Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport:
Lewis Hamilton: 7,5 It was a great start for the Mercedes team, with a pole position for Lewis and a victory + fastest lap for Valtteri. Lewis got off to a slow start which possible cost him a shot on the race win. Even though, he did well and managed to fend off a charging Max Verstappen with ease.
Valtteri Bottas: 8,5 What a way to start the season. In no way, his performance can be compared to any of his performances last season. His start was just great and managed to pull a gap lap-by-lap and never was in any threat by any driver.
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow:
Sebastian Vettel: 6,5 His qualifying was the most he could wish for, as the Mercedes guys were just way too quick. In the race, they gambled with an early stop, which eventually lost him P3 to Max Verstappen. His team might have cost him a couple of points and it could have been even more, if Charles was allowed to attack him.
Charles Leclerc: 6,5 He did what is expected of him. Grab lots of points and help the team. The team might have made a big mistake by not pitting him in the closing laps of the race, chasing a possible fastest lap for another point, but that lies on his team and not Charles. He went a little wide through turn 1 and spun in practice, but that is something to be expected for someone with just over 1 season of F1 experience.
Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Honda:
Max Verstappen: 8 He kept going on the high note he finished last season on. Qualified his car on P4, beating Leclerc in the proces, and managed to grab the last podium spot from Vettel. The team seemed to struggle in qualifying, but Verstappen took the best out of it. He might have been able to attack Lewis, but he seems to have matured and knows you will championships by consistency, instead of having highs and lows.
Pierre Gasly: 5 Pierre hasn't had the start we all hoped for. After 2 incidents in winter testing, he dropped in Q1 (by not being send out to improve his time) and only managed to finish P11, being stuck behind Kvyat for most of the race. I did not expect him to be on the same level of Max yet, but it was a little disappointing seeing him outside of the points. Melbourne might be difficult to overtake on, but whereas he couldn't, Max managed to overtake Sebastian by the 2 DRS zones on start/finish and after turn 2.
Renault F1 Team:
Nico Hulkenberg: 7,5 A strong result for the Hulk. Just missed out of Q3, but made up for it by scoring a solid P7. He scored some solid points for his team, although I'm not too sure Renault is the fourth team in line, to be fair. So his P7
Daniel Ricciardo: 5,5 What a horrible weekend for Daniel. Having his home race ruined after just 5 seconds, is just heart-breaking. He did not manage to qualify for Q3 and eventually retired in the race. Not the start he must have hoped for with his new team.
Rich Energy Haas F1 Team:
Romain Grosjean: 7 A very strong weekend for Romain, which was ruined by (another) mistake during a pitstop. You'd say you would do anything to prevent it from happening, but in the end, let's hope the Haas team improves from it again and be competitive all-year long.
Kevin Magnussen: 7,8 A stroung result for K-Mag, finishing best of the rest in P6. He was the only non-top 3 driver to finish within the same lap of the leaders, which shows how quick those cars were (mainly Bottas, of course). It's good to see Haas at least managed to score a good chunk of points in Melbourne this year, after last years disaster.
Mclaren F1 Team:
Carlos Sainz Jr.: 6 A disappointing result in qualifying, combined with a retirement in the race. This was not the race weekend Carlos might have hoped for. It's hard to judge him just on those few laps, as his qualifying could also have been due to bad timing, being unlucky (with Kubica, for instance).
Lando Norris: 7 Very good job in qualifying, being in Q3 as the only rookie. He dropped down a little in the race, but I did not even expect points in his debut race. He needs to get some more experience on that part, but it was a good start of his F1 career.
Racing Point F1:
Sergio Perez: 6,5 A good Saturday, followed by a disappointing Sunday. He lost it strategy-wise, like some other drivers did, and it cost him a point-scoring start of the season.
Lance Stroll: 7 His race was a complete opposite from his teammate. He disappointed massively during qualifying, but managed to score a couple of points in his first race for Racing Point. Still not sure if he is any better than Ocon was, but I'll give him a chance to show what he's capable of.
Alfa Romeo Racing:
Kimi Räikkönen: 7,5 A strong start for Räikkönen and Alfa Romeo. Qualified with ease in the top 10 and might possibly have done better, if his brake duct wasn't covered, which forced him to pit. Still, on his age, he does a great job performing this well. And I really hope Alfa Romeo can make the same kind of improvements like Sauber did last year.
