Nuts & Bolts --April 10, 2025

After the Japanese GP, 2025 ...

• Has Stroll finished the race yet?

• Carlos Sainz's results have to be the most disappointing so far.

• Jack Doohan's mistake in practice of forgetting to close his DRS entering the first corner. Wow. I am going give the rookies some more time before I make any more comments on them.

• The season is reminding me of 1986. Two drivers in perhaps the best team, and the defending champ in another, battling for the title. If we have a season nearly as exciting as '86, we will be well entertained.

• Saying that, the Japanese race was awfully dull and featured a lack of passing. Not wanting to jinx anything, last year's Bahrain GP had Max leading the entire race, and the top 3 stayed in their positions for about the last 40 laps. At least Bahrain will be at a time that'll make it easier for me to stay awake.

• We never get to hear Jacques Villeneuve as a commentator here in Canada, but we did for Japan. It's always made to seem he is very critical, but he was not, and was a bit humourous at times.

• Eddie Jordan passed away on March 20. The Jordan team was just about the last of the non-corporate teams, run by people who love the sport.
  

Nuts & Bolts -- March 25, 2025

• Red Bull are trying to change the decades old belief that slow, difficult-to-handle cars are difficult to drive, to something we have never heard before--fast cars are hard to drive. Are they saying it is easier to go fast in a slower car?

• Rumours have been swirling (when aren't they) that Yuki Tsunoda will be in the Red Bull for the next race in Japan, his home race. We need to see this, if not for the lone sake of just seeing it.

• Here's an idea: How about Red Bull put whatever driver is at their home race in the second seat? Lance in Montreal, Lewis in Britain, Sergio back for Mexico City. Lawson can keep the seat when there is no local driver.

• Helmut Marko has an enviable position. Promote young, inexperienced drivers to race-winning seats. If they thrive he looks like a genius, if they fail he can blame the driver.

• Kimi Antonelli won the fan-voted driver of the day in China. Apparently if you are young, score pole position, and dominate the race in a race-winning car, you do not win driver of the day, but if you are young and tour around in 8th in a race-winning car, you do. At least Antonelli was as surprised as I was.

• While it's been an interesting enough season so far, let's point out that the pole sitter has won both full races and the sprint race. Has there been an on-track pass for the lead yet?

• The Japanese GP will be run on Oscar Piastri's birthday. A driver has won on his birthday twice before: James Hunt in 1976, and Jean Alesi in 1995. One of those went on to win the world championship that year, the other never won another race.

• Max Verstappen has led all but 8 laps at the previous 3 Japanese races.
  

• Of course, after suggesting Lewis Hamilton would not be as fast as Charles Leclerc, Hamilton immediately dominates the sprint race in China. I should have learned my lesson about saying such things during the Schumacher years.
  

Nuts & Bolts -- March 20, 2025

• The standard of driving from the rookies in Australia was unacceptable. All but Bortoleto qualified well behind their teammates. However, Antonelli had a decent race. Bearman trailed around at the back after completing no laps all weekend. The rest chucked their cars off in the race.

• Referring to the rookies, Martin Brundle said "all these things you got to learn". I can hear Nikki Lauda saying something like "F1 is not kindergarten." F1 is not a learning series, by the time you reach F1 you are supposed to know the lessons and be one of the best in the world.

• Contrast this to the hate Jacques Villeneuve gets about his debut, when he scored pole position and nearly won the race. People dismiss it, saying, "Oh he was in the best car." Note than Antonelli is in a car that won four races last year, and Lawson is in the car that has won the last four drivers' championships.

• Yep, I realize veteran Alonso spun off, too.

• The moment when Norris and Piastri slid off the track, and Lando was able to better recover, might be one of those moments that decide the championship between the two McLaren drivers. It will be interesting to see how the 16 points Piastri lost make a difference at the end of the year.

• Does anyone believe Lewis Hamilton will outperform Charles Leclerc this season?

• Yuki Tsunoda doesn't get the credit he deserves. He was unlucky not to score some big points.

• Looking at the session times for the Chinese Grand Prix, this Canadian will be PVRing and watching later.
  

