Ten years since Schumacher's last title glory

The Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps, 29^th August 2004. Sitting second on the grid Michael Schumacher must have been thinking another win would come his way, after all he’d spent the previous five months almost winning everything; 12 wins from 13 races. Surely he’d wrap up his inevitable seventh title in victorious style.

It wasn’t to be, although it would have been so appropriate to claim his last title at the track which was always so intertwined with his career; his debut for Jordan in 1991, his first win a year later, a controversial disqualification, the defeat of Damon Hill on a wet track while on dry tyres, several classic strolls into the distance and another mesmeric destruction of the field in the rain.

Spa did give him the title, he finished second to Kimi Raikkonen after slipping back at the start, but after having won the title so many times, I guess in a year of supremacy the only way you’d want to clinch the championship is in style, and second wasn’t the style he was accustomed to.

Schumacher dominated the sport for so long it seems incredible that today marks ten years ago that he wrapped up his final and seventh world championship. Even now for those who have only a peripheral knowledge of the world of Formula 1 he is the name that is conjured up. So complete was his hold on the sport that many people thought he was still out there winning.

Perhaps that is because he so embodied everything about the world of Formula 1, its good and its bad points. He took it to a whole new level of professionalism and brought or established new things which many would now consider essential tools in the driver trade.

His absolute dedication to his fitness, his ability to motivate and be a full part of the team driving them in a positive direction, his constant search for perfection, being one of the first drivers who would twist and turn various instruments during the race which is now common place.

Schumacher was a class apart, his commitment to his goals was unmatched. Nothing was left unturned in his pursuit to be the best out there. Many people at the time became dissatisfied with his constant glory but I thought it was great to be watching a legend do his work right before us. His seven titles (1994, 95 & 2000-2004) and 91 wins could well be matched but it’s going to take someone of complete single minded determination to maintain a win rate such as Schuey had.

The alarming thing is he could well have won a lot more. The titles he missed out on could be said to be even better than some of the championships he took. To my mind at least his 1997 season was majestic. For a modern day comparison think of Fernando Alonso taking the championship to the wire in 2012 except that in ’97 the Ferrari was even more of a dog of a car.

He lead the points into the final race but obviously to the greater world his year was tarnished when faced with the possibility of losing to a car and driver which should have had the title sewn up several races ago if it weren’t for the efforts of Schumacher he swiped into the side of the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve.

A bad ending and one of his professional fouls which he actually admitted to, but to me it takes nothing away from the fact that he had no real right to be challenging for the title that year anyway. The following season he was up against the equally superior McLaren of Mika Hakkinen as the Williams had been before. Again he managed to take the title to the final race. Finally, while leading the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Alonso he was just 17 laps away from taking a two point lead into the final race of the year when his engine failed. His luck which had always been so good was finally deserting him as his first career came to a close.

Of course it possibly should have continued at Ferrari for another year or two. For reasons which remain unclear Kimi was signed without Schumacher’s knowledge and he was ushered into a retirement he wasn’t really ready for. Can we speculate what might have happened? Well you can never be sure, but I’m pretty sure nevertheless. 2007 wouldn’t have been the three way classic between Kimi, Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. It would have been a final Schuey title.

The way those three capitulated and the fact Kimi and Felipe Massa were so evenly matched when Schumacher had mostly had the beating of Massa pretty comprehensively leads me to believe he’d have used the 2007 Ferrari to devastating effect. It certainly would have been interesting to witness the following year, Hamilton against Schumacher in equally matched cars. It's a missing highlight just like the lack of a proper full title fight between Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, it's added to the long list of what could have beens.

We caught a glimpse of how good it might have been in the 2011 Italian Grand Prix with an epic dual between Hamilton and Schumacher which was an utter joy and also beautifully aggressive. Because of course Schuey did retire at the end of 2006 before coming back in a blaze of glory in 2010 for Mercedes.

It didn’t work out quite as well as had been hoped, the luck I mentioned earlier was practically non-existant this time around. Despite Mercedes spawning from the ashes of 2009 championship winners Brawn GP, the car wasn’t up to it. In fact the car, the tyres, the competition had all moved on. Schumacher was also faced with ageing, even he couldn’t hold back time. There were stupid accidents, moments of indecision and several poor races. But there were highs too, that battle with Hamilton, fourth in Canada 2011, the pole lap of the season in Monaco 2012, his podium in Valencia and a comeback charge from the back to seventh in his final final race.

He said later his Mercedes comeback taught him how to lose, but you could see that mostly he was still enjoying it, I think gone was the total commitment to winning, he still wanted to certainly and some of his on track manoeuvres proved that, but he was a more relaxed individual in the public eye and seemed happy enough to be racing and working towards something.

The rewards never came but as we’ve come to appreciate, his comparison to Nico Rosberg is nothing at all to be ashamed of as Nico matches Hamilton in this years championship. Schumacher was often faster on race pace, so despite not demonstrating the devastating winning habit that characterised his first career it wasn’t quite as bad as some make out and when analysed properly doesn’t take anything away from his legacy. 

