Tag: Red Bull Racing

F1 (extra) pit stop – inter-season action!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

it was in late June that I published the latest F1 update, which was also the half of the season one. Rest assured that it’s not a lack of other stuff to write about which motivates another one so soon thereafter, but there’s been some inter-season action this summer that needs to be commented on. So in terms of race updates, I’ll come back to those yet another time before the season ends, in a few races from now. Today, we’ll look at the big news from behind the F1 scene.

“Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.”. Those were some of the words Red Bull’s MD Oliver Mintzlaff expressed when he earlier this summer announced that after 20 years, the Red Bull team had rather abruptly decided to sack team principal Christian Horner. By the looks of it, no one was more surprised than Christian himself, which is perhaps an indication that everything was actually not hunky dory at Milton Keynes, Red Bull’s HQ. When the boss doesn’t realize what’s going on, it’s usually not a good sign.

There have definitely been better days, if you’re Christian Horner…

Horner’s story with Red Bull is of course both a unique and a uniquely successful one. After some limited success as a driver in F2 and F3 during the 90’s, Christian admitted to himself that he didn’t have the balls for F1, and instead set off on a quest to build his own team in F3000, at the time the junior class acting as a stepping stone to F1. Doing so he met Red Bull’s grand old man Dr. Helmut Marko the first time, and it was no doubt their prior relationship that made Red Bull and Marko confident enough to choose him as (a 31-year old) untested team principal, when in 2001, they decided to launch their own F1 team. That was a bold move, but boy was it rewarded!

With Red Bull, Christian Horner went on to become the longest serving and one of the most successful team principals in F1 history. Over 20 years and 373 races, the team under his command recorded 113 race victories and six constructors’ titles. In the team’s best season 2022, Red Bull had a race win percentage of over 95%. And as the team’s uncontested first driver, Max Verstappen has won four world titles, the latest in 2024. So why on earth was Horner let go of?

Those were the days!

The first cracks started to appear in early 2024, when Horner was accused of inappropriate behavior by a female Red Bull employee. He was later acquitted, but neither Red Bull, nor Helmut Marko, nor Max Verstappen’s influential father Jos appreciated the negative PR, and openly stated so. A bit later the same year, both team manager Jonathan Wheatley and the legendary designer Adrian Newey, who had been instrumental in Red Bull’s success over many years, announced they were leaving. At the same time, not even Verstappen could handle the Red Bull car anymore, and other teams, especially McLaren, were catching up. Race-wise the 2025 season hasn’t been any better, and 2/3 into the season, Red Bull has no practical chance of winning neither the Constructors’, nor the Drivers’ title this year.

Without Newey, even Horner would admit that Red Bull would never have had the success they did.

The other way of looking at it is also that with each passing year, the Red Bull car seems to be increasingly developed for Max Verstappen – and only Max Verstappen. It’s almost comical how many second drivers have passed through Red Bull and failed to get anywhere near Verstappen’s results. It started with Ricciardo (who arguably, made one of many bad choices in joining Renault, but he didn’t do so on the back of massive success at Red Bull). Then came Pierre Gasly, followed by Alex Albon, in turn followed by Sergio Perez, Liam Leeson, and now Yuki Tsunoda. That’s six guys in 10 years. Six guys that may not have Max’s talent, but all of which have recorded better results with other teams than with Red Bull’s world champion outfit. If you build a car that is really tailor-made to one driver and that driver doesn’t win anymore, as a team principal in F1 where memory only goes back to last Sunday’s race, you leave yourself exposed.

I think it would be suprising if Christian Horner doesn’t return to F1 in some capacity. During the summer, there’s been plenty of rumours on him joining Ferrari, setting up his own team again, or perhaps becomes the principal of the new team for the 2026 season, which is the other big piece of news from this summer: Cadillac’s F1 entry.

Two happy 35-year olds, a bit unexpectedly back in action!

Of course, the news that there will be another team in F1 next year is older than this summer, but it was in August that Cadillac announced its driver line-up for 2026. Contrary to the recent trend among the more established F1 teams, Cadillac goes for experience all the way, with Mexican Sergio “Checo” Perez on one hand, and Finnish Valtteri Bottas on the other. None of them have a seat this season, with Bottas being test driver at Mercedes, and Perez having taken the year out to spend time with his family. They do however have a total of 106 podiums in F1 between them, and the idea is that both now bring their extensive experience to Cadillac to help shorten the time it will take the time to establish itself.

