MorrisF1

F1 is not at death’s door, but it is looking a bit sickly. None of its problems are insurmountable, but action needs to be taken or they could lead to long term decline. A few years ago the BBC hosted free-to-air, Bafta-winning coverage of the sport. Then the BBC and Sky decided to ‘share’ the coverage, a situation we have recently seen continue between Sky and Channel 4 (in reality, Channel 4 got half live and half highlights coverage, Sky being fully live). Next year, almost the entire sport goes behind the Sky pay wall (British viewers will get to see the British Grand Prix live on Channel 4. Everything else is highlights or Sky). Why does that matter? Well, for the UK, more than half the teams are based in a small part of southern England. It’s great for the teams, because engineers can change jobs without moving country, and sometimes without moving house or forcing their kids to switch schools. It’s also great for the economy, as F1 brings in high end, well-paid jobs,

Mercedes Hamilton Bottas Points 408 247 Points finishes 20 19 Pointless finishes 0 0 DNFs 1 2 Points per finish (average) 20.4 13 Looking at those stats, the sheer chasm between the two drivers is laid bare. Must say it was larger than I imagined. Hamilton’s average points (per finish, so discounting the DNF) is between a 1 st and 2 nd place. That’s unbeatable. Bottas’ equivalent stat is between a 3 rd and 4 th , which isn’t bad by any stretch but is only two-thirds what Hamilton achieved. Indeed, by the end of the 14 th race (Italy), exactly two-thirds through the season, Hamilton had 256 points, exceeding Bottas’ final tally. It’s worth noting Bottas had some bad luck, occasionally being hit by others, and the debris in Baku robbed him of a certain victory, replacing a 25 po

Racing There were some very good races indeed, and some absolute dogs. Season-long patterns were also interesting, as the initial Mercedes-Ferrari fight became a three way battle when Red Bull improved in the latter half of the season. The best of the rest contest was also intriguing (NB Renault would’ve narrowly beaten Force India even had the Pink Panthers kept their pre-takeover points tally), and the midfield was tightly competitive (excepting Williams, who languished at the back for pretty much the whole season). I’ll look at how the driver pairings stacked up in intra-team battles in more detail in a separate post, probably as a precursor to looking at next year’s pairings. This review will focus more on title contenders, the fight for third, and the battle to be best of the rest. Title Duel At the start of the year, Hamilton seemed to have the Australian Grand Prix sewn up, only to lose it to a cunning Ferrari strategy call, bringing Vettel in for a rela

An entertaining race, though not a classic. The race bet was half-green, meaning the weekend as a whole was red to a small extent. Off the line, it was formation flying for the front rows. Verstappen seemed to get off the line well but a sensor problem that made his engine think it was dangerously hot prevented full power deployment meant he got swamped in the second phase of the getaway and he slipped down to 9 th . Hulkenberg and Leclerc started well, the Monegasque passing Grosjean, and Hulkenberg doing likewise. Briefly. In what most will see as a racing incident (could argue the Frenchman should’ve backed off, but it’s tight lap one racing so perhaps harsh), they bumped and Hulkenberg’s Renault did a roll, ending up on its roof. Then it burst into flames. The German couldn’t get out because of the halo (a safety feature). Thankfully, alert marshals were on hand to immediately extinguish the fire before it roasted the driver, and Hulkenberg was unharmed, talki

Well, I got that wrong. Raikkonen was some way off, so it was plain misjudgement on my part. Very surprised just how big the Mercedes advantage was, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the pace running order reversed in the race, as happened to a large extent in Brazil. Alone of the top six, Verstappen starts on the hypersoft. This may harm his prospects, but that didn’t really happen much at the last race. And the Red Bull is pretty kind to its tyres. In Q1 there was no surprise to see the Williams slowest. This year’s car has been horrendous, harking back to the blue days of yesteryear and making the recent relative revival under Massa and Bottas seem a long time ago. Vandoorne also failed to progress. Somewhat more surprising was a double Toro Rosso departure. Gasly would’ve escaped but just before the last corner he suffered a reliability failure that robbed him of power and booted him from qualifying. Very bad luck for the Frenchman. Q2 had one or two notable featu