Not only is it ten years since his last title but later on this year it will be twenty since his first title. No one else has managed to sustain such comprehensive success to stay at the top of the sport for season after season, he will forever be talked about amongst the greats.

Of course there were the controversial moments, including questionable driving methods, favouritism from his team and the sports governing bodies. With regards to the team favouritism, he worked himself into that position so why should he not have benefitted? But these controversies are not what should be remembered about his career.

It should be just how exceptional he was, how much of a racer he was and how much he loved the sport he dominated. I remember the first time I saw him win live at the 1998 British Grand Prix in the pouring rain which encapsulated his career for me as it showed the racer and the controversy. It was mesmeric watching his hands dancing on the steering wheel as you could see him delicately balancing the car coming through club, driving hard through the spray but to win in the pit lane created uproar at the time.

You always knew something would happen when Michael Schumacher was racing. Since he retired for the second time he was still looking for challenges, looking for fun and thrills while also helping extensively with charities which wasn't overly publicised. I truly hope he can make as good a recovery as possible from the horrible skiing accident at the end of last year that left him in a coma for nearly six months. So now is the time to remember his success and continue to wish him well for more success in the future. Keep fighting Michael.

For some of my favourite Schumacher moments, please click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Ricciardo takes another win as Kimi shines

So the 2014 seasons return from the summer break opens with a bang with some sensational racing, a brilliantly crafted victory and a controversial clash between the title rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton which you can read about here. It was a fine way to start the second half of the season with Daniel Ricciardo taking his second consecutive victory and third in six races with another brilliant drive.

He had a scruffy opening lap but settled down and was soon ahead of Alonso and slipped by Vettel when his Red Bull team mate ran wide. Once through he chased down the damaged Rosberg and took the lead when the Mercedes pitted.

From there it looked like the race was his, there were brief moments when it appeared that Kimi Raikkonen or Valtteri Bottas might be in range and I’m sure there were nervous moments when Nico Rosberg closed him down by several seconds a lap towards the end, but he held something back and took the win.

It puts Ricciardo only 64 points back from Rosberg, that’s under three race wins away. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen but at the moment with the way things are at Mercedes you do wonder if they could manage to throw the drivers championship away. Whatever though, Ricciardo is driving a fantastic season and in my opinion took his best win of the year so far; lead from the front and never looked troubled.

Rosberg started from pole position but fell to third at the start. He passed Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bull ran off the road during the first lap and was second behind Hamilton as lap 2 started. He went for the lead at Les Combes but hit his team mate causing Lewis a puncture and himself a broken front wing in what was a clumsy manoeuvre but one which he and the stewards labelled a racing incident. He half heartedly stuck his front wing alongside and then just left it there knowing Lewis would stick to the racing line.

He stopped early on lap 8 to change his front wing and had to make a three stop strategy work for him to get him back onto the podium. It says a lot about the Mercedes advantage that another lap or so and he might have won. 

Hamilton circulated at the back as he tried to recover, but his car was damaged from the flailing carcass of his tyre. He retired five laps from the end way off a points finish. Understandably there is a lot of friction at the Mercedes team right now.

Bottas completed the podium with third for Williams including a great move on Vettel at Les Combes, showing Rosberg how it should be done by being almost fully alongside his opponent. Bottas and Ricciardo really are the drivers of the season so far. Bottas’ team mate Felipe Massa suffered more poor luck with debris from Hamilton’s car clogging his front wing meaning he was seconds off the pace because of a major loss of downforce. Once the team cured it at his second pit stop he was the fastest car on track, another case of what might have been.

My drive of the race though has to go to Kimi Raikkonen. What a great drive from someone who is still not comfortable in the car. James Allison, Ferrari technical director, has basically admitted the car will not suit Kimi this year and there’s nothing they can do about it, so to keep his foot flat to the floor at a circuit like Spa was a tremendous performance.

He made a two stop strategy work including his last stint being longer than anyone else at 23 laps on the medium compound, over half the race distance. He started eighth and was around sixth when he pitted fairly early on lap 8, after Rosberg the first major player to pit. He then put in a number of fastest laps to undercut a lot of the front runners. In fact he ran second before Rosberg got him and then Bottas worked his way by, but they had to work for it. It was a great drive and a reminder that he can still deliver.

Vettel started third and in front of Ricciardo for the second consecutive race. Of course as is the way in 2014 he could not keep up the pace during the race. He can’t seem to make the tyres last as well resulting in a three stop strategy.

The opening half a lap when he challenged for the lead was like old times but then two mistakes dropped him back and it was only a fight past Kevin Magnussen, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button that earned him a top five result.