Cadillac will be the 11th team on the grid and is a brand new outfit, in a collaboration between Cadillac, GM and TWG Global, a Chicago-based investment company active in sports, media and entertainment. Former Virgin and Marussia team boss Graeme Lowdon will run it (so no, it won’t be Christian Horner taking up the job). The engine will initially be supplied by Ferrari, but will be replaced by a GM powertrain by 2029, and it’s no secret that it’s the new engine regulations for next year, that we’ll come back to before the 2026 season, that make the entry possible.

Images so far tell a very black story…

There’s no doubt that F1 and its boss Stefano Domenicali has thought long and hard about Cadillac’s entry as there isn’t room for any more teams behond this in F1, and any new entrants after this will therefore have to buy an existing team (is that perhaps where we’ll see or friend Christian Horner reappear?). There’s thus little doubt that Cadillac is serious about a long-term commitment. No F1 newcomer can however expect to be close to the podium in its first season(s), so don’t expect too much.

Come to think of it though, that’s not quite true. A young David Coulthard finished fourth in his first race for a brand new team in the 2005 season. The new team he was racing for was called Red Bull, and its principal was a rather unknown 31-year old, called Christian Horner…

Pictures from f1.com and Motorsport

Lawson out – Tsunoda in!

On By ChristofferIn F1Leave a comment

Well, that didn’t last long. 2 1/2 (if you count the China spring GP as 1/2) races into the season and Liam Lawson is already out of his Red Bull seat, being degraded to Racing Bulls and switching places with Yuki Tsunoda. I don’t have the stats to prove it, but I’m guessing this is the least patience any F1 team has ever shown with a new driver, especially a youngster who’s 20 years old…

As noted in my F1 post last week, Lawson isn’t completely new to F1, having started in 11 races and finished P9 at best. That said, his first races at Red Bull have been a complete nightmare, qualifying in P18 at best and not finishing better than P12. That’s not good enough for Red Bull, and Lawson thereby becomes the next in a relatively long line of second drivers at the team who don’t manage to perform in a car that by the looks of it, only Max Verstappen can handle. However, the question still remains if Red Bull didn’t test Lawson enough before signing him to notice it?

Red Bull are of course stressed about the Constructors’ title that they in my opinion will struggle greatly to regain this year. There is however another reason next to Lawson’s poor results playing in here, and as so often, it’s called money. The next GP is at Suzuka in Japan, and rumor has it that Tsunoda’s sponsors have paid north of USD 10m to Red Bull on the condition that they put Yuki in Lawson’s seat in time for it. Let’s see what happens. No doubt Tsunoda is a fast driver, but other second drivers at Red Bull have been so as well – in other cars. We’ll see if Yuki manages to handle that raging bull any better than Lawson in front of his home crowd! If so, Lawson isn’t about to return, at least not this season.

F1 pit stop: buckle up!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

The F1 circus is currently on a few weeks’ break before attacking the five last races of the season, starting in Mexico for round 20 on Oct 27, and then concluding in Abu Dhabi on Dec 8. In between are the races in Sao Paolo, Las Vegas and Qatar. As we all take a breather, let’s therefore check in on what’s happened over the last races since my latest update in early June. Because boy has there been some action!

As you may remember, I called the post back in June “Could it be?”, alluding to the fact that it looked like both Ferrari and McLaren had come closer to Red Bull and maybe, just maybe, could bring some excitement to the second half of the season. Well, for once it seems I was right, but little did I think things were about to change so drastically. And I should have added Mercedes to the list of possbiel contenders as well, although their improvement didn’t become apparent until slightly later. As I write this in the first week of October, Red Bull has lost the lead in the constructor standings to McLaren and have Ferrari breathing down their neck. What happened?

