Ryan's Lil' F1 Blog

Pace and Analysis- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024

Mar 30th, 2024

This article is part of a series of articles I will be completing throughout the year, where I am going to analyze the average pace of the drivers and teams, in both qualifying and the races, to be able to gain a picture of performance levels.

I have collated the fastest laps by each driver in qualifying, to show the average gap to the fastest driver. One caveat that arises, is that the top 10 drivers, through progressing to the final qualifying session, have a better track condition that those who only took part in Q1 or Q2. Due to this, the gap will be larger for the drivers outside the top ten than if qualifying was performed in one representative session. However, since the final session represents the point at which the top drivers are truly pushing, I’ve ruled it a better grounding point for the true limit of the cars, rather than only focusing on the first qualifying session in which the best times are not recorded.

Qualifying Pace-

With no further ado, here are the gaps to pole:

And for the teams:

Additionally, I have collected the data for the gaps between teammates. I did this by using their fastest lap times set in the same session, so if one driver got into Q3, whilst the other only got into Q2, then I would count their Q2 times. Additionally, the lap times have to be representative, to avoid comparing out laps completed before a driver breaks down, as this would give us a very inaccurate representation of the drivers’ pace. Sauber have no comparison for Saudi, as Zhou did not set any times in qualifying:

Race Pace-

Next up in our data sets is the race pace of the drivers. I have calculated the average pace of the drivers, removing first laps, in-laps, out-laps, safety car laps and restarts after a safety car or red flag, as all these all not representative of a driver’s general pace. Additionally, if a driver has a spin, or another error that would greatly reduce their lap time, I have not counted these laps, as they would also not be representative of a drivers’ general pace.[1] I have only included drivers that completed at least 75% of the race distance (which for Saudi Arabia, excludes Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly) so to not skew the season long averages against drivers that did not drive on low fuel with the best track conditions.

As different drivers have a varying number of race stints, this skews the overall pace. Generally, if a driver makes more stops, their pace will be faster on average. This will be taken into account in my final thoughts and analysis. Additionally, the average pace per stint and number of stints are recorded at the bottom of this article, for those interested in viewing more precise estimates of pace relative to other drivers on the same stint.[2]

And for the teams:

Analysis-

There is a similar trend to in Bahrain, the Ferrari looks like it has slightly better degradation to the Red Bull. Leclerc’s hard tyre stint began with him setting times up to a second closer than the Red Bulls, but by the end of the stint, Leclerc was matching and beating the Red Bull’s times, even recording fastest lap on the final lap when Verstappen was also going for a fastest lap attempt.
The McLaren appears to have some good pace behind it. Even though Piastri was stuck in Hamilton’s dirty air on used hard tyres for half the race, once he was out of dirty air, his lap times were around equal with Perez and only slightly behind Leclerc and Verstappen. Additionally, Norris posted the fastest stint of the race on his soft tyres, beating Hamilton’s pace. The McLaren has yet to prove to be a Red Bull challenger, but with an aggressive update schedule, it may still win some races this year.
Norris and Hamilton both performed the fastest strategy for pace, but because others stopped under the safety car, they lost track position. They did however, have their pace slightly exaggerated in the averages. This makes the Mercedes look slightly better in the race pace averages, appearing to be the fourth fastest car. Comparing Alonso and Russell’s 2^nd stints, it is clear that Alonso was slightly faster than the Mercedes.
The bottom half of the field all had their averages skewed by Magnussen driving deliberately slowly, thus four teams have race pace averages of more than 2%, when no team achieved this in Bahrain.

Further Resources-

Qualifying Pace:

Driver	Fastest Qualifying Time
Max Verstappen	87.472 (0%)
Charles Leclerc	87.791 (+0.365%)
Sergio Perez	87.807 (+0.383%)
Fernando Alonso	87.846 (+0.428%)
Oscar Piastri	88.089 (+0.705%)
Lando Norris	88.132 (+0.755%)
Lance Stroll	88.25 (+0.889%)
George Russell	88.316 (+0.965%)
Lewis Hamilton	88.46 (+1.130%)
Yuki Tsunoda	88.547 (+1.229%)
Oliver Bearman	88.642 (+1.338%)
Alexander Albon	88.98 (+1.724%)
Kevin Magnussen	89.02 (+1.770%)
Daniel Ricciardo	89.025 (+1.775%)
Nico Hulkenberg	89.055 (+1.810%)
Valtteri Bottas	89.179 (+1.951%)
Esteban Ocon	89.475 (+2.290%)
Pierre Gasly	89.479 (+2.294%)
Logan Sargeant	89.526 (+2.348%)

Average Race Pace:

Driver	Pace
Max Verstappen	92.883 (0%)
Sergio Perez	93.085 (+0.217%)
Charles Leclerc	93.317 (+0.467%)
Lando Norris	93.59 (+0.761%)
Oscar Piastri	93.607 (+0.779%)
Lewis Hamilton	93.677 (+0.854%)
Fernando Alonso	93.691 (+0.869%)
George Russell	93.798 (+0.985%)
Oliver Bearman	93.934 (+1.131%)
Nico Hulkenberg	94.344 (+1.573%)
Kevin Magnussen	94.866 (+2.135%)
Alexander Albon	94.904 (+2.175%)
Zhou Guanyu	94.907 (+2.178%)
Valtteri Bottas	95.157 (+2.448%)
Yuki Tsunoda	95.197 (+2.491%)
Esteban Ocon	95.242 (+2.539%)
Logan Sargeant	95.271 (+2.570%)
Daniel Ricciardo	95.342 (+2.647%)

All Stints:

Best Stints	Pace
Norris 2nd (12L/US)	92.28
Hamilton 2nd (13L/US)	92.333
Verstappen 2nd (40L/NH)	92.753
Hulkenberg 2nd (16L/NH)	92.776
Zhou 2nd (7L/NS)	92.818
Perez 2nd (40L/NH)	92.957
Bottas 3rd (13L/NS)	93.156
Leclerc 2nd (40L/NH)	93.167
Piastri 2nd (40L/UH)	93.483
Alonso 2nd (40L/UH)	93.555
Russell 2nd (40L/NH)	93.633
Bearman 2nd (40L/NH)	93.669
Verstappen 1st (5L/NM)	93.927
Norris 1st (31L/NM)	94.097
Perez 1st (5L/NM)	94.109
Hamilton 1st (30L/NM)	94.259
Leclerc 1st (5L/NM)	94.513
Piastri 1st (5L/NM)	94.603
Magnussen 2nd (40L/NH)	94.713
Albon 2nd (40L/NH)	94.75
Alonso 1st (5L/UM)	94.78
Ocon 2nd (39L/NH)	95.03
Sargeant 2nd (39L/NH)	95.068
Tsunoda 2nd (39L/NH)	95.099
Russell 1st (5L/NM)	95.122
Ricciardo 2nd (38L/NH)	95.186
Hulkenberg 1st (27L/NM)	95.273
Zhou 1st (35L/NM)	95.324
Bottas 2nd (24L/NH)	95.885
Tsunoda 1st (5L/NM)	95.964
Bearman 1st (5L/NS)	96.058
Magnussen 1st (5L/NM)	96.09
Albon 1st (5L/NM)	96.132
Ricciardo 1st (5L/NM)	96.524
Sargeant 1st (5L/NM)	96.848
Bottas 1st (5L/NS)	96.865
Ocon 1st (5L/NM)	96.893

Key: 1L= One Lap, 2L= Two Laps, NH= New Hards, UH= Used Hards, NM= New Mediums, NS= New Softs

Number of Stints:

Number of Stints	Drivers
2	Verstappen, Perez, Leclerc, Piastri, Alonso, Russell, Bearman, Norris, Hamilton, Hulkenberg, Albon, Magnussen, Ocon, Sargeant, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Zhou
3	Bottas

[1] For example, I removed Daniel Ricciardo’s lap 48 for Saudi Arabia, as he spun and lost ten seconds.

[2] I only count a stint if a driver has completed five or more laps, to avoid short stints for fastest lap attempts skewing the data on the table.

Australian Grand Prix 2024 Review

Mar 27th, 2024

This weekend, we were witness to one of the best stories F1 has provided in a long time. Carlos Sainz, who only two weeks ago was recovering from appendicitis, won the race. Furthermore, Max Verstappen retired. Whilst most F1 fans would never wish bad luck on any driver, F1 needed a Verstappen retirement, if merely for reminding casual fans that it is possible for other people to win an F1 race. It’s not often I agree with Crofty, but when he declared that this was a result F1 needed, I completely concurred. A smile was on my face seeing a Ferrari 1-2.

All this almost distracted from the fact that I found the race boring.

Yes, even without Max Verstappen, a processional race with limited overtaking still occurred. In terms of track action, it appeared to have the least of the three races so far, the only racing highlights being Magnussen and Tsunoda making switchback moves at turn ten. This is because F1 has outgrown the Melbourne circuit. Narrow cars that can navigate the tight circuit of Melbourne have been replaced with wide cars that struggle to overtake here, which is a shame as the circuit provides one of the best vibes on the calendar.

Yet still, Sainz winning almost made this race appear to be a classic.

