Author: JL

Them’s the Rules

The Formula is changing. In 2022 we will see the largest single regulation change in F1 history. As is always the case in Formula 1, the rule makers want to create better, more exciting racing and in this version of the Formula, they are stripping everything to basics and changing the aerodynamic philosophy of the sport. Formula 1 has been busy over the last four years researching, testing and simulating their way to the best solution. The numbers have been mindboggling, they have conducted over 7500 simulations, created over 21 iterations of the design for the car and have collected half a petabyte of data to work from. This is enough data to fill 10 million standard four drawer filling cabinets full of paper. After all of this, what have they decided I can hear you ask? Well, you came to the right place. In this article I will do my best to explain the upcoming regulation changes and the ways in which they will change the spectacle, hopefully for the better. The changes can be conveniently put into three areas of the car: the aero, the tyres and the fuel. By far the largest is in the aero department so let’s start there.

Venturi Effect

The aerodynamic performance of the 2021 cars was the best it has ever been. They cornered quicker than any car in history. Their large wings, winglets and other devices spread over the car helped to push it into the ground, creating grip and stability in corners that cars have no business taking so quickly. This effect is called downforce. However, with great performance does come pitfalls. This performance is gained by manipulating the air that passes over their car in a way which helps this suction effect and sticks the car to the ground. Formula 1 cars perform best when running in undisturbed air but once they pass through it, the air is heated and energised so doesn’t flow over the car behind as expected. Imagine the difference in water before and after a boat has moved through it. If you stand at the back of a boat, you will see this ‘wake’ of disturbed, almost bubbly water. This is the same effect that an F1 car has on the air around it. If you were to drive a boat through that ‘wake’ you will be bouncing all over the place and probably feel quite sick. Within 20 meters of another, a 2021 F1 car would lose 35% of its aerodynamic efficiency and thus performance. Within 10 meters, they lost 46%. This is a massive amount when they rely so heavily on it for performance. This means that it is very hard for a car behind to be able to drive quick enough in this ‘dirty air’ to get close enough to pass the car in front. It is estimated that to pass in F1 the car behind has to be, on average, a second and a half quicker and in a formula that is so close, this is hard to do.

This new era of Formula 1 aerodynamics has two main aims:

  1. To reduce the wake or amount of dirty air that the car in front produces.
  2. To make the car behind less sensitive to this disrupted or dirty air.

While the previous aero philosophy had been to push the majority of the air over and around the car, the new one is to direct it underneath and then up over the top of the curved rear wing. This principle of using the underside of a racing side to generate negative pressure which produces downforce is commonly known as ground effect.

Can you spot the differences between these two cars? F1 2021 vs F1 2022 (L-R)

Ground effect has history in Formula 1, with the cars of the late 70s and early 80s deploying this aerodynamic phenomenon to gain performance over their rivals still relying mainly on mechanical grip and rudimentary wings. The difference between then and now is then’s use of ‘skirts’ around the edge of the car to direct and trap in the air between the underbody of the car and the road, while the new era sends it underneath as part of a more compact chassis. The Lotus 79 below demonstrates these skirts, the structure where the Olympus advertising sits while the McLaren MCL36 contrasts its with more compact bodywork and use of sidepods (look for DeWalt) behind the front tyres to direct the air to the floor.

The proportions of the two eras couldn’t be more different as they demonstrate different ways the aerodynamics can be worked!
Pictured: Ronnie Peterson in the Lotus 79 & McLaren MCL36

This new era of ground effect relies on what is known as the Venturi Effect. The theory is that you create an area of lower pressure by isolating and squeezing air into a narrowing tunnel, which speeds it up. This area of lower pressure on the floor creates a downwards suction and pushes the car into the ground. The bodywork traps the air in that ‘Venturi tunnel’ and because downforce is generated elsewhere, it doesn’t require as many exterior aero devices. As a result, the car is smoother so doesn’t energise the air travelling over the car behind as much. This should mean the car behind can follow much closer, for longer without losing as much performance. From the simulations that Formula 1 have run with cars at the 2022 specifications, it is estimated that the loss of downforce at 20 meters will be reduced to 4% and 18% at 10 meters. This is way down from the 35% and 46% of the current crop. This should hopefully make the cars easier to race and provide the drivers with conditions in which they can be aggressive and fight without everything overheating and losing performance.

18-inch Wheels

The aerodynamics aren’t the only area of the cars that is getting an uplift in 2022. The tyres are going from 13-inch to 18-inch rims and are losing some of their profile. Losing their profile means the amount of rubber on the tyre’s rim is being reduced. Despite the obvious visual difference, these changes have a big effect on the tyre’s performance. The new low profile tyres won’t deform or move as much under lateral forces, meaning they won’t overheat as easily. This should mean that the drivers can push for longer and run close together without burning them out. The tyre revamp is not just to help their performance but has also been incorporated into the aerodynamic philosophy. The tyres will now have covers. This is to help control the amount of heat ejected from the tyre rims which will reduce the wake created by them. The front tyres will also include winglets on the inside plane of the tyre to help direct air into the Venturi tunnels on the floor of the car, rather than it being pushed outside. The pictures below will probably do a much better job of describing the looks than me.

Wheel Cover on the Left and Winglet on the Right

E10 Fuel

The final area of change on the new breed of F1 cars is in the fuel. In an effort to move towards running completely sustainable fuel by 2025, the new fuel compound will include 10% sustainably produced ethanol alongside 90% petroleum product. While helping sustainability, it also theoretically takes away 20 horsepower but the whispers from the engine manufacturers seem to indicate that they have already found that performance back, highlighting their adaptability and problem solving power.

What to expect

While the regulation change is aimed at making the racing closer, this reset of the rules also gives the teams a fresh start and an opportunity for the pecking order to change. A team lower down the grid could find a better solution to the new regulations and move up the grid as the others try to replicate their idea. This has happened at the previous two big changes: Brawn and Red Bull in 2009 and Mercedes in 2014. Ironically, this is the same team that the new regulations have been partly created to reel in. With the new wind tunnel restrictions, the teams at the bottom of the championship get more time using theirs, so this should give them even more of a chance to move up. Ferrari in particular will benefit from their terrible 2020 as that sixth place finish has granted them a lot more time in their wind tunnel than the frontrunners over the last year, as per the regulations. Expect them to be quick. While the regulations can cause a shake-up, don’t be surprised to see Mercedes and Red Bull right up there when points are on offer in Bahrain, as is the sheer quality of those two teams. One thing I am hoping for this season is for a variety of winners as the teams and drivers get used to and learn more about these new breed of machine across the different tracks. I am sure performance levels will vary great between the circuits in the first quarter of the season.

After the F1 shakedown in Barcelona, the cars looked amazing and the drivers, particularly the Ferrari drivers had complementary things to say about the desired effects F1 has been seeking (see above). This all bodes well for, hopefully, another highly competitive and unforgettable chapter in the high speed journey that is Formula 1.

A tribute to the Iceman

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - AUGUST 21: Kimi Raikkonen of Finland and McLaren celebrates after victory in the Turkish Formula One Grand Prix at Istanbul Park on August 21, 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

This year we said goodbye to one of the best. While he was seemingly looking forward to it, the majority of F1 fans, if not all, were sad to see him go. Lets introduce this F1 legend with the cold hard facts: He raced for five teams in his F1 career which included some of biggest names in the sport’s history. These teams were: Sauber (2001), McLaren (2002-2006), Ferrari (2007-2009 & 2014-2018), Lotus (2012-2013) and Alfa Romeo (2019-2021). He entered 353 races over 20 years, starting 349 (a record), winning 21, started on pole for 18, and finished on the podium after 103. His lone championship came in 2007, while he finished runner up twice and third 3 times with 3 of his teams. Statistically, it is one of the most note worthy careers in Formula 1 history. Culturally, Kimi Raikkonen’s is THE F1 career of modern times.

To me, he was the second in a Finnish-McLaren dynasty that started with the ‘Flying Finn’ Mika Hakkinen and ended by cementing my obsession with F1. The quiet, no nonsense and scarily quick Finns were the perfect counterpart to the organised grey machine that was Ron Dennis’ McLaren of the 1990/2000s.

Before this, Kimi burst onto the scene as a 21 year old who had only entered 23 single seater races in his junior career when Peter Sauber plugged him into his namesake team. He was instantly quick, scoring a point on his debut in Australia when points were only handed out to the top 6 places. Reports came out post-race that the young Finn could be found having a nap 30 minutes before the biggest race of his career so far and the legend of the ‘Iceman’ was born. Kimi and his teammate Nick Heidfeld lead the team to it’s best placing in the Constructors championship with 4th, both showing pace and flashes of brilliance, be it a quick qualifying lap or a brave overtake. This got them both swirled within the rumour mill for a move to McLaren with Mika Hakkinen retiring. The Mercedes backed Heidfeld was the bookie’s favourite for the drive. However, the Finnish connection paid dividends as Mika Hakkinen’s repeated recommendations convinced Ron Dennis to sign The Iceman for 2002.

I was having a shit

When asked why he missed Pele’s presentation to Michael Schumacher in Brazil, 2006.

The McLaren years of Kimi’s career are my fondest memories of him but they are also tainted with a hint of disappointment. He was instantly quick when strapped into a McLaren, scoring a podium on his first outing, but wins were hard to come by early on with Ferrari and Schumacher dominating. He came very close in France 2002 but was victim of an oil spill at the hairpin at Magny-Cours with a handful of laps to go and finished second to Schumi. His first win did come at the second race of 2003, at the Malaysian Grand Prix, in great style from 7th on the grid. He could have won the first race of the season if not for an electrical system failure which caused him to speed in the pitlane and get a drive through penalty, dropping him to 3rd. This would become a theme and it is the root of my previously mentioned disappointment. Kimi’s McLaren career was plagued by unreliability, so plagued it cost him a World Championship and basically wrote off the 2004 season. In his first three years at McLaren, Kimi didn’t have a car truly quick enough to realistically challenge for a title. This changed in 2005 when a regulations shake-up ended Ferrari’s grip on the sport so McLaren and Renault took up the fight. The McLaren in the hands of Kimi was the fastest package on the grid but too many times, while leading the race, his car let him down. He was comfortably driving away in Imola and Hockenheim when driveshaft and hydraulic failures stopped him in his tracks – I still have flashbacks to ITV coming back from an advert break to find Kimi going slowly at the top of the hill at the San Marino circuit. His other retirement from a leading position that year was suspension failure on the last lap brought on by vibrations after Kimi locked up heavily lapping Jacque Villeneuve. While you were not allowed to pit for fresh tyres during the race in 2005, they were allowed if a ‘punctured or damaged tyre’ happened for ‘clear and genuine safety reasons’. As the last lap crash which nearly took out Jenson Button’s BAR proves, this could be deemed one of those times – something later the FIA would confirm. A pitstop would have had him finish a comfortable 3rd. I am getting to my point I swear – each time Kimi retired from the lead, who was it that won the race? It was his title rival Fernando Alonso. While Kimi lost 26 point from winning positions, his title rival directly gained 6 points because of them. The final standing show that Alonso scored 133 points to Kimi’s 112. If we add 26 to Kimi’s and take 6 away from Fernando’s totals, the final standings are reversed in Kimi’s favour – 138 to 127. Job done, case closed.

Leave me alone, I know what to do!

When in the lead at Abu Dhabi 2012 and his race engineer reminds him to warm all four tyres.

2005 would be the best chance for Kimi to win a title at McLaren as in 2006 the car was quick but the old foe unreliability (and a dose of bad luck) meant the team did not record a victory in a season for the first time in at least 10 years. At the Italian Grand Prix of that year, my young self’s worst nightmares came true – my hero, Kimi Raikkonen, announced he had signed for the Empire, the Arch Nemesis, The Red Team: Scuderia Ferrari. However, it would turn out to be a career defining decision.

Kimi won his first race outing and the championship at the first time of asking with Ferrari in 2007, snatching it away from Lewis Hamilton after coming back from 17 points down with 2 races and 20 points left for the taking. This came with a sense of retribution for Kimi fans but also with a large dollop of irony as it was McLaren unreliability in Brazil that made it possible. Despite winning a title, his first Ferrari career never hit it’s potential as an inconsistent Kimi in 2008, who was beaten by his lesser teammate Felipe Massa, and a slow car in 2009 skuppering any chance of a championship run. Kimi flashed his blistering speed at times but was becoming disillusioned with the world of F1 and everything that came with the racing so decided to step away at the end of the 2009, despite having a contract with Ferrari through 2010. This was the unique quality about Kimi Raikkonen, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with the circus of F1, and he didn’t seem to have to dedicate his whole life to stay in the sport. For Kimi, F1 was the hobby that paid the bills. Although, it did help that Ferrari paid his multi-million pound wage to not drive for them in 2010, being replaced by Fernando Alonso. During his hiatus, Kimi spent his time away from the sport taking part in the Word Rally Championship and racing snowmobiles under the pseudonym James Hunt, which shows his appreciation for the history of F1 and his affinity for drivers that did it their own way.

Why not?

When asked why he was returning to Alfa Romeo Sauber for 2019.

While I am sure Kimi enjoyed his time away from the sport, the allure of F1 was too much to bare and the offer of Lotus F1 to return for 2012 convinced him to come back. One defining feature of his return was a points bonus built into his contract which essentially bankrupted the team after Kimi and the car wildly exceeded expectations over his two year stretch with the team. Lotus agreed to pay Kimi €50,000 per point he scored and he called their bluff with 390 scored over the two years. This totaled €19.5 million on top of his multi-million salary.

He took a couple of races to get going but once he did, he was consistently amongst the title fight despite Vettel dominating the second half of the season. Kimi won Lotus’ first race since Ayrton Senna took the chequered flag at the 1987 Detroit Grand Prix, at the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which is where the infamous “Leave me alone, I know what to do” quote comes from. To be fair to Kimi, his race engineer was talking a lot. He followed that up by winning the opening race of 2013 using his car’s better tyre management to great effect and won comfortably. His consistant pace meant he was again in the title fight but only really as a distant 2nd to Sebastian Vettel. His relationship with Lotus would end unceremoniously after Lotus didn’t pay his salary for the whole season, I wonder why…? He didn’t drive the last two races of 2013, electing to have back surgery to fix an issue sustained in Singapore. This opened the door for a sensational return to Ferrari for 2014 to partner Fernando Alonso in an all-World Champion line-up.