No other team has found more speed than McLaren in the second half of the season

There have been 10 races since Monaco at the end of May, and Verstappen, having finished 6th in Monaco, showed that he can still drive by subsequently winning both in Canada and Spain. But in the eight races since Spain, he hasn’t won a single one – yep, you read that right. I might add that Sergio “Checo” Perez hasn’t won any of those eight either, which is perhaps no big surprise, but to be fair, also makes clear that this has more to do with the car then the drivers. Or rather, it has more to do with the other cars in red, orange and silver.

The last eight races have split pretty evenly between McLaren (four victories) Mercedes and (three), with Ferrari and Leclerc picking up the win at home in Monza in front of more than 300.000 jubilant Tifosis, and guaranteeing Leclerc’s legend status in Italy for many years to come (and given the Monegasque Leclerc also won his home GP for the first time this year, he will certainly be happy with the 2024 season!). If you look beyond first place though, it becomes pretty clear that although all three teams have come much closer to Red Bull’s speed, improvements are most notable at McLaren and within the team, things are now much more even between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

It’s probably debatable if Monza or Monaco was Leclerc’s sweetest win…

This is Piastri’s second F1 season and he quickly showed he deserves his McLaren seat, managing to score two podiums and a sprint victory in his first season 2023. In the first part of this year however, Lando Norris had the lead internally at McLaren. But in the last races since Monaco, Piastri has been on seven podiums and won two races, in Hungary and Azerbaijan. Norris hasn’t done too badly either and is firmly in second place in the drivers’ standings, but to have a realistic chance at he title, he would have needed some of Piastri’s results in the last races.

McLaren is thus in great shape with a car that performs well on most type of tracks. And both Mercedes and Ferrari have found more speed than they had earlier in the season. But with that said, it’s not like Red Bull have broken down and Verstappen has taken a leave. Max is still there, he’s still fast and even though he doesn’t win, he’s still regularly on the podium. Right now however, he’s not really faster than the other six drivers in the top teams. But with a lead of over 50 points going into the last five races of the season, it’s most probable that he will clinch the title this year as well.

For the constructors’ title however, things look a bit different. With Checo Perez being nowhere in terms of speed or podiums, Red Bull have lost the lead to McLaren, and as things look right now, the team from Woking in the UK can be expected to hold on to that lead. And Max had better continue to perform, because otherwise Red Bull could end up behind Ferrari as well, which currently trails it by only 34 points. For a team as spoiled as Red Bull, that would be nothing short of catastrophic.

This is not where Max is used to parking…

I’ll dive into all the driver changes for next season in a future post, as there’s plenty to cover. For now however, we need to address the recent mid-season switch at RB, Red Bull’s junior team, where Daniel Ricciardo has been replaced by Liam Lawson. Lawson is already a familiar face, having stepped in for Ricciardo during several races. It’s no secret that Ricciardo’s performance has been declining over the past few years across different teams, so it’s not very surprising that this likely marks the end of his F1 career. Bringing in a younger talent like 22-year old Lawson aligns with Red Bull’s long-term strategy, though Red Bull still need to find a replacement for Checo Pérez, most probably already for next season.

There we are – five races to go, and at least a constructor championship title to fight for with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari all in contention. And even though it seems clear that Verstappen will take the driver’s title, Lando Norris most probably hasn’t given up yet. Neither has Oscar Piastri, who would love to score more points than Norris this season. And wouldn’t it be a nice conclusion for Carlos Sainz to win a race for Ferrari before his time with the team ends? And for Lewis to do the same at Mercedes? It’s pretty certain there won’t be any lack of excitement in the last part of the 2024 season – buckle up!

F1 pit stop: a record breaking 2023 season!

On By ChristofferIn F1, News1 Comment

The F1 season 2023 has come to an end, and in terms of the the title, it’s been a very unspectacular one from start to end, and at any point there in between. Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing are very much the uncontested champions of this year’s season, of which there was really never any doubt – except for yours truly, who at some point was at least hoping things would heat up a little…

The title was his already after the sprint race in Qatar on 7 October.

Looking a bit more in detail at the numbers around Max’s triumph makes it even more impressive. His 19 wins this season is more than anyone has ever achieved, as are his 21 podiums (which of course means that when he was on the podium, with only two exceptions he claimed P1. That most definitely says a bit about the character of the man!). 10 of those 19 wins were also consecutive, which, you guessed it, is yet another record.

