so far. He needs to figure it out or Lewis will be handling him all season.
The cars look very on-edge here. Many drivers including Norris taking a lot of laps to nail down one good one.
How many points lead would a McLaren driver have to get to earn team orders? Like if McLaren boys are 1 and 3 in the WDC with Max between them and Lando is 20 points ahead of Piastri, would they ask Piastri to give up a race win to help Lando beat Max in the WDC? 30 points? 40? They seemed very reluctant to prioritize Lando last year.
Bit of a boring race tbh. Interesting to see Lewis two stop strategy compared to the one stoppers however regardless of his dq. Ferrari really need to get their act together, they nearly always seem to shoot themselves in the foot.
Bearman did a good job
I find China to always be a bit boring. Was cool to see Charles hanging in there with the damage, shame he got it in the first place. Pretty bizarre to see Yuki’s wing just break on it’s own. Lawson is peforming abysmally but everyone should’ve seen that coming. He needs time and unfortunately he’s not going to get it, as they are already talking about Yuki jumping in for Japan (and probably looking awful and ruining his credibility like everyone else who sits in the second Red Bull).
Bearman’s stint at the end was fun and great to see both Haas cars finish in the points after they looked hopeless in Melbourne. Ocon drove a quiet but solid race to bag big points too.