Like his first Ferrari career, his second one did not get going as he essentially became an experienced wingman to Fernando Alonso and then Sebastian Vettel. There were a couple highlights but mainly it was a frustrating time for the team as they were outclassed by the Mercedes juggernaut. Only one pole and one win came in that time, both during 2018, in Italy and USA respectively. Towards the end of 2018, it was announced that Charles Leclerc would move from Alfa Romeo to Ferrari, which meant that Kimi had to make way for him. He would switch seats with the Monegasque driver and partner Antonio Giovinazzi for the remainder of his career. That career would come to a quiet end at Alfa Romeo as the car was not up to standards. In classic Kimi style, he quietly predicted to himself that 2021 would be his last in 2020 using F1’s YouTube channel and left without a fuss with his family in Abu Dhabi.

What made Kimi Raikkonen special was his all-time natural speed, there was no time for thought, his style was just pure instinct and reaction. He admitted himself that he didn’t have brake markers, he just braked when he felt the moment was right. What made him a fan favourite was that he was unapologetically Kimi and his rejection of the media baggage that came with the sport. Mika Hakkinen told him early on that if you don’t engage with the media they will eventually leave you alone, and Kimi happily obliged. However, this only seemed to create a cult following, keeping the media at his door. His nickname ‘The Iceman’ fitted him perfectly: a seemingly unflappable personality off track with terminator-like ruthlessness on track. At his peak, he was the quickest driver in the world but unfortunately he didn’t have a car quick or reliable enough to prove it, however when he did, he usually won.

Kimi will be sorely missed in F1 and will go down as an all-time great. So for the final time: Kimi for President!

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Abu Dhabi Edition

Welcome to the twenty second and final edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

Sorry if this feels like too late to post about this now but I needed time to fully digest, reflect and settle on my feelings towards the final race of 2021. What a season its been and writing about it has given me a different way to experience and understand Formula 1. Thank you for being on the journey with me during my first season of writing things down, whoever or wherever you are and I hope it has, at the very least, given you something to pass the time.

It was never going to end smoothly, this season’s story wasn’t going to go out with a whimper. As you expect, I have my own opinion on the events in Abu Dhabi but I will get to that. Firstly, congratulations to Max Verstappen on winning his first World Championship. He does deserve to win the title this year, make no mistake about that. He has been mighty; consistant, brave, precise, decisive, resilient but most importantly really, really quick. He has shown that he can handle anything a title fight can throw at him. This was not a Mercedes vs Red Bull battle, the teams were evenly matched and evenly powerful, both having their advantages. This was a Hamilton vs Verstappen battle. Both drivers elevated themselves and pushed each other to a level I don’t think I have seen in my life. They dominated this championship completely and Max came out on top in the end.

The final 10 minutes of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 will live in the annuls of Formula 1 history forever. However, to understand my feelings towards the outcome, you need to look at the whole race. This was a championship decider on a level F1 has only seen one other time. No matter what had happened previously, the championship would be decided by who crossed the finish line at the end of the 58th lap first: Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton. As with this season’s form, the two title rivals locked out the front row, but it was not on equal ground. The Red Bulls would both be starting the race on the soft tyre compared to the medium on the Mercedes. This was caused by Max Verstappen locking up in Q2 and flat spotting his medium set. The start reminded me of Abu Dhabi 2014 when Hamilton nailed the launch from 2nd to take the lead against Rosberg. This took away Red Bull’s tactical advantage of using the soft tyres to build a gap. You knew Max was going to try something straight away if he was overtaken at the start and he dutifully obliged at Turn 6 with a big lunge down the inside but one that I think Lewis left the space open to attack. Lewis turned in, was blocked by the Red Bull’s presence on the inside and drove over the run off area to get back on track. This is the first point of controversy. Hamilton keeps the position by going off track but he was forced there by a late lunge from Verstappen. This is also the first case of inconsistency from race control. In the final four races there have been two incidents of Verstappen perceivingly forcing both or one of the drivers off of the road, when defending the position but he received two different decisions – a penalty and a pass. This is why I think the decision there really could have gone either way depending on how the stewards felt at that time and in this race they were more relaxed because they felt that when Hamilton rejoined the track he established the previous gap between himself and Verstappen. Hamilton then worked to build an 8 second gap before shadowing Red Bull’s pitstop onto the hards on Lap 14 and 15 respectively. The gap was now stretching out towards 10 seconds before Sergio Perez did some great defensive driving to hold up Hamilton and close the gap to Verstappen to only 1.3 seconds. His driving was borderline slow but fine, he just made his car nice and wide. Once they dispatched the Mexican, Hamilton once again built a lead of around 8 seconds to Verstappen on the hards until Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo packed up and brought out the Virtual Safety Car. Mercedes decided to stay out and keep track position but Red Bull pitted Max for a new set of hards. This put Max 18 seconds back with just over 20 laps left to go. He needed 0.8 seconds a lap to catch back up. At the time, I thought Mercedes should have pitted Hamilton to give him the tyre advantage on a day where he was the quickest package out there, but after the initial chase of Verstappen the pace advantage the Dutchman had started to diminish as Hamilton kept his old hard tyres in condition while maintaining the lap time. The laps started to count down quicker than the gap until Hamilton held a 12 second lead with 5 laps to go. This is where the root of all my feelings lie – without Nicolas Latifi crashing at Turn 14, bringing out the Safety Car, Lewis Hamilton would have deservedly won the title decider, and therefore the title. Everything that transpired after that contradicts what I know deep down in my soul to be true – Hamilton deserved to win the race and, because of that fact, he deserved to win the F1 World Championship as well. I am not taking anything away from Max Verstappen, he deserved to the win title as well, but he did not deserve to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That is the wonderful contradiction of our sport; every single race matters in a championship but, sometimes, the last one means that little bit more.

Once the Safety Car came out it swung things back into Red Bull’s hands if the race were to restart. They pitted Verstappen in clear air for soft tyres while Mercedes couldn’t risk pitting and losing track position that late on with the possibility of the race not restarting. This pitted Lewis’s worn hards against Max’s new softs, not a completely done deal but a very large advantage. Now, to the second instance of race control inconsistency with a bit of confusion chucked in. As Latifi’s car was on the racing line and required marshals and a recovery vehicle, a Safety Car was warranted, no problem there. While I was marching around the house, muttering to myself like a madman, the safety car did it’s thing of slowing down the leaders and collecting the rest of the pack but the real sticking point would lie with the 4 lapped drivers in between Hamilton and Verstappen. Initially, they were told that they would not be allowed to overtake the safety car to unlap themselves which felt unusual but there is confusion over if that was just while the Latifi car was being removed. Following this, there must have been a couple minutes of frantic brokering from the Red Bull and Mercedes pitwalls to Race Control about if the race should restart and lapped cars etc etc. (I agree with Ross Brawn that this communication should not happen anymore) Race Control then instructed the lapped teams on the back straight, on Lap 57 of 58, that the 4 cars could now unlap themselves but also that the safety car was ending that lap. I have suffered through enough seemingly unnecessary extra final laps under the Safety Car in my life to know that this is a part of the Sporting Regulations and Michael Masi even confirmed that at last year’s Eiffel Grand Prix. This felt like Race Control wanting to get the action underway because it was the title decider. In any other race when the ‘cars unlapping’ rule has been in force, the cars have gone round one more time once the lapped cars have passed. Don’t get me started that not all the lapped cars were allowed to overtake. Is the championship points battle the only one that matters? Once again, if the cars had gone that extra lap and finished under the Safety Car, Hamilton would be Champion. I know, I realise that this conveniently gives me the result I support, but its the sudden change from normality that is hard to accept. But accept it we must. I would not want the decision to be changed in court and Michael Masi didn’t do anything directly against the rules so there is no real argument, its just the way it went down stings deep for the Hamilton camp. For Max Verstappen fans, this Safety Car and the subsequent overtake for the title were levelling of the score for bad luck on the Dutchman’s side earlier in the year and that it’s just the way she goes. Whatever side you sit on, at least we all agree that this season has been a privilege to watch and we are lucky to have witnessed it. It truly was the season the hybrid era needed before we go into another regulation change where it could all change once again, which I can’t wait for. That will be explained further in another post.

In non championship affairs, Carlos Sainz finished his strong first season at Ferrari with a podium and took fifth place in the Driver’s Championship above Norris and Leclerc. Yuki Tsunoda saved his best result to last and Kimi finished his career with a DNF. I’ll elaborate in the rankings so lets get into it.

After Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (22 of 22)

1. Max Verstappen (+1)

Max Verstappen is World Champion and I am sure it won’t be his last. He has driven brilliantly all year, despite some moments I disagree with him on, and didn’t back down to the challenge of battling Hamilton. The weekend was building nicely after being on the backfoot in practice and he took a surprise pole by over a quarter of a second. Once the race got going though, it seemed he didn’t have an answer to the pace of Hamilton and needed the intervention of others to help. He got this and then took his opportunity when it came, that’s what champions do.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-1)

What a heartbreaking way to lose a championship. Lewis Hamilton has had to suffer through a few of those in his career but this will probably feel the worst. He will be back next year, despite all the rumour, he is too much of a competitor to leave this fight with that outcome. He did everything in his control to win the championship in Abu Dhabi which should be a silver lining when the emotions die down, he still has the speed to go and try to win it again.

Carlos Sainz (+3)

This isn’t just last race bias, Carlos’ season has been bubbling away, showing consistant pace compared to his highly rated teammate throughout, whilst transitioning into one of the hottest seats in F1 better than other drivers changing teams with year. Abu Dhabi was the icing on the cake after a series of weekends that showed promise at times but didn’t come together. He qualified as the lead Ferrari in fifth which was quickly converted to fourth at the start as he flew back Norris into Turn 6. He was there to capitalise on the unreliability of Perez’s Red Bull to claim his third podium of the season and fifth in the Driver’s Championship, which is essentially best of the rest after the two championship teams. This gives him great momentum into the winter with a new set of regulations coming that Ferrari are banking on getting them back in the mix. Binotto is already talking about contract extensions which I think has been deserved and more.

4. Charles Leclerc (-1)

Charles was unfortunately another example of a Ferrari driver taking an early pitstop in an Abu Dhabi title decider and coming to regret it, frustrated in traffic. This time, the consequences were less severe but a tenth place did lose Leclerc his inter and intra team championship battles to drop from fifth to seventh. He just didn’t have the pace to get past the traffic to be in no mans land by the late safety car. He used that to collect one point but it wasn’t enough in the end.

5. Lando Norris (-1)

Lando can not catch a break at the moment. He was looking good for fifth before he had to pit late because of another slow puncture. This took away fifth in the championship for the young brit who really stamped his place in the F1 world this year. His consistent pace rewarded him with 20 points scoring finishes including four podiums and a whole lot of respect from fans worldwide. His final qualifying lap for third on the grid was a thing of beauty after being more towards the bottom end of the top 10 throughout the session. Its just another instance of Norris’ talent shining through the crowd.

6. Pierre Gasly (-1)

Pierre deserves to be in this group of elite youngsters making their way to the front of the F1 grid. He has been outstanding this season in the Alpha Tauri. He missed out on Q3 while his teammate made it and used the late safety car to move up to fifth for what must be the team’s best result of the season. Can Alpha Tauri give him the platform he needs to challenge for titles? I’m not so sure unless these regulations really do mix it up.

7. Sergio Perez (+2)

Sergio was the more effective teammate when it came down to it as he was able to get in the way and hold up Hamilton which would be crucial for giving Verstappen a chance to overtake later. Without losing the 8 seconds behind Perez, Hamilton would be have been able to pit after Latifi crashed and not lose position to Max. He hasn’t been able to get near Max at times but that is not what Red Bull really want from Perez, they want exactly what they got in Abu Dhabi, good teamwork to help Max win. Unfortunately, I don’t think he has the pace to beat Verstappen in a straight fight so that is what Red Bull is going to get.

8. Fernando Alonso (-1)

I think we can class Fernando’s return to F1 as a success. Another double points scoring finish in Abu Dhabi for Alpine with Alonso in front. His highlight being his first podium since 2014 in Qatar. I think if the car is half decent next year, Alonso could be dangerous, he is still one of the fastest out there.

9. Esteban Ocon (-1)

Despite a victory in Hungary, Esteban was beaten by his teammate in his first year back. However, as mentioned with the victory, it was a year of progress for Ocon and Alpine. He really looked strong the last couple of races but doesn’t quite get into that group of elite young drivers.

10. George Russell (-+)

Finally George can move over to Mercedes after a great three year stint at Williams, where he made that team relevant again. His Williams career unfortunately fizzled out with a retirement in Abu Dhabi but George’s career is about to rocket to another level in 2022.

11. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

An overall disappointing year for Daniel as he got used to the 2021 McLaren but he did get back on the top step of the podium in Italy for the only 1-2 of the season. He never broke into the top 10 because he was just not consistant enough, he disappeared for large chunks of the year.

12. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

The final example of why Valtteri Bottas is no longer a Mercedes driver played out in Abu Dhabi. When Mercedes needed him, like Red Bull needed Perez, he failed to deliver, qualifying sixth and then was miles back in the race, leaving his teammate to be outnumbered without help. It feels like Mercedes tried not to hurt Valtteri’s feelings with their tactics in Abu Dhabi and it may have cost them. When it is all said and done, Bottas just wasn’t quite good enough in most areas, apart from in Austria and Russia.

13. Yuki Tsunoda (+2)

Yuki saved his best until last with a great fourth place finish and leading his teammate all weekend. This drive could well be a turning point for Tsunoda, both in his confidence and reputation within the paddock. His overtake on Bottas on the final alp was brilliant, he was so late on the brakes but there was no lockup or drama and he made the apex beautifully. It’s a shame the season ended for him, as he probably would have liked another race around Abu Dhabi. He just needs to do that every weekend to get on terms with his teammate. No mean feat.