Max of course excels not only in driving skills but also in consistency and mental strength. This is perhaps best illustrated in a comparison with Sergio “Checo” Perez, his teammate. There is really no doubt that Checo is one of the best drivers on the grid, but as we sum up the season, he is still lightyears away from Max, especially in consistency and mental strength, which I would claim contribute more than you may think to Verstappen’s success.

The season had ups and downs, but in the end Checo managed P2

There was thus never any question on who would become world champion, but it was far more unclear that Checo would manage to hold on to P2, especially in the latter part of the season when he faded quite considerably. In the end he did fight off Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes by a relatively healthy 51 points, making it a 1-2 for Red Bull. For team boss Christian Horner, it also means beating his arch rival Toto Wolf at Mercedes for the third year in a row, which is probably almost as important as the title itself…

All was not gloom and doom for the other teams though, especially in the second part of the season. Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren all became more competitive basically with every race. The biggest surprise was perhaps McLaren where Lando Norris made seven podiums this year, all in the second part of the season, and Oscar Piastri added another two. McLaren are clearly on a positive trend, and Piastri is still young, so next year could be really interesting for the team!

McLaren and Norris are now on par with Mercedes and Ferrari, and sometimes above!

Especially in the second part of the season, Ferrari also looked like a much better team than at any time in the last years, which is down both to improvements with the car, but also with Cédric Vasseur as new team boss, clearly bringing some well-needed strategy, and reminding the team of how to execute a pit stop properly. In the end Leclerc and Sainz finished fifth and seventh respectively, with only six points and one Lando Norris in between them.

The biggest surprise in this year’s first races was no doubt Aston Martin Racing and Fernando Alonso, who managed to score six podiums in the first eight races of the year. Unfortunately he faded after that, only adding another two in the latter part of the year, but still ending the year in a very impressive fourth position, giving a good illustration of the potential of the car, in stark contrast to his team mate Lance Stroll, who was nowhere to be seen.

Alonso proved both him and the car (still) have a lot to give!

Looking further down the ranking, there really isn’t much to write home about. Renault Alpine is stuck somewhere in the middle, better than the teams behind but no longer comparable to McLaren, as they’ve been in previous years. Behind them, Alpha Tauri, Williams, Alfa Romeo Racing and Haas (roughly from best to worse) are as far from the top as Elon Musk’s ability to stick to deadlines.

Tsunoda produces more f-words than points in most races, Alex Albon manages to get more out of the Williams than should be possible from time to time, Bottas and the Alfa Romeo car he’s driving both look about as tired, and not even team boss Günther Steiner can make Haas feel like an attractive proposition for next season, unless something changes pretty dramatically.

Thus, as we close the books for 2023, it looks pretty much the same as when we did so in 2022. Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren are all closer to Red Bull than they used to be, but right now it’s difficult to see how they would be able to challenge neither the team, nor Max Verstappen as a driver next season. I guess the risk that Max’s ego no longer fits into the Red Bull car needs to be taken into account, but assuming he manages to squeeze it in, at this stage the money is on a fourth Verstappen-Red Bull title a year from now!

F1 pit stop – best season in ages!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

We’re five races into the F1 season 2022 and so far, this is the best season in ages! The extensive changes introduced to the cars and notably described in my post form October last year have done wonders in making the races exciting again, by allowing cars to close up nearer to each other and thus helping overtaking. And then we’ve seen overtaken drivers fighting back for position, something that never happened in previous years but that I believe is called real racing! There’s actually so much overtaking that the next consideration may well be weather to reduce the DRS as it’s hardly needed anymore. What’s also really cool is seeing how much interest F1 generates this year, which maybe not entirely, but to a very large extent is due to Netflix’s “Drive to survive” series that if you haven’t seen it yet, you definitely should. Season 4 (which describes what happened last season) is the best so far, also as drivers are by now used to the cameras and it becomes even more intimate.

The success of “Drive to survive” has meant all teams now participate, which wan’t the case the first years.

F1 is thus very much on a high after the first five races, and although it’s too early to say how the season will end (there’s another 17 races to go!), we’re certainly seeing some interesting trends in how things are developing. A lot of that wasn’t really expected at the start of the season, so here’s a short summary of the main trends seen so far, some of which look likely to mark the whole season and especially the intense phase ahead, with from next weekend three races over the coming four weeks, including the two city races in Monaco and Baku.