• I will keep saying it: F1 needs to get rid of the dumb rule allowing lapped cars to unlap themselves during a safety car.
  

Nuts & Bolts -- September 21, 2022

• Nikita Mazepin has said he won't race under a neutral flag. Well, I suppose that ends the very unlikely danger that we were going to see him back in Formula 1.

• The FIA has released the 2023 schedule--a record 24 races. It thankfully retains some classic tracks like Monaco and Spa, but it also has races in places where there aren't even tracks at all, like Miami and Las Vegas.

• It is a bit odd that F1 is soooooo anxious to have races in the U.S.A, at, weirdly, places like Vegas and Miami, where there isn't a track, yet if a great young American driver, like Colton Herta, or a fantastic team administration, with a legendary name--Andretti-- want to join F1, they cut them off at the knees before they get too comfortable with the idea.

• The Formula 1 World Championship is NOT a world championship, and has not been so for some time. It is an exclusive league. The winners are the best of those allowed to compete, and not all those who want to--and are capable of--competing.

• There was an article in a lesser website about Fernando Alonso bribing his own mechanics. None of the major Formula 1 sites carried this, so it is best left ignored.

•  There are some rumours that Nyck de Vries may end up at Alpha Tauri, if Pierre Gasly moves on to Alpine. I find it surprising that Mercedes can't find room for him somewhere. They may regret letting him jump ship to the Red Bull camp.

• Max Verstappen could clinch the championship at the next race in Singapore. Let's hope he does not. No one wants 5 lame-duck races to follow.
  

Nuts And Bolts -- Sept 13, 2022

• We've just had the Italian Grand Prix, but I am still waiting for Carlos Sainz to be disqualified from the Dutch GP for passing under a yellow flag. Like, how has that not been a penalty? They shut down the end of the Italian race because a car was pulled over to the side of the track, yet in the Netherlands, when Sainz did the worst thing you can do in such a situation--pass another car--it has been completely ignored.
   
• Speaking of shutting down the Italian Grand Prix, why did it take three laps for the saftey car to find the leader and bunch up the field? It is like the FIA and the people who run Formula One have never watch an Indycar race. Oh yeah,...considering the inability of Colton Herta to get a superlicense and a spot on the F1 grid, they clearly have not.
   
• Beyond Sainz's yellow flag violation, for which he was not punished, he did receive a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from his pit. With that, tire issues in the pit stops, and some ridiculous strategy calls, many expected the Ferrari team to arrive in Italy wearing clown suits. Instead, they painted some yellow on the cars, like that would solve all their problems.
   
• The two Ferrari drivers should rightfully be finishing 2nd and 3rd in the championship. They are very much in danger of finishing 3rd and 6th.
   
• Shall we also talk about Mercedes' dumb strategy in the Netherlands? Nah. The funny thing is listening to the team bosses when they CLEARLY have made a mistake. Instead of admitting it, they give every reason why it was potentially the right thing. They insult every fan who knows otherwise.
   
• Speaking of excuses, while Sky's David Croft is generally a good announcer, he needs to stop apologizing for the teams' dumb mistakes. Call it as it is, Crofty!
   
• Max Verstappen is on a five-race win streak. There is no reason to think he will not match and break Sebastian Vettel's record of 9, especially the way Ferrari and Mercedes are handing him victories.
   
• Hello, hello! Has anyone seen Sergio Perez lately? Over Max's five-race win streak, Perez has just one podium.
   
• Haas aren't REALLY considering bringing back Nico Hulkenberg are they? As much as I liked Nico, and thought he was a better driver than he ever showed, there has to be a time you give up on a guy, right? Is twelve years enough time?
  

DROP!

Murray Walker, the late, famous, British commentator once said that, "Anything can happen in Formula One--and usually does."

Anytime I think I have seen it all in F1, something new and dramatic happens, and the latest is the soap opera involving Oscar Piastri, Daniel Ricciardo, Alpine and McLaren. Both Alpine and McLaren believed they had Oscar Piastri under contract for 2023, and McLaren had already dumped Daniel Ricciardo, buying out his contract for 2023.

McLaren Formula 1 boss Zak Brown admitted, however, that Daniel Ricciardo made his teammate Lando Norris "step up." Well then, what exactly are McLaren doing?