But that scrap was fantastic in the dying laps. Magnussen had been defending brilliantly from Alonso for what felt like the majority of the race. The Ferrari driver had earned a five second penalty for his team coming back on the grid after the 15 second warning had been sounded as the cars were about to leave for the formation lap. This left him fighting for the top six rather than a podium.

As always though Alonso is relentless and was trying all sorts to get by the McLaren, but Magnussen matched him and coming onto the Kemmel Straight closed the door firmly on the Ferrari, but it forced Alonso onto the grass. It also let Button attack, he swept past Alonso then immediately attacked Magnussen who eased him onto the kerbs which let Alonso back through then set him up for Vettel too.

Vettel then dispensed with Alonso then Magnussen and cruised off but the McLaren Ferrari battle raged on. Eventually McLaren won, Magnussen heading Button. Unfortunately for Magnussen the stewards judged him too aggressive towards Alonso and penalised a drive through penalty which equated to 20 seconds. This means he ends up only 12^th and results in Button finishing sixth with Alonso behind in seventh.

Perez seemed to have a quiet race as he rose up from 13^th to eighth while Daniil Kvyat impressed again with another points visit to take initially 10^th which became ninth. Nico Hulkenberg grabbed a point for tenth after Magnussen’s penalty after a quiet weekend.

Andre Lotterer, making his debut for Caterham in place of Kamui Kobayashi only lasted a lap unfortunately. He may make another appearance but it seems Kamui’s seat is to be rented out to whoever can afford it in future races.

All of this means Rosberg now holds a 29 point lead in the championship with seven rounds left to run. It's going to be interesting how Mercedes react to their driver situation.

Should they look over their shoulder at Ricciardo? They surely don't want him to be winning any more right now as that'll complicate matters still further. 

Monza is next up with its fast straights and mostly slow corners so I think the most likely challenger will definitely be Williams. I think they really do stand a good chance of victory there. Never discount Red Bull though, particularly Ricciardo in his present form. He just seems to be in the right place at the right time this year and is maximising every opportunity that comes his way.

All eyes though will be on the Silver Arrow squad. Their drivers have committed the cardinal sin of hitting each other in combat, that is unacceptable. But how will they handle it? Surely they cannot pick a side? 

Whatever happens, Italy is going to be a sensational atmosphere, Williams and Red Bull battle it out for best of the rest and maybe a shot at victory, Ferrari back on home turf; can Kimi maintain this good form and will Alonso pull off a miracle result? And just how will Lewis react to Nico? It could all kick off in Italy.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Rosberg collides with Hamilton to 'prove a point'

The gloves most certainly are off in this fantastic fight for the 2014 world championship. Lewis Hamilton in his media briefing after the Belgian Grand Prix says that Nico Rosberg deliberately did not avoid the collision at Les Combes which led to a puncture for the #44 Mercedes to prove a point after the team orders fiasco in Hungary.

Here’s the quote in full from crash.net “It looked quite clear to me but we just had a meeting about it and he basically said he did it on purpose,” Hamilton said. “He said he did it on purpose, he said he could have avoided it. He said 'I did it to prove a point', he basically said 'I did it to prove a point'. And you don't have to just rely on me, go and ask Toto [Wolff], Paddy [Lowe] and all those guys who are not happy with him as well.”

He goes on to explain Nico’s mind-set as he came into the weekend. “It's interesting because we had that meeting on Thursday and Nico expressed how angry he was – I was thinking 'It's been three weeks and you've been lingering?!' He expressed how angry he was, he literally sat there and said how angry he was at Toto and Paddy. But I thought we should be good after that and then this result … it's interesting.”

Sensational words from Lewis Hamilton and one which contrasts greatly with the immediate reaction to the incident. Initially many thought it was just a clumsy racing incident, no one thought it was a deliberate act. My initial reaction was that it was Rosberg’s fault, that he was being a bit too opportunistic but that perhaps Lewis could have left more room. This is obviously not the case. However, he did not deliberately cause the clash but he did not remove himself from harm when it was obvious what was about to happen.

As Lewis says, it’s ‘interesting’ especially because throughout the season Rosberg has been painted as the driver who keeps his emotions under control and will not be controlled by them in stark contrast to how Lewis is often portrayed. But this incident clouds everything.

The benefit of the doubt was given to Nico in Monaco after the qualifying episode when he went off track which prevented Lewis setting a quicker time for pole position. Does that now have to be qualified if he thinks these things through?

Could this all stem from the Bahrain fight when many accused Nico of not being aggressive enough to get past an obviously slower Lewis? Has this been brewing since then? In Hungary Lewis was asked to let Nico through as he was on a different strategy to which Lewis being a much greater thinker than people give him credit for had already worked out that if he did he would be beaten at the end of the race, so why should he?

Rosberg was told Lewis would let him by, but this was not was Lewis was asked to do, it was more if he does try to pass don’t defend. Nico was never close enough to attempt a move. So we come to Belgium in which that incident has obviously been plaguing Nico’s mind throughout the summer break and he wanted to reassert himself against Lewis and in a way the team, who ended up supporting Hamilton’s stance on the Hungary team orders.