The biggest surprise of the year is certainly that at least at the time of writing, Mercedes isn’t a title contender neither on the team nor on the driver side. In other words, Lewis Hamilton will most probably not be the world champion in 2022. Mercedes currently ranks third in the constructors’ rankings, but already 50 points behind the leading teams. George Russell and Hamilton rank fourth and sixth in the drivers’ standings but again, already with a large distance to the top drivers. As things stand, the team is not fighting for the front row in qualifying (they’re actually not certain of making it to Q3…) and as we know, losing that front row makes it much more difficult to fight for wins. Especially of course when you have a slower car, as is currently the case. This doesn’t change anything to the fact that George Russell has delivered on a scale the team may have hoped for but couldn’t be certain of, currently ranking well ahead of Lewis, which wasn’t really expected by anyone. Will Mercedes with its enormous resources manage to change things before it’s too late, and will Lewis find his footing? Let’s indeed hope so, but it’s not looking likely right now.

Leclerc and Ferrari are off to a perfect start of the season!

The second thing to note that I think most F1 fans are very happy to see is that Ferrari is not only back, but actually on par or even slightly ahead of Red Bull, currently leading the constructors’ championship and with Leclerc leading the drivers’ ranking. This means they’ve come a very long way since 2020 which was the team’s worst season in 40 years, and the last of their record 16 drivers’ titles which goes back all the way to Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. This year everything’s different, the car is fast, as are both drivers and especially Leclerc. As Red Bull and the Verstappen-Perez driver pairing look just as strong as last year, this basically means that Ferrari has replaced Mercedes as the main competitor for the title. Without taking anything away from Red Bull, As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said, Ferrari is a legendary team that belongs at the top of F1!

Next to the three top teams, it’s really a mix of good and bad. Starting with the bad, McLaren who have been making steady progress in the last years seem to have lost most of it, with a car that currently lacks any kind of consistency. it’s still enough for P4 in the teams’ ranking, but Norris and Ricciardo both find themselves way down in the driver rankings, with little improvement currently in sight. The same goes for Aston Martin who seem to have completely lost their footing, with a very meager six points to their account so far. AlphaTauri deserves a mention on the bad side as well, not as dramatically lost as Aston, but clearly inferior to what especially Gasly was able to produce last year.

As for the positive surprises, it’s interesting to see that we seem to have two cases of the “in a more relaxed environment I’m able to perform” syndrom. The first is Valtteri Bottas who is clearly enjoying life to the max at Alfa Romeo, impressing everyone both in qualifying and racing and completely outclassing his team colleague Zhou. Bottas is currently eigth in the drivers’ rankings (and by the way, only six points behind Lewis…) and thanks to him, Alfa Romeo is in fifth place in the teams’ rankings. The second is Alex Albon who this year has returned to F1, driving for Williams. What he does there is actually even better than what George Russell managed to produce last year, arguably in a better car. Albon regularly finishes around P10 and looks far better and more relaxed than at any time with Red Bull.

Steiner has more to smile about this year!

Finally, Haas has found their footing again thanks to a better car and even more to Kevin Magnussen, who in his typical no-bullshit style has scored in four of the five races so far. Mick Schumacher is still waiting to do so but already now, what Magnussen produces is probably enough to have team principal Günther Steiner swearing slighly less in his Austrian version of English.

2022 is thus looking like the best F1 season in many years, and at this stage it’s very much open if in the end it’s a second consecutive tittle for Red Bull, or the first one in 15 years for Ferrari. Until we know it looks quite certain that we’ll have many great races to look forward to!

F1 update: Lewis the Legend!

On By ChristofferIn F1, News1 Comment

With four races left to go after today’s, it’s time to do a quick pit stop and look at what we’ve seen and can still expect to see in this year’s F1 season.

To start with the most deserving, a week ago Lewis Hamilton became truly legendary in beating Michael Schumacher’s record of F1 race wins. After today, Lewis now totals an incredible 93 wins, 9 of which so far this season. He also equals Schumacher’s record for the most wins with the same team (72), and today’s Hamilton-Bottas double means Mercedes clinched their 7th constructor world title. Lewis is Formula 1’s uncontested number 1, obviously helped by driving the car that is still relatively far ahead of the competition.

