Tag: 2019

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Formula 1

Why the Spanish GP should be removed from the F1 calendar

I’ll admit to you, the Spanish GP was the first time I turned off a live Formula 1 race, and that’s only partially due to the final day of a to-the-wire Premier League season. In both scenarios it was the red teams that would end up second best (Totally didn’t rob that off Crofty and Brundle’s pre-race preamble).

I’d even argue that it wasn’t just Ferrari that lost today, Formula 1 as a whole lost today, but then again in this scenario the sport has been fighting a losing battle for many years prior to now. In my mind, the Spanish GP could, and maybe should feel a bit like a new season in some regards. We ditch the flyaway format until September and it’s the place where teams bring the first major updates to the cars. Maybe I romanticise it a little; Formula 1 coming back to Europe should feel like a rock star coming back for their homecoming gig. From the very first note, the crowd should be owned by the star, who doesn’t stop performing hit after hit for the next two hours. Instead, we turn up the beer’s a bit flat, the only other option is Carling (eugh), merchandise is ludicrously expensive, and we all wished we stayed at home and whacked Spotify on. I digress, but the point still stands – F1 returning to Europe should be full of pomp and circumstance, and what we consistently seem to get are races that well, like the afore mentioned beer, are flat.

The blame for all this? Circuit de Catalunya.

Now before you think ‘oh how predictable he’s going to rant about how they ruined the last sector,’ I actually understand and somewhat agree with the thought behind it. It’s mickey mouse, yes, but it was done with good intentions, it just hasn’t worked as intended. Think of all the race tracks on the calendar that keep on providing great races. Got them? I can think of about 5 or 6. What do they all have in common? A slow speed corner or section before the longest straight. Think about COTA, a modern classic, it has that high speed, twisty sector 1, before hitting the hairpin at turn 11 which leads onto the lengthy back straight, which is a DRS zone leading into another hard braking zone. We get so much racing there because of the concertina effect of large breaking zones. This, and the DRS into a large breaking zone promotes racing.

This is what I believe the amended final few corners were attempting to fix. The old last two corners were epic, don’t get me wrong, but they were two high speed corners leading into the biggest overtaking opportunity on the circuit. Imagine that in a world with out DRS, or KERS and still with the dirty air issues. And you thought today was bad. The chicane bunches the cars up again to provide a stronger slipstream/DRS effect and promote overtaking. In theory it should work, but another dull race has shown not even this could help promote racing.

So why didn’t it work then? F1 has just out-grown the track in terms of being used for racing. The last corner, even with the chicane is just too aero dependent, meaning you have to be much, much faster to pass. And elsewhere? The cars are just too fast now, making all the corners high or medium speed, apart from the final sector, which we’ve already discussed. Add this to the fact there’s only one other relatively small straight means you get absolute jack-all passes in your afternoon’s racing. Seriously, when was the last time we had a good race here?

So what can be done? For starters, re-profile that last corner to make a proper hairpin. That might work. Maybe use the alternate route around turn 10, slightly extending the back straight? But redeveloping a circuit to FIA grade 1 status can be expensive, and in Spain, that’s a bit of a problem at the moment.

So where else? Jerez is too narrow for modern F1 cars, Circuit de Valencia/Ricardo Tormo would be too small of a circuit, and suffer the same issues as Catalunya does now, at least by glancing at the layout. I like the looks of Aragon, it’s already grade 1 and looks like it would promote good racing. I feel like there’s a but involved somewhere so if any bike fans want to tell me what they could be then please do.

The current favourite looks to be Zandvoort, which is too narrow, and looks like a place for little overtaking. But it’s in the Netherlands, which needs a Grand Prix at the moment. Max Verstappen fans are all over the world, and he hasn’t got a home race. It would sell incredibly well, that’s for sure, I just hope it races as well as it will sell.

Which segues into my final point about the Spanish GP. Alonso is gone and judging by the grandstands this weekend, the effect is clear to see. Sainz is a great driver, don’t get me wrong, but he isn’t a rock star yet. At least in Zandvoort, they get to keep more fans happy, and more importantly the shareholders.

Money talks huh?

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Formula 1

The Paradox of the GOAT

Bit of a crap Doctor Who episode no?

Back in my day, a goat was something you went to the farm to go and see, not Silverstone, Wimbledon or whatever. But there it was, appearing on my twitter timeline out of nowhere like Christmas seems to do every year. Greatest of all time? Bit strong. You can’t knock it though, 3 years on or so and just when you think it’s been forgotten, it rears its ugly head, a bit like how you thought the dab would die in a few months.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to see a sportsperson get the praise they deserve but it just seems to me that everyone’s a goat now. Messi’s a goat, but so’s Ronaldo. Federer’s a goat, but so’s Djokovic. Is it a definitive term, or like the new fad, is it a tiered system? I feel like I’m late to this. Is it an American thing that’s crossed over to Britain and beyond? It’s certainly lingered and even made it to mainstream media. Mind you Sky would probably get their presenters to wear their underpants on their heads if they thought it would make them ‘down with the kids’.

I just thing it’s a bit mad, calling someone the greatest of all time seems like it should be a one and done thing. If someone said that person’s a goat, you should be hard to deny the fact that they are. But here we are it’s 2019, but admiring Messi, perhaps alluding to a goat status, brings you a wrath of twitter hate from people saying Ronaldo’s better. And that’s no different in Formula 1. Race issues aside, if you call Lewis Hamilton a goat it brings on a twitter ****storm. That’s a technical term by the way. From my memory we’ve had 3 years to get acclimatised to the goat, but it seems calling someone a goat is greeted in the same way as you would be seductively eating a bacon sandwich in the Middle East.