For a driver who is meant to logically work through things Rosberg’s attitude to this race seems rather backwards. He had an 11 point lead in the championship, has impressed people with his speed against Hamilton, what he did could well have ended up with his nose damaged or off and Lewis scampering away to victory and maybe even taking the championship lead. It was a stupid thing to do to ‘prove a point.’ Prove a point by making a clean move and demonstrating who the better driver is.

Admittedly we were only two laps into the race but Nico looked quicker at that point, he had another 42 laps to do something. To just leave your nose in a gap which was always going to close can now in the light of what Lewis says be called crude. A lot of people’s attitudes towards Rosberg will change now but even if it has been overblown, Rosberg is tainted. Surely this is not the way he would want to win a world championship.

Of course we have yet to hear how Nico will react to Lewis’ accusations. On Mercedes part they say that Lewis is telling the truth but Toto Wolff has said Nico's comments may have been misinterpreted. Rather than he said he deliberately hit Lewis, it was that he just didn't backdown. In the end that surely is the same thing for he knew it might cause a collision? For now Nico has said it’s a racing incident and it should be pointed out the stewards thought the same as there was no investigation but it’ll still be interesting to see how the team in particular respond to this.

To Rosberg’s credit he drove another fine damage limitation race after the incident, coming back strongly from a nose change to come home second. On the podium he looked shaken as the boos rang out from the grandstands and in the media pen he looked very uncomfortable. Was this someone who couldn’t understand why he has being grilled so hard or someone who knew exactly why?

In any event it cost Hamilton dearly. Lewis thought he should retire as soon as he got back out the pits from changing his puncture as the floor was wrecked costing him a lot of downforce.

He carried on with persuasion from the team but retired five laps from the end. You might have thought he would’ve learned from British Grand Prix qualifying to carry on pushing until there’s absolutely no hope, but in the end it was a pointless weekend which started strongly. He took the lead from second on the grid to head pole sitter Rosberg. He held off Sebastian Vettel in a near re-run of last year’s opening lap and then came Rosberg’s nosecone and that was that.

So Rosberg now holds a 29 point lead in the championship but what’s occurred in Belgium today looks like it will affect how the rest of the season unfolds especially from the team dynamic point of view at Mercedes. Team boss Toto Wolff has already said they will look at how they will run their drivers in the future.

I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll be put on leashes but Mercedes do not want another accident like this or worse. The tension in Italy is going to be electric and I think sparks will fly. All eyes will be on the Silver Arrow squad, how will Lewis react at the next race, will Rosberg remain defiant and how will Mercedes control their drivers? We’ll leave it to Lewis to finish: "He just came in there and said it was all my fault. When you’re out there you have to trust the people with their heads and [that they] don’t do things deliberately. After that meeting I don’t really know how to approach the next race."

The Belgian Grand Prix Forecast

I doubt there’s a single Formula 1 fan who doesn’t look forward to the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa Francorchamps. Its magnificent blend of fast and medium speed corners linked by flat out straights through the Ardennes Forests combine to make it the longest circuit currently on the calendar at 4.6 miles. There’s no other circuit you’d want Formula 1 to return with after its extended four week summer break.

The weather in Belgium makes this race notoriously unpredictable but if we can hazard a guess, then Friday looks bright, Saturday looks like rain and Sunday looks bright again, all three days having the relatively chilly high of only 19C. It all looks like it has the potential to be a mixed up grid for Sunday.

Pirelli are bringing the medium and soft tyre, which is probably advantageous because of the relatively cool temperatures. It’ll be easier to get heat into the tyres with softer compounds but with the high speed cornering going on, I don’t imagine that would have been too much of a problem anyway. This track is quite hard on tyre wear too but with the likelihood of rain during qualifying there’ll be a lot of fresh rubber available so there might be a fair few attacking strategies.

There are two DRS zones, one down the Kemmel Straight just after the famous Eau Rouge followed by Raidillon. The other is down the start finish straight into the tightest corner on the track La Source. Never mind the weather, this corner can cause a whole heap of unpredictability as 22 Formula 1 machines hurtle down to it after one of the shorter distances from grid to first turn.

So let’s look at the main contenders for victory this weekend and make some outrageous predictions. Ok so obviously the leading contender is Williams, therefore the most likely driver to win is Valtteri Bottas as he’s had the edge on Felipe Massa in recent races. That’s the hype that some of the F1 press would have you believe at least.

To be fair, this has a lot going for it, they’ve been quick on tracks with straight line speed as the main player and proved at Silverstone they can handle quick corners so what’s not to believe? Well Mercedes for one thing.

I think Williams will be the closest challenger to the Silver Arrows this weekend, but if you’re looking for a genuine chance of a Williams victory then I think you’ve got to look at Monza two weeks later which is straights and mostly slow corners. This weekend they will be players, but there real chance comes the race after.

