Author: JL

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Portugal Edition

Hello and welcome to the third edition of my F1 driver power rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my previous edition of it after the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

The 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix around the beautifully undulating and picturesque Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao was not a classic, but for the avid F1 fan, it was an interesting and quite telling event. The roller coaster-like nature of the track, high winds and a surface that was reluctant to give out much grip made life hard for our beloved drivers from Friday morning right until the chequered flag on Sunday. On the surface the result may sound quite ordinary – a Lewis Hamilton win – but delving deeper will reveal exactly why HE, and not THE CAR, won this race emphatically.

After Portuguese Grand Prix (3 of 23)

1. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Toto Wolff put it best when he said “He just drove an immaculate race…it makes no sense to talk about these exceptional performances because they have become quiet regular now. It’s his standard now.” We have become desensitized to this type of performance from Hamilton and some hide behind the ‘its just the car’ argument – which is just pure laziness. His ability to harass and stay close to the car in front despite the dirty air effect stands him above the rest. This gives him opportunities to overtake that others don’t get, and his ability to take those opportunities makes winning races like Sunday’s look easy. He now also knows how to do it all while keeping his tyres alive. When he was in a McLaren, these abilities are what made him challenge and win but in a Mercedes it has made him dominate. He overtook both championship rivals at Turn 1 – one inside and one outside – to then control the race from the front for win number 97, and we take it for granted.

2. Max Verstappen (-+)

However you feel about track limits, Max has been making mistakes when it matters at the start of this season. Red Bull claim Max has lost a race win, a fastest lap and a pole due to track limits violations but only the fastest lap I have issues with. Sounds like classic F1 blame tactics. Max had a time good enough for pole deleted in Qualifying 3 but he did go further than the kerb limit and the performance was in the car, he just didn’t quite deliver. A nice move around the outside of Hamilton at the Lap 7 restart gave his fans hope, but an oversteer moment at the final corner a couple laps later gave Hamilton his opportunity back, and from there Max just couldn’t quite match the Brit. A late pit-stop for new tyres to attempt the fastest lap elongated the time difference but once Hamilton was ahead he didn’t look troubled. 2-1 to Hamilton.

3. Lando Norris (-+)

These type of performances are what we are coming to expect from Lando Norris. A solid 7th on the grid was a nice surprise after he didn’t show much pace throughout Friday or Saturday practice but found it when it mattered. Is this just a sign of his confidence and comfortability that he doesn’t need to push the car until necessary? While his qualifying pace has been really solid, it’s his race craft and execution which impresses me the most. It is now 2 races in a row where has had to take softer tyres than those around him for a longer final stint to secure points. He did without making any mistakes and, apart from Hamilton, he didn’t look under real pressure from those behind. Another cherry on top for this weekend was a beautiful overtake around the outside of Ocon on Lap 1. I see shades of Hamilton and Schumacher in Norris’ ability to find overtakes others wouldn’t think of or have the talent to pull off.

4. Charles Leclerc (-+)

Out-qualified by his teammate, and for the first time in a long while Charles didn’t maximise his Saturday. He started 8th in Portugal and made up a spot over Ocon at the Lap 7 restart. He really played second fiddle to his teammate Sainz until the pit stops when he put the hard tyre on, which turned out to the right decision. He was able to finish 6th while Sainz dropped out of the points altogether as his medium tyres lost performance. This strategy was born on Saturday as Leclerc was quick enough to get into Q3 using the slower mediums to set him up nicely for a more durable Sunday, which secured him his 6th place.

5. Sergio Perez (+1)

Perez had a quiet but encouraging weekend in Portugal. He finished qualifying a place, and a tenth and a half behind Verstappen to line up 4th on the grid. He was also on the leading pace in the race when in clean air, but he lost 10 seconds to the leaders behind Norris after the safety car restart and wasn’t able to close once he got ahead again. He and Red Bull will take that result and progress.

6. Lance Stroll (-1)

A thoroughly anonymous weekend for Stroll in Portugal. He was knocked out in Qualifying 1, only above Haas and Williams who are currently fighting over 2nd last in F1 to not doing anything noteworthy on Sunday. For his form this season we have to give him the benefit of the doubt this time around so he only drops one place on this list.

7. Pierre Gasly (+1)

Gasly always felt a little bit behind the action on Sunday, was overtaken by the man he is replacing on this list – Daniel Ricciardo – and finished behind him in the race. However, he climbs to 7th because he is getting more from his respective package and being the team leader Alpha Tauri need him to be while his younger teammate finds his feet. The now-usual Q3 appearance for the Frenchman was converted into a point to keep the scoreboard ticking over for the Italian team.

8. Carlos Sainz (+1)

Another man that Daniel Ricciardo beat to the chequered flag in Portugal but drops below of in my take-no-prisoners POWER rankings. The reason this time is that Sainz feels closer to Leclerc’s pace than Ricciardo to Norris. The Spaniard qualified a brilliant best-of-the-rest 5th place but was undone by Ferrari’s strategy. He was asked to take the mediums longer than pretty much everyone else when the tyre of the day was the hards. He eventually ran out of grip to fall back to 11th. Despite the result, more evolution in the Sainz-Ferrari partnership.