That’s why I love sport so much, as soon as anyone has a hint of success you can legitimately argue for their goat status. Formula 1 is no exception, and arguably is where this is clearest. There is no real comparative stat between drivers. You could say Senna was the goat, but statistically Hamilton, Schumacher are better drivers. Yet in my lifetime, the points scoring system has been done three different ways. There’s also the fact that each season has a different length, so that almost reduces the value of a win. More controversially, how dominant were the cars piloted by said drivers? Even if someone was bored enough to convert all the points and races to equal footing, taking into account the cars they were in, I still don’t think that’d be enough to convince someone that they are the definitive goat. There’s something more than just success for me, for someone to be a goat. If someone is a complete arsehole, but just keeps on winning, I doubt they’d be celebrated as much. A goat should do something more than just be good at what they do. Do they have the charisma? Are they generous outside of the track/stadium? Are they controversial? You just can’t quantify that, but that’s what’s so good about sport. Yes, we have the stats now, but you can easily find the flaws in those, and once it becomes opinion based, it’s difficult to call someone the greatest.

This constant argument between friends and strangers alike on who should be considered the best, is what drives sport. Imagine how dead F1 would be if we knew who was the best. They’d be no point tuning in on Sunday. Even the invention of social media wouldn’t stir up some excitement. Imagine that if I said Lance Stroll was the goat next Sunday, and the twitter replies would only consist of ‘hell yeah’ and ‘you’re dead right!’ my word, I might actually survive Sundays without having to tip toe around delicate subjects like who’s good and who’s not.

But there’s the paradox for you, calling someone a goat is one of the worst bits about sport, but without the concept of the goat, sport would be dead.

*********************************************************

We can’t talk about goats without reflecting on the unfortunate news about Niki Lauda. It’s sad when you hear about Tiger Woods having the greatest sporting comeback but in my mind, there’s only one greatest sporting comeback and that’s Niki’s. It’s a shame that it’s often forgotten by the wider sporting world. He is one of my sporting heroes and always will be.

Thank you so much Niki, you will never be forgotten.

Vielen dank Niki, Sie wereden nie vergessen.

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Formula 1

Brilliant Bahrain

Rain was predicted in the desert but it only seemed to fall on Charles Leclerc this weekend.

In the words of Owen Wilson, ‘wow.’ Wow indeed, where do we start with that absolute barnstormer of a race in Bahrain, round two of the 2019 Formula One World Championship.

Off the back of Australia the biggest question was where on earth has that Ferrari pace gone? By Friday evening they had certainly found it again, topping both sessions, and all sessions on the Saturday. Championship back on then. Leclerc also looked like he found his grove in his new scarlet Ferrari, topping 2 of the practice sessions and taking an emphatic pole position 3 tenths of his team mate, who just pipped the Mercedes of Hamilton. Leclerc had slotted himself in the history books next to two F1 greats in Vettel and Alonso by becoming the 2nd youngest polesitter in the process. But could he carry this pace over to Sunday?

A collective sigh was let out by the F1 world by turn 1. Leclerc beaten cleanly off the line by Vettel, while the Mercedes of Hamilton snapped at the Monegasque’s rear, eventually passing him for a Vettel, Hamilton, Leclerc order by the end of lap 1. Surely this was any chance of the race win gone? No! All of a sudden it was like a switch was flicked and suddenly Leclerc found his way back to Hamilton, passing him, before in no time at all sailing up to the back of Vettel and passing him. He didn’t stop there either, he continued this pace until he had a clear lead, even after both rounds of pit stops. He had not put a foot wrong. But the more the race went on, the more and more you just felt it was too good to be true. Have we finally found the man to end Hamilton’s supreme reign? It would certainly be ironic if it was the desert where Hamilton’s reign over F1 began to falter, but for just this time irony was overrated and the racing gods said bye to Leclerc’s MGU-H leaving him 160 horsepower down for just under 20 laps of the race left. Game over. He had not put a foot wrong, whilst under so much pressure too, but as Leclerc himself said, “that’s just motorsport sometimes.” I will always believe that luck balances itself out eventually, and Leclerc is certainly indebted after today. There’s still 19 rounds to go, plenty of points to receive. Besides we all saw Hamilton’s comeback last year after not winning until Baku.

Speaking of Mercedes, they should their almost bulletproof nature this weekend. Whilst they weren’t really on the pace all weekend, what they had, they held and that meant inheriting from any Ferrari cock-ups, which they certainly doubled down on, gaining from a pirouetting Vettel and a sick motor on Leclerc. Another crucial one-two at a point in the season where they don’t appear to have the ultimate pace could be crucial for both championships. Hamilton reminded us this weekend why he’s a five-time World Champ, convincingly beating the bearded Bottas who has been reminded how much hard work it is to beat Lewis as a team mate. Much work still lies ahead of the Finn and his German team.

It was another tough weekend for Gasly who didn’t make it to Q3 again and whilst he did put his first points on the board, wasn’t exactly sailing to the front, which you’d expect in that car and his incredible performance in the junior car last year. Whilst we weren’t expecting him to be outperforming Verstappen at this stage of the season, you’d expect it A) to be a helluva a lot closer than it is now and B) Gasly to put in a convincing race in one of his favoured hunting grounds of Bahrain. Yes the Frenchman has said the car is more difficult to drive compared to the Toro Rosso, but the car is still clearly 3rd fastest on the grid and despite the midfield bunching up more and being more on the pace, he should still be making his way to at least P6. You could argue that Pierre was under pressure after binning it a couple of times in testing, but he’s got to start putting some quality performances soon. Really, he’s quite lucky there’s not a Verstappen, a Sainz or a Vettel waiting in the wings in the Toro Rosso because then he would really look out of place in the Red Bull. It’s only round 2, and I still rate Gasly and I doubt Red Bull will axe him, he’s just too good of a driver to struggle much longer, but the pressure has certainly but put up a notch.