14. Sebastian Vettel (-1)

Vettel and Aston Martin finished in Abu Dhabi where they have in the championship, it felt about right for them this year, in eleventh and thirteenth respectively. Vettel showed glimpses of past glory with some nice performances but this was mainly getting used to a new team so we will see what next year brings.

15. Lance Stroll (-2)

Similar to his teammate, it wasn’t a vintage year for Stroll and Aston Martin. He put in some good performances but the usual mistakes do haunt Stroll – as in Hungary – that stunt his growth up the grid with his team.

16. Mick Schumacher (+1)

A year where Mick Schumacher somehow increased his reputation within the paddock despite driving the slowest car on the grid by some margin and having a semi-amateur teammate. He will be Ferrari’s reserve driver in 2022 which I’m sure will only help his chances of a future seat. It does only feel like a matter of time before he is in a red seat if Mick keeps the performances up. My highlight for Mick was his Quali performance in Turkey where he outqualified his teammate by 2.5 seconds. Even in a crap car, that is mightily impressive.

17. Nicolas Latifi (-1)

Unfortunately, Latifi will forever be known for his role in the final laps of the season and the hate and abuse he has got online is completely unacceptable. Yes, you can be angry with what happened, but that gives you no right to send some of the abuse that Nicolas has received since. Did he do it on purpose? Obviously not. Will the abuse change the result? Obviously not, so lets just be kind to people. Something needs to be done about social media. Overall, a more promising year for Latifi where he scored points on multiple occasions and did push Russell at some events, even breaking the Brit’s long run of beating Williams’ teammates in Quali.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

We say goodbye to the Iceman and I am sure he is happy about that. It was a shame he didn’t have the car to impress late on in his career but he will leave a mark on the sport no other driver has so far. He was loved by everyone for being 100% himself throughout and being one of the most naturally gifted drivers of all time. Ice Man Out.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Kimi’s teammate’s F1 career also fizzled out as he also retired in Abu Dhabi. He just wasn’t consistent enough and blew most of his big points scoring chances with mistakes or team strategy error. While Binotto has suggested Ferrari will try and find him a seat for 2023, I think this is the last we will see of Gio in an F1 race seat.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Mazipin also raced this year but most of his action came with the issuing of blue flags, he saw 256 of them in 2021, 60 more than his teammate.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings- Saudi Arabia Edition

Welcome to the twenty first edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Qatar Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

We have what we deserve! The two title rivals going into the final race of the season level on points. This is the first time it has happened in F1 since 1974 when Fittipaldi and Regazzoni were vying for the crown. Like the pundits and drivers alike, I don’t really know where to start with the events of one of the craziest races we have witnessed, and not always for good reasons. Let me start with the host country. I wasn’t happy when it was announced that Saudi Arabia would host a Grand Prix, I think sport holds ethical values of sportsmanship, fairness, and meritocracy but what does it say about this sport’s values if they are happy to promote countries with less than suspect human rights records and inequalities present in exchange for a large cheque? I don’t think there is any country in the world that is innocent, in particular my home country of England, but the way Saudi Arabian and Qatari authorities use immigrant workers with essentially no rights or pay to build their sporting infrastructure with cost to human life and then promote themselves on the world stage in a certain way is something I wholly disagree with. Unfortunately, money talks in the world of the 21st century and sport can be used as a distraction to the real picture. Ok, I have said my bit, on to the racing.

This Jeddah track was advertised as the fastest street circuit ever and I think they got that right. While the track has 27 corners, most of them are high speed, if not full throttle. The first sector is the most technical with a couple chicanes and twisty bits but then it’s mainly long straights and a nice, banked corner. One thing that was noticeable immediately was that this track is narrow and the walls very close. This would be key to the weekend with virtual safety, safety cars, yellow flags and even red flags appearing. Over the weekend we had multiple heavy crashes, in particular one that ended the F2 race early and put two drivers in hospital. This chaos would translate into the F1 race with one safety car, two red flags and three virtual safety cars.

I think the only way to truly understand this crazy, chaotic race is putting the events in context so I will be highlighting the flash points and events that changed the face of it as it progressed and hopefully piece together a timeline to get us to the end. Hold on to your hats, this could get messy.

Lap 1 – The Mercedes duo get away cleanly to lead 1-2 from Verstappen. All cars make it through the first corners safe.

Lap 10 – Schumacher crashes heavily into the barriers at Turn 22, bringing out the Safety Car. Both Mercedes pit for hard tyres, Verstappen doesn’t pit and inherits the lead but is still required to pit. Seemingly advantage Mercedes. Most of the top 10 also pit for fresh tyres.

Lap 13 – The red flag comes out due to barrier damage. Everyone is now able to put on fresh tyres, Max gains those places gained during the Safety Car and takes the outright lead because of it. Mercedes, Perez, Norris and Alonso are the main losers.

Lap 15 – The race is restarted after the red flag with a standing start. Hamilton gets the better start from second to lead into the first corner, however, Max tries sticking it out around the outside but runs out of space and cuts the second corner to retake the lead. As a result, Ocon gets ahead of Hamilton as he has to avoid the Red Bull coming back on track. Perez is tagged and spun by Leclerc as three cars try to go into a space for two and retires. Mazipin hits Russell heavily from behind as everyone slows to avoid Perez. Both Mazipin and Russell retire on the spot. This brings out the second red flag immediately.

During the red flag break, Michel Masi (Race Director) and Red Bull negotiate that if Max doesn’t start behind Lewis at the restart, he will get a penalty, so they move behind the Mercedes. Ocon starts on pole as a result.

Lap 17 – Third standing start of the race. Ocon, Hamilton, Verstappen are the top three. Hamilton gets alongside Ocon off the line, but Max makes even better start and dives down the inside to pass them both into Turn 1. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, it was brave, executed well and most importantly he made the corner under control. Hamilton is sandwiched and makes contact with Ocon on the outside but sustains no damage. Max leads from Ocon, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Bottas. Shoutout to Tsunoda, who makes great move around the outside of Leclerc at banked Turn 13.

Lap 36/37 – The two title rivals disappear up the road with Hamilton close behind Verstappen. Hamilton gets within DRS range coming onto the pit straight and looks to overtake into Turn 1 and is marginally ahead going into the braking zone. Like Brazil, Max breaks very late, gets oversteer mid corner and has to take to the runoff to get through the complex. From the overhead shot, it is clear that Hamilton would have been able to properly make the corner if Max wasn’t on the inside, trying to keep control of his car. This is the difference between this incident and the overtake on Lap 17 which was legitimate from Max. Race Director Michael Masi orders Red Bull to give Hamilton the place which they subsequently relay to Max. He decides to let Hamilton through on the back straight just before the DRS line for the pit straight. Meanwhile, Masi goes to Ron Meadows, Mercedes Sporting Director, to inform him that Red Bull will let Hamilton by. However, there isn’t enough time for the message to get to Hamilton before and confusion ensues. Max keeps backing off, Hamilton slows behind, probably confused about what is going on or doesn’t want to give Max the DRS for the main straight/lining him up for the main straight. The radio messages from driver to team would indicate Hamilton was in the dark about Max letting him through. They get closer and closer until Max slows once more, Hamilton can’t react in time, and they run into each other. Hamilton’s right front wing connects with Max’s left rear tyre. What I don’t quite get is Max driving off quickly as soon as the contact happens. It had a ‘job done’ air to it. Max would be given a 10 second time penalty post-race as it was found his “erratic” braking made him “predominantly at fault” for the contact.

Lap 42 – Max has been told again to let Hamilton through after some heated exchanges between Masi and Meadows about the sequence of events. He does this once again on the back straight before the last corner. This time he keeps more to the right and Hamilton knows what is happening so passes without incident. However, as soon as he does this, Max dives back down the inside to retake the lead before the corner arrives. Something I have seen Hamilton do in the past and got penalised for (circa Spa 2008).

Lap 43 – As they cross the line for Lap 43, it is announced that Max gets a 5 second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage from the original Lap 37 (Turn 1) incident. Later on in the lap, Max gives up the position once again before the final corner, but this time Hamilton isn’t taking any chances and crowds out Verstappen’s attempt to retake the position around the outside. Max’s race engineer comes on radio to say they didn’t need to do that. This would indicate that Max felt he had to give up the position to avoid further penalty from the previous lap’s antics.

Lap 50 – Hamilton crosses the line to take victory and the fastest lap at the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Championship is tied. Max is unable to pit and go for fastest lap due to Ocon within his pitstop window.

What a crazy, chaotic, confusing race that was in Jeddah. The main talking point I can take away from this race is that there needs to be consistency in the stewards’ room so the drivers know what they can and can’t get away with when in wheel-to-wheel combat. I can see why Max would be annoyed as his defensive move in Brazil was arguably worse than his one in Jeddah, yet he was penalised for the latter and not the former. These decisions set precedents but then they immediately go against that precedent the next week. It is a big job, but consistency will only be secured if there is a team of 4 stewards that follow the circus around to every race. The rules are also quite vague and open to interpretation, which is a cause of this war of words between the two title fighting teams. More practical, specific rules with a consistent stewardship wouldn’t give teams the opportunity to challenge every single decision being made and hopefully sorting out the nonsense we saw in Jeddah, where it felt that Max was under investigation for 10 laps and the audience not having the state of play being played out on track but instead in a small room away from the cameras. Don’t get me wrong, we need rules to moderate the action and keep the drivers safe, but at the moment they are too vague and enforced too inconsistently for them to do the sport justice.

There is so much to talk about in the title battle that I am sorry that I won’t get around the rest of the teams until the driver rankings. Hopefully you can appreciate the importance of this title fight and I am not neglecting the rest of the grid, there just isn’t enough time in this section.

Quick update on the Constructors however – Ferrari have virtually secured third in the championship; McLaren need to outscore them by 38.5 points to take it back so basically a 1-2 in Abu Dhabi which I don’t see happening. Alpine have also secured fifth in the constructors over Alpha Tauri with a very strong last two events. They hold a 29-point advantage over the Faenza team.

After Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (21 of 22)

1. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Hamilton secured his third win in a row, drew level with Verstappen on points and I think took the moral high ground in his wheel-to-wheel battles with the Dutchman as some of the Red Bull’s moves felt a little desperate. He took pole due to Max’s mistake at the last corner when he clipped the wall and damaged his tyre when over 0.25 seconds up. This was looking like a crucial error in the early stages as both Mercs were ahead of him but then the red flag came out and turned the race on its head. However, Lewis kept his cool through multiple setbacks and battles with the Red Bull that resulted in contact but even without the Race Director’s intervention, Red Bull conceded they would have struggled to stay ahead of Hamilton. He now goes to a track where he has won a highly tense championship before, so I am sure he is full of confidence to take his 8th World Title.

2. Max Verstappen (-+)

Max put his all into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and overstepped the mark on one occasion, maybe two. He also showed his great speed, decisiveness, and car control (until he clipped the wall on his final Q3 lap, it was an all-time commitment lap). This is the two sides of Max Verstappen that remind me of Michael Schumacher and others of Ayrton Senna. This pushing of the rules to the limit and packaging it as hard racing. Martin Brundle once said of Senna that he would put his car in dangerous positions when overtaking so that the car in front had to get out of the way, or they would crash. This gave Senna a psychological advantage in direct combat. I see this in Verstappen, however, nowadays this sort of thing will get you penalties, while in Senna’s time it got you the position. He must have felt like he jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire with all the penalties and instructions to give positions back in Jeddah, but for better or worse, this is the state of play and drivers have to abide by the rules. I don’t think Verstappen would intentionally crash into anyone, but he will put his car in danger in pursuit of this title – high risk, high reward. He also knows that Lewis can’t afford not to finish the race, otherwise his fight will be over. We go into Abu Dhabi with a winner-takes-all situation, but I believe Max wants to win this fairly and outright, so I don’t see a repeat of Senna Prost in Japan 1990. Whoever wins it will completely deserve it. Bring it on.

3. Charles Leclerc (-+)

Charles split the Red Bulls in qualifying to start 4th and was running well until the second restart where he got slightly squeezed by Perez, who was in a car sandwich at Turn 3, clipped the Red Bull and had to flat spot his tyres avoiding it. Luckily, the red flag came out immediately and it didn’t ruin his race. After the third start, he dropped back a few spots until he was in a long battle with his teammate that he was lucky to stay ahead of and finished just ahead of Sainz for 7th. This did help Ferrari essentially secure 3rd in the Constructors.

4. Lando Norris (-+)

Lando did well to secure a Q3 birth and 7th on the grid. He moved up at the start and was running high in the points until the red flag came out on Lap 10 and he suffered from the rule that lets everyone change tyres during this period. Lando was one of the cars that pitted while the Safety Car was out pre-red flag so effectively dropped to 15th after that. He battled back throughout the race to get back into the points for 10th, but it was more bad luck for the Brit who desperately needs a clean race in Abu Dhabi to take some momentum into the winter. He will hope that McLaren’s focus on next year’s car will pay off handsomely.

5. Pierre Gasly (+1)

All the 6s for Gasly in Saudi Arabia as he qualified and finished 6th. This time around his qualifying pace translated into the race and he was able to stay out of trouble, as he usually does in chaotic races like this, to bring the car home and secure points for the team but it seems to come too late to overtake Alpine for 5th in the Championship.  

6. Carlos Sainz (-1)

Carlos could not get the car going in qualifying and made multiple mistakes to not get through Q2 and lined up 15th on Sunday. However, he got himself together and moved up during the race, keeping out of trouble and taking advantage of others falling by the waist side. He would have argued he was faster than his teammate and should have finished ahead of him, but Charles was able to keep it after some border line defensive moves into Turn 1. As Max got a penalty, I think Charles should have got one as well. Carlos showed his mental fortitude and battling to turn a bad Quali into another good points haul. This is exactly why Ferrari signed him.