Antonio Giovinazzi: 6,5 A decent start of his first full-time season. I did not expect him to match Kimi and he did not. His race was affected by some damage on the car, although staying out that long on tires worn out that badly, didn't help either.
Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda:
Daniil Kvyat: 7 He was outqualified by his teammate, but drove a fine race, collecting one point in the proces. He seems to be more relaxed now, compared to 1,5 seasons ago. We still have to see how he will perform the next couple of races, but apart from one little moment with Stroll, I feel like he did a fine race.
Alexander Albon: 6,5 A strong performance from the biggest rookie of the rookies. He crashed his car in practice, but apart from that, a weekend without many problems. He outqualified Kvyat and performed decent in the race, just as I expected him to do.
Williams Racing:
Robert Kubica: 3 By far, the biggest disappointment last weekend. He was way off the pace throughout the entire weekend, hit the wall entering pit lane, hit the wall out of turn 10, broke his front wing on Gasly at the start and after that, drove a lost race. He seemed to struggle for pace in the race, although I'm not entirely sure if that's due to his handicap or perhaps of all the times he had to slow down for blue flags. But overall, it was just a disappointing weekend for him.
George Russell: 6 It is really hard to rate him. The team is just way too slow for him to show any of his talent, as his only reference now is teammate Kubica. And he won that by a mile. He did fine for his first race weekend, no massive errors from his side. It's just a shame that the F2 champion can't show his true potential in the car Williams provides him with.
donderdag 21 maart 2019
zondag 17 maart 2019
Australian GP 2019: My highs and lows
The 2019 F1 season has kicked off in Melbourne. It was a fascinating race, here are my personal highs and lows of the first race of the 2019 world championship.
High:
1. Fastest lap point
Perhaps one of the best changes in years, might be the addition of rewarding a fastest lap with a point (For top 10 runners only). It gave a great motivation for drivers to keep posting fastest laps throughout the race, which in itself was a positive thing to see. Last couple of years, the last part of the race could be boring, as there was nothing for the fastest lap, whereas today we saw a great fight for that single point. Although we need to see how much value is given to this single point throughout the season, I do love the fact that the F1 is willing to test these kind of rewards.
2. Valtteri Bottas
The best race he's ever driven so far. That is how Valtteri described his victory in Melbourne. I won't judge on that quote, but it was a great showing from him. He was consistent in his times, no errors and he seemed unlike the Valtteri from 2018, which is a positive thing. The only thing I do hope, is that he is capable of keeping this going, as I did believe his 2018 was not too bad (Should have won Baku, for instance). But those problems seemed to have it's influence on his performance last year, so I'm curious to see how he will handle trouble this year.
3. The rookies
Yes, none of the rookies scored a point. True. But I do believe they did fine: Norris, Russell and Albon out-qualified their teammates, whereas Giovinazzi (if he would be seen as rookie) struggled a little bit more comparing to Räikkönen. That isn't something to shame for, as Räikkönen is still one of the fastest drivers in the field.
Norris managed to reach Q3, but the race pace of the McLaren just wasn't that great. Albon did have a crash in practice, but did well in qualifying. And Russell is just not in the car to show how competitive he can be, he can only try to beat Kubica to at least show he can beat someone as talented as Robert.
Low:
1. Ferrari
Perhaps the biggest letdown so far, is Ferrari. They seemed very fast in testing, but were not even close to Mercedes during qualifying and even lost ground to Max Verstappen in both qualifying and the race. And not to underestimate the performance of the Dutchman, but I did not expect him to be able to beat both Ferrari's on race pace. Ferrari gambled and lost and seem to still miss out on strategic level. They were half a minute ahead of Magnussen in P6 and they might have had pitted Leclerc to chase the point for fastest lap. Now, it went to rival Mercedes, which might be an expensive mistake at the end of the season.
2. Williams & Kubica
Was it a surprise? Definitely not. But they are not even remotely close to the rest of the field. Qualifying was very close in Q1, resulting in the elimination of Gasly. But Russell was +1.3 seconds down on P18, who was Carlos Sainz Jr. It's a shame to see such a historical team struggle for pace and see them slip down more and more by the year.
And to say Williams is slow, is a understatement, but Robert Kubica's performance throughout the weekend was terrible. His little love tap against the wall outside of turn 10 wasn't a wise thing, he hit Gasly going into turn 1 and damaged his front wing, but above all he seemed to struggle for pace in the race. It is too early to say it comes from his handicap, but I never believed he recovered 100% from it and I always thought it would hamper his pace in a race. I will give him the chance to proof my wrong, but I find it hard to believe he can. He once was a very talented driver, who had a great future up ahead, but I don't see it happen anymore.