Vettel is almost in the reverse situation as Gasly. He’s under immense pressure already after bottling a championship last year and he’s now being undermined by his fresh faced team mate. He needs to put in the usual Vettel-esque performances and get his foot into the championship battle now. Maybe get rid of that tasche while he’s at it, ugh even the thought of it! Eww.

Where do we start with Renault? The lack of super duper quick laps or hint of a glory run in testing was seen, myself included, as a confidence thing; pulling a Mercedes as it were. A mixture of good fortune and good racing lead to a points finish in Australia. But mistakes meant Hulkenberg was out in Q1 and Ricciardo still not in the grove meant a Q2 knockout for him. They certainly pulled it around in the race, showing good pace with Hulkenberg being a shoe in for P6 and Ricciardo leading at one point, and looking good for points thanks to a one-stop strategy. But in the most bizarre double retirement, both exited the race at exactly the same corner of the same lap, but for completely different reasons, both mechanical. Both of them power unit failures, which added to Sainz’s retirement last time out has to be a concern for reliability. The power seems to be good enough, whilst not leading, but the reliability seems to be the worst out of the four manufacturers. That being said, Renault seem to be near the top of the midfield but not the top. It could be Haas at the moment, but that’s debatable after this weekend, I don’t know if the strategy played a part in Magnussen’s poor race, if someone could tell me that’d be great.

Alfa are also a bit disappointing at the moment, but it’s still only two races in and the midfield is incredibly tight. Alfa just don’t look as convincing as testing showed. They still may be able to out-develop and make a late charge for best of the rest like they did last year. Kimi drove a great race to finish P7 after struggling early on if my memory serves me well. Solid points is more than good enough for them at this stage. If Giovinazzi can keep his head down for a clean weekend that would also be great for the Italian/Swiss outfit.

If Driver of the Day was Leclerc, rightly awarded with 50% of the vote may I add, 2nd best Driver of the Day would have to be Lando Norris. A stellar drive after a little off at the beginning but picked all of the midfield off apart from Hulkenberg, who he was 2-3 seconds off most of the race. Managed to keep behind a quicker Kimi for the last 10 laps or so whilst being under DRS bombardment too. A little good fortune for the P6, but P7 was a great drive all the same. He arguably would’ve been beaten from Sainz who was on the receiving end of a brash Verstappen who ended Sainz’s race as soon as the Spaniard inherited P5 off the Dutchman. I’d like to see the onboards before I judge if it were a racing incident though. If not for the Safety Car at the end and contact with Verstappen, Sainz certainly would’ve been in with a shout of a podium, which shows how much work has been done by the Woking team. They’ve made the biggest performance gain on the grid, and should certainly have another 10 or so points on the board, if not for misfortune. We’ll see if it’s kept up all season, but I did think that many predictions for McLaren were a little harsh compared to what testing showed. They and Haas were probably tied for best of the rest this weekend. Signs of encouragement to say the least.

A thrilling race all in all, I don’t think my heart dropped below 100bpm until after the first pit stops, even that was short lived before the crescendo that we had to end just before the banana cars peeled off to one side, bringing out the safety car. Maybe we should slightly shorten a DRS zone for next year, but even then the third DRS zone wasn’t as ridiculous as we thought, plus it showed what a great corner turn 4 is for racing. Nonetheless 2019 regulations are proving to work well so far, and at this rate we’ll be sad to see them only last for 2 seasons. I sit here writing this thinking what could’ve been for Leclerc and Sainz, but mainly saddened that we have to wait another 2 weeks for our dosage of F1.

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Formula 1

Do we Dare to Dream Big?

Can Codemasters finally deliver the F1 game we’ve been wanting for years? All arrows point to hope for this year’s iteration.

Don’t get me wrong Codemasters have produced decent games for 85-90% of their series so far. No one’s expecting perfection – even triple A titles and the best racers have their flaws. Just look at the FIA accredited Gran Turismo Sport, it’s not the simulator experience we all expected, but in terms of creating a social racing experience for the more hardcore end of the community, it does a good job. Needless to say it’s only a console experience so the simulation won’t be revolutionary. I don’t think we should expect a hardcore racer from Codemasters, but if they perfect what they’re aiming for, we should be chuffed.

I’m just grateful that we get a yearly release to be honest, when I was growing up there was a good 3 years where we had no releases, and while we had the sublime F1 Championship Edition by Studio Liverpool to keep us going, even when we had a new game it was an underwhelming effort for Wii and PSP only, and as you can imagine after watching your first full F1 season was a big disappointment. Just me huh?

Anyway moving on, I’m not going to create a lists of what I want in an ideal game, more so use yesterday’s press release to create a (sort of) list of features and other things this game should have to make it the game we all want. Makes sense?

First up, probably the most prominent news coming from yesterday is the addition of custom liveries. Now I can already hear you asking ‘are liveries the only thing this guy’s gonna talk about on this website?’ Answer? I hope not! I’ll kind of combine this with the addition of the stock 2019 car, but if the liveries are as customisable as alluded to in the press release I think it’s brilliant news. If we just get a selection of pre-made liveries I would feel a little let down, having said that they aren’t bad, but if we can get this franchise to more of a social experience I think it would be fantastic. If the custom livery system is similar in its workings to GT Sport or recent Forza games, then I think it will be a brilliant addition to the game. Hopefully being able to share and download liveries is in this feature too. Fingers crossed.

The cheeky flash of what could be a F2 gives me hope as well. Hopefully this could be implemented into career mode a la MotoGP games and also is raceable in multiplayer. I’m not expecting a full MotoGPesque career mode straight off the bat, and even then I don’t think I’d be over the moon, but if it’s a means of replacing the ‘Young Drivers’ Test’ found on the 2012 and 13 games I would be happy with that. Whether it would remove the option of competing for any team you want from the outset, I don’t know but I hope it’s not just a time trial car. God forbid it only be a pre order bonus and we end up with the classic car fiasco of 2013 multiplayer. Either way the addition custom liveries suggests the F2 car should be raceable, and not just in its Dallara naked carbon fibre form. As long as it’s not just a half-hearted introduction into the franchise for F2, it should work well.