7. Fernando Alonso (-+)

A down weekend for Fernando after his podium in Qatar, where it seemed he never got used to the new Jeddah track. He was knocked out in Q2 to start 13th and finished the race in the same position with a high-speed spin in between. He couldn’t match his teammates pace and was lapped in the end. My highlight for him was his facial expressions watching Verstappen’s final Q3 run, probably wishing he was in that car.

8. Esteban Ocon (+2)

Esteban was about 50 meters short of consecutive podium finishes for Alpine but was passed by Valtteri Bottas at the last. While he started 9th, he would find himself on pole by the Lap 17 restart. How may you ask? I am not 100% sure but he turned a Tsunoda squeeze into an overtake at Turn 1 and then used the Safety Car/Red Flag period to move up to 4th. At the first restart, he took advantage of Bottas’ lockup and the fight between the two title rivals to take 2nd. Once Max’s penalty was issued, this put Ocon on pole which he wasn’t able to hold but looked to have the pace to hold 3rd until the very last second. He should be proud of his pace and this pace was what kept him out of trouble. While he will be disappointed not to secure the podium, he should take confidence in extracting what he did from his Alpine in Saudi Arabia.

9. Sergio Perez (-1)

An unfortunate early bath for Perez on Sunday in Jeddah. He qualified 5th and was well within the danger zone going into Turn 1 on the restarts and unfortunately it was second time unlucky for him as he wasn’t able to give Leclerc enough space against the wall at the quick Turn 3, got clipped into the barrier and broke his transmission so was unable to put the car in gear. This ended his race and really put a dent in Red Bull securing the Constructors’ Championship.

10. George Russell (-1)

Another driver with an early bath in Jeddah and one that was directly linked to Perez’s exit at the second restart. While the cars in front slowed to avoid the horizontal Red Bull, Mazipin wasn’t able to react in time and drove into the back of Russell’s Williams for a heavy impact. This destroyed Mazipin’s Haas and broke Russell’s. He complained about the safety of the track and his radio message once retired was essentially ‘I told you so’ to the FIA.

11. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

Daniel wasn’t able to get into Q3 on Saturday, narrowly missing out in 11th but made up for it in the race. He also stayed out of trouble and used the red flag rule to his advantage and came home 5th, just in front of Leclerc. The reason he doesn’t move up on this list is that he can’t be trusted to put in consecutive positive performances at the moment. I also don’t believe he would have got that high up in a straight fight, but he will take it at the moment. Seemingly important points for McLaren but it is too little too late.

12. Valtteri Bottas (+1)

Valtteri was doing the team role in Jeddah until the red flag ruined Mercedes’ advantage and put him out of position. He nearly drove into the back of Verstappen at the second start and then got stuck behind Ocon for pretty much the whole race until he finally got onto the podium on the final lap. The Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas combination is now the most common in F1 podium history, but he will probably only get one more opportunity to extend that in Abu Dhabi before he moves to Alfa Romeo.

13. Lance Stroll (-1)

Lance was essentially last in qualifying, only starting in front of the Haas’ but, again, stayed out of trouble to nearly find himself in the points, finishing 11th. I am not sure how he got there as the camera’s followed the battle for the lead. Stroll did well to not get taken out by the Lap 15 incidents, but he got no reward for his troubles in Jeddah.

14. Sebastian Vettel (-+)

Seb was unlucky with collisions on Sunday as he could argue he was driven into twice by Raikkonen and Tsunoda. He was running in the points after starting 17th until these incidents damaged his car too much to continue and he was forced to retire. This season is fizzling out for Aston Martin who are under big pressure to get things right next year or some culling is going to take place.

15. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

Yuki showed promising pace in Jeddah, qualifying 8th and running in the points until contact with Vettel, when he should have really given up the place and lived to fight another day. However, his front wing got stuck underneath his car and he wasn’t able to move for a long time, losing bundles of time and ending his chances of points. He needs to put a result together to go with these turns of speed to convince Red Bull he deserves a spot in F1 beyond next year. His overtake on Leclerc at the banked Turn 13 proves his race ability.

16. Nicolas Latifi (+1)

Latifi gets a bump after finishing on the lead lap and just over 20 seconds off the points, which is a decent effort in this Williams. Unfortunately, we saw very little of him, but he finished ahead of Alonso in a car nearly on the podium. Good effort indeed.

17. Mick Schumacher (-1)

Mick lost the rear of the car at Turn 22 on Lap 9 to head straight to the scene of the accident which brought out the red flag and threatened to have big ramifications on the title fight. As it were, the threat didn’t materialize, but Mick sure felt the heavy impact of the tyre barrier. One more race in this forgettable car and we hope for his and the team’s sake, next year’s Haas is competitive.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Kimi came together with his friend Vettel in quite a clumsy collision considering the two share 5 World Championships between them. This was the most notable part of Raikkonen’s race as he laboured home 15th and last. He has one more chance to thrill F1 fans before heading to retirement but I’m not sure its going to happen, he looks like he has checked out.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Gio showed good pace in the Alpha to secure a Q3 appearance and held on to his 9th place by the flag to add 2 points to his F1 tally. He also pulled off a great move around the outside of Alonso which showed certain other drivers *cough cough* how to overtake at Turn 1 effectively.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Finally, an incident I can report on that involves Mazipin where I can say it wasn’t his fault. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he found himself at the back of the queue who were slowing to avoid Perez on Lap 15 and he ploughed into the back of Russell as he couldn’t react and slowdown in time in a zone usually meant for full acceleration. The car was absolutely wrecked but it was good to see him get out unharmed from quite a scary crash.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Qatar Edition

Welcome to the twentieth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Sao Paolo Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

What a difference two weeks makes in Formula 1. After the Mexican Grand Prix, Max Verstappen and Red Bull were sitting pretty with a nineteen point lead but after two Hamilton wins in a row in Brazil and Qatar, the lead is back to just over the seven point difference between a 1st and 2nd place finish. We could go into the season finale in Abu Dhabi with the two title rivals level on points, what an event that would be – the ultimate head to head.

Every weekend brings new drama and heightened tensions between the two juggernauts of Formula 1 2021. This week it was a 5-place grid penalty for Verstappen after he was judged to have ignored double waved yellow flags on his final run in Q3. While the yellows weren’t massively clear and there was confusion about where exactly the yellow zone was, it felt like a slam-dunk once replays showed him passing a yellow flag zone and not slowing down when passing Pierre Gasly’s stricken Alpha Tauri on the pit straight. Valtteri Bottas was also judged guilty but only given a 3-place penalty as it was only a single yellow when he passed through. This caused Christian Horner to say some unsavoury things about the marshals and stewards which got him a smack on the wrist from the FIA and for the phrase ‘The pot calling the kettle black’ to pop into my head. The battle to control narrative has been rampant this year but Horner overstepped the mark on this occasion. On the other side of the fight, Toto Wolff came out with strong words to say that the recent media talk about the slide of Mercedes has ‘woken the lion’, referring to the team and their seven-time World Champion driver and that they have some ‘spicy’ equipment (that engine) in the bag to help lead them to another unprecedented title.

On track, Hamilton and Mercedes had the edge as the best package on the grid and they took advantage with a pole to lights performance. Once Max had been demoted to seventh (he qualified on the front row) it felt like it was damage limitation to get back in range of Hamilton. It was thought that if he didn’t get in front at the start anyway, Hamilton had enough in the bag to win regardless. Max made a great start and while everyone went for the wide line at Turn 1, he went tight, found grip and moved up to fourth once Alonso slammed the door at Turn 2. Max did get past Alonso and Gasly for P2 after 5 laps with around an 8-second gap to Hamilton. What the two title rivals would go on to do was consistently drive 1.5 – 2 seconds faster than the rest of the grid, as Martin Brundle said in commentary – these two were not just in a different race, but a different formula. I am going to keep banging on about what sets drivers apart in a sport supposedly ruled by machines and this is an example. They take the car and beat everyone else into submission with it while making it look easy. They finished a minute ahead of the rest of the field in 57 laps.

Behind them, the standout performance was Fernando Alonso who secured his first podium since 2014, which is before Max Verstappen came into F1, to give it a bit of context. Alonso benefitted from the grid penalties but took full advantage with a great move around the outside of Gasly at Turn 2 and used the one stop to perfection to beat Perez for that final step on the podium. This also helped Alpine’s fight for fifth in the constructors. Speaking of Constructors, McLaren had another torrid weekend to lose even more ground to Ferrari after Norris suffered a late puncture while running in 4th. The secondary curbs proved a bit too much for the tyres as both Williams drivers and Valtteri Bottas got punctures which I don’t mind, the tracks should push the cars and drivers to the limit.

We move into the final two races of the season with both championships finely balanced and its just the way we like it. We go to essentially two new tracks (Abu Dhabi’s layout has been changed significantly which will make it 10 seconds quicker) which means we enter the unknown just at the right time for us, the viewers. Now, on to the rankings.

After Qatar Grand Prix (20 of 22)

1. Lewis Hamilton (+1)

Hamilton moves to the top of this list as the momentum is well and truly on his side after two wins in a row and he has closed the gap to Verstappen to 8 points. It is also expected that the Jeddah track in Saudi Arabia should suit the Mercedes with their fresher engine in Hamilton’s car. He looked the standard in Qatar and wasn’t troubled in the race to take his 5th win of the season. He will go into the last two races full of confidence and probably the slight favourite at this point.

2. Max Verstappen (-1)

Once Max got demoted on the grid, it took away any real chance of winning the race as long as Hamilton and Mercedes didn’t make any mistakes, which they didn’t. He got a great start and placed his car cleverly to get up to 4th and then quickly passed Alonso and Gasly. Once he was behind Hamilton, he wasn’t able to close and Red Bull tried the two stop strategy but Mercedes just shadowed them to bring it home. While Max is so strong mentally, this change in momentum must be worrying and something Red Bull need to get on top of if they don’t want Hamilton winning a title they probably should secure based on the statistics.

3. Charles Leclerc (-+)

Charles struggled during qualifying to the bafflement of himself and the team to line up 13th. It was discovered post qualifying that he had a crack in his chassis that would have been unsettling the car. He luckily didn’t have to change it, they could fix it under FIA regulations and he kept his 13th place grid slot. He had a relatively quiet afternoon but used the one stop to jump cars and get into the points, finishing 8th and only a second behind his teammate who started 5th. More solid points for Ferrari in their fight with McLaren and his individual battle with Norris for 4th in the Drivers.

4. Lando Norris (-+)

Lando can’t seem to catch a break at the moment. His race was ruined on Lap 1 in Sao Paolo and his race was ruined late on in Qatar when he had to make an extra stop due to a puncture to his Papaya-mobile which put him out of the points. He was able to get back into them for 9th but he was running 4th when his tyre failed. This would have been much needed points, McLaren have only scored 4 points in the last 4 races, which is the same as Alfa Romeo to put that into context. Not form to secure third place and I think that is already out of reach.

5. Carlos Sainz (-+)

Sainz once again was the leading Ferrari in qualifying and race in Qatar. He qualified 5th and finished 7th, which is maybe one space lower than he would have liked, letting Stroll get ahead of him. More consistant performing from the young Spaniard though.

6. Pierre Gasly (-+)

It was all looking peachy for Gasly after qualifying. He was promoted to the front row after Verstappen and Bottas’ penalties but that was where the fun ended for him. Ironically, it was his puncture and subsequent stoppage on the track that caused them to get the penalties in the first place. He pitted early after going backwards from second and was put into traffic where he couldn’t or wasn’t able to move through the field and by the flag he was out of the points in 11th. His fastest lap time would indicate that he just didn’t have the outright pace in the race to really trouble big points.

7. Fernando Alonso (+2)

That was a classic Alonso performance in Qatar. He dragged every ounce of performance from his car on a technical track that rewards bravery, consistency and precision – Alonso’s bread and butter. He was instantly quick on this new circuit and was rewarded with a 3rd place starting spot. His move around the outside of Gasly at Turn 2 was beautiful, he found a line that just gave him so much more grip and bravely took to the curbs to complete it. He probably caught Gasly napping as well. Once he sniffed a podium with the one stop, he never looked like losing it, even with Perez closing at the end. I think he still would have finished 3rd without the late virtual safety car. His first podium since 2014 is tragic for a driver of Alonso’s quality but it is probably his career decisions that have let him down in that regard. A Hamilton, Verstappen, Alonso podium is one that we should have seen way more than the solitary one occasion in Qatar.

8. Sergio Perez (-1)

Not getting through to Q3 in Qatar in a Red Bull was criminal from Perez and ruined his chances of a podium finish, or to help his teammate pressure Hamilton from the front. He did have a spirited fight back to 4th but wasn’t close enough to Alonso to catch up in the end. What he did do was secure more points in the Constructors fight they are desperate to win.

9. George Russell (-1)

George outperformed his teammate all weekend but was one of the victims of the curbs in Qatar. He was nowhere near the points all race so the puncture really didn’t effect things for him. Two more races and then it’s go time for Mercedes in 2022.

10. Esteban Ocon (+3)

Ocon got into Q3, albeit not quite as high as his teammate but used the one stop strategy to gain spots and do well to hold onto them. He partially repaid the favour to Fernando, after he kept Hamilton behind long enough in Hungary for Esteban to win that race, with a shorter defense of Perez but it was spirited and did effect the Mexican’s progress. He finished 5th which completed Alpine’s 2nd best result all season.

11. Daniel Ricciardo (-1)

Daniel keeps his spot mainly because I didn’t feel Ocon deserved to go up three spots. Daniel had a torrid time in Qatar. He was nowhere near getting out of Q2 on Saturday and didn’t trouble the points on Sunday, even finishing behind his teammate who got a late puncture. He is just inconsistent, his performance are so track based, it is hard to judge. You know what, he can go below Ocon, I’ve convinced myself.

12. Lance Stroll (+2)

A great race from Stroll who started 12th on the mediums and was able to gain places at the start and then had the pace to keep his tyres in range for a one stop strategy. His move around the outside of Tsunoda was lovely and he pushed on from there. He would end the race in 6th after holding off Sainz for a lot of the race and only half a second behind Ocon in 5th. He needed that performance after a run of poor drives.