9. Daniel Ricciardo (-2)

Ricciardo made life harder for himself failing to progress out of Q1, so he started 16th. This meant his weekend became more about damage limitation than true performance. He did have a nice fightback in the race to come home in 9th after running long in the first stint, but didn’t progress as expected afterwards and only moved forward due to Sainz’s tyre issues. Still lots to be done before he starts to threaten Norris’ superiority.

10. Fernando Alonso (-+)

Fernando stays put for now after a much more promising weekend for Alpine all round. He stays 10th because despite a nice flurry of overtakes to finish 8th in the race from 13th on the grid, he was outperformed by his teammate all weekend. He was also helped by much younger and better suited tyres than those around him to climb that high in the second half of the race.

11. Esteban Ocon (+3)

The standout performance of the weekend has Ocon jumping the most in this edition of the driver POWER rankings. A seemingly much improved Alpine gave the Frenchman this opportunity and he pretty much maxed out. He was never lower than 6th, his starting position, in all three qualifying sessions and drove a patient race to finish 7th to pick up his biggest points haul of the season. This weekend should have really boosted Ocon’s confidence going into his teammate’s home race – a good time to find some form.

12. George Russell (-1)

‘Mr Saturday’ really lived up to this name in Portugal. He battled that Williams to within six one hundredths of a second of a first Q3 appearance for the legendary team. He reported that once the wind picked up on Sunday, the car became quite undrivable and he fell down the field to 16th. He still blew his teammate out of the water and is the only reason Williams are relevant at the moment so he maintains his mid table position.

13. Kimi Raikkonen (-1)

A strange mistake from Kimi at the end of Lap 1 ended his race prematurely and could have easily ended his teammates as well. Kimi was changing switches on his steering wheel when he drifted into the back of his teammate, broke off his front wing, which got stuck under his front tyre and ended up in the gravel trap rather unceremoniously. He only drops one place because the drivers below all had meh weekends.

14. Yuki Tsunoda (-1)

Yuki was half a second off his teammate to line up 14th on the grid and then went backwards in the race to finish 15th. Portimao is a tricky circuit for a rookie meeting it for the first time so these sort of weekends are expected. His pre-season hype is yet to fully flourish into race results but Spain is a familiarity to all F1 drivers due to its mainstay on the Motorsport calendar, so I am expecting more from him there.

15. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

This again feels harsh having Bottas down at this end of the table despite a pole position and a podium finish for the Finn in Portugal. The reason he is here is because, not for one moment from him claiming pole to finishing the race did I ever think we was going to win it. He got away well and smartly restarted the race after the safety car, but then was boldly overtaken around the outside of Turn 1 by Hamilton to take the lead, and then was overtaken by Verstappen after the first round of pit stops. A slow Mercedes stop did put him under pressure from the Dutchman but Bottas barely put up a fight when Verstappen eased through up the inside into Turn 5 – resigned to his fate almost. It looked like Bottas only realised Verstappen was there until they were mid corner. He’s now got rumours of Russell replacing him mid season to deal with.

16. Sebastian Vettel (+1)

A much better event for Seb Vettel isn’t properly reflected by his position on this list but definitely a step in the right direction. It was hard to get worse to be fair. His first Q3 appearance in literally years should do him a world of good and he beat his teammate to the flag for the first time this season as well, albeit out of the points in 13th. You must learn to walk before you can run.

17. Antonio Giovinazzi (-1)

Another good weekend for the Italian as he qualified and finished 12th. He survived the contact with his teammate to have a rather unassuming race and be the last car to be lapped. He is slowly but surely coming good in that Alfa Romeo and putting more and more weekends like this together will give the team a harder time when picking their driver line up for next year – they will have options.

18. Mick Schumacher (-+)

We had a proper Haas sighting on Sunday in Portimao as Mick finished ahead of a Williams after passing him on track in the closing stages of the race, which us viewers were lucky enough to witness. He also finished a minute and a half ahead of his teammate to do a George-Russell style teammate smackdown on Mazipin.

19. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

Latifi was the Williams being overtaken by Schumacher if you hadn’t already worked that out. He was probably just grateful for the company and attention as he does a lot of driving around minding his own business at the back. Another quiet and unimpressive weekend for the Canadian after showing some sign of progress in Imola.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Mazipin looked out of his depth driving around this tidal wave of a circuit. He qualified last by more than half a second and then finished a minute behind anyone else in the race. What can you say to that? He didn’t seem to spin as much this weekend but I could have just not noticed.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Emilia-Romagna Edition

Hello and welcome back to my F1 driver power rankings list. I hope you enjoyed my first edition of it after the Bahrain Grand Prix but if you didn’t get around to reading it and don’t want any spoilers, you can find it here.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was both entertaining and chaotic in equal measure with the rain shower minutes before the race causing the teams to think on their feet and for the drivers to re-adjust their focus, which is always a recipe for fun. We witnessed a lot of rough and tumble, with the drivers having to find the limit on the fly around this old-school narrow and unforgiving circuit. The close proximity of the barriers and gravel traps lining the track meant mistakes were punished, which is the way it should be. In danger of sounding like an old man already – they don’t build race tracks like that anymore.

In this edition of the power rankings new stars start to emerge, a few young guns climb and some established names continue to fall. However, that’s all I’m giving you, you will have to read on to find out more.

After Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix (2 of 23)

  1. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

A couple of uncharacteristic mistakes from the 7-time World Champion scuppered his chances of race victory in Imola. The first being tying to brave it around the outside of Verstappen at Turn 1 when he was always driving into a narrowing wedge, losing part of his front wing end plate in the process. This cost him an estimated 3 tenths per lap thereafter. The second mistake was being a bit too impatient trying to lap George Russell on Lap 31 which put him on the wet part of the track, causing an inevitable lock up and visit to the barriers. It took him over a minute to get out of that predicament, by which time he was a lap down and his teammate had brought out the red flag after a huge crash with George Russell on Lap 32. This actually saved Hamilton’s blushes as he was able to fix his car and get back on the lead lap when the race restarted. A more characteristic fight back to second with some pinpoint overtaking and a fastest lap on the way helped maintain his championship lead over Verstappen which has kept him at the top of this list. Those 18 points saved could be crucial at the end of the year in what is increasingly looking like a two-way fight for the title in 2021.

2. Max Verstappen (-+)

A mistake on his final qualifying lap cost him pole position on Saturday but he immediately made up for it on Sunday by taking the lead after a great start in wet conditions into Turn 1. He then went on to pull away in the race until Hamilton closed the gap before the only pit-stop of the race when the timing to switch to slicks would be crucial. Red Bull chose the perfect time to pit him, one lap before Mercedes called Hamilton in and this helped to extend the gap once more. We were denied a grandstand finish with Hamilton’s gravel trap excursion, but I think it would have been hard to overtake Max with only one dry line into the overtaking spot at Turn 1. With Hamilton fighting back through the field, Max had a clear and simple journey to his first win on Italian soil. This should not take away from the fact that Max looks as strong as Hamilton in wet conditions and is starting to tick all the World Champion boxes. A semi spin at the restart only really showed me his exceptional car control to keep it going in the right direction circa Brazil 2016. Even when he makes a mistake it looks good.

3. Lando Norris (+1)

Norris just keeps getting better and better and his Imola weekend showed us many reasons why. He missed out on P3 in qualifying by a couple of inches due to track limits violations on his last qualifying lap but as Martin Brundle said in commentary, that violation was not where his lap time came from; he was genuinely quick enough. Starting 7th he kept out of trouble at the start, and a fantastic double overtake on Stroll and Sainz really showed off his opportunistic race craft. He then went on to dominate his teammate in the wet, so much so that the team had to ask Daniel to move out of his way with Lando quickly disappearing up the road. Another brave overtake on Leclerc at the restart put him up to 2nd which he held onto until Hamilton caught him two laps from the end, but a 2nd career podium finish for the young Brit was more than deserved. While lots of mistakes were made on Sunday, I didn’t see Lando put a foot wrong, especially under extreme pressure from behind for the last 15 laps. A thoroughly impressive weekend all round.

4. Charles Leclerc (-1)

Leclerc continues to maximise his Ferrari’s potential by sticking it at the sharp end of the grid on Saturday, starting 4th in Imola. He got past Perez on Lap 1 and then drove away to have quite a quiet race until the restart, when he was overtaken by Norris which would eventually lose him a podium position. The McLaren’s straight-line speed probably kept Lando ahead in the latter stages as Leclerc was able to follow closely but the opportunity just didn’t arrive to have a go. He loses one spot just because of how impressed I was with Lando’s performance, probably the best of his career.

5. Lance Stroll (+1)

Another weekend when he out-performed his vastly more experienced teammate and moved forward in the race to secure Aston Martin championship points. Starting 10th for the second straight weekend, he was able to stay in the fight this time around as he made up 3 spots at the start and held on to them to finish 7th on the road. However, he was given a 5 second time penalty and demoted to 8th after he was deemed to have overtaken Pierre Gasly off the track on Lap 11, which unfortunately I have not been able to see. At this stage in the season while Aston Martin try and understand where their car is lacking, Lance is getting the most out of it and picking up crucial points. He just needs his teammate to get his act together and join him there.

6. Sergio Perez (-1)

A great Saturday turned into a disastrous Sunday for Perez. The first front row start of his career to out-qualify his teammate was much needed after Bahrain, however, after being beaten off the line by Verstappen he was never on the pace to challenge for the win or give Red Bull the tactical advantage over Mercedes. He lost a spot to Leclerc at the start, lost another to Norris in the pits and was 50 seconds behind his teammate on Lap 32 when the red flags came out to temporarily stop the race. Once the race got going again, Perez spun at the Gilles Villeneuve chicane when he went a bit too wide mid corner and got onto the wet line, dropping him down the field. He would finish 12th and out of the points on a day when a podium was the minimum he would have expected from himself. He is still getting used to this car, so mistakes are expected but as we know this Red Bull team do not give their drivers much time to correct them.

7. Daniel Ricciardo (-+)

Daniel did not have the pace of his teammate all weekend in Imola and was beaten thoroughly on Sunday by Norris. At times he was a second a lap slower than the Brit. However, he still lined up as the leading McLaren on the grid and finished 6th in the race. The reason he doesn’t move down this list is because he still picked up solid points in a car he is still figuring out, and the people below didn’t do enough to leapfrog him. I have confidence that Daniel will be on Lando’s pace before long and we can see some typical Aussie dive bombs coming soon. This shows the place McLaren are in when 6th feels like a below average result.