Almost hidden away in the midst of PR waffle is the hint of driver customisation. Whilst this is as vague as expected for a teaser press release, hopefully it’s possible to create some kind of avatar that actually slightly resembles some sort of human; that’d be nice. I mean I don’t think we can expect FIFA levels of player customisation from the onset but if we can look slightly like ourselves it’d be a great start. We’ll see, I may be down the completely wrong path altogether. In which case might hint at better helmet customisation. If fully customisable cars are a thing, I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to apply the same engine, figuratively speaking, to helmets. The current system is certainly adequate, but has been the same for 3 games now and it could certainly use a refresh, or at least a sigh of fresh air into the system, particularly as it covers multiplayer as well as the single player modes. We may actually get a driver number on our lids this year!
Going back to the custom cars, hopefully this means we can customise romper suits to go with the cars, obviously we can’t implement this when you’re driving for an official team but I wouldn’t want that anyway. But this is the level of driver customisation I want, and hopefully you want too, If all 3 of these ideas are in the game consider me one happy boy. But we’ll see, they were very vague, but being very critical of Codies, it is the sort of features we expect in a front line racing game in 2019.

Lastly, and probably most popular is a game that works on day 1! For too many years now we’ve seen a poor multiplayer, poor PC optimisation, and slightly broken AI. This is where the early release date is a bit of a concern. Codies have struggled with a July to August the next year cycle before. Hopefully we should be pleasantly surprised this year with the June release date, and hopefully it’s an upward trend to earlier future releases. A yearly release around the start of the European season should work, after all we want the most time on the game before it becomes stale/irrelevant. But it would only work if it works day 1, yes we can excuse minor stuff like in rare cases the game can crash and even the biggest studios suffer with this, but we can’t have half a dozen patches in the first week or so and even after that have a poor ghosting system or penalty system. How there can still be screen freezes on PC at the end of a game cycle I don’t know. We have a solid career mode which only needs minor tweaks now before an overhaul in a year or so, why not pool resources into a solid multiplayer for a year and really give it a good spring clean. Maybe a sprinkle of alternate online game modes? But F1 in 2019 really needs to be Esports ready 2 weeks after launch at the most.

The tag line for this years’ game seems to be to ‘Defeat your Rivals’, to be honest I just hope the game doesn’t defeat itself. The games recently have had a much better longevity to them and hopefully they can keep that trend going. But if it can just solidify itself into a solid game with few glitches and it have a smooth racing experience I think the F1 game will always be a success. I’ll certainly pick it up, whether I’ll be any good is another question. But there certainly is space for a serious racer with a good social and sharing system like the GT Sports and Forza’s but available across both platforms, whether cross platform racing can happen is another thing but in my opinion there certainly seems to a void left behind by Need For Speed at the moment, or at least in terms of a friendly simulator and the noises coming from Codemasters suggest that F1 this year could definitely do that. There’s hope.

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Formula 1

2019 Test 1 recap

2019 got off to a flyer in Barcelona

Usually I could rattle off this summary for a test in a couple of minutes and put my feet up for the rest of the day but I fear this won’t be the case this year. I suppose I’m grateful for that because I may be able to write this less formulaic. At least in recent years, I can’t remember a year that’s received so much hype for testing and it actually be backed up by an actual interesting test. Yes there’s a ‘rule change’ but the philosophy of the cars hasn’t been drastically altered yet in some ways it almost feels as big as the winter of 2014. I don’t know how it appears for you but testing is usually the time of year where most are like ‘huh it’s testing it doesn’t mean much’ and the sad people like me who don’t get out much follow it closely. It may just be my own little bubble I’ve formed but testing seems bigger this year. Maybe the televised nature of it doesn’t help either.

Pragmatically, we approached this test expecting Mercedes and Ferrari battling it out for the highly important winter testing trophy, Red Bull experiencing teething issues, and the midfield about as far away from the top as I am to Barcelona writing this now in my room in England. To be fair, we got the usual Ferrari in that respect, bulletproof reliability and fantastic pace – they didn’t even put the fastest compound but look like they could easily break the 1:17 barrier with the middle compound tyre which a lot of the field broke on the C4 and C5 tyres, including the Mercedes. We must bare in mind the usual testing mantra of the times do not matter. But you can definitely tell Ferrari won’t finish last in the constructors’. Of course you do have to look at the times because my post wouldn’t exactly be the most thrilling read, even if they are that normally. If I didn’t look at times my post would look like this:

Yeah some cars went round a track fast but not as fast as they will in a few months

Not exactly a page turner, or scroll-er as you could say in this generation. At least it would make a change from my ranty pieces, but I digress.

A usual good indicator for car performance is reliability and driveability. Does the car look planted? Can the driver push and it look easy? Does the car constantly stop out on track? Do bits fall off the car? You get the idea. Test 1 is usually notorious for cars dropping like flies, which is what made Mercedes cars and later Ferrari cars look so impressive in recent years. Obviously we factor in pace to that too, but a good rule of thumb is that if it’s reliable, the team are on track with their plans, or it allows for more data, allowing for better or more efficient R&D. You could throw McLaren from last year into that bracket, with the late move to Renault, although there was a more clear chassis design flaw on the world’s best chassis last year. It also goes a long way to showing why Williams not being able to run for essentially 2 and a half days is so concerning from not only a performance view but also from a team point of view. It’s almost like it got to February and someone was like “oh shoot we’ve got to build a car.” It stinks of something properly wrong at the team. Force India would at least turn up with an old car to learn the tyres so it’s not time wasted. I believe the same team, now Racing Point, are running a half 2018, half 2019 car before more parts come later on in the season. Don’t quote me on that though. Missing nearly a third of running, especially with two rookies in the car, for me doesn’t bode well. It could just be because the team is behind though, but the car does look the most unsettled out on track, hopefully this improves over the next week and a bit, for Williams’ sake.