It’s good to be the king!

If Lewis is already the de facto world champion, it’s far more contested who will finish second and third – and who won’t. Valtteri Bottas is probably the ideal second driver with Mercedes eyes. He’s loyal to the team and occasionally manages to challenge Lewis, and so far this year has won two races. The question is however rather if what Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) manage to achieve in inferior cars isn’t more impressive. Even though Ferrari is improving and Charles’s results is the only thing that may save Mattia Binotto’s job as team head, they are still far from Mercedes and Charles’s driving is the only thing making Ferrari look slightly better than the mid-field teams. Max on the other hand does a very good job of scoring podium finishes, including one race win this year, and is still in competition with Valtteri for second place in the championship. Red Bull and Max is also the only constellation that occasionally has managed to challenge Mercedes this season.

A good summary of Ferrari’s season so far…

Charles and Max’s relative success also make it very clear that driving skills still count and that it’s not all about the car. The last two races in Portugal and Italy were a good illustration of how far behind Leclerc Sebastian Vettel currently is, in spite of Ferrari confirming both drive identical cars. Seb had officially doubted this but also admitted that Charles is currently in another league. There is probably little hope of things improving before Seb leaves Ferrari for Racing Point / Aston Martin at the end of the season, and you have to wonder whether Racing Point don’t ask themselves whether switching Perez for Vettel was a wise move. I guess time will tell.

There’s equally little hope of Alex Albon retaining his seat in Red Bull. His oddds improved slightly last week when Pierre Gasly confirmed he’s staying with Red Bull’s little brother Alpha Tauri next year. This beats me as Alpha Tauri is Red Bull’s farm team and Pierre’s stellar performance this season with notably one race win stands in stark contrast to Albon’s total lack of results. Today in Italy, Albon then put what is probably the last nail in his coffin himself, when after a mediocre race he completely messed up the restart after the safety car phase with 7 laps to go, managing to lose the car and end up last. Before Portugal, team boss Christian Horner last had given Albon two races to start performing. The fact that he couldn’t and hasn’t been able to all season most probably means we’ll see another second driver at Red Bull next year.

“How the hell can Max be so fast??”

Behind Mercedes and the best half of Red Bull and Ferrari, the mid field is as competitive as ever with Racing Point, McLaren, Renault and Alpha Tauri all very close, and even Alfa Romeo Racing (ex Sauber) managing to pick up points here and there. Although he’s leaving at the end of the season, Daniel Ricciardo certainly doesn’t lack motivation and looks to be finishing his short spell with the Renault team in style, something that may have been really important when Renault decided to stay committed to F1. The team won’t have much time to regret Ricciardo though, as they will instead need to focus on Fernando Alonso returning to the team he won his two world titles with . With an improving car, it will be very interesting to see what an experienced driver like Alonso will be able to achieve.

Will Alonso be able to recreate the magic?

At the back of the field the most interesting is certainly the discussions around Williams, its new owners (the US investment company Dorilton), and whether George Russell will stay on as driver (apparently Nicolas Latifi has enough financial backing to be certain of his seat). Russell has done a fantastic season given what could be expected, notably reaching qualifying P2 on eight occasions (I know, but we’re talking about Williams here!) and also refers to the fact that he has a contract covering 2021. Then again so did Sergio Perez at Racing Point and that didn’t stop the team from firing him and hire Vettel instead. Perez is still looking for a new seat, and it’s not impossible that he kicks Russell out of Williams. Or maybe Perez could be the one replacing Albon at Red Bull?

The UK seems to have a promising successor to Lewis!

As for Haas, last years’ rock’n’roll team notably thanks to the Netflix documentary “Formula 1 – drive to survive” (watch it if you haven’t!) and the charismatic team boss Günther Steiner with his unique version of German English, it’s been a sad season. The team is nowhere to be seen and not even Steiner’s swearing seem to help anymore. Magnussen and Grosjean are both leaving the team next season, Gene Haas is however said to be committed to another season, so Haas will line up two new drivers in 2021. The rumours have it that one of those may be Michael Schumacher’s son Nic… It also means that both Magnussen and Grosjean could be competing for that second seat at Red Bull, both bringing as much experience as Perez.