With little on track action throughout the middle of the race, attention was drawn to Sauber’s pit stops. Sauber appears to have decided to honor their gambling sponsorship by making the odds of a successful pit stop roughly the same as the odds of big winnings on a slot machine. The official reason behind their 30-50 second pit stops is that they have bought new wheel gun equipment for the year. Unfortunately, these wheel guns do not work properly with their car. If any other team did this they would become the laughing stock of F1, for failing on something so basic to success. However, as Sauber is already the most anonymous and mediocre, their pit stops just become another problem they have to solve. Still, the team should be embarrassed, especially when looking at statistics showing that they have already spent more time doing pit stops in three races than nine drivers did for the whole of last year.[1]

After a long race with little action, the most controversial moment suddenly happened on the last lap. George Russell crashed and this was partially caused by Alonso slowing down for turn six early, in order to get a better exit, likely to defend from Russell at the overtaking zone. Alonso’s actions, despite no contact with Russell, earned him a 20-second penalty, demoting him from 6^th to 8^th. The steward’s defense was that this was due to Alonso lifting, braking and downshifting a hundred meters earlier than on every other lap, before beginning to accelerate again, as by his own admission, he made a mistake.[2] The stewards argued that as this was inconsistent with Alonso’s previous laps, that it constituted driving ‘unnecessarily slowly… in a manner that could be deemed potentially dangerous.’[3] The stewards also argued that they were not taking the consequences of the incident into account.[4] The last point is obviously false. Hulkenberg moved under braking to cut off Alex Albon earlier in the race ‘in a manner that could be deemed potentially dangerous.’ Yet as Albon reacted and avoided Hulkenberg, no penalty was handed out. Additionally, back in Saudi, Magnussen backed up the entire midfield pack for multiple laps. If drivers didn’t react to Magnussen driving ‘unnecessarily slowly’ then there could have been a concertina effect where multiple cars crashed into each other. Yet this did not happen. So, Magnussen was allowed, in that case, to drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’. Presumably as Magnussen was lifting a hundred meters earlier for many laps, rather than just one, this made it safe? If Alonso had made the exact same move, yet Russell had reacted to it and slowed down accordingly, there would have been no penalty. Alonso’s move may have contributed to Russell’s accident, yet to punish a driver for the impact of their dirty air, itself a problem exemplified by F1’s wide cars, seems inconsistent and unfair.

So, F1 provided us with bad racing, long pit stops and awful stewarding. Yet still, the novelty of Verstappen winning made up for that. I just hope the next time Verstappen doesn’t win, there’s actually a good race to analyse, rather than merely a good result.

[1] https://twitter.com/F1BigData/status/1771911908506865952

[2] https://twitter.com/fiadocsbot/status/1771822384309231731

[3] https://twitter.com/fiadocsbot/status/1771822384309231731 [Article 33.4]

[4] https://twitter.com/fiadocsbot/status/1771822384309231731
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024- Five Star Drivers

Mar 22nd, 2024
1. Max Verstappen-
It was another faultless weekend from Max Verstappen, being virtually unchallenged on the way to his 56^th victory. In contrast to the tight qualifying in Bahrain, Verstappen looked fully in control to take pole in Saudi. Whilst facing mild pressure to get past Norris after the safety car period, Verstappen retaking the lead was an inevitability. Once he got past Norris and back into the lead, he was his usual unstoppable self. Verstappen is once again on nine race victories in a row, a record that looked unbeatable a couple years ago, until Max beat it. After the next couple of races, Max may even beat his own win streak. As I will get very used to saying this year, he’s on another level.

2. Sergio Perez-
Much has been made of Sergio Perez’s performances over the last three years, as he becomes the latest in a list of unlucky drivers who have found themselves as teammates to an all time great. Thus, I’m assessing Sergio’s performances with the expectation that he will probably not beat Verstappen. From this standard, Perez had a pretty faultless weekend. Qualifying 3^rd, albeit only 0.016 seconds behind Charles Leclerc, Perez quickly passed Leclerc on lap four. From there, he shadowed Verstappen for the rest of the race, overtaking Norris a few laps after Verstappen had and delivering Red Bull a perfect 1-2 finish. In a weekend in which the driver many want to replace Perez was thoroughly trounced by his teammate, Perez is beginning to solidify his hold on that second Red Bull.

3. Oscar Piastri-

Oscar delivered on his McLaren’s potential this weekend, outqualifying his more experienced teammate and finishing the race as best of the rest. Whilst spending far too much time stuck behind Lewis Hamilton in the race, this was the fault of the McLaren lacking straight line speed, rather than Oscar underperforming. It also did not affect his final position, as the podium was out of reach given the pace of that Ferrari. Either way, he kept Alonso behind and was rewarded with 4^th in the race and 5^th in the championship. Last year Oscar proved that he deserved his seat and if he can keep outqualifying and outracing Norris, he can show why so many experts see him as a Verstappen/Leclerc level talent.