Speaking of unsettled, Mercedes does look like it loves to lock its breaks, could just be coincidence and may be reading too much into it, but for Mercedes’ usual perfect tests and the fact that they didn’t really up the pace until the last day or so, suggests that the Merc may not be the clear run away favourite for this year.

Both Red Bull teams are making me eat my own words somewhat. The transition to Honda for the main team has been so smooth, and like last year Toro Rosso have enjoyed solid running. It’s a positive sign for sure, but we’ll have to see how the season pans out. Toro Rosso clocked up impressive testing miles, before having the most power unit penalties during the course of 2018. We’ll still have to wait for outright pace too. Hopefully, the rumblings of vibrations in the Honda causing it to damage itself, just like a few years ago can be easily fixed. This may be the reason for those uprights found on the Red Bull’s rear on day 4.

On the other end of the spectrum, Haas seem to have a bit of a shaky testing, probably having the most interrupted running of the teams who ran all 4 days. For sure they look to be solid midfield runners but whereabouts, I don’t think anyone knows for sure. They’ve put together one of the fastest laps of the test so far, but like Toro Rosso, I don’t believe anyone thinks they’ll be at the sharp end of the grid.

Racing Point also had low mileage, at least compared to the newfound average for 2019. Maybe it is just because they’re not quite the finished product for 2019, but we’ll see. I think we’ll have to see until the season’s end where development has taken off for arguably the first time in the team’s history. BAR did show in their first season you can’t just throw money at the sport and expect instant success. They did eventually have an incredible 2004 season, and considering Racing Point have a stronger base than BAR did we’ll have to wait a little less to get that kind of success. But considering the strength of the midfield, they should be able to keep up with development unlike previous years, and the Silverstone squad has always been able to pull off unlikely results, so I doubt 2019 will be different as they don’t look to have a dog of a car.

Renault and McLaren have had a kind of similar test where they seem to be better but not made the strides everyone expected. One or two bits flying of their cars, and pulling off laps to impress at the end of the day. Maybe the question marks surrounding them will be answered at the next test. I refer myself to the testing mantra, and feel I should just wait until Melbourne, but it’s just too damn hard do!

I’ll leave this kind of summary/wrap-up-/season preview pt. 1/load of nonsense with Alfa Romeo. Undoubtedly the season’s dark horse. Again, in my preview for their season, I never thought they’d show the pace they have shown so far. I hope it’s legitimate because the midfield battle has been raised up a level, and they may even displace Renault as best of the rest. Next to Ferrari, I’d say they’ve had the best winter so far. That’s not to say they’re second fastest, but I so hope there’s pace in the locker because this testing has shown that we’re in for a helluva season. If the front wing design from Ferrari and Alfa is something worth a few tenths, then they seem to be on to a winner. It would take a lot for the rest to catch up. I wait to see what Alfa do this season with cautious optimism and hope, just because of this test.

Under a month to go before the season kicks off, and it’s taking shape to be more than just exciting. It is only testing so we wait until Australia and what the racing is like, but I just hope Hype Energy’s twitter account isn’t the only entertainment we get this year…

#betterthanmotorsport.com

#whoevenareWTF1

Categories
Formula 1

Alfa Romeo 2019 Preview

Removal of the Sauber name, retention of last year’s scheme.

We asked for more red and I guess we got it? So that immediately compromises all that I’m about to say! I don’t think I’ll end up being too scathing here, famous last words, because the Alfa from last year was probably the car that grew on me the most. It still wasn’t perfect, it looked too Williams like, but that’s probably been solved now; a mixture of Williams changing it up this year and some subtle tweaks for Alfa have helped to solve this. More red yes, but still probably not enough this year, but the proportions of the livery have changed slightly and I feel this may go under the radar. I believe the red reaches lower on the car at the engine cover. The blue stripes seem thicker. It’s last year’s car on steroids.

Also new is the Alfa red halo, which should really help distinguish it from the Williams. Most of the shots we’ll see will be on board and this will stand out against the Williams. The red rear wing should also help. Even the slight alteration on the Alfa logo looks bold and should like much, much better for the spectator at track side.

Only thing I’d consider is having the bonnet of the car, if you like, in red too. It’d actually be a similar design to the Renault, but be much different, and would be used to different effect too. It wouldn’t be a Ferrari on board because it’s metallic, and a darker red. It wouldn’t be a Ferrari from the side, because it’s half white. I’ll admit this idea was floated by several people last year, but I’d certainly give it a go.

It certainly looks to be a revolutionary car too. This looks like the first time there’s been aggressive looking parts across the whole car. Even during the suffering Sauber days there were funny air intakes for example. Now they have a unique front wing, aggressive barge boards and floor. A team reshuffling itself, plus safer finances, plus closer ties with Ferrari, could very well raise several eyebrows this season.

Return of Kimi, in more ways than one

Kimi goes full circle and returns to the Swiss team, operating under its new guise. We saw at the end of last year how quick a rejuvenated, in form Kimi can be when he’s left to his own devices. He may be F1’s oldest driver but when the car’s there for him he’s still got the pace. He’s now a clear top dog too which might let Kimi wag his tail more than was allowed when playing second fiddle to Vettel. I reckon Kimi is definitely one of the favourites to pull off a shock result this year. He’s had good Monaco pace for a few years now, and goodness only knows what Baku will throw up.