8. Pierre Gasly (+2)

Another excellent qualifying from the Frenchman to stick the Alpha Tauri 5th on the grid was unfortunately let down by the decision to start the race on full wet tyres, while the vast majority of the grid chose the intermediates. It was soon proved to be the wrong decision as no more rain came and the track dried out. Gasly did well to keep the cars behind for so long but by the time he pitted he was 19th. The restart saved his race as he was able to battle up to 8th with some nice overtaking and errors ahead aiding his effort. We need to see an error free weekend from Alpha Tauri to truly judge where this team sit but in flashes this car is super-fast and Gasly has shown he can handle the pressure once more after his fateful Red Bull stint.

9. Carlos Sainz (+3)

While he admits himself that he still isn’t fully comfortable in this Ferrari, which he described as like learning how to drive in a new racing category compared to his previous McLaren, he would be satisfied with finishing only 1.5 seconds behind his teammate on Sunday to finish 5th. Being knocked out in Qualifying 2 to line up 11th and making a few mistakes early on Sunday would have annoyed him. However, a sign of a good racer is that he didn’t let them effect him or his weekend and as points are handed out after the race, history will tell us this was a good weekend for Sainz Jr.

10. Fernando Alonso (-2)

Alonso was off the pace all weekend in Imola for Alpine. He was out-qualified by a teammate for the first time since 2018 to line up 15th and then was never really involved in the action on Sunday. He was lucky to finish 11th on the road and then promoted to 10th due to Raikkonen’s time penalty while his teammate finished one place ahead. The silver lining is that these are Alpine’s first points of the season but Alonso looked much more his punchy self in the desert.

11. George Russell (-2)

The more I watch the Russell – Bottas crash, the more I think that George just misjudged the gap, got onto the wet patch of track and lost control, collecting Bottas in the process for as high speed a crash as you will see in F1. George has since apologised and back tracked on some comments he made about Bottas in the aftermath. It did feel symbolic as Russell tried to overtake the man he hopes to beat to the Mercedes race seat in 2022 but not quite the result he would have wanted. Before this he was having another very solid weekend as he threatened top 10 in qualifying, lining up 12th, and was fighting for points in the race. He drops down because to impress any potential employer, you can’t be taking out one of their cars and this was a massive missed opportunity for his Williams team to pick up some rare points. Strong words from Toto Wolff post-race show George still has some ways to go to get that coveted Mercedes seat.

12. Kimi Raikkonen (-1)

A rather complicated 30 second post-race time penalty for not getting back into the right position and then for not entering the pit lane after he had spun behind the safety car at the restart meant Kimi dropped out of the points from finishing 9th on the road. In his defence, the stewards themselves admitted the rules are confusing in regards to this area of the regulations. The Alfa team did ask for clarification at the time but did not get a response back quick enough to fix the issue. Apart from this mishap, he continues to be a mature and safe pair of hands in the race to make up for lack of qualifying pace in this Alfa Romeo.

13. Yuki Tsunoda (-+)

Mistakes cost the Young Japanese driver dearly on both Saturday and Sunday. He crashed out in Qualifying 1 carrying too much speed into the chicane at the top of the hill, losing control of the back end of his Alpha Tauri and nearly ripping it off when he collected the barrier. This meant he started 20th and last on Sunday. He proceeded to make up ten spots in the first half of the race only to throw it all away again at the restart trying to overtake Hamilton on the inside of Turn 1. He got onto the damp patch of track, hit the throttle a bit too enthusiastically and around she went, dropping him to the back once more. He got back up to 13th at the flag, but this will feel like a missed opportunity. Yuki has time on his side as this is only his second race and mistakes will happen, but his speed is obvious which will put him in good stead once he cuts these rookie errors out.

14. Esteban Ocon (+2)

A better weekend for the Frenchman where he convincingly out-qualified and then beat his 2-time World Champion teammate in the race. This Alpine looks like the 6th or 7th quickest car so it may be hard for Ocon to prove himself, but this sort of weekend and having a world class driver to compare to will help. He jumps up because the two drivers below had shockers.

15. Valtteri Bottas (-1)

Bottas went from being quickest on Friday to having a nightmare weekend. He qualified 8th on the grid after complaining about not being able to switch the tyres on enough to get the performance he wanted, but the sister Mercedes lined up on pole. He went backwards in the race to eventually become one half of the crash that brought out the red flag on the infamous Lap 32. While the crash wasn’t his fault, he shouldn’t have been in the position to get involved in it in the first place. While Hamilton makes driving an F1 car look easy at times, Valtteri makes it look bloody hard at times and this was one of those occasions. He is already 28 points behind his teammate in the drivers’ standings and is driving himself towards that dreaded ‘number 2’ driver role in this championship fight.

16. Antonio Giovinazzi (+1)

A frustrating end to the weekend for Antonio as a mechanical issue meant he had to pit late on in the race when he was running 10th and on course for his first points of the season. He was out-qualified by Kimi and out-raced but he did deserve that point after staying out of trouble and not making any mistakes.

17. Sebastian Vettel (-2)

Another weekend Vettel would rather forget but will need to analyse closely if he is to quickly change his fortunes around. The thin silver lining would be that a brake by wire failure on the way to the grid meant that the car can be blamed for Vettel’s time penalty – for not being in position with 5 minutes to go before race start, having to start in the pit lane, his lack of race pace and his retirement with 2 laps to go. He did make it out of Qualifying 1 which is an improvement on Bahrain but he isn’t in this sport to start 13th.