4. Oliver Bearman-

From one impressive young talent to another, Ollie was outstanding this weekend. After only having a single practice session to learn the car, he was already on the pace. Whilst qualifying was not perfect, Ollie missing out on Q3 by less than a tenth of a second, Ollie’s race more than made up for this. He showed good pace, made decisive overtakes and kept both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton behind at the end of the race on old hard tyres. Whilst winning F2 is the most obvious path to Formula One, a performance like this shows all the F1 teams that he has the minerals to deliver in the top level of motorsports.

5. Haas-

I’m breaking my own rules slightly here, by giving half a point to both Haas drivers. Kevin Magnussen deserves acknowledgement for successfully holding back the midfield pack, which gained Haas their first point of the season. However, whilst a great example of unorthodoxy winning the day, I’m deducting half a point from Magnussen as he was only in this position after receiving twenty seconds of penalties, that ruined his own race. Thus, half a point also goes to Hulkenberg, the Haas driver who has been consistently delivering the best pace for the last year, as well as the driver who was able to capitalize on his team’s tactics to earn that point, something that may prove a rarity for those teams in the bottom half of the field.

Tally:[1]
1. Max Verstappen- 2
2. Charles Leclerc- 1
3. Carlos Sainz- 1
4. Sergio Perez- 1
5. George Russell- 1
6. Oscar Piastri- 1
7. Oliver Bearman- 1
8. Zhou Guanyu- 1
9. Nico Hulkenberg- 0.5
10. Kevin Magnussen- 0.5
[1] Of how many times drivers have featured in these lists.
Australian Grand Prix 2024 Predictions

Mar 22nd, 2024
Pole Position: Charles Leclerc
1. Max Verstappen
2. Charles Leclerc
3. Sergio Perez
Bold Prediction: A Haas car finishes the race 8th or higher.

Pace and Analysis- Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Mar 19th, 2024

Qualifying Pace-

With no further ado, here are the gaps to pole[1]:

And for the teams:

Race Pace-

Next up in our data sets is the race pace of the drivers. I have calculated the average pace of the drivers, removing first laps, in-laps, out-laps and safety car laps, all not representative of a driver’s general pace. Additionally, if a driver has a spin, or another error that would greatly reduce their lap time, I have not counted these laps, as they would also not be representative of a drivers’ general pace. I have only included drivers that completed at least 75% of the race distance (which for Bahrain, happens to be all the drivers) so to not skew the season long averages against drivers that did not drive on low fuel with the best track conditions.

As different drivers have a varying number of race stints, this skews the overall pace. Generally, if a driver makes more stops, their pace will be faster on average. This will be taken into account in my final thoughts and analysis. Additionally the average pace per stint and number of stints are recorded at the bottom of this article, for those interested in viewing more precise estimates of pace relative to other drivers on the same stint.[2]

And for the teams:

Analysis-

The Ferrari [and the Mercedes, for that matter] appear to have better tyre degradation than the Red Bull, at least based on this preliminary data. Sainz’s average time throughout a stint barely dropped at all, whilst Verstappen and Perez on the same tyre dropped around a second throughout the stint. This being ubiquitous between Verstappen and Perez also lessens the possibility that this was merely due to the drivers taking it easy. The primary problem, at the moment, is that the Red Bull begins stints so much faster than the Ferrari, that the degradation at the end of the stint fails to matter. But if this proves to be a theme throughout this season, then Ferrari could start challenging for race wins.[3]
Verstappen’s relative dominance over Perez is clear within their third stints. Verstappen set the fastest lap on lap 39 and this appeared to take a lot out of his soft tyres, setting quite slow times on lap 40 and 41. Nevertheless, by lap 43 Verstappen began posting times consistently faster than Perez.
The McLaren and the Mercedes showed pretty similar pace throughout the race, positing beginning stint times within a few tenths of each other, all having similar degradation and there being little between the average pace of the four drivers. This may have been compounded by spending some of the race in each other’s dirty air, but they still appear to be the most evenly matched of the top five teams.
Haas do not look bad based on this data, Hulkenberg in particular impressing. His first stint was only slower than Verstappen, Perez, Russell and Sainz and his third stint was quicker than the McLarens’. Overall, his pace was better than both Aston Martins. Whilst tyre differential from his early stop to new hard tyres may have played a part in this, as well as placing him outside the dirty air, the Haas team still have a lot to be proud of, completely exceeding the standards they set for themselves.
Pierre Gasly’s average pace is exaggerated by his being one of two drivers to have four race stints. This led to his fourth stint on new softs being the seventh fastest of the race. Without Gasly’s four stints, it’s likely that Alpine would be the slowest team on average in both qualifying and the race. This is looking like an incredibly difficult year for Alpine, which is a shame, because they have two talented young drivers who now look like they’ll be competing with each other to not be last.