Giovinazzi still is regarded to having good potential for being a strong driver in F1. Beating the experienced Kimi will be difficult to say the least, and I think it may take a couple of seasons to do so. I think he’ll become a solid driver this year but Kimi will just have the edge, but as he learns and gets his rhythm he will become a great driver for Alfa and take the fight to Kimi. He’s got F1 running in the first few rounds too with Sauber, so he should be one to watch for sure, but I feel the Ice Man will just be too hot for Gio this season.

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Formula 1

Ferrari 2019 Preview

As know-it-all bloggers became increasingly cynical, Ferrari actually changed their livery for 2019.

Yes it’s not a huge change, and if we’re honest no one’s expecting it to be. The black was teased in some regard, but it’s not implemented in the best way. Black Mission Winnow turns, what already was an eyesore into an even worse spot on the car. Keep it white. It’s ironic the Ferrari title sponsor doesn’t pop as well as the Ray Ban on the car. If you wanted black on the car, have some sort of design, that isn’t half-arsed like the swoop at the rear, and keep the white Mission Winnow. I feel like I shouldn’t be telling Ferrari how to make the Mission Winnow more visible, especially when it’s such a God awful logo and name for a scheme. I take it back! The black hides it more so we don’t see it!

I can’t make what to think of the matte paint. I don’t think it was chosen to look nice, Ferrari believe it to be lighter. It’s also thought to provide some, slight aero benefit at least when Red Bull revealed their matte livery in 2016. It did look slightly orange under the launch lights, which is not a good look for Ferrari when the iconic scarlet car draws drivers and fans alike. Hopefully under lighter…light it looks less orange, like under natural mid-day conditions for example.

I actually like the front wing, the common design trope of having the first few elements in the primary colour and the rest in a secondary colour has worked well across the grid and this is no exception. I’m actually quite sad the rear wing isn’t as black. I think I’m just trying to look for change when it’s not happening. Maybe if they incorporated the black, with the carbon fibre under body as an odd to 2013 and 2014. But Ferrari’s will always have 95% red on the car so I’m going to shut up now, and not complain that an iconic car hasn’t changed enough.

New Kid on the Block

In an unusual move Maranello have decided to take a punt on youth. It’s a move they’ve not made since Massa joined the red team in 2006, even then Felipe had 3 years under his belt. I can imagine Leclerc’s was hard to ignore last season, and with missing out on 3 years of constructors’ titles (when they’ve made serious challlenges that is) it was not a too difficult decision to make. As I’ve already alluded to, two strong drivers in a Ferrari could easily expose Mercedes’ soft underbelly of Bottas and Hamilton. There were 161 points between the Merc drivers, whilst 70 between Kimi and Sebastian. If Leclerc can keep his almighty pace either this gap to Vettel decreases or he outperforms Vettel, and puts Hamilton under pressure. The result is the same, we should be going to Abu Dhabi with the constructors still in the balance, which should improve the show to say the least. Added to this, we know that Mercedes can be a little slow to react, or do extreme strategies when under serious pressure. Hopefully this year we get the title battles we’ve been robbed of the past 2 seasons.

I hope that Ferrari don’t hang Leclerc out to dry. Without taking this into account, I believe Leclerc will have a similar season to last. He’ll be trying too hard for the first few rounds then he’ll settle and be lightening fast. He may even get into the title battle but as I’ve already said experience will be the key to a close championship, such as the one we’re expecting this year. But I’m still joining the hype and saying Leclerc will win the Ferrari battle this year. He seems like the next big thing, and to get promoted to one of the world’s biggest brands after one season says something.

Having said that, Vettel will have a stronger season. I hoping Ferrari learn to keep cool publicly. Last year Vettel was under enormous pressure, and it showed at Hockenheim. Vettel still is a little rough around the edges in close situations. You could even argue he showed this as early as 2010, where he spun out of Korea if my memory serves me correctly? He got away with that, but Germany was the tipping point for last season, and he certainly didn’t get away with that. Vettel will be beaten this year, but not to the 2014 extent. I’ll be bold and say that the top 3 drivers will be covered by 50 points or so. Both Ferrari drivers will be up there with a car which if history’s to be trusted will be closer, if not faster than Mercedes. You can still never rule out a form Hamilton too.

You can probably guess that I’m saying the drivers and constructors will be split between the teams, and I’ll punt at a Ferrari constructors. The car will be fast but the drivers will lack that edge for this year. Leclerc will still impress and surpass Vettel but not as dramatically as people are making out. But it’s still only a prediction, completely ignoring testing times etc. and I’m just one lonely voice in the wilderness of the internet.

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Formula 1

McLaren 2019 Preview

McLaren reveal their who their secret valentine is, and if it’s anything as good as it looks, they are in for a better tomorrow.

The closer to today we got, the more and more I felt that McLaren were going to bottle it. They’ve done anything but. It’d be the typical build you up before letting you down. I remember this time last year, the MCL33 undergoing its shakedown and thinking ‘Christ it’s a bit basic’ but it could quite easily be passed off as just having a dumbed down launch spec just to hide the dirty secrets. Yet, it was not until Spain did we see a MCL33 mark II as it were. Even then they just strapped the ugliest looking nose on the car and hoped it was a second a lap faster. But the struggles still continued, and the only positives to be drawn was the flaws they had were now exposed, and there was a better attempt at a papaya car.