18. Mick Schumacher (-+)

A pretty anonymous weekend for the German driver apart from an embarrassing crash behind the safety car due to some over-enthusiastic weaving on the main straight. Luckily for him he was already at the back so only lost 1 position and was able to catch up once he pitted for a new front wing. He did beat his teammate on both days pretty convincingly despite that crash and that is all he can do at the moment.

19. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

I was pleasantly surprised by Latifi’s Saturday performance to put his Williams 14th on the grid and even got through Qualifying 1 in 11th. However, his Sunday ended in clumsy fashion as he spun at Aqua Minerale on Lap 1, didn’t look both ways when re-entering the track, got clipped when he drifted across onto Mazipin’s racing line up the hill and destroyed the front of his Williams to bring out the first safety car of the race.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

Slowest in qualifying and last in the race is fitting for the last placed driver on this list. Apart from being involved in Latifi’s accident, which wasn’t his fault, not much to say about his race apart from that its good he finished this one to get much needed experience under his belt.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Bahrain Edition

Welcome to my F1 driver power rankings. This will be a continuous series throughout the year where I will rank the current F1 drivers after every race to determine who truly holds all the power in the F1 paddock.

I hear you asking — How are you determining what power means? For me it is driver form, reputation, car performance, relative position within their team and record against teammate. All these will be taken into account when making my decisions.

These are my personal opinions and no one else’s.

The grid below is the power rankings before the season began. Underneath it is my first update after the Bahrain Grand Prix. I hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you think differently about the rankings in the comments section. However remember – “Extraordinary claims must be backed up by extraordinary evidence” (Lance Armstrong – when he was definitely cheating)

1. Lewis Hamilton 2. Max Verstappen
3. Charles Leclerc 4. Sergio Perez
5. Lando Norris 6. Daniel Ricciardo
7. Lance Stroll 8. Fernando Alonso
9. Pierre Gasly 10. George Russell
11. Kimi Raikkonen 12. Sebastian Vettel
13. Carlos Sainz 14. Valtteri Bottas
15. Esteban Ocon 16. Yuki Tsunoda
17. Antonio Giovinazzi 18. Nikita Mazipin
19. Mick Schumacher 20. Nicolas Latifi
Preseason Standings

After Bahrain Grand Prix (1 of 23)

1.       Lewis Hamilton (-+)

Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix with the lesser car and held on beautifully with Max Verstappen bearing down on him in the later stages. His monster 3rd stint on the hard compound showed off his tyre preservation skills that have become a trademark. Finishing well ahead of his teammate showed that Hamilton just gets more from the car in all departments and that speed proved the decisive factor in the end.

2.       Max Verstappen (-+)

Verstappen should have won the Bahrain Grand Prix, make no mistake. Once again, some impatience from the Dutchman proved to be fatal when he overtook Hamilton off the track at the first opportunity when he could have waited and made an easier pass down the main straight, he had the car and tyre advantage to do so. This is something Hamilton has learnt over time and I fully expect Max to not make the same mistake again. A differential issue did affect his pace but it’s a team sport and the formula has be perfect. These two drivers are still the elite of F1 and Bahrain just confirmed that we have a hell of a fight on our hands for the title this year.

3.     Charles Leclerc (-+)

Charles keeps his place on this podium with a fantastic 4th place in Qualifying and solid 6th in the race. His qualifying pace is quickly becoming a trademark after he routinely stuck last year’s Ferrari where it didn’t belong on the grid and that form has continued. Beaten by a consistent Norris and resurgent Perez on Sunday can’t really be argued with in an improved but not yet front running Ferrari. 

4. Lando Norris (+1)

An assured and decisive drive from Norris topped an altogether solid start to the season for the young Brit. Beaten by his teammate on Saturday by half a tenth to 6th and 7th on the grid but he got ahead on lap 1 with what is becoming a trademark move – around the outside at Turn 4 –  and again on Gasly at the lap 4 safety car restart. He pulled away steadily from the crowd behind through the pit stops to finish 6 seconds ahead of Perez but more relatively 20 seconds ahead of the sister McLaren.  

5. Sergio Perez (-1)

A shock exit in Qualifying 2 having not being quick enough on the medium tyre did look reminiscent of the struggles previous Red Bull drivers not called Max Verstappen have had in recent years. However, this was equaled out by some calm thinking to manually restart his car after a power cut on the formation lap to save his race, albeit starting from the back. Arguably showing Red Bull’s decision to go with experience in the 2nd seat was a correct one. Consistent pace and some clinical overtaking got him to 5th. He drops just because of that unfortunate qualifying. 

6. Lance Stroll (+1)

A quietly solid weekend for the Canadian driver combined with a slow, mistake ridden weekend for his teammate means he rises one place on this list. A Qualifying 3 appearance in this apparently much affected Aston Martin was a positive, followed by a P10 finish on Sunday after being overtaken by Yuki Tsonoda on the final lap. He had a good scrap with Alonso and Sainz but was always just slightly off the leading midfield runners. That is probably the maximum this team can expect at the moment. Despite the forever lingering knowledge that his Dad owns the team, Lance is starting to steadily prove that he deserves that seat on merit alone. 