Further Resources-

Qualifying Pace:

Driver	Fastest Qualifying Time
Charles Leclerc	89.165 (0%)
Max Verstappen	89.179 (+0.016%)
George Russell	89.485 (+0.359%)
Carlos Sainz	89.507 (+0.384%)
Sergio Perez	89.537 (+0.417%)
Fernando Alonso	89.542 (+0.423%)
Lando Norris	89.614 (+0.504%)
Oscar Piastri	89.683 (+0.581%)
Lewis Hamilton	89.71 (+0.611%)
Nico Hulkenberg	89.851 (+0.769%)
Lance Stroll	89.965 (+0.897%)
Yuki Tsunoda	90.129 (+1.081%)
Alexander Albon	90.221 (+1.184%)
Daniel Ricciardo	90.278 (+1.248%)
Kevin Magnussen	90.529 (+1.530%)
Valtteri Bottas	90.756 (+1.784%)
Zhou Guanyu	90.757 (+1.785%)
Logan Sargeant	90.77 (+1.800%)
Esteban Ocon	90.793 (+1.826%)
Pierre Gasly	90.948 (+2.000%)

Average Race Pace:

Driver	Pace
Max Verstappen	95.654 (0%)
Sergio Perez	96.059 (+0.423%)
Carlos Sainz	96.103 (0.469%)
Charles Leclerc	96.368 (+0.746%)
Lando Norris	96.464 (+0.845%)
George Russell	96.474 (+0.857%)
Lewis Hamilton	96.514 (+0.899%)
Oscar Piastri	96.538 (+0.923%)
Nico Hulkenberg	96.855 (+1.255%)
Fernando Alonso	96.94 (+1.344%)
Lance Stroll	97.124 (+1.537%)
Pierre Gasly	97.305 (+1.725%)
Zhou Guanyu	97.407 (+1.833%)
Daniel Ricciardo	97.429 (+1.855%)
Kevin Magnussen	97.465 (+1.893%)
Yuki Tsunoda	97.486 (+1.914%)
Alex Albon	97.535 (+1.966%)
Logan Sargeant	97.561 (+1.993%)
Valtteri Bottas	97.719 (+2.159%)
Esteban Ocon	97.811 (+2.254%)

All Stints:

Best Stints	Pace
Verstappen 3rd (19L/NS)	94.685
Alonso 3rd (15L/NH)	94.992
Perez 3rd (20L/NS)	95.037
Sainz 3rd (21L/NH)	95.052
Leclerc 3rd (22L/NH)	95.222
Hamilton 3rd (23L/NH)	95.414
Gasly 4th (12L/NS)	95.473
Hulkenberg 3rd (14L/US)	95.493
Piastri 3rd (22L/NH)	95.506
Norris 3rd (23L/NH)	95.527
Verstappen 2nd (18L/NH)	95.58
Russell 3rd (25L/NH)	95.72
Sargeant 4th (14L/NS)	95.977
Ricciardo 3rd (20L/NS)	96.149
Sainz 2nd (19L/NH)	96.279
Perez 2nd (22L/NH)	96.281
Albon 3rd (19L/NH)	96.287
Stroll 3rd (29L/NH)	96.432
Magnussen 3rd (23L/NH)	96.501
Gasly 3rd (10L/NH)	96.541
Sargeant 3rd (10L/NH)	96.675
Tsunoda 2nd (21L/NH)	96.677
Norris 2nd (18L/NH)	96.767
Zhou 3rd (27L/NH)	96.856
Leclerc 2nd (21L/NH)	96.898
Piastri 2nd (20L/NH)	96.898
Hamilton 2nd (19L/NH)	96.939
Verstappen 1st (15L/US)	96.972
Russell 2nd (18L/NH)	96.973
Hulkenberg 2nd (19L/NH)	96.997
Bottas 3rd (25L/NH)	97.037
Ocon 3rd (25L/NH)	97.087
Alonso 2nd (24L/NH)	97.299
Russell 1st (9L/US)	97.571
Perez 1st (10L/US)	97.615
Zhou 2nd (17L/NH)	97.663
Sainz 1st (12L/US)	97.665
Tsunoda 2nd (18L/NH)	97.703
Stroll 2nd (16L/NH)	97.752
Hulkenberg 1st (17L/NH)	97.816
Ricciardo 2nd (20L/NH)	97.842
Norris 1st (11L/US)	97.926
Leclerc 1st (9L/US)	97.934
Albon 2nd (19L/NH)	97.956
Bottas 2nd (16L/NH)	97.962
Magnussen 2nd (19L/NH)	97.97
Gasly 2nd (17L/NH)	98.081
Piastri 1st (10L/US)	98.086
Hamilton 1st (10L/US)	98.237
Ocon 2nd (18L/NH)	98.293
Alonso 1st (13L/US)	98.524
Stroll 1st (7L/NS)	98.558
Tsunoda 1st (12L/NS)	98.574
Albon 1st (13L/NS)	98.742
Sargeant 2nd (16L/NH)	98.823
Magnussen 1st (9L/NS)	98.861
Zhou 1st (7L/NS)	98.911
Sargeant 1st (8L/NS)	98.916
Gasly 1st (10L/NS)	98.947
Ocon 1st (8L/NS)	98.986
Ricciardo 1st (11L/US)	99.004
Bottas 1st (10L/NS)	99.038