Speaking of better, have you seen their new wheels? Ugh that car is magnificent. They’ve matched papaya with a better blue for a start. After last year’s bland effort, the Woking team spiced it up with a fade, if you can call it a fade, between the two colours with this bleeding of triangles, in a sort of geometric effect. When they had the team members in those snazzy t-shirts (more on this later), I thought they were going to over do it. I thought the scheme for this year was going to be far too busy. It’s actually tame and very effective. The blue front wing stays, but they’ve hidden the snout by not colouring it, which is a blessing. The new numbering is another departure from the Dennis era bland, business look, and is appreciated. It’s great that it’s a tie-in to the rest of the car. Again, I won’t try to pretend I know what I’m talking about, but it’s encouraging to see a developed barge board and sidepod area, which since 2017 has been behind the curve in development. Even the vortex generators, which were a mainstay on last year’s challenger, have been replaced by Red Bull or Ferrari style planes. The point I’m making is that the complexity is a relief. I can’t emphasise enough that I’m not saying it will or will not be effective, it’s just good to see, for McLaren’s sake. Obviously, we’re still yet to see proper 2019 cars elsewhere, but it looks like a step in the right direction.

Back to the car, the removal of papaya towards the floor of the car a la 2018 Williams, certainly tidies up the car and helps it look aggressive. Then to arguably the car’s centrepiece, that geometric fade. It’s not too in your face and is exponentially better than last year’s implementation of blue. I hope teams can follow suit in bringing back exciting livery design. Yes, the classics work because they have simple lines and are not over the top, but there is so much room between simplicity and over the top that I believe this car fits into. I may even, in time put the Mercedes into this bracket, but it’s sort of become a classic in its own right, and not just because of its recent success. It’s ironic that most of the grid has become Dennis-esque in dulling down a bit to favour sponsors, yet his former team are becoming bolder season upon season.

Don’t get me wrong, I respect Ron Dennis for his impact on the sport, and how he developed McLaren into the dominant force it once was, I just feel he’s left a bitter taste in our mouths with dragging Honda back into F1, creating dull liveries and completely misreading the direction of the sport. He is and always will be one of F1’s legends.

Just a quick note about the launch in general, did they pretty much listen to what I said yesterday?! 20 minute launch, and 5 minutes of which didn’t have the car under wraps. I’ll cut them some slack with having the team members at the forefront, which was a unique experience for a launch. It was also nice to have new, nicer romper suits and two drivers in them who already seem to have a good rapport, which is further change from Alonso and Vandoorne where for me the impression was they just didn’t click. Then again, Alonso does love his psychological warfare.

New Blood

All new line up at McLaren. First point of interest is Carlos Sainz Jr. Will he finally settle in and be comfortable leading a team for the first time? At Renault, we learned that once he settles in, he’s got some good pace. He certainly put pressure on Verstappen whilst at Toro Rosso and put in an impressive performance at Abu Dhabi last season. Considering the awkward start to 2018 with Renault, he pulled back and was on level terms with Hülkenberg for most of the season, and actually made more Q3 appearances than his team mate. I think it does show that there is talent there, but it’s whether he can take it all the way, lest he become the new Hülkenberg.

Lando Norris is hotly described as Britain’s next hot thing. McLaren have the faith in him, which is either a blessing or a curse, ask Lewis Hamilton or Stoffel Vandoorne. He had a strong year in F2 last year, he certainly matched George Russell, in a car that worked arguably less effectively in the hands of Carlin. Inexperience is what cost him the title, both on the team’s part and himself. Qualifying was not strong for him, although it is difficult to know where the blame lies for this. Silly stalls is what the main blame will be, but this was soon fixed by the second half. However, he has proven to be a confident passer of cars, see Abu Dhabi for example, and the F2 cars were notoriously difficult to get off the line; he wasn’t the only one to stall the car. Time will tell is he is the next Lewis Hamilton or Stoffel Vandoorne, but he certainly has to push Carlos, and show he’s Britain’s next top dog.

Now where do we place McLaren? They have to show another year on the up. They need to be the next Renault, or it will become increasingly hard to break free of midfield mediocrity. The last remnant of them being a ‘big team’, Fernando Alonso, has left them. Do they still deserve this status of sleeping giant? I have no doubts that 4th place is the ultimate aim for this season, but if Renault have formed their own private club in between the top and midfield, as I have predicted they’ll snatch the 5th place out of your hand. More points and competitiveness is the goal, because they did not have the 6th fastest car last year as the standings may suggest.

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Formula 1

Racing Point 2019 Preview

Sport Pesa Racing Point Super Fast Canadian Force Canada Racing Formula One Racing Team… Racing?

Force Canada just unveiled their first car in their home country of Canada. Wait? It’s not called Force Canada? Then how come they spoke non stop about said country? It’s still called Racing Point? And it’s now more of a mouthful than Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer?

I’d forgotten how tedious proper car launches are in Formula 1. There needs to be a happy middle ground between full launch and the to-the-point unveilings you get at a shakedown or quick launch at the morning of day 1, test 1. “Driver 1 are you excited?” “Yes.” “Driver 2 how hard have the team worked over the winter?” “Very.” “Shall we reveal the car now?” That’s pretty much what you need. Maybe not that extreme, but get the drivers out first! Next to the car, the drivers are the stars of this show. If you’re outside Formula 1 looking in, you probably don’t care much what the bosses have to say. Show the car, then pad out a show with interviews that the press probably care more about. You may disagree and you have every right to, but that’s just my thoughts on the matter.

On to the team then. Racing Point start where Force India left off. This year’s livery is certainly tidier than last year’s, which was stronger than the one before it. The addition of blue is great, the contrast it provides is brilliant, I think it’s better than using black as in 2017. It’s just a few rough edges that spoil the look. Starting with the front wing and nose cone, the blue is striking, and just having pink on the nose is so much better than last year’s look. Cleanliness is key for me in liveries, which I’ll keep referring to but Racing Point have really cleaned up around the front. We then move to the white BWT bit where the nose meets the rest of the car. I hope it’s a necessity for them to need the white band for the BWT logo, because I don’t like it. It’s just fussy just to be fussy, just like this blog is becoming ranty just for content’s sake. Keep it clean! The deeper pink and grey lines are growing on me, I’m still yet to fully make up my mind on their appearance around the sidepod and radiator entry. I either think they’re too thick on the sidepod, or they’re just right. One thing that does bug me though, is the off centre BWT logo. Again, it’s probably just one of those things where it would look worse if the logo were centred, so I’ll let them off just this once! They definitely should’ve extended the dark blue on the engine cover and shark fin remnant so there is no pink at the top. Again just small things to keep it clean. It’s a small, small thing but it’s probably the worst part of the livery for me.