7. Daniel Ricciardo (-1)

We have since discovered that rear floor damage caused from contact with Gasly was costing Daniel performance throughout Bahrain’s race which does help explain the 20 second gap to his teammate ahead. This combined with beating Norris to 6th on the grid does make you wonder why I have dropped him down one place in the power rankings, but he was beaten in wheel to wheel combat by Norris before the damage occurred and Stroll’s relative position in his own team dealt this blow to Ricciardo. It’s a long season so lots of time to improve but a really solid start from the McLaren boys and girls. 

8. Fernando Alonso (+-)

Fernando stays 8th in the power rankings following an expected and thoroughly Alonso-ey weekend. He comes back after 2 years away as a 40 year old, gets into Q3 (his teammate started 13th) and was solidly running into the points until a stray sandwich bag got caught in his brakes, causing them to overheat and forcing him to retire. His on-track performance was as if he never left. His retirement is the only reason he isn’t higher as a pointless weekend for the French team wasn’t the way they wanted to start 2021.

9. George Russell (+1)

Russell continued his Williams-teammate-qualifying-competition whitewash and beat an Alpine on Saturday, to then follow that up on Sunday by beating Vettel to the flag in another confidence building weekend. He had a nice tussle with Raikkonen during the race but the car still has a bit to go to get into that midfield battle. All George can do at this moment in his career is lead this team forward and outperform the car. I believe he is doing both excellently. 

10. Pierre Gasly (-1) 

A clumsy mistake trying to make up lost ground at the safety car restart ruined Gasly’s race in the short term and ended it in the long term. This was a disappointing end to a weekend that started so beautifully with a 5th place start on the grid. This Alpha Tauri is quick which was proved by both teammates in qualifying so this will feel like a missed opportunity to get solid points in what is going to be a monumental fight in the midfield this year. Gasly should be slightly anxious about that teammate of his as well.

11. Kimi Raikkonen (+-)

The Ice Man starts 2021 with a characteristic drive to maximise his car and minimise his race time to beat his teammate to the flag by 12 seconds after being beaten by him in qualifying. This Alfa Romeo looks like an improvement on last years to become a part of the midfield battle, which should give him opportunities to grab points with his seemingly endless supply of race pace in the latter stages of his career. I hope he never retires. Kimi for President. 

12. Carlos Sainz (+1)

A solid opening weekend for Sainz for the Red Team with an 8th place finish in the race and only finishing 7 seconds behind Leclerc. I think the 6 tenths difference in qualifying says more about Leclerc’s confidence than Sainz’s lack of pace. I am sure Ferrari would have taken a double Qualifying 3 appearance on this power track after their recent struggles in that department. I think Sainz can be happy with his work in Bahrain. 

13. Yuki Tsunoda (+3)

The hype continued from preseason into Bahrain as the young Japanese driver showed speed, aggression, creativity and consistency in his first F1 race weekend. Quite the combination to now back up. The highs of P2 in Qualifying 1 transformed quickly to lows with P13 in Qualifying 2 trying to get through on the medium tyre, showing the confidence of this Alpha Tauri team but backfiring on this occasion. He rose in the race to finish 9th with some brave late-braking moves, his pass on Alonso a particular highlight, while he experienced a race with F1 levels of dirty air and tyre degradation for the first time. His physical stature may deceive you, he is looking like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

14. Valtteri Bottas (-+)

I may be being a bit mean to Valtteri with his placing on this list. He does drive a Mercedes and is quick enough on his day but it just feels like he is as far away from the title as he’s ever been. Hamilton’s status in the sport continues to rise and the Bahrain Grand Prix just highlighted the gap between them. Bottas once again faded in the race before a slow pit stop late really put the nail in the coffin. He can get on pole every now and then against Hamilton, but his consistent race pace is not good enough to challenge for the title seriously and that is the only objective if you drive the Silver Arrow in this hybrid era. George Russell coming in for one race last year and showing him up really didn’t help his cause. The reason Valtteri is this low is that I feel he has the least leverage in all of F1 to keep his race seat for 2022 and until proven otherwise he will stay here. 

15. Sebastian Vettel (-3)

Seb suffered a tricky opening weekend in British racing green. He didn’t look comfortable as he got to grips with his new machine after only 2 days running during testing and practice. He was knocked out in Qualifying 1 to line up 18th until a 5 place penalty for not slowing sufficiently for yellow flags relegated him to last. He didn’t show much pace in the race either and had another clumsy accident, this time with Ocon at Turn 1. This collision was his 17th in 53 races, not the form of a 4 time World Champion. Crossing the line 2nd last in 15th place means it can only go up from here. Fingers crossed for him because it would be a sad decline for the German if this continues. 

16. Esteban Ocon (-1)

Ocon got shown up by Alonso in Bahrain. Getting knocked out in Qualifying 1 to start 16th and then being in no-mans-land behind the midfield battle during the race was only saved by Alonso’s retirement. This means they are still level on points and Ocon can save some face. He is going to have to fix up and look sharp, and do it quickly.

17. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

Ghosts of Giovinazzi’s past mean that he starts low on this list for me. He has speed but loves an unforced error. He has been less mistake ridden since the 2nd half of last season but like Bottas he doesn’t have much leverage for me. Ferrari have some very promising youngsters coming through and two young stars in the works team so seats will be at a premium. Gio hasn’t shown enough yet to prove he deserves one. He needs to start beating Kim on Sundays to start getting in the conversation. 