Key: 1L= One Lap, 2L= Two Laps, NS= New Softs, US= Used Softs, NH= New Hards

Number of Stints:

Number of Stints	Drivers
3	Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton, Piastri, Alonso, Stroll, Zhou, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Tsunoda, Albon, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Bottas
4	Gasly, Sargeant

[1] Or, more accurately, the fastest time in qualifying, which in this case, was not pole, as Leclerc set a faster time than Verstappen’s pole time in Qualifying 2.

[2] I only count a stint if a driver has completed five or more laps, to avoid short stints for fastest lap attempts skewing the data on the table.

[3] I discounted the third stints when coming to this conclusion, as the Red Bull and Ferrari were on different tyres.

IndyCar- Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Review

Mar 17th, 2024

A street track providing for limited opportunities for overtaking, Rosenqvist qualifying well then falling like a rock in the race and Romain Grosjean causing chaos. IndyCar must be back.

T’was not the most exciting race unfortunately. Street tracks in IndyCar are either processional or chaotic and this one leaned towards the processional. This was not assisted by the new tyres seeming to not possess much performance variety. Only during the warmup phase, when those on black tyres found themselves overtaken by those on green tyres, featured much in the way of on-track battles. After those tyres warmed up, they seemed to have similar lifespans and similar pace. This prevented differentials from occurring, turning the race into a follow-the-leader show. Firestone should definitely look into the construction of their tyres for future races, or the street tracks this year will continue to lack any action.

It thus fell on Romain Grosjean to entertain fans. Romain is a driver whose career I follow with fascination. He is always one step away from brilliance, with the only thing stopping him from achieving great results being himself. Because he crashes. A lot. The brilliance last weekend came from qualifying, where Romain was able to drag his car into fifth position, despite now driving for Juncos Hollinger, a small team that has never achieved a podium and only recorded three top-10 finishes last year. If Grosjean kept his racing clean, he could have immediately recorded a top-10 and justified the decision to sign him over Callum Ilott. Unfortunately, Romain got involved in another clumsy incident, making a half lunge on Linus Lundqvist that was only going to end in a collision. This ruined Lundqvist’s race, as well as earning Grosjean a drive-through penalty. With all his experience, Romain should have known better than to make that move. Though given his history, it’s exactly what I expected to happen.

At the front, the race was dominated by Josef Newgarden. He only looked threatened at one point, after a slow first pit stop put him in net-3^rd place, behind Colton Herta and Felix Rosenqvist. Both Herta and Rosenqvist were on the black tyres, so if Newgarden was going to retake the lead, he had to overtake them during the warm-up phase, before the tyre differential disappeared. Newgarden did so with no hesitation, making confident lunges on Herta and Rosenqvist to secure his lead and henceforth dominated the event. If Newgarden can dominate more regular tracks in the way he often dominates on ovals, then he will be a major threat for the championship.

In conclusion, these IndyCar street tracks really need improvements. With no tyre differential, they become processional and feel to me more like an experimental form of hypnotherapy than an action-packed car race. And as someone who knows that IndyCar on road courses and ovals is some of the best racing in the world, it seems unwise to continually begin seasons with the weakest flavour IndyCar has to offer.
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024 Review

Mar 15th, 2024

When Sergio Perez overtook Charles Leclerc on lap four of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, I tweeted that the race was over. I could only see a processional race following, due to the lack of tyre degradation. The best chance to make the race exciting would be an early safety car, as this would lead to differing tyre strategies across the field. Thankfully, Lance Stroll saved this race by crashing on lap six.

Following the early safety car, Max Verstappen was not in the lead, needing to catch and pass the McLaren of Lando Norris, who had declined to stop under the safety car. Whilst Norris needing to stop meant that this battle would likely not affect the final result, Lando still fought valiantly, keeping Max behind for multiple laps on his medium tyres. I savor every moment Max Verstappen needs to catch and pass a rival car. Max is one of the best drivers in Formula One, so it’s a shame his domination means we seldom see him in battles anymore. Whilst the battle at the front was brief, the safety car provided for a number of smaller storylines to take place throughout the race. These storylines, whilst not making the race an all-time classic, kept me intrigued and entertained throughout.

