A fantastic Mexican GP that was gripping from beginning to finish that saw Lando Norris have one of the best weekends he`s had in his F1 carrier. From scoring pole to a dominating win, to take the lead in the championship from the first time ! Good performance from Ferrari and Charles, an unfortunate 10sec penalty derailed Hamilton who also was having a good weekend until then. An absolutely fantastic race from Bearman from Hass to finish a team history best 4th position, he had a fantastic race!
A masterclass weekend from Max Verstappen who pretty much dominated everything this weekend from Sprint, Qualifying and the race ! Underlying amazing consistency from him and the RB car in his hands ! We saw both Mclarens coming together in a crash at the sprint race ! During the race the Ferrari`s had a good pace this weekend underlying unexpected pace to come in 3rd and 4th ! Paistri had another really weak weekend coming in out of the top 3 !
What a Singapore GP under the lights. Russell and Mercedes outlined how much their car has taken a step from grabbing pole to having a dominating win ! While Mclaren sealed an impressive constructors Championship for a 2nd year in a row, all the talk was about the Papaya rules after Norris made contact with Piastri in the opening laps. Piastri was not happy with Mclaren`s response! RB and Max showed yet again that their car has now taken a step forward with them being a challenge to Mclaren at every track! Ferrari unfortunately had another disappointing weeekend.
A remarkable dominant win from Max underlying hsi raw talent that allowed not to make any mistakes from Quali to the race, even when the best of drivers crashed out or made sever mistakes hitting the infamous Baku walls. He has now closed the gap to Oscar to just 69 pts in 2 race weekends, which is remarkable. A nightmare weekend for Mclaren, but specifically from Oscar Piastri netted him zero point leaving Baku after a crash while Norris only fared on 7th place! An excelled performance from Merc as they came in 2nd with a fantastic drive from Rusell, and an fantastic drive from Kimi who came in 4th. A brilliant day for Sainz who came in 3rd for Williams, and also Liam Lawson who came in 5th and qualified in a top 3 position the day before!
An absolute clinic from Max Verstappen on the fastest race in F1 history at 1 Hr and 13 mins ! He dominated with a blistering pole and was able to maintain an amazing pace during the race without making a mistake. The Mclarens who finished 2nd and 3rd were mixed up in a strategy controversy when Lando had a slow pit stop and the drivers were told to switch positions. The strategy team decided it was best to keep the peace and switched the positions around. We hear in the podcast from Mclaren race leadership Andrea regarding the matter.
What turned out to be a brilliant race after the summer break, that had everything from crashes to a thrilling flag to flag win for Piastri ! Unfortunate day for Norris who was on his way to 2nd when hsi power unit gace out with onlky 8 laps to go ! A fantastic race from the rookie Hadjer to hold on to a podium finish ! Miserable day for Ferrari with a Hamilton crash, and Lecriec being taken out by Antonelli of Mercedes.
Another fantastic race weekend that saw Charles grab a shocking pole for Ferrari who show a good step up in pace after thier recent upgrade ! There was a pretty dejected Lewis after Quali saying words like I am useless, and Ferrari need a new drive which shocked the F1 community. On Sunday we saw a fantastic battle between the two Mclarens which saw Lando take an exciting victory! Russell did a fantastic drive for Mercedes to claim third position and reverse the negative trend for Mercedes. Charles unfortunately had a chassis issue late in the race to deny him of a podium finish for Ferrari and he was really frustrated.
Another race weekend at Spa and we had thrilling Sprint race with Max showing a masterclass to win against the faster Mclarens. On race day with rain coming the race was delayed 1 hour and 20 mins, which was way too long. This delayed race compromised Max very heavily since he's car was configured for rain conditions. Oscar had a a strong race making an amazing move at the beginning at Eau Rouge passing Norris sealing the race win. Norris came second. Ferrari had a strong with weekend with their heavily updated car with Charles securing a third place even with heavy pressure from Max all weekend. Hamilton had a very strong Sunday coming from behind to finish 7th passing a lot of cars. Mercedes really had a tough weekend with the car seeming to regress the last few weeks, and they need to find a solution fast, and Kimi Antonelli has really struggled as of late especially this weekend.
In a very unexpected news bombshell, we were told the news last week that Horner head of RB was removed from everyday operation of running the team after 20 years and building the team from the ground up. In this podcast I examine the possible reasons on what may have occurred, from reports that have surfaced.
An amazingly chaotic, crazy race day caused by the changeable weather, and decisions in reactions to the rain that teams had to do ! Also the incredible job of keeping these fast F1 cars on the track that all drivers faced today. There were a lot of drivers and cars that fell victim but the day belonged to Mclaren and Norris who claimed a victory thanks to a 10 Sec penalty leveled at Paistri for brake testing Max behind the safety car ! But the massive highlight of the race was actually not Norris surprisingly it was Nico Hulkenberg who secured a podium after 238 race starts, and securing a podium for Kick Sauber after 13 years ! He did not put a foot wrong in these very diffcult conditions, and the team executed without any mistakes !! He made history today !
A brilliant titanic battle that saw a big battle between the two McLaren's with Lando having a much-needed brilliant weekend in scoring qualifying and also defending against Oscar during the race. Unfortunately Antonelli made a huge rookier error and took out Max on the very first laps.