With four races to go after today there’s thus still some excitement left, however rather off the track given we already know that Lewis will with very high certainty clinch his well-deserved seventh driver’s title soon, with a new record in the number of race wins! Just a small point though – Lewis doesn’t have a contract for next year, which is slightly strange given how late in the season we are. Most probably he’ll re-sign with Mercedes in the coming weeks, because he wouldn’t be retiring now that he’s beaten most records, would he?

Preview of the 2019 F1 season

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

The 2019 F1 season starts this Sunday, as usual down under in Melbourne. The saddest piece of news is clearly that it will do so without one of the leading names in the F1 circus over the last decades, F1 race director Charlie Whiting, who passed away yesterday at the age of 66. RIP!

The very popular Charlie had been part of the F1 circus since the 70’s

Looking at teams, during my visit to the auto salon in Geneva earlier this month, I had the opportunity to chat to the technical team of the Mercedes AMG F1 team, who agreed on the top teams Mercedes-Ferrari-Red Bull probably dominating this season as well, but also saying that it’s very difficult to make out trends among the mid-sized teams. As per one of the technical heads, it is usually pretty easy to get some quite reliable indicators in pre-season testing, but this has not been the case this year, leaving even the top teams relatively clueless as to the capabilities of the mid-sized teams, hopefully setting the stage for an interesting season.

Alfa Romeo has retained Marcus Ericsson as third/reserve driver

In the team line-up, Force India has changed its name to Racing Point, thereby cutting ties with the team’s previous Indian owner Vijay Mallya. Sauber has officially been rebranded Alfa Romeo Racing, putting an end to the name Sauber that has been part of F1 since 1993.

Among the drivers, the following transfers and changes are the most noteworthy:

  • Charles Leclerc has joined Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari. the Monegasque youngster (21 years) drove for Sauber last year and is seen as perhaps the most promising young talent in the field. Kimi Räikkönen has thereby in fact switched seats with Leclerc, joining Alfa Romeo Racing alongside the Italian rookie Antonio Giovanazzi. This is obviously a (quite expected) move in the wrong direction for Kimi, who struggled to keep up with Vettel during most of last season.
  • Daniel Ricciardo has left Red Bull Racing and joined Nico Hulkenberg at Renault. It was no secret that Red Bull increasingly looked to Max Verstappen as the team’s first driver, but Ricciardo certainly had higher hopes than to join the struggling Renault team. Frenchman Pierre Gasly will join Verstappen at Red Bull, leaving no doubt as to who is the team’s first driver.
  • The Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll has taken his money from Williams to Racing Point, thereby ensuring a seat for his son Lance (and making Williams’ life even more difficult). The may be a bit harsh since Lance did actually achieve some interesting results last year, but he can’t get away from being the most obvious pay driver in the field.
  • Having first fought for his life, then to keep his right hand, and then to race again, Robert Kubica puts an end to a 7-year struggle by making a remarkable return to the scene this season, driving for Williams. At 34 years Kubica is a veteran who will no doubt struggle, together with the 19-year old English rookie George Russell, to get Williams into the points, as the team on paper is among the weakest in this year’s line-up
Few would have thought Kubica would ever return!

Finally there is a new Netflix documentary on the F1 circus based on the 2018 season that I recommend. It’s called Drive to Survive and you can check it out here. Tune in for a hopefully exciting race on Sunday morning!

Vettel snabbast dag 1 i Barcelona

On By svenIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

Sebastian Vettel i Red Bull Racing var snabbast första testdagen i Barcelona. Tre dagars tester återstår.

Så här blev tiderna:
1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1:23.265, 79 varv
2. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:23.440, 97 varv
3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:23.590, 114 varv
4. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, 1:23.618, 76 varv
5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 1:24.100, 75 varv
6. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes, 1:24.150, 51 varv
7. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:24.219, 66 varv
8. Bruno Senna, Williams, 1:25.711, 97 varv
9. Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham, 1:26.035, 31 varv
10. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1: 26.809s, 7 varv
11. Charles Pic, Marussia*, 1:28.026, 121 varv
* 2011-års bil