13. Valtteri Bottas (-2)

Bottas was arguably unlucky to get a penalty but the rules are the rules. He didn’t help himself though with a rubbish start that dropped him from 7th to 11th and got him stuck behind slower cars. He struggled to get past initially but once he did, he showed good pace and was on course to enter the podium fight when his left front tyre let him and itself down. It would take him over a minute to get back to the pits and he would eventually retire to save the car. While he hasn’t performed as he would like, he does seem to get the misfortune at Mercedes, similar to Barrichello at Ferrari in the early 2000s.

14. Sebastian Vettel (-2)

Vettel outperformed with teammate in qualifying but that was probably his downfall in Qatar. This meant he started the race on the soft tyre, starting 10th and wasn’t able to do the one stop strategy, like his teammate. He did still come home in 10th for a point and a double points scoring event for the team.

15. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

Yuki showed more of his one lap pace in Qatar but it was the same story on Sunday as in Sao Paolo, he didn’t have the consistant pace to keep up with the points battle. However, this time his performance was much less crashy. When we saw him during coverage it was usually being overtaken which is unfortunate. One thing in Yuki’s favour is that he did match his teammates fastest time in the race, which is probably not a common occurrence this season.

16. Mick Schumacher (+1)

Mick outqualified his teammate by 2.4 seconds and disappeared in the race which is a slam dunk in the Haas battle for supremacy. The race performance feels familiar but the qualifying difference was seismic. I know the car is bad but they are both driving it and that gap is bigger than the rest of the field combined, by 0.9 seconds, its not even close.

17. Nicolas Latifi (-1)

The weekend was going as you would expect for Nicolas Latifi until a late puncture at literally the worst place to get it – just as you pass the pitlane entry. As if like magic his tyre started to visibly inflate on the replay as he past the aforementioned pitlane entry and he had to complete more than a lap with only three functioning tyres. By the time he got back to the pits, they decided to retire the car as the front left wasn’t all pointing in the right direction.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Kimi was knocked out in Q1 and only made up spots from his 16th place start due to retirements ahead. He slowly got away from his teammate in the race and was pressurising Russell until the Williams got a puncture in the late stages. The Alpha – Williams battle seems their level at the moment.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Giovinazzi mainly shadowed Raikkonen during the weekend and also only moved up the grid through retirements ahead to come home 15th, be it 200 seconds behind his teammate. With the lower teams in F1 looking towards 2022, the Alpha isn’t getting any better and both drivers are leaving so it does feel like their season is just fizzling out.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Another embarrassing comparison with his teammate in Qatar for Mazipin. 2.4 seconds is ridiculous but I have already shared my thoughts on that in his teammate’s section. In conclusion, that sums up his season.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Sao Paolo Edition

Welcome to the nineteenth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. Sorry this is late again, my bad but life has got in the way. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Mexican Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

I essentially said that the Sao Paola Grand Prix would be a must win for Hamilton to keep his title hopes on track and boy did he go above and beyond to do that. This was another classic, drama filled championship weekend at the atmospheric fishbowl that is the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in the neighbourhood of Interlagos. There is so much to unpack from the Sao Paolo weekend which was the host of the third and final Sprint format of the year and each one of those weekend has had significant championship moments. Without the extra racing session, it would have been even harder for Hamilton to finish ahead of Max. The drama ensued before the weekend started when Mercedes announced that Hamilton would be taking a 5 place grid penalty for an extra Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), already putting him on the back foot. The drama continued on Friday after Hamilton had taken a commanding pole position when the FIA, after a tip off by Red Bull, investigated the DRS activation elements of Hamilton’s rear wing. The regulations state that when activated, the gap in the rear wing must be between 10mm and 85mm when a force of 10N (newtons) is imposed on it. The inner section of Hamilton’s wing failed this test and he was subsequently disqualified from qualifying. The FIA did state that this was a part failure and not a deliberate attempt to circumvent the regulations to create an advantage.

This took away Hamilton’s good work and the opportunity to take maximum points from the weekend. What he did do was remind us what the best can do with the tools given to them. He went from 20th to 5th in 24 Sprint laps to give himself a chance in the feature race but that earlier 5 place penalty set him back to 10th. His overtaking was tidy and decisive but for me the part of Hamilton’s game that is above the rest is his ability to drive both quickly and kindly to his tyres. I think this allows him to have these sustained fight backs through the field, compared to when Valtteri fights back, he does seem to fall off or get caught behind cars in the dirty air. Hamilton is able to stay in the dirty air and still be able to use the advantage his car gives, that’s another difference between great and the best.

Hamilton may have saved his best work for Sunday however. We knew he would be able to get past the first five cars in front but it was when he got to the Red Bulls when the real work would start. He got a small helping hand from the Safety Car as it put him onto the back of his rivals after Yuki Tsonoda came together with Lance Stroll and spewed carbon fibre at Turn 1. Once the Safety Car came in, Hamilton set after Perez and had to overtake him twice around the outside of Turn 1 as the Mexican returned the favour at Turn 4 after the first attempt. Once all the other drivers had been dispatched, it was just Verstappen left to catch and he had 52 laps to do it. He slowly whittled down the Dutchman’s 3.8 second lead but was unable to get close enough to attempt a pass until Lap 48 when the title rivals had another flash point. Hamilton had DRS on the main straight up the hill into Turn 1 and for the first time in my memory, a dummy from Lewis got Max moving in the braking zone and put him slightly off line through the Senna S section of 1/2/3 and Hamilton picked up DRS again into Turn 4. Max defended the inside line and Hamilton got ahead into the braking zone on the outside. Both braked as late as they could but Max definitely braked too late, pushing him wide and off the track. With Hamilton on the outside, memories of Austria 2016 surfaced when Rosberg refused to turn into the corner and the teammates collided (Rosberg got a penalty that day *cough cough*). Luckily this time, they didn’t touch but Hamilton was unable to take the corner as he appeared to have the ability to do so without Max being in the way. Inexplicitly, the stewards didn’t investigate the incident after not seeing much wrong, without a crucial bit of evidence – Max Verstappen’s onboard camera. The onboard showed, for me, that Max could have made more of an attempt to make the corner – there wasn’t a lockup indicating excessive braking, and he didn’t put as much steering angle as previous laps when logic dictates that he should have been inputting more steering angle if he was truly trying to take the corner. I have to say that he did force another driver off the track, which has definitely been penalised this year quite regularly with a 5 second time penalty, and would have put him behind Bottas and lost him 3 valuable points. Now, it is very easy to say that post race but its very hard to say that Bottas would still have finished within 5 seconds if Max had been penalised in-race. Actually, I am pretty sure he wouldn’t have, no way Max would have let that happen. So its all a bit of a mute point for me but I do think the stewards are less likely to penalize Max Verstappen because of this notion he is a ‘hard racer’ and the challenger to the ‘Empire’. There I said it. All that matters for Hamilton is that he gained that crucial momentum and reduced the gap to Verstappen before it’s too late while producing a performance that will live long in the memory.

Behind the title fight, Ferrari once again had a great weekend in the constructors, taking a 32 point lead over McLaren for third, Gasly had another impressive weekend for Alpha Tauri and Alpine got two drivers in the points for the first time in a while to draw level them level with Alpha Tauri once again. Ok, lets get into the rankings.

After Sao Paolo Grand Prix (19 of 22)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

Max keeps the lead on this list but it is a close thing with the momentum swinging towards Mercedes with this new found engine advantage that they have found. Verstappen did everything that was required of him in Brazil and probably got the maximum he would have expected going into the weekend apart from probably three points and pole position for Sunday. He was cheeky on Lap 48 and I am sure he knew what he was doing when he went wide and I am also sure he doesn’t think that warranted a penalty as well. He defended hard against an opponent he was fighting a losing battle to keep behind so can’t blame him for trying. He moves on to Qatar hoping the track suits his car more and he can regain that momentum.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

This was definitely up there with one of Hamilton’s best drives in a Mercedes. He had to overcome 25 places worth of penalties over two races – 20 of them after having taken pole position on Friday so to overcome that and perform as he did in Saturday’s Sprint shows both his physical ability and mental strength. Hamilton was decisive and accurate with his car placement in the Sprint to take pretty much every opportunity and finished only 2 seconds back from Sainz in third. This set him up nicely for the race, starting in tenth, to be able to get through the midfield without losing too much time to the leaders. He dispatched of said midfield very quickly (see pass on Gasly on Lap 1) and then performed two great overtakes to get past the Red Bulls. This drive showcased lots of Hamilton’s traits that have made him a 7 time world champion: speed, consistency, relentlessness, overtaking, tyre preservation to name a few. Brazil was exactly what the doctor ordered for Hamilton and Mercedes in this title fight. On to Qatar.

3. Charles Leclerc (-+)

These sort of weekends are now expected for this Ferrari package in this ever evolving development race. When I say ‘these sorts of weekends’ I mean a double points finish while threatening the fun of the championship teams. This is of course not where Ferrari feel they belong but this is very encouraging signs for the team. Charles’ teammate beat him in the Sprint but Charles took honours when more points were on offer. Charles dropped back one spot from his 6th place from qualifying but got ahead of his teammate again and Lando Norris at the start of the race proper and didn’t really look back. He has had a couple of boring but impressive races in a row now so not much to report apart from some great first lap car placement and bravery to get himself into position to score highly in 5th.

4. Lando Norris (-+)

It was looking like Lando Norris had put together a really nice Sprint weekend, after ‘qualifying’ 7th he got ahead of Gasly and Leclerc in the Sprint to gain 5th place on the grid for the race on Sunday. He got a good start and was getting past the slow starting Sainz for third but misjudged his positioning, he must have thought he was already past the Ferrari, and moved over too early, contact was made between tyres and Lando came off worse with a left rear puncture. The beautifully crafted weekend was shattered in an instant. He dropped waaaay back but an early Safety Car put him on the back of the pack and he started his fight back. Solid pace and some good overtakes got him a reward – a singular point but it was well deserved. Annoyingly it should have been many more.

5. Carlos Sainz (-+)

It was Carlos’ turn to be the car that was interfering in the front runners race during the Sprint on Saturday as he used his red soft tyres to move up from 5th to 3rd but he was unable to hold on to that advantage and podium spot. He crossed the line 6th behind his teammate which will be a disappointment for him. This is just another weekend showing of how strong a driver Sainz is. He needs to be given lots of credit for his overall Ferrari performance this year, he really hasn’t missed a beat and has helped push this team back forward.

6. Pierre Gasly (-+)

There are only so many times I can say what a strong weekend Gasly has had without sounding like a broken record but I am going to say it again. Qualifying 4th in Brazil was the 16th time in 19 races he has qualified in Q3 which is a phenomenal record for the Alpha Tauri driver. Unfortunately he lost places in the Sprint and race to finish 7th at the flag but once again brought home much needed points in their fight with Alpine in the Constructors. They are still tied for 5th thanks to him after he passed both of their rival cars in the closing laps.

7. Sergio Perez (-+)

Sergio was around but never really in the fight for the win in Sao Paolo. He qualified 3rd but got caught behind Sainz’s Ferrari for the entirety of the Sprint and did his best when Hamilton came up behind in the race but wasn’t quick enough to keep him behind. He shouldn’t feel too bad, no one was in Brazil. He was able to get ahead of the Ferrari’s and the midfield to collect decent points for the team in 4th in what was seen as damage limitation in response to Mercedes’ new found speed.

8. George Russell (-+)

George keeps his place in 8th mainly through sheer will power from me and the juicy potential he brings to next years Mercedes line-up. I am adamant he will be a step up from Valtteri Bottas so it is hard to put an up and coming star in potentially the best car anywhere lower than 10th. He is also still quietly getting the job done and finishing in front of faster cars in the race, this time Giovinazzi and Tsunoda. He is battling cars but it is clear this Williams is a step off. He finished 13th in Brazil for those wondering.

9. Fernando Alonso (+1)

A dogged performance for Alonso in Brazil where he was eventually rewarded with a singular point. He qualified 9th but was caught out in the Sprint by those around him starting on the red soft tyre compared to his yellow medium. He could have easily not finished the Sprint but narrowly avoided being sandwiched by the Alfa Romeo’s before they came together themselves. He dropped back to twelfth for the race proper but battled back into the points to help Alpine remain level with Alpha Tauri in the Constructors.

10. Daniel Ricciardo (-1)

Ricciardo was close to Norris on one lap pace; they were separated by less than a tenth in qualifying and lined up 7th and 8th for the Sprint but when it came to racing, Daniel was a step behind. To make things worse, he dropped out of the race on Lap 49 with power loss caused by a crack in his chassis. Monza is starting to feel quite a long time ago now.

11. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

Valtteri did the team job in Brazil but didn’t do it very well. He got ahead of Verstappen at the start of the Sprint and secured pole position to at least take one point from Max. However, he was beaten into Turn 1 in classic Bottas style by Max and then went wide at Turn 4 to let Perez through. He at least let Hamilton past without any problems and got back ahead of Perez because of a cheap stop during the virtual safety car to make the podium and help close the gap in the Constructors.

12. Sebastian Vettel (-+)

Another weekend where Sebastian was the best Aston Martin but not exactly a rewarding one as he was always just behind the points. He qualified 11th and got up to 9th for the grid due to Hamilton’s grid penalty but then dropped out of the points again by the flag, getting pipped at the last by a recovered Norris.

13. Esteban Ocon (+1)

A return to the points for Esteban Ocon in Brazil as he beat his teammate in qualifying and the race to lead the lead the team home in 8th. After disappearing in Mexico he was in the action in Brazil and took advantage of the virtual safety car to go for the one stop strategy and used it to great effect. I am sure we wished he could have kept Gasly home but the tyre advantage was too much to defend against.

14. Lance Stroll (-+)

Lance had a bit of a nightmare in Sao Paolo. He was knocked out in Q1 and then started next to Yuki Tsunoda in the race which would not end well when Yuki went for an audacious effort at Turn 1. This would cause Lance a lot of damage which would end his race on Lap 47 but would also effect the overall race as some body work came flying off, bringing out the virtual safety car.

15. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

A pretty shocking performance from Yuki as his rookie season doesn’t get any better. He did show some one lap pace once again to nearly get into Q3 but once the racing got going, he looked lost. He was barking up the wrong tree with his complaints at Stroll for his part in the Lap 5 incident as Yuki went for a lunge that was a day late and a dollar short, breaking his front wing and causing a Safety Car. That was all the action Yuki would see on Sunday.

16. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

Another driver waiting for the year to end and the hopeful possibility of a better car next year with the regulation changes. He was in no man’s land for most of the weekend, trying to hang on to the end of battles but not quite joining them. Nowhere near the points.

17. Mick Schumacher (-+)

After Mick mentioned that he hoped he could have more on-track action with Kimi Raikkonen, he probably didn’t mean to get as close as he did, causing his front wing to break off and pour even more debris over the track. He was nowhere after that after losing over a minute coming back to the pits.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Kimi had quite the ordeal in Sao Paolo, first getting spun in the Sprint by his teammate, but that could be seen as a racing incident as Kimi could have left more room on the inside of Turn 1. He then made the aforementioned contact with Mick Schumacher but that wasn’t his fault as Mick oversteered into him and came out worse. He tried a late pitstop but it didn’t help get him into the points, finishing 12th.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

It has finally been announced that Giovinazzi will be replaced by Chinese driver Guanyu Zhou for 2022 to partner Valtteri Bottas. It has been a strange and unfulfilling ride watching him in F1 since he first arrived in 2017, so I can’t imagine what it has been like for him, probably even more unfulfilling. He has shown speed and put together great performances but they have been too few and far between for him to keep his seat. I think it is the right decision, Zhou deserves a seat.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Nikita Mazipin finished behind his teammate in both qualifying sessions but took advantage of Schumacher’s mistakes to take a point in their intra-team battle but he must be quite far behind anyway.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Mexico City Edition

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the USA Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

Max Verstappen took control of the Mexican Grand Prix at Turn 1 and took control of the 2021 Drivers Championship by the flag. He boasts a nineteen point lead with four races to go and one hundred and four points up for grabs. This might not seem a big advantage but in a season where Max and Lewis have basically finished first and second constantly, we are getting dangerously close to Max not having to win anymore races and still end up champion. For Hamilton to have any chance of winning an unprecedented eighth title, Bottas is going to have to interfere, which does not fill me with hope. After taking a surprising front row lockout on Saturday, it was imperative for Mercedes that they completed Lap 1 with the lead of the race. However, Bottas decided to give Verstappen his slipstream and then leave the racing line wide open down the kilometer run to the first corner for Max to break late around the outside and take the lead. Granted, it was a brave and well executed move from Verstappen, who then disappeared into the distance. This passiveness in battling has been Valtteri’s biggest weakness in a Mercedes and another reason why he didn’t retain his seat for next year. I’m doing my best to keep calm but it was just a complete waste of the advantage they worked for on Saturday and ruined the race for the neutral (or slightly bias Hamilton fans). Look at Perez’s firm defense of Hamilton in Turkey, tell me the last time Bottas did anything close to that to Verstappen – it will be hard to find because it doesn’t exist. Behind the championship battle, nothing really happened after the first lap incidents. With thin air, cooling issues and reduced effectiveness of the DRS it meant it was a mainly processional race. To compound issues, the field spread was crazy. After five laps of full speed racing, George Russell in tenth was twenty two seconds behind the leader and was nearing forty by ten laps.

In the other championship battles, Ferrari took third place in the Constructors from McLaren with a strong weekend’s work while the Woking team had a shocker. Alpine and Alpha Tauri are level on points in the battle for fifth place and bragging rights to a couple more millions of prize dollars. Finally, a couple shout outs before the rankings start: Gasly can’t seem to get any airtime, even when he is in a class of one for fourth place and Vettel for a great seventh place, which was really needed for Aston Martin.

After Mexican Grand Prix (18 of 22)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

That was a champions drive from Max and it wasn’t the first one he has driven this season. This performance was imperious and as soon as he took the lead at Turn 1, it felt like the fight was over. Max and Red Bull have been very quick in Mexico over the last couple of years and practice showed their advantage hadn’t disappeared. They somehow messed up Q3 to lose pole position but if anything, that helped them get the slipstream into Turn 1 they needed. Otherwise, they would have been vulnerable to the Mercedes. The race proved practice form right and Max took full advantage. His move around the outside was beautiful and decisive, typical of Max Verstappen and something we have become used to. He moved nineteen points clear and his hands are now inching towards that championship trophy.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Hamilton gave it his best shot but the Red Bull’s were too quick in Mexico. If anything, he got too good a start to pull alongside Bottas, and not behind him into the slipstream. He was pinched to the inside which cost him the lead and a potential chance to win. From there it was a lonely and frustrating race as he watched his championship rival disappear down the road. He was able to stay in second in front of Perez to minimise the damage done. Lewis needs to win in Brazil or it could be over very quickly.

3. Charles Leclerc (-+)

Another good weekend for Ferrari in their battle with McLaren and another pretty quiet race for Charles. He started eighth and was up to fifth by the end of the first lap. He would stay a couple of seconds ahead of his teammate in the first stint but couldn’t keep up with Gasly in front. Leclerc really struggled on his hard tyres so the team let his teammate go to hunt down Gasly but he was unsuccessful. They switched them around before the flag for Charles to finish fifth.

4. Lando Norris (-+)

Tenth place would indicate another problematic weekend for Norris and McLaren. However, he started in eighteenth and did well to progress into the points on a track where it is actually quite hard to overtake, despite the kilometer and a half main straight. The pace just hasn’t quite been there since Russia with the McLaren not suiting the tracks as well as their rivals but his teammate is starting to become the quicker driver.

5. Carlos Sainz (-+)

More points for Sainz in Mexico. He went long in the first stint to try and create at tyre advantage to attack Gasly but unfortunately he wasn’t able to close enough to challenge. He dutifully let Leclerc take back his fifth spot in what was a pretty quiet race.

6. Pierre Gasly (+2)

Pierre Gasly must get another opportunity in a big team at some point. I just doubt it will be in a Red Bull, which is a shame. Gasly has shown speed, maturity, consistency and race craft this year but only needed the speed and consistency in Mexico. He started a fantastic fifth and took advantage of Bottas’ spin to take fourth and ran away with it. He was in a class of one and was barely seen on TV because of it.

7. Sergio Perez (-+)

Sergio is inserting himself into this title fight and really helping Red Bull take control of both championships. He threatened pole position until an errant Tsunoda distracted him and he had to settle for fourth. He pressurized Hamilton all race and become the first Mexican to stand on their home podium. Not a bad weekend.

8. George Russell (-2)

Not much George can do at the moment as it seems that the car’s mid-year renaissance has simmered. He started and finished sixteenth and that is all I know about his Mexican Grand Prix. He stays here because of the reasons I mentioned previously, I am sure he can’t wait to get going with Mercedes.

9. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

A misjudgment by Daniel going into Turn 1 ruined both his and Valtteri Bottas’ races. He locked up on the inside line, spun Bottas around and lost his front wing. This put him at the back and with damage to the underside of the car, he was losing a second a lap in aero performance. He came home in twelfth but he should have got points.

10. Fernando Alonso (-+)

A disappointing qualifying session for Fernando as he didn’t get out of Q1 but was helped by engine penalties to move up to twelfth on the grid. He went long in the first stint and made up spots to come home in ninth and get some key points for Alpine in the race for fifth in the championship. They are currently level on 106. He also pulled off a great move around the outside of Russell on the way to points.

11. Valtteri Bottas (+1)

Valtteri produced a great lap to take pole but that was the best his weekend would go. He let Max have a clean run down into Turn 1 and then was clipped by Ricciardo. One was his fault and the other wasn’t. He did make pretty good progress once he had clear air but Mercedes pitted him twice late on to help take away Max’s fastest lap point.

12. Sebastian Vettel (+1)

A really solid weekend for Seb while his teammate faltered. He made Q3, qualifying ninth and then had a quiet but quick race to finish seventh. It probably wasn’t the race Seb falls back in love with F1 but a good result for the team.

13. Lance Stroll (-2)

Not a good weekend for Stroll, he crashed early in Q1 as he got too wide at the final corner, got onto the marbles and went straight to the scene of the accident. He started at the back and had a couple of silly offs, one with Ricciardo trying to overtake into the high speed section in the middle sector. A scrappy weekend but as we all know this will be water off a ducks back for Lance, he will get another chance to make amends.

14. Esteban Ocon (-+)

I forget about Ocon quite a lot when thinking back on the races and this one was another where he didn’t really show. His main TV exposure was being used to show the chaos of the first corners but the contact he sustained may have caused him damage. He was another driver taking engine penalties so started nineteenth and made it up to thirteenth by the flag. His fastest lap was six tenths slower than his teammates which probably best illustrates Ocon’s struggles in the race.

15. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

Yuki made it a hattrick of Q3 appearances in Mexico. This is confidence boosting progress as his one lap pace has really lacked recently. He wasn’t able to show off this new found pace as he was one side of an Ocon sandwich, was pitched onto the curb and bollard at the apex of Turn 2, which shut the engine off and ended his race. A shame for him but it looks like his performance is going in the right direction, just a bit slowly.

16. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

Nicolas was not able to get out of Q1 but did start thirteenth with the engine penalties. However, he was not able to move any further up the field and finished seventeenth. There really isn’t much else to say.

17. Mick Schumacher (-+)

Mick was caught up in the first lap contact as he was the other side of the Ocon sandwich, which caused rear suspension failure and ended his race as well. Weirdly, only the filling of the Ocon sandwich didn’t sustain damage while the bread was broken. That’s enough sandwich based analogies for one day.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

There is the old Kimi Raikkonen that we know and love. He started tenth with the engine penalties and moved up to eighth by the end of the race. He kept good pace with Vettel throughout to collect some much needed points after Alfa Romeo have just missed out recently.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Despite a quick meeting with the barriers in Q2, Antonio was able to separate but missed out on Q3 anyway. He took advantage of the lap 1 chaos to move up to sixth but was screwed by Alpha’s suspect strategy that pitted him really early and he had to nurse his tyres to the end, losing touch and championship points, finishing eleventh.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Another weekend, another last place for Nikita Mazipin. He was the only one to end up three laps down but his fastest lap was quicker than Latifi’s. I am really trying to find positives and interesting to say about him but keep failing.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – USA Edition

Welcome to the seventeenth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Turkish Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

We may look back on the USA Grand Prix of 2021 as a defining moment in this year’s title race. The win was always going to be between Max and Lewis, excluding any crazy scenarios playing out. The win for either would have significant consequences – for Max, it would give him a double digit lead going into Mexico and Brazil, two races where the Red Bull has been the quickest car the last couple of years, without being that during those said years (While Mercedes have particularly struggled in Mexico due to its altitude’s effect on their cooling). This would put him in a very strong position going into the final three races of the year. For Lewis, a win would give him back the lead in the championship and help build some momentum going into a potentially tricky fortnight. As it would go, the two cars were separated by 1.3 seconds at the flag, with the Dutchman taking it in first place and the twenty five points. The reason this could be seen as a defining moment is that it felt like Red Bull have become the strongest overall team, with their bold strategy, and were helped by their driver’s brilliant drive, at just the right time. Meanwhile, Mercedes are having to take more grid penalties and relying more on the talent of Hamilton to make up for their passive decision making. Red Bull took the initiative with their early stop to gain track position and it always felt like they weren’t going to let it go. In the meantime, they were able to turn around a one second deficit from Practice 1 to take pole by two tenths and the race win, hurting Mercedes’ momentum and left them looking a bit flat on Sunday evening. Not to mention, Verstappen extended his lead in the championship in fine fashion to hold the largest lead since the season restarted. If Max gets the better of Lewis over the next two races, the title race could be over. However, as I write this, Murray Walker’s voice is shouting at me “anything can happen in Formula 1, and it usually does”. One retirement or issue for Max in a race and Lewis is right back in it, if not on top. I hope this championship goes down to the final race, it’s what it deserves.

The race behind the leading battle had some good battles, especially between two former World Champions in Alonso and Raikkonen which did spark a track limits debate. It’s an annoying subject as it seems to change at every track. I think we should just stick to the white lines as the edge of the track and be done with it. You just have to have a tyre on that white line to be classed as on-track. We just need consistency there so all drives know the score.

The McLaren-Ferrari battle seems to have swung towards Ferrari in the last couple of races with Leclerc stretching away from the pack this time but McLaren still lead the battle for third by three and a half points.

A few quick shout outs before I get into the rankings. A much needed result for Yuki Tsunoda and a stronger weekend all round. Great effort from Sergio Perez, whose drinks bottle failed on the way to the grid and had to pass under the Heineken sign fifty six times reminding him that he ‘shouldn’t drink and drive’ – that’s just rubbing it in. It is hard to imagine the heat of a sunny Texas day with three layers of fire proof overalls, a balaclava and a helmet on, while driving a fighter jet for a hundred minutes. The fitness of these modern F1 drivers is truly elite.

After USA Grand Prix (17 of 22)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

The USA Grand Prix was a prime example of the development of Max Verstappen into arguably the best driver in the world. He didn’t panic when he lost the lead at the start but shadowed Hamilton in the first stint, staying within undercut range so that Red Bull could pull off their new strategy. Once Red Bull pulled the trigger on the early two stop strategy, Max used his tyres up perfectly, especially in the third stint when he could have come out, pushed the tyres to gain an advantage but he would have run out at the end. However, he eeked them out, being two to three tenths a lap quicker than Hamilton so when the Brit pitted, he closed quickly but Max had enough tyre life to keep him at arms length and he wasn’t able to overtake. This could be the most important win of his career so far.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Hamilton gave it his best shot on Sunday in Austin but it wasn’t quite enough. I think Mercedes should have pitted him a couple laps earlier for his second stop as they let the gap to Max get a bit too big. That isn’t just hindsight, I thought so at the time – they needed to keep Max within seven seconds, but let it get above eight. This just gave him a bit too much to do, but without Mick Schumacher giving Max DRS on the penultimate lap, he may have pulled it off. He needs a win in Mexico to close that gap before it’s too late.