Canada provided a crazy interesting race with a Dominant weekend for Mercedes. Russell had a hat trick weekend scoring pole, fastest lap and a fantastic win ! His young rookie Antonelli scored his first podium capping a fantastic weekend. The Mclaren`s had a coming together with Norris trying a move that doesnt exist and crashing against the wall and ending his race ! That was a major loss for Norris who lost a lot of point this weekend !
A Spanish GP that most of us circled with a new front wing directive coming into effect did nothing to slow the Mclaren Rocketship piloted and won by Oscar Piastri ! The race went into a different interesting chapter when Kimi`s Mercedes suffered another PU issue and retired which has become a really worrying trend lately for the usually bulletproof Merc engines! Max was put on Hard tires while those around him on the restart had better grip tires. Lecric after a quick fight and slight bump with Max managed to overtake him, Russell who was behind went for it and Max aggressively closed the gap and veered towards Russell. The team told Max to give the position to Russell which really upset him, and in the process of Rusell closing in thinking Max was letting him pass Max in what seemed on purpose hit the side of Russell`s car. Max was given 10 sec penalty which dropped him to 10th position and also 3 penalty license pts. Another major highlight was Hulkerberg who was able to bag 5th position on the last lap by passing Hamilton giving Sauber and their upgraded car a fantastic result and weekend.
As always the beautiful ocean view of Monaco, with the backdrop of superyachts, provided the best Saturday Quali of the year with Lando providing a stunning lap to steal pole from Monaco born Charles who had topped all practice sessions ! Lando also shattered the all time lap record for Monaco ! Sunday unfortunately with its new mandatory 2 stop rule was a procession with teams playing teammate games to hold teams behind them up ! This rule really needs a tweak for next year ! Mclaren and Lando scored a strong win but Mercedes conversly had a very tough weekend suffering a two car loss on the all imoprotant Satuday. Kimi crashed, and Russell suffered a power loss issue making them start Sunday from 14th & 15th. The strategy they employed didn't have any risk or gamble on Sunday but was further hampered by Williams dirty tactics that other teams were also doing.
A really intriguing race with Max making an impressive move at the start of the race to go ahead and seal a 4th victory in a row on one of his favorite tracks striking a blow to the Mclarens who finished 2nd and 3rd ! Lando had a strong race to wrestle 2nd from his teamate Piastri who did not have the greatest of days ! Ferrari and specifically Hamilton had a great recovery race day, after embarasingly being eliminated in Q2 in Quali in thier home turf !
A Miami Sprint and race weekend that had action for the ages. A brilliant performance by young pilot Kimi for Merc to be the youngest pole sitter in F1 history! One of the best sprint races we have ever seen with tire strategy, weather decisions, crashes and overtakes Mia delivered. The race showed just showed how superior Mclaren was with Piastri taking another brilliant win with Lano behind me, and Rusell with another great solid drive to round out third. Ferrari are really struggling right now!
We saw an amazing performance from Oscan Piastri who had a heavy duel on the opening lights with Max Verstappen who had an amazing weekend and clinched pole. Max overtook on the outside and was given a 5 sec penalty and that pretty much dictated the race. The RB had a faster pace than the Mclaren this weekend. Norris unfortunately had another wobble this weekend when he crashed his Mclaren during Quali and had to start from 10th but recovered to finish 4th. A positive race weekend for Ferrari and Charles who scored thier first podium coming in 3rd, while Hamilton unfortunately cvonstinues to struggle.
An outstanding fantastic weekend for Piastri who score a hat trick pole and win this weekend! What a fitting 50th F1 start for the Mclaren pilot ! His teammate Norris had a tough weekend filled with mistakes but still came in 3rd. Mercedes and Russell had one of the gutsiest fantastic drives battling car issues from brake wire to steering wheel all at over 220KPH but still fending off a fast Mclaren behind to bring in a brilliant 2nd for Merc ! RedBull and Max unfortunately had a disastrous weekend ! They were down the order, had mutiple pitstop issues, but, Max still savaged 6th from last ! A crisis was called for senior RB management after the race.
A stunning unexpected pole from Max and RB on Saturday pretty much sealed a race win for Max on a Sunday! He did not put a foot wrong this weekend, and the Mclarens were on the back foot. During the race there was a strategy question whether to switch Oscar for Norris as Oscar was faster so he can chase Max, but at the end of the day the track was very difficult to pass. Yuki`s mich anticapted debut in his own country did not result in a good outcome for the race, but we will see what happens in future races ! Mercedes Anotnelli had a record break weekend has a became the youngest driver in F1 history to score a fastest lap and also lead a Grand Prix ! This young man is one to watch!
We had an interesting Chinese GP weekend that served up our 1st Sprint race of the new season. Hamilton scored a really surprising victory in Sprint highlighting a very controlled Sprint Qualifying, and race ! Ferrari had a tale of two half's, when after the race they ended having both cars disqualified , along with Gaslys Alpine for being underweight, and Hamiltons car having worn skid blocks. During the race Piastri had a fantastic victory for Mclaren, while Norris nursed brake issues to come 2nd , while Mercedes had another great weekend with Rusell, and Antonelli doing another solid job with finishing in 7th even though it was later found out he had floor damage.