The tyre strategies also meant that we got to clearly see the differing characteristics of the McLaren and Mercedes cars. Hamilton, who had not stopped, kept Oscar Piastri behind for much of the race. Whilst Piastri could close up to Hamilton during the lap, the McLaren was slow in a straight line and had an inefficient drag reduction system. Yet, when Hamilton found himself directly behind a McLaren (Lando Norris) after his pit stop, he also could not overtake. In the high-speed corners, the Mercedes could not keep up with Lando, who was pulling ahead in the first sector by almost a second. When we got to see Lewis’ onboard it was clear how much that Mercedes was struggling with high-speed performance, he began the sector right behind Norris and ended the sector barely able to see him. These clear differentials and contrasting strength and weaknesses between the two cars should provide for some entertaining battles throughout the season and it was exciting to see the first of these battles debut in Saudi.

The debut of Oliver Bearman was another highlight. As well as having my favorite name for a person ever, Ollie also had a Ferrari drive this weekend, courtesy of Carlos Sainz needing surgery for appendicitis. A lot of the focus went into Ollie’s debut this weekend and he impressed, by finishing 7^th. After learning the ropes of overtaking and carving his way through the midfield, Ollie found himself under pressure towards the end of the race. Both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton decided to pit towards the end of the race, with hopes of making up multiple positions on fresh soft tyres. Yet, they never got close to Bearman, who kept a consistent pace on his aging hard tyres. Despite no experience managing F1 tyres, a consistent pitfall for rookies, Ollie showed this weekend why he is one of the stars of the future and I personally loved seeing the Bearcub evolve into the Bearman.

My favorite part of the race, however, was seeing Kevin Magnussen embracing chaos. After demonstrating questionable driving standards that led to a couple of incidents, Magnussen was handed twenty seconds worth of penalties. However, as Haas had not pit Nico Hulkenberg under the safety car, this provided the team with an opportunity to utilize an unorthodox strategy. Magnussen was in front of much of the bottom half of the field and was ordered to hold them up, to give Hulkenberg a gap to pit into.[1] He succeeded, building a train of cars so long one could call it the Magnussen Express. And similarly to many English train companies, he frustrated every passenger by delaying their progress indefinitely. The midfield used the opportunity to jostle with each other, but had no chance of overtaking that Haas, which appears to be an incredibly efficient car in a straight line. Hulkenberg got the gap he needed to pit in thanks to Kevin’s efforts, providing Haas with their first point of the season. Perhaps I was wrong to doubt Haas’ ability to perform, as new Team Principle Komatsu is doing the job that Gene Haas set out for him, to maximize every result with the car that they already have.[2]

So, I was surprised at the end of the race at how entertained I had found myself. These smaller storylines had made me forget the constant killjoy of having the same winner every week. As this Red Bull looks very good and will likely win the vast majority of races, I’d recommend to fans to put their focus onto these other storylines, as the sport is brimming with them.

[1] The cars behind Magnussen after his overtake on Tsunoda [which he received one of his ten second penalties for] were Tsunoda, Ocon, Albon, Sargeant, Bottas and Ricciardo].

[2] EXCLUSIVE: ‘It came down to performance’ – Gene Haas on Guenther Steiner’s departure and what it means for his team’s future, Lawrence Barretto (11 January 2024) https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.exclusive-gene-haas-guenther-steiner-departure-f1-team-future.3pt87IVfCzoOgJLV19Atf4.html
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024 Predictions

Mar 6th, 2024
Pole Position: Max Verstappen
1. Max Verstappen
2. Sergio Perez
3. Oscar Piastri
Bold Prediction: George Russell gets eliminated from Qualifying before Q3
Bahrain Grand Prix 2024- Five Star Drivers

Mar 6th, 2024
This is part of a series of articles I will write during the year, to highlight some of the best performances of the weekend. I originally considered ranking all of the drivers, but wanted to keep this series positive, so am only focusing on the best performances F1 had to offer. Thus, in no particular order, five standouts from the weekend.
1. Max Verstappen-
What more can be said about Verstappen? On a weekend where I had some hope of a Ferrari challenge, Max went and achieved a grand slam. He drove a car not dominant in qualifying to pole position, then drove away from the field, setting a fastest lap 1.4 seconds faster than anyone else. Verstappen deserves an endless amount of respect for his performances and I expect he’ll feature a lot in this series throughout this year. Perez also performed well, using the natural pace of that Red Bull to finish second, but Max was still 22 seconds ahead of him. Utter domination.

2. Carlos Sainz-

Sainz maximized his opportunities on Saturday. While his teammate suffered from brake issues and the Mercedes’ had cooling problems, Sainz still needed to overtake several cars to secure his place on the podium. He duly delivered a daring drive, with his moves on his teammate being particularly tenacious. If Carlos wants to get himself the best possible drive for 2025, he certainly started the season on the right foot.

3. Charles Leclerc-

Consistent brake issues meant Charles was lacking in pace compared to Carlos. We were robbed of seeing Charles at his best. But a 90% performance from Charles is still a gold star performance. Despite visibly awful issues, with a car that could barely turn right without locking up, Charles only finished 14 seconds behind his teammate and was comfortably ahead of the Mercedes powered cars. He even set the second fastest lap of the race. Most drivers who had the issues Charles faced this weekend would not have maximized their performance like this. The fact that Charles did provides me with hope that, when he has a fully working car underneath him, Charles can take the fight to the Red Bulls.