Is Lance just going to Stroll around the place?

Lance has had his fair share of stick during his 2 seasons of racing at the top. Despite being one of the youngest podium sitters in Formula 1 history, people insist on him being a pay driver. Carlos Sainz Jr. brings his Estrella Galicia 0,0 sponsorship and more than likely LaLiga to McLaren this year, but because he’s considered to be fast he’s not a pay driver. Lance has a podium, Carlos doesn’t so is he really a pay driver? There are still question marks about his ability for sure, he had a rookie season in a midfield car, and was comprehensively beaten by Massa, but we don’t know how much he’s improved because that Williams was a dog last year. To grab a podium in a mad race is a Perez style characteristic, but Lance has to show that he is on Sergio’s level otherwise you feel he is a marked man. We don’t know how many chances he’ll get in his dad’s team, but to go far in business you have to be ruthless. But how ruthless will Lawrence be?

Sergio will be consistently around the top of the midfield, as always. It’s whether he can keep a hold of his aggression because if this driver line-up turns as frosty as Ocon – Perez, Perez will more than likely be held responsible for it. He’s a quality driver but when Mercedes have Russell and Ocon waiting in the wings, a quality replacement driver for a Mercedes powered team is not hard to find. Keep on eye on this battle, it could get tasty and political, just how Formula 1 fans like it.

Again, the midfield is so close that I can’t really predict where the runners and riders will end up. I can’t help but feel Renault might well break away from the midfield and form their own little club featuring just themselves. I do, however have no doubts that Racing Point will be at the sharp end of the midfield, as long as they don’t have a driver implosion. But for now it’s nice to have the Pink Panthers back securely in Formula 1, they are the plucky team in F1 that all sports have and need.

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Formula 1

Red Bull 2019 Preview

Japanese power unit means origami bull, for launch at least.

First things first, I partially take back what I said on twitter. I think it’s growing on me, this one-off livery. Now, I wouldn’t mind if they ran this during the season, I think it looks quite nice in real life. Obviously Red Bull love to run a lovely looking car for a shakedown or during testing before returning to the now iconic Red Bull colours. It may be interesting to see if a new engine partners would mean some new additions to the livery, but it’s probably unlikely. Tom Bellingham of WTF1 made the point that in hindsight the Red Bull colours will become one of the F1 classics, along with the Marlboro McLaren which stayed on the car for both Honda and Peugoet engines. However saying this, there has been some merch on the Verstappen store which does look like it would match the design for the shakedown. I don’t seem to remember there being merch for last year’s digi-bull which was only for the shakedown. Maybe I’m reading more into this than I should be.

When I first saw this car, I thought it was too red but I don’t think it’s as bad as I thought it was. The origami bull is really cool, I think it’d stand out more if the only red on the engine cover was the bull. I think the chevron design nicked from Formula E sort of works, but is far more effective with the change in texture on the physical car. The car could be considered too busy for sponsors, but I feel if they were printed bigger, or at least bolder it may work better, particularly the ones near the exhaust.

Another point of interest on the car is that it appears to have lost weight! We thought the RB14 sidepods were ridiculously slim, well these are bloody ludicrous! The coke bottle that everyone seems to talk about is much tighter this year. Hopefully this means that Red Bull are still up there as a chassis and aero package. However, Honda will be the first to tell you about issues trying to make a power unit that small. I think to put it politely, it only had minor issues during 2015. Hopefully Red Bull haven’t taken it too far. A lot depends on that power unit.

Cooking on Gas-ly

Anyone looking at Red Bull would say oh yes “Verstappen’s going to have to emerge as a strong number 1 and lead this team on now Danny’s gone.” But actually I’d say Gasly is equally important to the success of the Red Bull Honda project. He’s already on close terms with Honda, the year with Toro Rosso last year and the year in Super Formula means a very strong rapport. He knows how to motivate Honda and how they work, unlike a certain Fernando Alonso.

His performances won’t start off as strong as Verstappen, but they’ll certainly close up over the course of the season. I’d actually say that Pierre has an outside chance of winning in Bahrain. That performance last year was extraordinary. Even if Red Bull start behind the curve and look like a 4/5th placed team, it’s certainly better off than where Toro Rosso were.

As for Verstappen, I reckon looking at the standings by the end of the year you’d say he dominated Gasly but he’ll be pushed all the way from after the Summer break onwards. He has to keep his tongue in check though. Arguably Honda are under more pressure than the McLaren days because this is going to be a title battle. The last thing you need is being told constantly that you’re underperforming. We know Max is volatile, hopefully he gets months of PR training by Gasly to show him how to get the best out of the Japanese company.

You’ve probably noticed a thread between all these posts is that a lot depends on Honda. A horrible Honda raises Renault to 3rd in the standings, whereas a hopeful Honda heightens expectations to above 3rd. I’m still going to say 3rd for Red Bull this year. It might well end up being a similar year to McLaren in 2018, where they learn things about their design which was flawed. Maybe it’s too draggy as well as lacking oomph. Maybe the chassis isn’t on its own in some sort legendary tier as they claim it is. Maybe it’s none of those and it’s a pure power unit issue where it’s back to square one with lack of power, or is fast but unreliable. Ferrari and Mercedes just look too fast at the moment for them to fall away from the top, at least to me. But hey, what do I know? All I know is there’s new found hope in the Red Bull team.

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