Of course they’ll be up there this weekend, maybe even contenders for a front row grid slot but the win? I think it’s asking too much for them and with tyre wear high, I think Williams won’t be as free on strategy as some others. I hope Massa gets a decent result, he’s been plenty quick this year, but luck and accidents have made podiums difficult to come by. Bottas on the other hand had a strong run of podiums up until Hungary when the first safety car possibly took a fourth consecutive one away from him. 

Red Bull usually come back from the summer break stronger than ever and I’m sure they’ll have found some things again this year despite the two week summer factory shutdown. However with their Renault engine still lacking grunt compared to the Mercedes the next two races probably won’t be the kindest to them. The street track in Singapore is their next target for a possible chance at victory.

It’ll be interesting to see if Daniel Ricciardo still holds his edge over Sebastian Vettel. It was this time last year when Vettel started his run of nine consecutive wins. That’s not going to happen this time but he’ll be desperate to start battling with Ricciardo a bit more equally in this second half of the year.

There have been signs he’s turning a corner with his performance but it’ll be tough. Ricciardo is a world champion in the making, but having said that, to my mind at least a little change in circumstance and those two wins the Australian took could well have been Vettel’s. It’ll be definitely worth keeping a watch on the battle between the Red Bull drivers. At the moment you’d have to say if there’s a driver who might take an opportunity should it present itself, then it would be Ricciardo.

Ferrari need to take more risks says Ferrari team boss Marco Mattiacci. Well it’s too late for this car, I’m not sure they’re even bothering with any real development anymore, perhaps just tweaks. I’ve a feeling we could see a better showing from Kimi Raikkonen this weekend. He’s a star around here with four wins, although admittedly the last one was in 2009. If there’s anywhere where he could get the car to his liking just once this year it would be here.

Fernando Alonso will of course get a result from nothing, but I think he’ll be fighting for top six rather than podiums, but never dismiss Alonso, as I’ve said this race can be very unpredictable and if there’s chaos then expect Fernando to make sense of it all before anyone else. Whatever though, the car is lacking, the power unit lacks more, in normal circumstances Ferrari are hovering on the fringes of where the real action is.

Force India and McLaren are locked in a battle for fifth in the constructors. Force India usually go well here, definitely watch out for Nico Hulkenberg if the race gets a bit damp on occasions, and Sergio Perez if making the tyres last proves decisive.

I feel quite sad talking about McLaren as also-rans but that’s what they are at the moment. Kevin Magnussen has been sporadically impressive but I think Jenson Button has more than held his own against his rookie team mate.

Both of their seats for next year have been brought into question with rumours that McLaren want to bring in Alonso for their 2015 partnership with Honda. I think that’s highly unlikely but you never know so this will add even more impetus for the current McLaren drivers to get more out of their poor car than perhaps is reasonable to ask.

Button was supreme here in 2012, he won’t get a result like that but a similar level of performance would go some way to extending his career for another year.

Toro Rosso have signed another youngster for 2015 with the arrival of Max Verstappen but it’s their current kid who’ll be interesting to watch this weekend. Daniil Kvyat has impressed all year and at one of the true classic tests of a drivers skill I’m looking forward to seeing how he does.

Jean-Eric Vergne is the driver being replaced, but he deserves another chance somewhere else. He may not have the out and out qualifying pace of some but he is a brilliant race driver and has suffered too much from unreliability this year. He’s on the market now and if he really wants his Formula 1 adventure to continue then I expect some highlight performances over the coming months.

Lotus, Sauber and Marussia I imagine will be fairly static while over at Caterham they’ve replaced Kamui Kobayashi with three times Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer. The 32 year old German hasn’t driven a Formula 1 car since 2002 when he was test driver for Jaguar but he has driven for Audi in the top class of Endurance racing and knows how to use a hybrid system. He also has recent single seater experience from Japan so he’s no amateur.

It’s a shame for Kobayashi though, once again left on the side lines when he really should have a secure seat in F1. He brought no money to the team though and on this end of the grid it’s something you can’t be found to lack.

At the top end of the grid expect nothing to change apart from the championship battle getting ever more intense. Mercedes will of course be the team to beat at this race and for the rest of the year, they’re chassis and power unit are just too strong. Only bad luck can really stop them.

Nico Rosberg leads Lewis Hamilton by 11 points after 11 battles on track, with eight to go the victor of the war is still very much up in the air. Over the four week break both drivers will have thought of almost nothing else as they prepare to once again go wheel to wheel for the world championship.

They will be more focussed than ever, each of them knows it’s not often you get a shot at a world championship, you have to take your chance when you get it. Hamilton will come to Belgium with the slight psychological edge. He beat Rosberg in Hungary after starting from the pit lane while his team mate was on pole position. Yes, safety cars played their part but it was a fantastic Hamilton charge.