3. Charles Leclerc (+1)

Charles deserves this boost in ranking for the form he has been in during the last month of F1 racing. He tailed the leaders in Turkey, flirting with winning and then was in a race/class of his own for fourth in Austin. He finished over twenty seconds ahead of his closest rivals. While Norris has had some off weeks, Charles has taken up the challenge to snatch the last step on this particular podium.

4. Lando Norris (-1)

Lando has been quiet since his near-win in Russia. I don’t know if its a bit of a hangover, which is understandable, but McLaren need him at his best to hold on to third in the Constructors Championship. He was always in between battles after the first lap scrap between the McLaren and Ferrari drivers. He nearly took them all out at the hairpin of Turn 12 but was able to get on the brakes enough to keep out of trouble. From there he didn’t really have the pace to trouble those in front and he came home in eighth.

5. Carlos Sainz (-+)

Carlos qualified right behind his teammate and had a great battle with Ricciardo that started on the first lap and lasted the whole race. Carlos pulled off a great move to stay ahead of Ricciardo through the twisty first sector on Lap 1 but he would have to let him through again as he was deemed to have overtaken off the track at Turn 12. This cost him a lot of time as he was stuck behind the McLaren for the rest of the race. He was also overtaken by Bottas at the death to come home in seventh in a frustrating race for the Spaniard as he watched his car’s potential disappear down the road.

6. George Russell (-+)

A weekend more reminiscent of George Russell’s first two years in F1 in Austin. He started at the back after more engine penalties, finished ahead of people he would expect to beat while not really being quick enough to join the midfield fight. His main action was battling faster cars on fresher tyres after they had pitted and he finished in fourteenth thanks to some retirees. He keeps his place on this list due to his upcoming career move and the fact that he has shown without doubt he deserves to be at this end of the grid, despite the car he drives.

7. Sergio Perez (+1)

Sergio is really finding some form and consistency with this Red Bull. Christian Horner has put it down to the team & Sergio finding a set up that he is comfortable with and it could not have come at a better time for them. He was a thirteen hundredth of a second from securing an All-Red Bull front row but just missed out to Hamilton to start third. His water bottle broke on the way to the grid which is no laughing matter on a hot Autumn day in Texas while driving a Formula 1 car. The cockpit can get up to 50 degrees and without hydration, you can lose consciousness. Perez talked of losing strength in his hands and arms at the end of the race but luckily for him, his pace was strong enough that he didn’t have to get into direct combat with others. A second podium in a row for the Mexican as he goes into his home race in the best form of his Red Bull career. Would Red Bull let him win his home race if he puts himself in position to do so but Max is directly behind him…? Probably not.

8. Pierre Gasly (-1)

Another Q3 appearance for Pierre Gasly, this time accompanied by his teammate, for ninth on the grid. This was as good as his weekend was going to get as a sensor issue had to be fixed on the grid and he lost a couple positions at the start. To make things worse, his car developed a suspension failure early on that got progressively worse until he had to retire on Lap 16. After a really good result last weekend, Gasly was not able to build on that with reliability hitting once again.

9. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

Daniel’s inconsistency continues, but luckily it was the good weekend’s turn for Ricciardo in Austin. He outqualified his teammate for sixth on the grid and was the main McLaren interfering with Ferrari’s attempt to snatch away third in the Constructors Championship in the race. He side-by-side display with Sainz on the first lap through the twisty first sector was a thing of beauty – even if he did come out behind. He got the position back and set out to annoy the Spaniard behind for the rest of the race, showing some great defensive driving to keep the faster car behind. He was even able to keep the fast approaching Bottas behind to secure fifth place for the Woking based team.

10. Fernando Alonso (-+)

Fernando gave us our money’s worth with aggression on-track and over the radio. His and the team’s annoyance at Raikkonen’s overtake around the outside of Turn 1 , which they deemed to be out of bounds, directly led to some more juicy action with Raikkonen’s teammate as he attempted the mother of all divebombs at the hairpin which he rightfully had to give immediately back, ironically for track limits. He gave it another good go a couple laps later but was also unsuccessful. All of this was for non points scoring positions and Alonso would retire late on, alongside his teammate. It feels like Alonso is giving much more to F1 than it is giving back at the moment.

11. Lance Stroll (-+)

Lance was spun at the first corner by Nicolas Latifi who was being sandwiched into an ever closing hole himself, and that basically ruined his race. He battled back up to twelfth, surpassing his starting position of thirteenth but he probably thought points were on the cards as his teammate got them from eighteenth.

12. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

Bottas had to take a second engine penalty in three races which put him in the pack, starting ninth. It took him twenty laps to get past Tsunoda for eighth and by that time he had fallen quite back from the cars in front. He was, however, able to reel them in and got ahead of a McLaren and Ferrari to finish sixth.

13. Sebastian Vettel (+1)

A spirited drive from Vettel from eighteenth on the grid to get a point. He made some places up at the start and then had good pace to get ahead of the lower midfield. His moment of the day was overtaking Russell around the outside at the multi-left hander 16-17-18 complex, which was a confident move that was well worked to position his car and Russell’s to create the opportunity.

14. Esteban Ocon (-1)

Ocon had to change his front wing on the first lap after contact with an Alfa Romeo that pretty much settled his fate. It put him way behind the pack and out of sequence. He tried making the hard tyre go long again but the team decided to retire the car late one while he was running in seventeenth.

15. Yuki Tsunoda (+2)

For the second weekend in a row, Tsunoda made it into Q3 and held up a Mercedes in the race. This time he held up the Mercedes for much longer and was able to hold on to his points scoring spot. He was the last person lapped by the leading two to cross the line in ninth and take two points back to Italy.

16. Nicolas Latifi (-1)

Seemed to be a quiet race for Latifi, who was in a race of his own by the looks of it. He started fourteenth but got quickly overtaken by his teammate and then drove by himself to finish fifteenth. He was the last non-Haas finisher.

17. Mick Schumacher (-1)

Another weekend of dominance from Schumacher over his teammate but his teammate did have headrest issues. His fastest lap was 1.5 seconds quicker than his Russian counterpart. I bet he can’t wait for 2022 and to see if all this pain has been worth it.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Some bullish driving from Kimi to keep at it around the outside of Alonso at Turn 1 paid off and set him up nicely around the points. However, he couldn’t keep his tyres together as well as others and he dropped to thirteenth at the flag after a spin in the first sector.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Antonio just missed out on points, finishing eleventh on what was a better performance by himself and the team. He got ahead of his teammate because of a mistake but you got to keep it on the track. It looks increasingly likely that we are counting down the races of Gio’s F1 career.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

His headrest became lose at Turn 2, which would have restricted his vision and ability to look into the mirrors but hopefully would have been fixed at his first stop. He did his usual concrete bollard impression to get in the way of lapping cars but apart from that, it was a lonely drive at the back once again.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Turkey Edition

Welcome to the sixteenth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Russian Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here. A quick admin note as well, I have just realised that I have been putting the wrong total of races on all my posts – it’s not 23, but actually 22. My bad. Call myself an F1 fan.

For the second year in a row the weather played a major part in the outcome of the weekend at Istanbul Park. The changeable and windy conditions caused the drivers problems all weekend with the rain only threatening qualifying but came for the race. We knew before the weekend that Lewis Hamilton had a 10-place grid penalty for taking his fourth internal combustion engine for the year, so would start highest eleventh and do his best to limit the damage done by Verstappen in the championship fight. Hamilton duly took pole but was demoted to eleventh but his teammate Bottas was able to at least keep Verstappen behind. The race didn’t quite live up to expectations but there was some good action and brave driving. It felt like a constant wait for the conditions to improve enough for dry tyres but never really came, which Vettel found out and Hamilton and Leclerc really hoped for. The main talking point post race was Mercedes and Hamilton’s back and forth about whether they could go to the end without pitting. Hamilton questioned the team’s call to pit but was eventually overruled, losing two positions in the process with only eight laps to go. He lost five points to Verstappen in the championship and in such a close run-in, all the points changes are going to be heavily scrutinized as the finale draws close. Well done to Valtteri Bottas who drove a commanding and calm race to win for the first time in over a year and to exorcise the demons of Turkey 2020.

After Turkish Grand Prix (16 of 22)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

The Red Bull didn’t have the speed of the Mercedes all weekend so Max perfectly played the long game and picked up seventeen points and probably the max he was expecting from the Grand Prix. Of course, he wants to win every race but Bottas drove well enough to win. He extended his lead in the championship to six points after getting all his spins out of the way when it didn’t matter. A double podium finish for the team as well helped close the gap to Mercedes in the other championship. Max will now try and defend his lead in Austin.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Annoyingly for Hamilton, without the engine penalty, it looks like he would have won the Turkish Grand Prix from pole and extended his lead in the championship. However, Mercedes found irregular noises coming from the engine so decided it best to be safe rather than risk a DNF. He made decent progress from his eleventh place grid slot to find himself fifth after fifteen laps but was a fair way off the leaders. He caught Perez but couldn’t get past so when the others started pitted for their second set of inters, Hamilton decided to stay out. It really was a knife edge decision and a year after Lewis won the race because he stayed out, I think it was the wrong decision this year and may have cost him a chance at getting past Perez and Leclerc in front for a podium. If he had stayed out, I think he would have been powerless to defend if they caught him while risking a tyre blowout and no points at all. He came home fifth and lives to fight another day because this title fight is far from over.

3. Lando Norris (-+)

A quieter weekend in Turkey for Norris after the rollercoaster that was the Russian Grand Prix. The McLaren is very track sensitive and the long, medium speed corners of Istanbul Park don’t really suit the papaya-mobile. However, he qualified and finished seventh which isn’t bad for a so-called quiet weekend for the young Brit. It shows the ways this team has come since Norris first drove for them in 2019.

4. Charles Leclerc (-+)

A classically gutsy and fast drive from Charles Leclerc that started at third on the grid, shadowed the leaders for the majority of the race, tried to brave it out on inters but was forced to pit and came home in fourth, four seconds off a podium. At one point I thought he genuinely had a chance of winning the race while staying out but his rear tyres failed him. While Carlos is getting the plaudits for getting up to speed quickly in his new car, Leclerc is consistently performing to a high standard and isn’t wilting under the pressure of leading the Scuderia.

5. Carlos Sainz (+1)

Carlos won his first driver of the day award in Turkey and it was a great drive from the back of the grid. He was the main form of entertainment as he came through the field and seemingly overtook a car a lap into the final sector and only his overtake on Vettel had a small love tap which didn’t cause any issues. He did get stuck behind Stroll and Gasly which slightly dented his progress but eighth is a good result from the back.

6. George Russell (-1)

A quieter weekend on paper for George Russell but I am sure he will look back at a missed opportunity. He hit the loud pedal a bit too early at the exit of the last corner on his final run in Q2, had to correct the slide and lost all of his good work. His good work looked good enough to be in Q3 but instead he started thirteenth, lost two positions early and never recovered his losses. He apparently had a good scrap with Alonso and Ricciardo but the TV cameras did not pick that up.

7. Pierre Gasly (-+)

A much needed weekend for Pierre Gasly and Alpha Tauri as he was quick in both dry and wet conditions to start fourth on the grid. He only lost positions to the quickest cars on the grid and I thought he was hard done by with his five second time penalty at the first corner. Perez came late onto his inside and he did not have much room to maneuver with Alonso on his outside which resulted in him making contact with the Spaniard. From there, he was quick enough that the penalty didn’t effect his race and he came home relatively unchallenged in sixth ahead of Lando Norris.

8. Sergio Perez (+2)

This was a big result for Perez to re-introduce himself to the title fight. He isn’t going to win the fight but Turkey felt like the first instance in a while where he actively helped Red Bull in said fight. He started sixth but his aggression at the start, to the detriment of Gasly and Alonso, got him into the leading bunch. He also held his own when called upon to keep Hamilton behind as he quickly caught on Lap thirty-seven, with some great car positioning and bravery on the brakes. He completed the hat-trick as his pace on new inters forced Mercedes to pit Hamilton from third and cost him six valuable points in the championship.

9. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

Unfortunately for Ricciardo, this weekend was more in line with how his season has gone. He was knocked out in Q1 so the team decided to take a new engine and he dropped to the back of the grid. He made some progress up to thirteenth at the flag but never got anywhere near to the points that his team need him to consistently score in their battle with Ferrari in the Constructors.

10. Fernando Alonso (-+)

Alonso was the innocent victim of the Turn 1 clash after qualifying a quality sixth place. He would have been a good bet for some great points and maybe even that podium in those tricky conditions but instead was stuck in traffic after dropping to the back. He also got a five second penalty, but rightly so, for clumsily spinning Mick Schumacher at Turn 4 trying to recover his race. He finished in sixteenth place which was definitely not what he hoped for from his Sunday.

11. Lance Stroll (+1)

Lance was once again the fastest Aston Martin in Turkey. A year after he lead for most of the race in the last edition of the Turkish Grand Prix, he showed consistant pace to bring home some points for his team – two in fact. This Aston Martin seems to be the fifth or sixth fastest car so back end of the points are probably the best you can expect at the moment.

12. Valtteri Bottas (+2)

It was a commanding performance from Bottas once he inherited pole position due to his teammate’s engine penalty. He was able to create a gap to Verstappen in the first stint and never felt opposed until he had to overtake Leclerc trying to go to the end without pitting, but even that was straightforward and calmly done by the Finn. Once Leclerc was dispatched, he coasted to victory. This could be due to the security and ease a multi-year contract gives you, and it seems to be suiting him. He has scored the most amount of points since he signed that contract, helping to prove my point.

13. Esteban Ocon (-1)

Ocon didn’t have the pace of his teammate in Turkey but was able to finish ahead of him and collect the final championship point. He was able to do that because he did not make a pit stop, becoming the first driver since Olivier Panis in 1997 to do so. In wet conditions the drivers aren’t obliged to use two compounds of tyre, like in the dry, so it was worth someone trying it and luckily for Ocon it paid off this time.