4. George Russell-

With so much talk and headlines involving Mercedes focusing on Lewis Hamilton, it becomes hard to remember that they have two top drivers. George Russell duly reminded me on Saturday, delivering when his teammate struggled. Russell qualified ahead of a Red Bull and a Ferrari, in a car that is yet to show it has the outright pace to do so. He then looked on for a podium for the first third of the race. Whilst he faded slightly, with his race pace being hindered by a cooling issue he showed a fighting spirit and extracted the maximum potential from the car he was given. The battle between him and Lewis will be fascinating this season and I’m personally interested to see how many of Mercedes’ eggs start falling in George’s basket.

5. Zhou Guanyu-

Zhou may have not finished in the points, but he took a car that did not look very fast and utilized a strategic offset, undercutting the bottom half of the field and then managing his tyres throughout the stints, to finish ahead of a number of faster cars and kick Sauber’s season off with a solid, if unremarkable, result. If Zhou wants to make a case to remain in F1 in a year where his contract is up, this is the perfect start.

Shoutout- Zane Maloney-

An acknowledgement has to Zane Maloney for his performance in F2 this weekend. He decided to become the Verstappen of F2, winning both the sprint and feature races easily. The overtakes he made in the sprint race were stunning, especially on Fittipaldi, which may be my moment of the weekend. In a weekend where other drivers expected for challenge for the title faltered, Maloney shone. There’s a long season to go, but the boy from Barbados just firmly put himself in title contention.
Bahrain Grand Prix Review

Mar 2nd, 2024

There was a lot of excitement regarding a Ferrari fightback through testing and practice. When Verstappen still clinched pole, there was disappointment, but I told myself that this Ferrari looks good and appears to have sorted their tyre wear problems. So of course, the race begins with Leclerc locking up at seemingly every corner. These lock ups were not a result of poor tyre wear, rather an issue with Leclerc’s brakes. Several drivers had issues throughout this race, with both Mercedes suffering from battery issues and Hamilton reporting that his seat was broken. Between these issues and the inevitable squabbling between drivers that resulted, Verstappen was allowed to drive off into the distance, a sight we’ve become used to seeing.

Albeit the first third of the race was quite entertaining. All the cars were relatively close and there was always a battle to cut to. Perez passing Leclerc and Seargeant passing Ricciardo were memorable, but the best battle came from the two Ferraris. Sainz clearly does not care whose feathers he ruffles, making an aggressive overtake on Leclerc on lap 11, before shutting the door on his teammate. Sainz then had to do the same on lap 17, after the first round of stops, before passing George Russell three laps later to bag himself a podium. As for Sainz’s replacement, he finished two places behind his teammate and spent more TV time going off the track than driving on it.

The race became more sparse of action shortly after the first stops. Gaps started to emerge between the drivers and the cars slotted into their natural positions. A personal highlight was watching Bottas’ 52-second pit stop, only for the TV directors to decide that as there was nothing else going on, we might as well spend a minute watching it again. Oscar Piastri attempting to defend from Lewis Hamilton on freezing tyres also entertained, though the difference in grip made that particular pass inevitable from the word go.

Thus, it fell on Visa Cash App to provide us with some drama. The car could have received a point with Tsunoda today, but the team allowed for Yuki to get undercut by multiple cars, likely as the team members were too busy checking their Visa Cash Apps. With so much focus on the current cost of living crisis, one would forget to do their job, a bit like when I found smashed up eggs under the fruit cases when working at Sainsburys. Though, even more controversially than me having to remove eggshells that were literally welded to the shelf, would be RB’s use of team orders. As Tsunoda was attempting to set up a move on Kevin Magnussen, they ordered a driver swap with Ricciardo. Yuki was not happy with this, arguing with the team until relinquishing the position a couple of laps later. I understand Yuki’s frustrations. In a year where a Red Bull seat is possibly on the line for him, he needs to beat Ricciardo consistently. After being in the hunt for points, to have the team mess up his strategy and use unnecessary team orders, I would be angry as well. What was less acceptable was when Yuki decided to divebomb Ricciardo after the race had finished. Moments of road rage are not good examples to set, especially when that road rage is directed against someone you are soon going to be spending hours in meetings with.

As the junior RB team provided some entertainment, the senior RB team sucked out a lot of it. Whilst I haven’t given up hope of there being some battles for the win this season, Red Bull getting yet another 1-2 has not filled me with unbridled optimism. As this may be one of the better chances for Ferrari to win in the early portion of the season, we may have to get used to learning the Dutch National Anthem. Again.