To add to that there was the team orders dispute when Lewis failed to move over, which he was quite right to do as the team have later conceded. Rosberg knows that if Lewis had moved out the way he probably would have won the race, but he should not expect any favours.

Mercedes have been suffering from reliability troubles in recent races and they’ll hope that they’ve resolved them to keep the fight between their two drivers as fair as possible. However, at Spa the cars are on full throttle for 80% of the lap and with only five power units available for the season all of which will have been used, there could well be some troubles, not just for Mercedes but for the entire grid.

Lewis goes well at Spa and I expect him to have the upper hand this weekend, but Rosberg is always there and never lets up. This is going down to the wire, but there’s no better way of getting an edge in the second half than starting out with a win at a true drivers track. Let battle recommence.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Max Verstappen to be first 17 year old to race in Formula 1

He’s not even old enough to take his driving test, but 16 year old Max Verstappen has been chosen to drive for Toro Rosso in 2015 replacing Jean-Eric Vergne. Having only just joined the Red Bull young driver program it’s certainly a dramatic promotion to Formula 1 as he’s been out of karting less than a year.

But have no doubts this guy is sensational, he ripped it up in karting winning many championships and has only graduated to cars this year where he currently lies second in the European Formula 3 championship with eight wins. He must be good for Red Bull’s young driver program is notoriously tough and with the likes of Carlos Sainz Jnr on their books, it’s amazing they’ve had the faith in him to commit him to Formula 1 so soon.

He’ll be the youngest ever driver on a Formula 1 grid when he starts the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at just 17 years old beating former Red Bull young driver Jaime Alguersuari. Current Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat was 19 when he made his debut this year having won the 2013 GP3 title, but even someone so young had been competiting in cars since 2010 unlike Verstappen who’ll have only one year behind him.

It can work out well of course, Kimi Raikkonen had only a year of car racing behind him when he was signed by Sauber for his Formula 1 debut in 2001, six years later he was world champion. Of course it doesn’t always work out so well, the aforementioned Alguersuari was promoted early, and despite an increasingly good performance in his two and a half years he was unceremoniously dropped and out of Formula 1 at just 21 years old. 

Unfortunately he hasn’t managed to find a way back although he has signed up to drive for Virgin in the exciting prospect of Formula E.

Verstappen’s own father Jos was relatively young for Formula 1 back in 1994 at just 22 after just a few years in cars, he was seen as an exciting prospect. But he was thrown in at the deep end as test driver for Benetton when he was called up to be team mate to Michael Schumacher in one of the most controversial seasons the sport has ever known, much of the uproar centred round that team.

He floundered and although he survived in Formula 1 sporadically until 2003 his potential was not realised. The hype surrounding Max is much more, but he’s already shown he can hold his own in car racing and with six rounds left can still win this Formula 3 championship.

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost said "We consider Max to be as one of the most skilled young drivers of the new generation and we believe he has the necessary maturity and mental strength to take on this challenge successfully."

The team obviously have faith in their new signing, and with people having had doubts about Kvyat being brought in too early being proved emphatically wrong, the future looks good for Verstappen especially with all the help the team and the engineers can support him with now. The Formula 1 press are certainly excited by the prospect saying his car control and the way he handles the car is extremely impressive for one so young.

I just hope he is given time, usually Toro Rosso will invest in their new drivers for at least two seasons so Max will have a phase of learning. I hope he can put it together because to be washed up by Formula 1 at just 19 would be a terrible for him. However the way he’s being talked about and the way he’s driving this year, his prospects look anything but terrible, already he is being talked about as the next big star of Formula 1.

We’ll wait and see, time must be given, but he’ll certainly be being watched very closely when the lights go out in Melbourne next year.

all photo's of autosport.com 

Solutions to what is wrong with F1

Since the summer break started I’ve been reading a lot of columns dedicated to discussing what is wrong with Formula 1. There’s a simple answer to this, there isn’t anything wrong with Formula 1, the racing is great, there is a fantastic fight for the championship, there’s nothing amiss with the sporting side of F1 and these new regulations should be deemed a success by all.

There’s still some complaints about the noise, I’m sure they’ll figure out some way to make it a bit louder, but to be honest if you’re at a race and the racing is good you forget about the noise pretty quickly, and I find there’s something awesome about the combination of the rumbling thunder and the electrical whine, it’s a wonderful hybrid of old and new.

Anyway, we’re not here to talk about the noise, or even the looks of the cars, both issues will be sorted at some point, the noses by next season. No, I’m wondering why the Formula 1 authorities seem to feel the need to constantly tamper with the sport, or complain about their own product? Is that really a selling point when you have the likes of Bernie Ecclestone or Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo running down their own business?

With many Formula 1 teams fighting to survive and several territories losing viewing figures and not being able to fill the grandstands on race day, even in countries with a motor racing tradition, as well as an ageing audience, then surely it's not the wisest idea to sell the sport short?

