Tag: British Grand Prix

F1 Turning Points – A Sunny Day in Northampton

I thought I would start a series on the turning point in the history of F1, so here it is.

The first turning point in F1 history, is of course, where it started.

The Formula 1 World Championship was born on a sunny day in May 1950. The regulations had been decided 2 years earlier and a series of Formula 1 races had taken place since, but this event was the first time the drivers were competing for the title of F1 World Champion.

The World Championship was unleashed at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, in front of 200,000 people including King George IV and his family. This former airfield had hosted a couple of British Grand Prix’s previously and already had the reputation as being one of the best tracks in the world. Confusingly, this race actually had two names, simultaneously being the European Grand Prix as well. Incredibly, the Silverstone layout hasn’t changed much since 1950 with many of the famous corners still being tackled by F1 drivers today, albeit with a few additions.

On the day, the first row was taken up by a famous Italian manufacturer, but not the one you are thinking of. Ferrari didn’t turn up to the first championship race so Alfa Romeo would take over and shine in the Northampton sun, with their supercharged 158. They would dominate qualifying and make up the first four places on the grid, with Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli making it an Italian 1-2 followed by Juan Manual Fangio and Reg Parnell.

The F1 cars of 1950 were quite different to todays, as you would imagine. For one thing, they had their engines at the front and very little aerodynamics. The heavy engine at the front and thin tyres meant they suffered from a lot of understeer – the front of the car not wanting to turn – so the fastest way around was by drifting the car around the corners. The cars were rear-wheel drive so the driver would have to floor the throttle to get the back end to step out and then would just guide the car around the corner, trying not to spin. A completely different skill set from today but no less impressive. If anything, it was more impressive because if the driver got this tricky technique wrong, they were heading towards a ditch in a highly flammable rocket.

The 24 gladiators called drivers would represent 9 nations, have an average age of 39 and even include Royalty. Prince Bira of Thailand would line up 5th in his Maserati but wouldn’t see the chequered flag, running out of fuel on Lap 49.

Once the race got going, Alfa Romeo wouldn’t let their dominance from qualifying slip. Despite Fangio retiring from the lead after 62 of the 70 laps, they would take all three steps of the podium and finish 2 laps ahead of their nearest challenger. Farina would take the chequered flag with a race time of 2 hours 13 minutes and an average speed of 143 km/h.

Reg Parnell would give the home crowd something to cheer for as he became the first Brit to win F1 World Championship points, finishing in third.

As for the rest of the field, only 11 would finish and 5 took home Championship points.

The 1950 British Grand Prix was also significant for who won the 500cc support race, a young Brit called Sterling Moss who would make his own indelible mark in the history of F1.

The Alfa Romeo’s dominance would last the whole championship, despite Ferrari getting involved at the next race at Monaco. Farina would go on to become the first-ever F1 world champion.

F1 Driver POWER Rankings – Britain Edition

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

Well well well, where to start with the British Grand Prix weekend. One thing I will say is that it was a joy to see a full capacity crowd making their voices heard and bringing back the atmosphere. There is nothing on the F1 calendar to match the enthusiasm and influence of the British crowd, except I feel the Dutch are going to give it a good go in Zandvoort. I am not going to start with ‘The Incident’ on Sunday but with the piloted ‘sprint’ format. A quick summary will tell you that traditional Saturday qualifying was replaced by a 17 lap sprint to form the grid, whose grid was itself decided by a qualifying session on Friday that Hamilton sensationally headed from Verstappen. This new format definitely invigorated Friday and created action in more of the sessions but it did feel like it made one lap qualifying a bit redundant. It also feels weird that Hamilton won’t be credited with pole as Verstappen won the sprint qualifying event but all new things take time to get used to. The sprint has potential and I don’t get the argument people have been making that without Alonso’s heroics it would have been dull – but it did happen, so you can’t complain it was dull. It’s like arguing that football is rubbish if you take away all the goals. Yes, obviously, that is the whole point of the sport.