18. Mick Schumacher (+1)

Mick looked much the more assured Haas rookie in Bahrain. The car looks very slow and twitchy which is not a productive combination, but Mick unqualified his teammate by 8 tenths and was the only Haas to finish the race so it was a productive weekend for him. This car is looking so bad the main competition will be themselves this year so important to get that advantage early and get the team building around him. 

19. Nicolas Latifi (+1)

Latifi continues to be overshadowed by his teammate with little fightback from the Canadian. He has yet to show me anything more than being a pay driver for this Williams team during his F1 career. The only reason he is 19th is because of how bad Mazipin’s weekend went. 

20. Nikita Mazipin (-1)

He was spinning all weekend as he struggled to find the balance in his car. He spun in Qualifying 1 to bring out the yellow flags, that caught out Vettel, to be easily beaten by his teammate. Following that he had one of the shortest F1 debuts in history as he lost control of the car on the exit of Turn 3 to go straight to the scene of the accident and the end of an unconvincing weekend to say the least. 

Free Practice 1

Hello and welcome to The Perfect Formula – An F1 blog. I’m thrilled you are joining me on this journey. To introduce myself, I am a 26-year-old lifelong F1 fan from England, and this blog is a place for me to share my thoughts, test my writing skills, and begin to engage with a community in which I haven’t really dipped my toes before. While I have watched and followed F1 religiously for at least 20 years, I haven’t had anyone to speak to about it apart from my Dad. Please bear with me as I get to grips with this writing malarkey, but I hope that I can both inform and entertain you!

My family’s link with the automotive industry came from my grandfather, who worked for British Leyland as an engineer in the UK, and then took his talents to Sri Lanka as an advisor where Leyland’s buses were – and currently still are – being used as the country’s public transport. I have personally taken one of these buses in Sri Lanka, and can confirm that their drivers most definitely share an F1 driver mentality. The precision, coordination and speed are a beauty to watch as they travel around Colombo and its sister cities. Some of my favourite early memories are of being woken up at 4:50am by my dad – after struggling to sleep all night from excitement – to watch the Australian Grand Prix on ITV and going downstairs to find the TV on and a cup of tea next to my seat ready for Murray Walker to call “5 lights and its GO GO GO’’. Here, in this sacred space, I got to experience another side to my dad that I had never seen before – the first time I ever heard him swear was when Felipe Massa spun Lewis Hamilton around at Fuji Speedway in 2008, and then watched as he shed a tear a couple of weeks later when Hamilton won it all in the most dramatic season finale in any sport, ever. F1 is one of the ways we have always been able to express ourselves to each other, a common language, something we will always share and never get bored talking about. F1 has given us father-son time, something I never fully appreciated until I moved away and soon realised not everyone is as interested in my F1 theories as him. It also means for Dad, he no longer has a majority vote over watching sport at home. Sorry, Dad.

The two races that we’ve attended together were the 2009 British and 2019 Italian Grand Prix. They were two of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Spending both Fridays walking the tracks, taking in the atmosphere of the two legendary circuits and just trying to absorb as much F1 as possible. For me, Fridays were the best days; that was where you really saw F1 Tifosi. My dad would be taking pictures of anything that caught his eye; a Damon Hill cap on a confused Dane, a Schumacher tattoo on the shoulder of an unsuspecting Italian lady, a fan hanging from a tree to get a better look at the track or a group of quite-drunk Dutchmen decked out in Red Bull gear. He would always stop to have a short chat to find the story behind the picture. The best part was that the supporters would always be more than happy to have their photo taken with their piece of F1 memorabilia and tell their story of F1 fandom to my dad, a complete stranger. We all have one thing in common, a love for F1. No rivalry, just passion. I immediately felt both at home and in awe of these hallowed places. Dad was right when he said that these events truly are a celebration of F1. The Saturdays and Sundays were spent watching the action from Luffield (the old last corner at Silverstone) and the Rettifilo (the first corner at Monza) as Sebastian Vettel drove away in his Red Bull and Charles Leclerc delivered Ferrari its first home win in 9 years respectively. These two experiences culminated with us  joining in with the famous Italian Grand Prix pit-straight invasion, especially after a Ferrari win, something that even a lifelong McLaren fan knew was special. It’s hard for me to put it into words – despite the waffling above – what those days meant to me. All I can say is that they will never be forgotten. For them, I am eternally grateful.

Our team is McLaren. I don’t know why Dad started to support them, maybe James Hunt winning the 1976 World Championship did it, but I was indoctrinated from birth into Ron Dennis’ ‘grey machine’ with my first hero being Mika Hakkinen in the late 90s, who took on Schumacher and beat him twice. The mantle was then passed to ‘The Ice Man’ Kimi Raikkonen, who should have won a championship with the team in 2005, if not for unreliability (I’m not bitter, I swear). He was fantastically fast as soon as he stepped foot in an F1 car and deserved more from his McLaren years. Then along came Lewis Hamilton. I feel my F1 life is split into two parts: pre-Lewis Hamilton and then the Lewis Hamilton era.