14. Sebastian Vettel (-1)

Sebastian was in contention for some points in Turkey before he made the wrong decision to put medium slick tyres on Lap 38 when the track was not ready for it. This cost him dearly as his lap took about three minutes and dropped him to nineteenth. He was only able to recover past Mick Schumacher to finish eighteenth. He gambled and this time he lost.

15. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

A quiet weekend for the second Williams as well. He was able to get through into Q2, like his teammate but that was the highlight of his weekend as he went backwards in the race to finish seventeenth.

16. Mick Schumacher (+1)

Mick made it out of Q1 for the first time in his career and showed that he possesses some of that Schumacher wet weather magic. He outqualified his teammate by a whopping 2.9 seconds, which is unheard of in modern F1, even in wet conditions. Its the first time proper that we have seen the gulf in the two Haas drivers and I’m not going to use this to bash Mazipin, well not in this paragraph anyway, but if you ever needed proof which driver deserves to be in F1, you now have it. This is the difference the driver can make. Mick was unlucky to be spun by Alonso early on, who was penalized, but may have struggled to keep up. His best lap was a second off the midfield pace.

17. Yuki Tsunoda (-1)

The weekend was looking up for Yuki, as he got into Q3 and qualified ninth but he just didn’t have any pace in the race to trouble the points. He held up Hamilton for about six laps at the start but that was the notable action for him. Everyone was expecting more from the Japanese driver in his rookie season so lets hope for his sake that his second season is better.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

The two Alfa Romeo’s started next to each other on the grid and they finished the race together. This time it was Kimi behind Giovinazzi in eleventh and twelfth after starting in sixteenth and seventeenth. I don’t think we saw the Alfa’s on screen at all on Sunday so there isn’t much else to analyse. Unfortunately for the Ice Man, his career is just fizzling out in a slow vehicle.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

More rumours swirl of potential replacements for Giovinazzi’s drive and it is looking increasingly likely that he wont be in F1 next year but he isn’t really doing enough to prove otherwise. A decent result in Turkey but nothing to prove he deserves to stay in the sport.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Here we go: getting outqualified by your teammate by 2.9 seconds is a disgrace, and at the very least highly embarrassing for the Russian pay driver. At least Stroll can drive a car fast even if his Dad did buy the team. His teammate was spun around, lost a whole load of time, but still finished ahead in Turkey. To be honest, Mazipin could win the next race in Austin and that wouldn’t change my mind about him. That is probably bad of me but his presence is an indication of a major flaw in the sport’s infrastructure. Much better drivers aren’t getting opportunities because people like Mazipin can buy their way in. The car better be good next year or what was the point of all this!?

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Sochi Edition

Welcome to the fifteenth edition of my F1 driver POWER rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition after the Italian Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here. I am sorry that this has come out after the next race. It’s poor from me but sometimes life gets in the way. Better late than never.

What a second half to the season we have been treated to. Since the restart of the season, only Zandvoort has been without major incident or talking point. Russia did not let the side down in that respect, however, for British fans it probably wasn’t the talking point they were seeking. McLaren’s resurgence has been well documented over the last three years and it was looking like Norris was about to rubber stamp their return with back-to-back wins for the team, the first since Hamilton and Button drove for them, but heartbreakingly he missed out by three laps. Norris did everything right all weekend, took a fantastic pole in the wet and drove a really mature race to be in prime position with six laps to go. Then the rain came. I love rain in F1 but I was doing my anti-rain dance like nobody’s business on Sunday, but obviously the F1 Gods had different plans. The Russian Grand Prix showed just how much of a team effort it takes to win in Formula 1. Mercedes had the information, guts, decisiveness, whatever you want to call it to bring Hamilton in for intermediate tyres and that won them the race, the 100th career victory for Sir Lewis Hamilton. I have had the pleasure of watching every single one of those victories and I still can’t quite believe he has made it. When Schumacher retired, I was convinced his records would stand the test of time, but as he left, his equal showed up right away and announced himself from the very first corner of his career. Hamilton isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but what he has achieved is truly unique, quite like himself. When the dust settles on humankind, he will be seen as the King of F1, I am convinced of it. All he needs to do now is get that eighth title, but against a formidable Max Verstappen, it will be no easy feat. At least people won’t be able to say it’s just the car. It never has been that way with Lewis; he has just been good enough to find himself in those cars. As Martin Brundle says “The best drivers find their way into the best cars”.

Now, on to the rest of the race. Rain once again caused chaos on Saturday with lots of the sessions cancelled. A gap in the weather was found for Qualifying to go ahead and it once again caused an entertaining and interesting grid. Verstappen was always going to start at the back with his engine penalty taken, but he was suddenly joined there by Leclerc and Bottas, who took penalties themselves. We got a glimpse into the future at the front with Norris, Sainz and Russell occupying the first three slots on the grid and the start did not disappoint, with slipstreaming and maneuvering going on all down the grid at the run down to Turn 2, the first real corner of the lap. Sainz and Norris were able to move ahead with Russell creating a DRS train behind him for the first stint. This did split the pack into groups, but the action didn’t stop. It does, again, spark thoughts in my head about the pros of a reserve grid, as a mixed-up grid almost guarantees action, see Hungary, Italy and Russia for that. Once the dust had settled after the first round of stops, Hamilton and Verstappen still had some work to do to get through the field, which they did do to differing extents but the threat of rain always loomed. It started coming down with about eight laps to go, in the Turn 4/5 area but the rest of the track was dry, probably the hardest conditions to call in F1. This is where the driver and team must both be on form and make the correct decisions. It was clear that the rain was causing issues but enough to risk pitting for inters? Some thought yes and some thought no. Hell, Lance Stroll spun into the barriers two seconds after telling his team it wasn’t ready for inters yet. Fortunately for Hamilton and Verstappen, they and their teams made the right call and McLaren did not. The radio communication did sound more panicked than that of Mercedes, but this will be a learning moment for the team and I am sure they wont make the same mistake twice. With the top two title protagonists finishing in those spots, the fight for the crown is now right back on with only two points separating them with seven races to go. It will go down to Abu Dhabi, I can feel it. What a season this has been. Now, enough rambling from me, onto the power rankings.

After Russian Grand Prix (15 of 23)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

I think if you had offered Max a second place before the race, he would have bitten your hand off. This was the perfect damage limitation weekend as they expected Hamilton to win the race and they minimized the points lose to him. Max was making solid if not spectacular progress by the time the rain came down. He was sitting in the 6/7/8th range for quite a while. However, he and the team made the right call and, in the end, he came home a comfortable second place. There really isn’t a flaw in Max Verstappen’s performance anymore, (apart from his lack of ability to know when to give up a corner but we have been over that) so that means that mistakes or retirements can not be counted on by his opponents. He is only two points behind Hamilton in the championship with more ‘Red Bull’ circuits coming up so it is still all to play for and you probably have to say he is the favourite, ever so slightly.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Hamilton achieved something this weekend that no other human in history has, to win 100 Formula 1 races, and he went back to the top of the championship table. If Max hadn’t had such a strong result, he would be on top of this list. He and Mercedes had a messy qualifying session so he lined up fourth, which probably cost him an easy run to victory, such was the pace advantage he seemingly had over the rest of the field. When Hamilton was in clear air during the race, he was a second a lap quicker than everyone else. He fought his way back up to second and then the team helped him complete the comeback to win his fifth Russian Grand Prix. I never want to wish away time, but I wish I could watch the run in to this season on back-to-back days, a full week of mayhem. It is going to be that good as the two best drivers of their generations go head-to-head. Lewis isn’t ready to give up his crown just yet, who knows if he ever will be.

3. Lando Norris (-+)

It’s been a week since that Sunday in Sochi and it still pains me that I am not writing that Lando momentously won his first Grand Prix in Russia. He did everything right but win. He showed off his wet weather skills once again, to take a convincing pole over Sainz and Russell as he was up the sharp end for all of qualifying, it wasn’t just a fabulous individual lap. Even though he got a good start from pole, the slipstream was so strong that he was passed by Sainz into Turn 2 but he did not panic or take to re-overtake him in the braking zone. No, he sat behind, biding his time, and got past before the first round of pitstops using the back straight DRS zone. He went long and then pitted into lots of space once he had got away from Sainz but still had the fast-incoming Hamilton to deal with. Once Hamilton had caught him, Norris showed that mental steel to not make any mistakes (on track anyway) and was looking very likely to win the race. Then the race came. This will be a learning moment for both Norris and McLaren, most of the team were not around during McLaren’s last stretch in the winning column. The slightly panicked and emotional radio messages were contrasted with Hamilton and Mercedes’ calm, been-there-done-that messages, showing the benefits of experience in this high intensity fights. What I would have wanted to see from McLaren’s pit wall was more conviction, there was too many questions about the weather, rather than telling Norris. They had lots more information than he did, but Norris’ explanation that their forecast showed the rain would not get heavier does help explain their conceding of the decision to the driver on track. They will heavily review and improve because of this which I am sure will lead to the right decision next time.

4. Charles Leclerc (-+)

Charles started at the back in Sochi after an engine change penalty which skews his result slightly against his teammate’ podium finish. Like Norris, he tried to stay out in the rain and it backfired. His race started promisingly after a fantastic first lap, rising to twelfth from nineteenth and was driving in the points until, like Norris, decided to stick it out in the rain and it backfired. He crossed the line in fifteenth to get nothing from his hard work.

5. George Russell (+1)

After two and half years of no points, George Russell is now making it a habit. Another weekend where George showed how brightly his star is shining at the moment. He qualified third on the grid in wet conditions, with his teammate unable to get out of Q2. He was able to hold on to his position on the first lap and kept the pack behind him until the first round of stops as the team decided to go long and he lost out to the undercut. With the chaos that the rain caused, George was able to bring the car home in tenth and fulfilled the team’s pre-race expectations of points. Even though the team is definitely on the up and the car is improving, George is outperforming it for sure. The decision made by Mercedes just keeps looking better and better for them.

6. Carlos Sainz (+1)

If Carlos hadn’t already won ‘newcomer of the year’ as a driver who moved team over the winter, this performance put his name on that trophy. He has been so impressive for Ferrari this year and stretches his lead in the intra-team podium battle to 3:1 over Leclerc. He qualified on the front row in tricky conditions and used the two to take the lead on the first lap. He lost the lead to Norris but had a good gap behind with a podium looking likely. He lost second to Verstappen in the switch to inters stage but got his well deserved podium. That’s already more than he had during his two years at McLaren.

7. Pierre Gasly (-2)

Pierre’s light has dimmed slightly over the last couple of races. He wasn’t able to get into the top 10 in qualifying and his pace in the race wasn’t great. He tried going long but the rain took away any tyre advantage he would have been able to utilise and he finished thirteenth.

8. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

He didn’t quite get to the levels of his teammate in Sochi but it was a great result for Ricciardo. He qualified in fifth and was in the fight for the podium push until a slow pitstop cost him valuable time. He held off Hamilton for a long time which boded well for his teammate later on in the race, but unlike his teammate, pitted early enough onto inters, and took the advantage to finish in fourth. With his teammate’s woes, Daniel brought home some great points for the team.

9. Fernando Alonso (+1)

Alonso became one of the few people that have overtaken Max Verstappen in a race this year when he passed him on Lap thirty eight. He could have got on the podium if they had pitted a few laps before but, nonetheless, a performance to be proud of to finish sixth. He had a great battle with Perez and Leclerc on dries in intermediate conditions that showed how tricky it was but also the brilliant car control of the gladiators behind the wheels.

10. Sergio Perez (-+)

A weekend where Perez was once again off his teammate’s pace but he did trouble the top places in the race. However, he only collected two points for the team after running as high as fourth when also gambling on dries. He probably deserved a better finish but the pace was at least there.

11. Esteban Ocon (-+)

Esteban’s weekend peaked on Saturday where he qualified ninth but didn’t hit the heights of his teammate. He was slower all weekend and wasn’t threatening the points before the rain and the rain didn’t improve his situation.

12. Lance Stroll (-+)

Lance went for it at Turn 2 after starting seventh and got himself up to fourth with some brave car positioning. He pitted early which probably cost him as he dropped into traffic. He slowed when the race came and had a couple spins, getting a penalty for his one with Gasly and nearly took out his teammate. His emotions seem quite high in the car and I think that might disadvantage him sometimes as he gets trigger happy on the throttle. He ended up not getting any points as Aston Martin washed out in Sochi.

13. Sebastian Vettel (-+)

Sebastian had a quiet weekend in Sochi and was really only threatening the last points scoring positions, running in tenth for quite a while but was caught out by the rain as he stayed out one lap too long and missed out on points, coming home in twelfth.

14. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

Bottas was forced to start at the back after taking engine penalties, some thinking to help keep Max behind during the race. However, when Bottas was required to defend against Max, he just left the door open and the Dutchman waltzed through on the back straight. This lack of fight sums up Bottas’ slow decline out of that Mercedes seat, he just hasn’t shown the fight needed to stay in the battle. He came home fifth in the end which was good points but could have finished in front of Verstappen really.

15. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

Latifi also had an engine penalty in Sochi and that compromised his race compared to his teammate. He wasn’t able to finish the race after spinning in the slippery conditions while on slicks. He was barely shown on the coverage but his recent performances keep him here.

16. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

Another really tricky weekend for Yuki who wasn’t on the pace again during the race after qualifying in twelfth. He finished seventeenth and only in front of the Haas’s. It is looking a bit desperate for him.

17. Mick Schumacher (-+)

An off weekend for Mick who still qualified in front of his teammate but dropped behind him in the race and eventually had to retire due to technical issues. These things are going to happen from time to time.

18. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Kimi comes back to the team and instantly puts Giovinazzi back in his place. He was running in and around the points for the whole race and then gets the tyre decision right to move up to eighth at the finish and some valuable points for the team. I’m going to miss him when he’s gone.

19. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Not good for Gio that Kimi shows what can be done in that car. He was nowhere near the points all race and finished sixteenth. Not much to write home about.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Mazipin drove around and probably gone in people’s way, not much else I want to say about this. He was having his home race by himself once Mick retired.