Now on to ‘The Incident’, which would not have happened without the new format, or would have it been the other way around? In the traditional format Lewis would have been on pole on Sunday and Max could have gone for the gap at Copse, trying to assert his authority over the King. For the record, I think it was a hard racing incident. Hamilton had his car almost all the way alongside and Max noticed him but still turned in towards the apex after a correction. Yes it is a quick corner but if Max had enough time to correct and turn, he could have got out of it and lived to fight another day, something that Hamilton has learnt to do, circa Spain 2021 as a start. I think if both drivers had come out of Copse in one piece on Sunday with Hamilton ahead, Max may well have still won the race but I know for certain he would have left with some points (barring mechanical failure) and a bigger lead in the championship. These are all things Hamilton has learnt along his journey and built into his armour. Luckily for Max he has at least another 12 years in him, which is truly scary. We will see in Hungary what type of response Red Bull and Max Verstappen will give on track, which will set the tone for the rest of this championship and potentially into the next era in 2022.

After British Grand Prix (10 of 23)

1. Max Verstappen (-+)

It was not the weekend Max was looking for from the British Grand Prix. He came into it with a thirty three point lead in the championship and left with it being cut to only eight. The new format didn’t help his cause as it gave Hamilton a second chance at trying to get ahead and it ended badly. He complained of understeer during Friday’s qualifying but it does look like the gap has closed between himself and Mercedes. Hamilton was on a blistering lap before running out of tyres at the final corner. He got off the line better in the sprint and then wasn’t troubled to take pole. We all know what happened on Lap 1 on Sunday but Max will recover, heck it will probably motivate him even more which is scary to think about. He will bounce back, the greats always do.

2. Lewis Hamilton (-+)

There is nothing like the British Grand Prix to get a Lewis Hamilton title push back on track. He used it in 2008 and 2014 to great effect and this edition has definitely swung the momentum of this championship back in his favour. However, Max is still the favourite for this championship so Mercedes still have a little to go to give Hamilton a car that can give him more of a regular chance, because the last races have been tough for them. Championships ebb and flow and we aren’t even half way through this one – how lucky are we!?

3. Lando Norris (-+)

Norris keeps his spot in third after a really good British Grand Prix. He is consistently best of the rest behind the Red Bulls and Mercedes and sometimes even in amongst them. His fifteen points scoring finishes in a row is a record for McLaren drivers, which is crazy, with some of the dominant and legendary car/driver combinations this team has had. We expect Lando to be right up there and not make any mistakes which is even more impressive when he doesn’t disappoint on a weekly basis. Put him in a Mercedes and Red Bull and that could really be interesting, he is getting to that level.

4. Charles Leclerc (+1)

It was almost the performance of the year, but Leclerc was caught with two laps to go by Hamilton and while the Monegasque will be hard on himself he performed phenomenally all weekend. He beat a Red Bull or a Mercedes in every session and by good margins. It would have been a popular victory either way if Charles had won on Sunday as the Silverstone crowd appreciate quality when they see it. If Ferrari can get their act back together, Leclerc has the ability to put them in the fight.

5. Sergio Perez (-1)

It was a sloppy weekend for Perez the instant he got too trigger happy on the throttle out of Becketts and spun into the gravel. He did well to stay out of the barrier but ruined his starting spot for Sunday’s race and the team decided to start him from the pitlane. He couldn’t get through the traffic in the race quick enough for Red Bull to prioritise him over taking a point off Hamilton for the fastest lap and he finished sixteenth. At least he did get that fastest lap.

6. Carlos Sainz (+1)

I am giving Carlos a bump up here because of his pace, which wasn’t really shown in his results. He was the unfortunate victim of a touch with George Russell on Lap 1 of the Sprint but made good progress to get back up to eleventh for the grid. He then rose again to sixth and may have challenged Norris’ fourth if he hadn’t got stuck behind Ricciardo. The pace is in the Ferrari, it nearly won the race, but I was impressed by Sainz’s resolve to get back up and score good points.

7. Pierre Gasly (-1)

It feels like this is the first time Gasly has been beaten by his teammate and was outside of the points. He complained of never really feeling comfortable in his car and it showed as he had a quiet weekend. He has deserved the benefit of the doubt and the Hungaroring should suit the Alpha Tauri better so expect this to be a blip.

8. Fernando Alonso (-+)

Fernando lit up the Sprint on Saturday as he rose from eleventh to fifth by the end of Lap 1 in a clinic of how to take advantage of space. I could give a good argument for him being the best first lap driver of all time, his precision, bravery and aggression are second to none in this regard. He was able to hold onto seventh on his degrading soft tyres and then did the same on Sunday to collect more points for Alpine. He is doing what he used to do for Ferrari, make himself a mischief and put his car in places it may not belong.