I think these new regulations have pushed Formula 1 to a more sustainable future. I mean surely this sort of move to a greener power resource makes the sport more relevant with the added bonus it’s producing racing which is better than ever. But it seems this has failed to stop declining viewing figures around the world so they try and keep the championship alive longer by introducing absurd ideas like double points for the final Grand Prix, which undermines the previous rounds.

Perhaps they might consider that championships can’t always go down to the last race. I’m not aware of the premier league thinking they should add double points to the last round of games to keep the title fight alive. Why not? Because there would be justifiable outrage among supporters about how the sport is being made artificial.

There was uproar amongst fans and leading F1 journalists, but this being Formula 1, the sports leaders failed to listen to them, so far at least. The championship being wrapped up early has nothing to do with viewing figures (although admittedly figures tend to tail off if the championship is wrapped up early) and perhaps, I suggest somewhat timidly, it could be to do with selling the Television rights to pay TV services.

Perhaps also the reason that many races aren’t attended well is that some of the countries are only on the calendar because their governments can pay the exorbitant fees that Bernie charges each country so F1 will bring their toys to play in front of empty grandstands like in Korea. A lot of these countries have no great history of motor sport and the public simply doesn’t care. It’s good to try and create interest but it seems to me the sport is going to too many countries like this and has no hope of attracting a crowd, especially when in a country like China a ticket can often be more expensive than a year’s wages.

That affects other countries which do have a fan base too. Bernie charges each circuit millions upon millions of dollars for them to hold a race. He also takes the revenue of all trackside advertising. Circuits don’t receive any television money either, what they do get is the ticket money, which is why often they’re so expensive. Most circuits won’t make a profit from the race but it’ll be their largest attendance of the year so they have to make it count so that money is taken from the customer. The customer who will have to shell out in excess of £500 to take a family of four for some grandstand seats and that’s being conservative.

So let's think of a few points which might help push Formula 1 in the right direction. First of all let's look at ways of attracting new and younger fans.

There should be a full social media profile for Formula 1 to engage and interact with fans. Having that platform would have enabled them to connect with more people and help new fans understand the sport. All through the last winter there could have been videos and articles explaining the new regulations and creating a buzz about this new adventure. Or after the races and in the gaps between races, have videos of the best passing moves with the drivers explaining what they were doing and what they were thinking in that moment. In the lead up to races, there should be promotions months in advance, particularly centred to that countries audience.

Just having the website which has some nice content but no official Facebook or Twitter profile just doesn't cut it these days. It's been said Bernie Ecclestone sees no point as you can't make money from it, but surely pushing the product you're more likely to attract new fans who will spend money.

There should be a cost cap. I'm in favour of this, very difficult to police but with the many big brains of Formula 1 people I'm sure some compromise could be reached somehow. With the cost cap, you get freer regulations. The essence of Formula 1 is pushing the boundaries and I don't want to see these cars become too standardised, so to prevent costs spiralling if rules were freed up, cap the spend. It would also be nice to get the cars at least 3-4 seconds faster.

Fairer deal for teams from Formula One Management. The TV money should be split equally between all teams no matter how much history they have. Then we'd stop hearing about how teams are struggling so much and need to hire pay drivers. Prize money would obviously be based on results, so the best would still earn more, you'd just not have a money advantage built in to begin with.

Fairer deals for circuits too. Bring the cost of hosting a race down, or at the very least let them make some money from the advertising space surrounding the circuit, this should at least be split more evenly between the circuits and Bernie who pockets the lot at the moment. Fairer deal for circuits might just lead to a fairer deal for fans too.

Don’t damage the traditions of F1. No more gimmicks such as double points. We need to maintain the purity of the sport, so make sure the cars are the fastest in the world, and drop rubbish ideas like double points. As much as sport is entertainment, lets not make it into WWE. However, the green technology should and progress, F1 is after all the leader in motor racing.

Testing should be limited for money reasons but why not have longer Friday's with a whole day of testing and allow the third car they already bring to be built up for the third driver to get more opportunities to test and help with their F1 experience.

Limit of 20 races with no exceptions. Eighteen would be better but saturation is the way forward apparently. I believe less is more though, Grand Prix used to be must watch events, now there's so many, some people choose not to watch every race. There's nothing wrong with expanding into new markets either, but perhaps have a rotation system. Your core classics like Brazil, Canada, Japan, Belgium, UK, Italy, Germany and add to that a race in the USA should be essential on the list every year. From there you have races in up and coming nations, or races with money and an audience, but if necessary they can be rotated bi-yearly. Races which suffer from lack of crowd might then see a bigger crowd as it's more of an event.

I think there's a lot right with F1, but yes there are some issues which simply if people could think of the bigger picture needn't be there. More of the positives should be mentioned, but I think some of the things I've listed would help to progress Formula 1 for the future and keep it at the head of the field.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Formula e to electrify motor sport?