My cousin and I often talk about how, in the "old" days--let's call them the 70s and 80s, to pick a time--teams often replaced drivers who were not as quick as their teammate, and that didn't seem to happen so much these days.  Some teams keep drivers for many, many years, despite obvioulsy never showing they were ever going to outperform their teammate.

So, sure, Daniel hasn't been quite as quick as his teammate Lando Norris.

But, Ricciardo has the only McLaren win in last decade-- just 25 races ago at the Italian Grand Prix in 2022.

Ricciardo is one of only 39 drivers in the entire history of F1 that have won 8 or more races. That is 39 drivers out of 771, or 5%, or 1 out of 20. On average, our 20-driver grid would only have one driver who would ever win that many races in their career--you don't find a driver of this talent just anywhere.

In terms of podiums, only 33 drivers in history have as many as Daniel, at 32.

So we know Daniel is a great driver.

Now Oscar Piastri might be a great driver too. We don't know yet. But here are some other facts to consider.

Piastri won the 2021 Formula 2 championship, but since 2006 when Lewis won the GP2 championship, do you know how many GP2/F2 champions have won even a single race in F1?

Three.

That's it. Of 15 champs, only three have won a race in F1. Pastor Maldonado won one race, Pierre Gasly, the 2016 champion has won one race, and Charles Leclerc has won five. That's it.

If we extend this to any driver how has finished in the top three of the championship in GP2/F2, how many do we have?

Four.

Add Sergio Perez to the list, who finished second in the 2010 GP2 championship. That is four drivers out of 39 who have finished at least third.

There are no guarantees that an F2 champion has what it takes--the only proof is when they do in the F1 car. Daniel Ricciardo has done that. Oscar Piastri might, but might not.

2021 Prediction

The 2021 F1 season begins tomorrow, with first practice, and so I am announcing my prediction for world champion, as I do each year.

For those that have paid attention in the past, you will know I almost always pick the defending champion, unless there is some reason not to, and this year is no exception. There is absolutely no reason not to pick Lewis Hamilton again.

This is the seventh year in a row that I have picked Lewis, and 8th overall.

Now Red Bull looked pretty good in testing, and hopefully they have the speed to challenge the Mercedes, and that Sergio Perez's arrival at the team pushes Max, but I am not ready to predict Max Verstappen.  And frankly, he has never experienced the pressure of a title fight.

Otherwise, I am very excited about the season. I think all of the driver changes are very interesting.

Daniel Ricciardo arrives at McLaren after they finished third in last year's championship. He should provide a spark to McLaren, and this is his best opportunity since leaving Red Bull.

Hopefully Sebastian Vettel's move to Aston Martin can give him, and that team, a spark, as he looked quite flat last year.

Carlos Sainz's move to Ferrari?  It's his best opportunity too.  People forget he was as good as Max when they were together at Toro Rosso.

Then we have Fernando Alonso's return, re-joining Renault, which is now branded Alpine.  While there is a lot of excitement over this, and I really hope Alonso does well, I don't see it happening.  Here are some things to consider:

Alonso, of course is the 2005 and 2006 world champ, but consider: that was a decade and a half ago. That was before Lewis Hamilton, who is the 3rd most experienced driver in the field, behind Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, was even in Formula One.  Kimi was the only driver in the field.

Alosno's last win was early in 2013, eight years ago, and his last pole in 2012.  Now you all know I cheer for the old guy, but I don't see Alonso being what everyone hopes, and certainly not doing as well as Ricciardo, whose in the prime of his career, did in that seat last year.

If you wonder about the opposite end of the field, Haas, I predict, unfortunately, are going to be terrible.  A team that did poorly last year replaced their experienced drivers--and you all know I am a Grosjean believer. Think: Grosjean has the same number of podiums as Perez--with two inexperienced, and potentially, not very good drivers. Now I hear you all saying, Schumacher!, Schumacher!, Schumacher!... remember, it is not Michael, and, anyone really being honest would say that despite Mick Schumacher winning the F2 championship last year, he was not even the best driver in his own team. I really want Hass to do well, and I hope I am wrong, but it is not going to happen.