9. George Russell (-+)

George did his usual magic in qualifying but this time it was on a Friday. You could hear the crowd cheering him on all the way to eighth on the grid. What I liked is that Williams put him on an alternate schedule to give him a clear track and the spotlight and he did not disappoint, delivering twice when needed. Unfortunately for George, qualifying on a Friday means there are two opportunities for the faster cars around him to get ahead and that is what happened. He is still waiting for those tantalising first points in a Williams. Luckily for George, Hungary is another great opportunity for him to get them with its tight, twisty layout and difficulty to overtake on the only straight. Forty-ninth time is the charm.

10. Daniel Ricciardo (+1)

This is more like it from Ricciardo. He qualified right behind his teammate in seventh and progressed in both ‘races’ to finish the weekend with a respectable fifth and lots of points for McLaren in their fight against Ferrari. He was still a way off his teammate in the race; about fourteen seconds but that is better than it has been and there was no-one in between them this time.

11. Sebastian Vettel (-1)

Vettel was having a good weekend until he spun at the exit of Luffield while battling Alonso on Lap 1 of the race. It was another example of drivers simply losing the back end on their own, like Perez in the Sprint. The changes in regulations this year really have made the back end of the race all wriggly. It ruined his race after showing good pace and fight before that. He get awarded good guy of the month as well for his efforts tidying up after fans in the stands post-race.

12. Lance Stroll (-+)

Lance made up for a poor qualifying on Friday to get in the points by the end of the race, finishing eighth. He had some good scraps, in particular with Kimi Raikkonen. He was able to make up for Sebastian’s mistake to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

13. Esteban Ocon (-+)

A much needed weekend for Esteban at Silverstone and he continued his points scoring streak around the track. He is behind Alonso still and can become the forgotten Alpine quickly behind the highlight reel that is Fernando Alonso but this is a good reset after a tricky triple header. He started and finished ninth so not flashy but productive for the Frenchman.

14. Yuki Tsunoda (+1)

Yuki didn’t qualify well at Silverstone but made up for it with his race pace. He climbed up on Sunday to finish tenth and grab one point to put him into double digits for the year so far. Still yet to see him put together a complete weekend, maybe Azerbaijan, so that is what I need to see next. He is still a little anonymous as he learns the ropes but his performances in F2 were also a bit hot/cold.

15. Valtteri Bottas (-1)

If you needed another reminder where Mercedes have lay all of their eggs for this year’s championship, you could just look at how quickly they got Valtteri out of Hamilton’s way on his journey towards Leclerc. They played it off at the end as team play, which it is, but it can’t feel good for Valtteri and highlighted his place in this team, a handy sous-chef to Hamilton’s executive. He came home for a great double podium for the team to really close the gap in both championships.

16. Kimi Raikkonen (-+)

Kimi did his best with this car but his frustration was clear at the end of race where he exclaimed that they just need to make the car faster when his engineer tried to see the bright side of a fifteenth place finish. He had a scrappy and clumsy spin which epitomised that frustration when he tried to keep his position at the Vale chicane and drove into an ever-closing gap.

17. Antonio Giovinazzi (-+)

14th, 15th and 13th were Antonio’s finishing positions at the British Grand Prix and this basically sums up his and Alfa Romeo’s position in F1 at the moment. We didn’t see much of him during the coverage and he didn’t trouble the points but he did beat his teammate so helps to pump up that stat.

18. Mick Schumacher (-+)

He beat his teammate in two of the three sessions but the longest and most important was the one he didn’t. Once again, you just don’t see the Haas’s during the weekend so it’s hard to say much about them. Mick can afford one weekend being beaten by his teammate.

19. Nicolas Latifi (-+)

Latifi was actually in Russell’s vicinity during the race after being comprehensively beaten during the qualifying events. He finished two places behind but was in view of his teammate for most of the race from what I saw. He needs to get into Q2 at least sometimes to show he has the pace to fight it with the big boys, which his teammate is growing into, and show he deserves to be in F1.

20. Nikita Mazipin (-+)

He beat his teammate for only the second time this season after overtaking him on track after the first stops. This would have gone unnoticed until the Formula 1 YouTube page posted it’s ‘Top 10 Onboards’ video. That leaves the memes for this week but this is what he is going to have to do for the rest of the season to get the F1 fandom on his side.