There’s one motor racing series which is embracing modern technology and attempting to push the boundaries of how we go motor racing. The competitive edge will help to drive technology forward that will drip feed down in to the automotive industry, therefore making it a relevant and pioneering series.

It has embraced social media reaching out to the tech savvy and younger generations and even made the sport interactive, while it has constantly been running demonstrations and encompassing a more even approach with the teams all working (for the time being) on a similar level. Of course this isn’t Formula 1, the sports bosses wouldn’t want to waste time finding out what fans want, this is the FIA sanctioned Formula e, the newest form of motor sport to divert fully from the combustion engine to electrical power due for the off in September.

It’s a modern 21^st century world championship that encompasses the aforementioned power systems, one day events in which practice sessions, qualifying and the race all take place in city centres emphasising its green credentials further by making it easily accessible by public transport. It’s being healthily promoted through the means of social media, there have been many video updates and test days have been promoted for the public to attend as an event to see what this new venture is all about.

As it's website says it’s core ethos is about ‘energy, environment andentertainment’ representing ‘a vision of the motor industry over the coming decades, serving as a framework for R&D around the electric vehicle, accelerating general interest in these cars and promoting sustainability.’

The power produced is 270bhp in qualifying trim down to 200bhp when racing. That doesn’t sound much at the moment but I’m sure if this series proves to be a success then the that power output will steadily increase. The sound is very futuristic, with a pretty compelling whooshing noise that sort of turns into a scream. The cars look fairly good and are infused with technology by McLaren, Williams and Renault. There’s no stupid looking noses, and added to that the series doesn’t get a double points round at the end to undermine the previous rounds of the championship.

The cars this year are all the same but from the second year of this project all 10 teams will be allowed to design and build their own cars to use that to advance the technology quicker in the competitive environment. The teams are mostly well established in the motor racing world and include names such as Audi, Andretti, Dams and Virgin while the calendar includes two races in the USA as well as events in Monaco, Germany and the UK.  

The driving standard is pretty high with a lot of ex-formula 1 drivers participating including the likes of Bruno Senna, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli and Jaime Alguersuari. It also includes two female drivers, Katherine Legge and Michela Cerruti who have both shown their speed in other series.

It really seems to me that a lot of thought has been put into this championship and it is doing what motor racing is often for, to advance technology for the motor industry while having a lot of exciting on-track action (which admittedly remains to be seen).

There are a few causes for concern, they have allowed a rather stupid gimmick of a ‘fan boost’ where the likes of you and me can vote for our favourite driver to receive a power boost during the race. That smacks of artificial nonsense, it could well end up with the same driver getting the boost at every round, although it has made many of the drivers turn to twitter to appeal for votes which I guess helps with driver/audience interaction.

The other thing I find a little off-putting is that during the course of the one hour races the drivers will have to change cars to make it to the end as the battery life will not last long enough to complete the distance. This is something I’m sure will be dropped in the future as the technology advances and the batteries last longer, but I think the general perception is that with a few exceptions, electric cars don’t go very fast and not for very long, so to see the drivers having to hop out mid-race to get a new car kind of solidifies that point of view, especially when you realise that a GP3 car, two rungs down from Formula 1 produces over 100bhp more. I possibly would have reduced the race distance until they didn't need to do that.

But I think these will be minor quibbles and as all the races will be on street tracks, they’ll look plenty fast. The noise is a concern as has been seen in F1 this year, but this series is starting off with their unique sound, so I don’t see it being a problem. As I’ve said it sounds rather futuristic, which is their whole philosophy anyway.

It makes me wonder how Formula 1’s bosses will react to this series if it proves to be a success. They have a decent first calendar, professional outfits and good driver names, many of which should probably be in Formula 1 if it weren’t for some teams need for drivers with a budget.Their inclusion of social media is surely a must for any national or international sport these days to connect with the fans who will at the end of the day, fund the sport. There is a danger that e could make 1 look a bit like a dinosaur. In a way it’s great that the hybrid power trains F1 now uses have come into effect in terms of relevance.

It’s still going to be hard for Formula e, Formula 1 spent a long time being a sport nobody watched until it became the global behemoth it is today. Formula e lacks the cache, the names, the glamour and even in this age, the noise of a world motor sport series that F1 has. However, I think if you compared the two sports as they stand right now you’d say Formula e has a clear direction, it has an electrical charge of modernity, it feels fresh while F1 seems to be in a state of permanent conflict where no one can agree with anything and they constantly talk themselves down despite the racing being absolutely superb this year.

It of course remains to be seen how this championship will be received by the wider public or whether it’ll be a niche series that like other global motor sports gets swallowed by the general public's perception that F1 is motor racing. I don’t think this series can overtake F1 as the standard bearer of motor racing, to be fair it’s CEO Alejandro Agag has never claimed to be a direct rival to Formula 1, but I do think it can be a success. Find out what it’s like for yourself, the first round is on the 13^th September 2014 in China with the finale in London on 27^th June next year. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com