MorrisF1

Listened to the race on the radio, but I do plan on watching the highlights on Channel 4. The first half sounded exciting, the second half settled (or boring, perhaps). From a betting perspective, it was quite nice as my three tips came off. Credit also to Mr. M for his 10 tip on Raikkonen for fastest lap (I got on but only at 8), and commiserations for those bets that didn’t come off. Even before the start, there was drama. Ricciardo’s Red Bull stopped on the way to the grid, some sort of electrical fault. In the end, it was mended, but he had to start two laps late and from the pit lane. There was also an odd false rumour that Kvyat wouldn’t be able to start because his fire extinguisher had gone off and regulations dictate every car must have one in working order. Off the line, it was mostly formation flying at the sharp end. Grosjean lost a place to Massa, and further down the field Stroll gained several places with a splendid start. Magnussen and Ericsson (unsu...

What a difference a day makes. I listened to qualifying on the radio and was quite intrigued. Before I get to what happened in qualifying, some things occurred beforehand worth mentioning. In third practice Stroll continued his mission to take on the mantle of Maldonado by crashing once again. This meant the team had to race to get his Williams ready in time (they succeeded) but also that the gearbox needed changing which incurs a five place grid penalty. A more surprising turn of events was that Wehrlein deciding not to race. You may recall he had a substantial crash before the first pre-season test (which meant he couldn’t attend it). His neck is fine in terms of injury, his concern is that six weeks lost from the gym meant he wouldn’t be in shape. Seems a bit odd given he was fine for testing and to practice yesterday. Anyway, this means that Ferrari’s third driver, Antonio Giovinazzi, leaps into the hot seat. It’s nice to see an Italian back racing in F1. In the fir...

Well, F1 is back. But the points spread markets are not, and neither were the practice results on the BBC (had to use the official site to find them). Bit lax. After all the murmuring of Ferrari resurgence, Hamilton was fastest in the first practice session by half a second. Bottas was second, but under a tenth ahead of Ricciardo with Verstappen four-tenths further back. Raikkonen and Vettel were next, then Massa, Grosjean, Hulkenberg and Perez. [Normally I’d stop there but as it’s the first race under new rules, the next 10 were: Sainz, Kvyat, Stroll, Alonso, Ericsson, Ocon, Magnussen, Wehrlein, Palmer and Vandoorne]. In second practice, Hamilton was against fastest by half a second, this time over Vettel. Bottas was a hundredth back, with Raikkonen four-tenths down the road. Ricciardo was close behind, with Verstappen again a surprisingly large margin further back (either here or in P1 the Dutchman lost his best time to an error so the true gap may be significantly sm...

It must be said, testing has proved rather more interesting than it might have done. I should reiterate that the times must be taken with a boulder of salt, but the mood music can be a more reliable guide. Before we get to potential pace, let’s examine the various gremlin infestations. McLaren is the worst. This is down to the Honda engine, which, as well as being under-powered, seems to quite like going on strike. I’ll be checking the Not To Be Classified market for Australia, but I think the odds may be very short. Speaking of strikes, a Honda engineer, Gilles Simon, has left Honda, reportedly because he felt his ideas on the engine were not being implemented. With intra-season development now possible, Honda could recover. But even if they did so and made an engine equal to the fastest, they would have lost so much ground it’s hard to see them in the mix this year. Renault and Force India have both had some problems too. However, Renault sound confident they can...

There are just two tests ahead of the 2017 F1 season. The first has just finished, the second runs from 7-10 March. I would strongly caution against paying attention to headline times. Back in 2009, with Bridgestone tyres and small fuel tanks, there was far less variability. In the modern era, with crumbly Pirellis (more on those later), massive fuel tanks and many engine modes, it’s very easy to sandbag. However, mood music can be somewhat useful, and reliability can be assessed to at least some degree. McLaren had a torrid first two days. Both Alonso and Vandoorne suffered engine failures which severely curtailed their running, though both got more time on the track in the latter half of the test. Even leaving aside the engine issues, there is a concern the car might be a bit slow. Australia, the first race, has historically been one at which the team has punched above its weight. Mercedes, by contrast, had a very good test, laying down more laps than anyone els...