To have an up-and-coming British star in my favourite team felt too good to be true and kept feeling so until a fateful couple of weeks in China and Brazil ‘07, but we will not be going into that any further – if you know, you know. I have been brought to tears only twice in my sport watching life, and Brazil ‘07 and ‘08 are those times but for polar opposite emotions. The Hamilton and Jenson Button years from 2010-2012 felt like the next step in this British super-team, but it didn’t quite work out the way I hoped. The car was good but never quite on par with the leading Red Bull of the day. This, coupled with bad strategy, mistakes, and pitlane mishaps, meant that the dream was over by the end of 2012, and Lewis decided to move to Mercedes. Unlike Kimi, who moved to ‘The Red Team’ as my father puts it, we have been able to watch from afar with happiness as Lewis has become the best driver of his generation. The next 4 years for McLaren were a struggle to watch as this once great team rather quickly fell to its knees. The McLaren Honda partnership did not work out as hoped, with the previous arch-enemy Fernando Alonso returning. Something I was not happy about as it felt like there was always too much pressure for results right away, and it became the Alonso show. I still feel the effects of the 2007 season when thinking of Fernando – super quick, but too much negative baggage. He ‘retired’ in 2018, and I was overjoyed. While he is still a world-class driver, the fit/timing wasn’t right, and I think Alonso’s impatience to return to the front hampered the development of the McLaren Honda partnership. It felt like a weight was lifted when he left.

The 2019 season brought a new era of McLaren; two new drivers in Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, and a new management structure put together by Zac Brown and led by Andreas Seidl. While I did not fall out of love with McLaren during the lean years,  I have experienced success and failure with the team – and I pick success every time. It is not just about results, though; this McLaren iteration feels different. It feels organised, coordinated, and unified. I have been really impressed with Seidl since he joined, and the return of the Mercedes engine feels like the last piece of the puzzle for McLaren to get back to the front of the grid. Now that 8-time Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is on board, I’m excited to see what the future holds for McLaren.

My love of Formula 1 is not just based on the McLaren team; however, I am an F1 fan. Everything about this sport excites me; the speed, the technology, the innovation, the competition, the politics, the personalities, the history – to name a few. What impresses me about Formula 1 is the excellence. Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, the World Cup of motorsport – it just happens every year. There is no international league system like football. There are only 10 teams and 20 cars in F1. In every single department, F1 has the best that the world has to offer. The late, great Chris Wesseling of NFL.com and the ‘Around the NFL’ Podcast summed it up best when he said:

“If I was going to hire a sportswriter, the first question that I would ask him is: How do you reconcile the essential meaningless in sports? How do you reconcile watching young men bang into each other and try and advance an inflated pigskin against marked territory? How do you reconcile the importance of that? Just like Shakespeare or Beethoven’s symphony, this is going above and beyond. At its best sport is – look at what humans can do.”

While this quote is about American Football, to me, it perfectly sums up what makes F1 great. We get to test how far the boundaries of human mental, physical, and team effort can be pushed every single day, week, month, and year. It is like watching a rocket ship head for Mars every single weekend.

There is one thing that I like about this sport more than anything, and one that I think puts it above the rest; the strive for perfection. Yet, perfection is never going to happen. It’s an impossible dream. You may wonder why I have called my blog ‘The Perfect Formula’ when I have just said that perfect is impossible to achieve. Well, this is why: In no other sport is perfection attempted to this highest degree of detail; in no other sport is it so unashamedly pushing towards perfection in all aspects of its existence; in no other sport does it have teams of 1,000 employees, 80,000 different components per car, budgets upwards of £600 million per year (now capped at £150 million), and yet the two most high-profile employees – the drivers – are openly and directly competing against each other. In no other sport is your teammate your primary competitor and your only real benchmark of performance as you are the only two with equal equipment. No team has ever reached ‘perfection’; the joint closest was the 1988 McLaren and 2016 Mercedes teams. The 2016 Mercedes won 19 of 20 races, and in the only one they didn’t it was because the two drivers took each other out. They had perfection within reach, but the driver’s selfishness – and bid for personal glory – scuppered that. It is the largest organised team sport in the world, but one which is also at constant war with itself.

So what is the Perfect Formula? For me, the perfect formula is the car, the driver, and the team. There are formulas within those, but the above is its simplest form. Each part of the formula has to be working in unison and performing at its highest level in order to finish, let alone win. The driver needs to drive the car to its maximum consistently, while the car needs to be able to give the driver enough confidence and reliability to reach that level. The team needs to provide the car and make the correct strategic decisions to get the driver and car home in the quickest way possible. In a sport where every millisecond counts, this is easy to get wrong. Only when all three elements are in harmony will a team have the chance to succeed in F1. If one component doesn’t work, the other two have no chance. Absolutely, no chance. Only one car can win each race, and only one car can win each championship. The rest lose. In a sport where there is only one objective, to reach the chequered flag first, only 14% of drivers in history have ticked that illustrious box.

Formula 1 has taught me many lessons that I have been able to take on to certain degrees of success. It has taught me that attention to detail and small changes can lead to greater success, to never give in until you see that chequered flag, that teamwork always outscores individual effort, and to strive for perfection. I am not going to tell you which ones I have been more successful at, but with this blog, that is what I am going to do; strive for perfection. I will never get there, but in true F1 fashion – I will give it my best shot.

Speak soon.

JL

Thank you to NQ, for always knowing which way the words go.