I've heard and seen people compare it to Alex Zanardi, though the impact on the driving aspect is just different: Alex lost his legs and does all the driving with his hands (Having modified cars in WTCC and in DTM last year, click here for a youtube video about his one-off DTM car.), which is in my opinion easier than being handicapped in your arm while racing an F1 car.
3. Grosjean's retirement
You'd say, as a team, you would learn from errors you make. Their double retirement in Melbourne last year was their worst weekend in their existence, and I would say you would do anything to avoid another one of those errors. And yet again, something went wrong during the pitstop for Romain, Not only did the pitstop take much longer to finish, after a couple of laps the wheel came loose and eventually led to the retirement.
High:
1. Fastest lap point
Perhaps one of the best changes in years, might be the addition of rewarding a fastest lap with a point (For top 10 runners only). It gave a great motivation for drivers to keep posting fastest laps throughout the race, which in itself was a positive thing to see. Last couple of years, the last part of the race could be boring, as there was nothing for the fastest lap, whereas today we saw a great fight for that single point. Although we need to see how much value is given to this single point throughout the season, I do love the fact that the F1 is willing to test these kind of rewards.
2. Valtteri Bottas
The best race he's ever driven so far. That is how Valtteri described his victory in Melbourne. I won't judge on that quote, but it was a great showing from him. He was consistent in his times, no errors and he seemed unlike the Valtteri from 2018, which is a positive thing. The only thing I do hope, is that he is capable of keeping this going, as I did believe his 2018 was not too bad (Should have won Baku, for instance). But those problems seemed to have it's influence on his performance last year, so I'm curious to see how he will handle trouble this year.
3. The rookies
Yes, none of the rookies scored a point. True. But I do believe they did fine: Norris, Russell and Albon out-qualified their teammates, whereas Giovinazzi (if he would be seen as rookie) struggled a little bit more comparing to Räikkönen. That isn't something to shame for, as Räikkönen is still one of the fastest drivers in the field.
Norris managed to reach Q3, but the race pace of the McLaren just wasn't that great. Albon did have a crash in practice, but did well in qualifying. And Russell is just not in the car to show how competitive he can be, he can only try to beat Kubica to at least show he can beat someone as talented as Robert.
Low:
1. Ferrari
Perhaps the biggest letdown so far, is Ferrari. They seemed very fast in testing, but were not even close to Mercedes during qualifying and even lost ground to Max Verstappen in both qualifying and the race. And not to underestimate the performance of the Dutchman, but I did not expect him to be able to beat both Ferrari's on race pace. Ferrari gambled and lost and seem to still miss out on strategic level. They were half a minute ahead of Magnussen in P6 and they might have had pitted Leclerc to chase the point for fastest lap. Now, it went to rival Mercedes, which might be an expensive mistake at the end of the season.
2. Williams & Kubica
Was it a surprise? Definitely not. But they are not even remotely close to the rest of the field. Qualifying was very close in Q1, resulting in the elimination of Gasly. But Russell was +1.3 seconds down on P18, who was Carlos Sainz Jr. It's a shame to see such a historical team struggle for pace and see them slip down more and more by the year.
And to say Williams is slow, is a understatement, but Robert Kubica's performance throughout the weekend was terrible. His little love tap against the wall outside of turn 10 wasn't a wise thing, he hit Gasly going into turn 1 and damaged his front wing, but above all he seemed to struggle for pace in the race. It is too early to say it comes from his handicap, but I never believed he recovered 100% from it and I always thought it would hamper his pace in a race. I will give him the chance to proof my wrong, but I find it hard to believe he can. He once was a very talented driver, who had a great future up ahead, but I don't see it happen anymore.
I've heard and seen people compare it to Alex Zanardi, though the impact on the driving aspect is just different: Alex lost his legs and does all the driving with his hands (Having modified cars in WTCC and in DTM last year, click here for a youtube video about his one-off DTM car.), which is in my opinion easier than being handicapped in your arm while racing an F1 car.
3. Grosjean's retirement
You'd say, as a team, you would learn from errors you make. Their double retirement in Melbourne last year was their worst weekend in their existence, and I would say you would do anything to avoid another one of those errors. And yet again, something went wrong during the pitstop for Romain, Not only did the pitstop take much longer to finish, after a couple of laps the wheel came loose and eventually led to the retirement.
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