Interesting little stat I noticed. Hulkenberg, likely to win best of the rest, has 6 DNFs to Sainz's 2. The Spaniard only has one more points finish, and trails his team mate by 45 points to 69. Hulkenberg will likely have stern competition from Ricciardo next year, but that's a very impressive performance against Sainz. When it comes to post-season analysis, I’m likely going to split it between the top 6 and the rest, as that seems a more sensible way of assessing things. It appears that Mercedes at least now has a super party mode which is for qualifying only. That increases the divergence between qualifying and race performance and may explain why the Red Bull has been so competitive in races compared to qualifying recently. Off-track news: Kubica has been signed up for Williams as a race driver next year. It’ll be eight years since he last drove, and he needs to drive about 70% left-handed due to weakness in his right hand. I hope the Pole does well. Reacti

A very exciting race but, alas, not a profitable one. Magnussen came close, but as Massa could tell him, coming close doesn’t get you what you want. Pit stop timing rather shafted him, but I’ll discuss that more below. At the sharp end things were very competitive, and it was a cracking race. Off the line, the Ferraris stumbled, Bottas leaping ahead of Vettel and Verstappen passing Raikkonen. Ricciardo, further back due to his grid penalty, had a great start and by the time I thought to check on his position he was all but on the back of the top group. The Ferraris looked oddly slow early on, despite Raikkonen rapidly retaking his place from Verstappen. Hamilton was building a small lead and Bottas was a moving roadblock, a position he’d hold for the entire race. Vettel went wide after locking a brake and Raikkonen passed him. The German was weirdly off the pace today. A few laps into the race Verstappen was looking very fast. He passed one, then another, and before yo

Qualifying did indeed turn out to be a Hamilton-Vettel duel (the Briton coming out on top), but with the interesting addition that both men should face penalties. Hamilton got in Raikkonen’s way on a hot lap, and Vettel broke the weigh bridge when he failed to observe the usual procedure. Rain was expected, contrary to the forecast, in Q1. Light rain did fall, but didn’t affect pace much. Both McLarens and Hartley failed to progress, as did Stroll. More impressively, Sirotkin squeaked into Q2, just five-thousandths ahead of Sainz, who was undone by a slight increase in rainfall. Q2 had strategic cunning from Ferrari. As with everyone else, eager to get out before rain stole speed, they went out on the fastest tyre (supersoft, the others being soft and medium). Then they came back in to bolt on soft tyres. This went smoothly for Raikkonen but Vettel, frustrated due to the need to get out ahead of the rain, was called to the weigh bridge. He kept the engine on, contrary to us

Interlagos is perhaps my favourite circuit on the calendar. Races can be good in the wet or the dry, and it rains quite a lot. This can help some people (Verstappen and Hulkenberg could be ones to watch) more than others. With the Drivers’ title wrapped up (although the Constructors’ is still just about in play for Ferrari), the focus at the sharp end will be on winning rather than clocking up the points to fall over the line. Renault have more or less won the best-of-the-rest division, but will still be keen to ensure Haas have little chance of coming back. The 2019 Drivers’ market is up, though not the Constructors’. I think Gasly at 26 and Leclerc at 8.5 may be worth considering, each way (fifth the odds top three), though I haven’t backed either at the time of writing. Pre-practice, Ricciardo was 4 not to be classified. In the last 8 races he’s failed to finish 4 times, and has 8/19 DNFs over the course of the season. Why are his odds so long? It’s been annou

The Perez bet didn’t come off almost entirely due to bad luck. He had one-stopped, as had those around him, was behind Hulkenberg but ahead of Leclerc, so the each way part of the bet would’ve come off. However, a very rare Force India reliability failure forced him to box and retire. Ocon also suffered misfortune, with an early entanglement forcing a lap one pit stop, the two stops relegating him into the pointless positions. I had to admit, I wasn’t sure if Ricciardo’s bet came off or not. I think the definition is anyone finishing within the last 10% of laps counts as classified, so my thought was he probably counts as not classified, but I had to log on to find out (it’d irk me not knowing overnight). Off the line, Verstappen started perfectly, aided by Ricciardo starting dreadfully. Ricciardo dropped a few places, and Vettel’s early braking into the first corner compromised Raikkonen, who had to do likewise and got passed by a Renault (though the Finn soon passed in re