Well, three races are now complete in F1. And what a start to the season.
I probably should note that I am a Lewis Hamilton fan. He is a 3-times world champion, this despite being the #2 driver for Mercedes, behind Nico Rossberg. Last year Nico won the world championship purely by luck. Probably recognizing it isn’t like to recur he then retired after the season.
This year has been altogether different from last year. Last year the Mercedes team pretty much ran off and hid from the rest of the field, and first and second were mostly pretty much set. The rest of the field raced for what was left.
Nothing like that THIS year. In the first race in Melbourne Hamilton won, but in Shangai Sebastian Vettel won in a Ferrari. Hamilton came in second, and Botta, the #2 driver at Mercedes came in third.
Third race was in Dubai. It had the expected drama with a wild swings in temperatures that made tire choices difficult, and blowing sand on an unusually abrasive track to start with, making for further unknown tire life. The general choices were either soft or super soft for tire compounds.
Qualifying led to an interesting result. Valtieri Botta, the number 2 driver for Mercedes, won the pole. It is his first pole in F1. Botta is a young man, and this display of speed hopefully is a sign of future speed. So the field was Botta, Hamilton, Vettel in the first three positions, Botta and Hamilton split by 0.08 seconds.
Race starts can be dramatic events. Dubai was no different. Botta held 1st. but Vettel moved past Hamilton into 2nd. Botta did reasonably well in the opening laps but then seemed to fall off the pace. Meanwhile Vettel was brought in early by Ferrari for a pit stop and tire change. Not long afterwards there was a track-wide yellow with a pace car, so Mercedes brought their cars in for tires. Trouble was, both cars came in at the same time But Mercedes only has one pit position, and Botta was first. This meant Hamilton had to hang back to be able to come into the pit. Meanwhile Botta’s stop was LONG. In normal stops time in the pits is about 2.5-3 sec. Botta was in for 9! So Botta got out poorly in position, and Hamilton was further held back. THEN the stewards decided to asses Hamilton a 5 second penalty for “purposely holding Ricardo up in the pit lane”. I personally think it was a poor penalty call, and Hobbs agreed with me, but it is what it is. Hamilton was assessed the penalty on his next pitting. He was then out on the track trying to catch Vettel in 20 laps with 19 seconds to make up. He almost did it. The last 10 laps he was beating Vettel’s time by almost 2 seconds per lap. Still, it wasn’t quite enough; Vettel and Ferrari won. Mercedes took 2nd and 3rd. Had not the 5 second penalty been assessed, this race would have been right down to the wire.
So several things are becoming clear this year. First, Ferrari is now competitive with Mercedes. Second, cars are running faster than previously. And lastly, strategy is proving a crucial factor in winning races. Last race in Shangai Mercedes simply had bad pit stop strategy and it cost Hamilton a win. This time bad pit work did. Some of that had to do with the fact the tires are wider and the crews don’t seem totally accustomed to handling the wider, heavier tires. Time will teach them how to do it right. And maybe some off-time practice.
What we can also say is that this year seems to be stacking up to be an exciting year of racing. There is real competition between two well-known marks. I can’t wait for the rest of the season to unfold.
Thanks. F1 is now to me so it is interesting to get this run down.
What is the difference between F1 and Indy Cars? They use more alcohol than a bowling team, right?
F1 and Indy Cars look somewhat the same but the rules are quite different. There are totally different engines, different rules on aerodynamics, different fuel requirements, etc. About all you can say is that both have somewhat the same appearance.
Indy cars usually have some version of an American motor. Turbocharging is common and the max boost is limited with a pop-off valve. Fuel is generally alcohol, while F1 uses some exotic blends that are proprietary to each team. The mixtures are quite toxic I believe. Can’t remember if F1 standardized fuel or not.
Generally F1 cars are faster and somewhat harder to drive. Several Indy car stars tried to make it in F1 and failed. Mario Andretti was one of the few that made it in both. Not sure just why Americans have not done well in F1. Currently there is an American team trying to get into it, run/owned by Carl Haas. So far they have not done well this year. Some of it has been technical and some just bad luck. First couple races the stewards banned them because they had some part that was considered dangerous. This last race they just were unlucky in that their driver was hit and failed to qualify.
The flip side is that Americans have done VERY well in F1 motorcycle racing. For a long time it was dominated by an American rider. The champs include Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, and the time stretches from 1978-1993.
Currently Spain is putting up the winners but not the same guy. A Spanish rider has won the championship since about 2010.
One reason given for American rider dominance is that generally the riders have come up through the American short track clay racing, which is considered THE MOST dangerous racing on the planet. It’s where you slide the bike around the ends of the oval while putting a steel-soled boot down on the inside to keep the bike up. Watch one of those races you begin to see the ragged edge of crazy for a racer. Most other racing is tame by comparison.