MorrisF1

It remains a finely balanced philosophical debate as to whether it’s better to lose a bet to misjudgement or plain bad luck. Today, I was unlucky. The safety car only emerged once, and only because of the second Haas pit stop failure (itself a freak occurrence), so the no safety car bet should’ve come off. (That would’ve kept the massive gap between the top few and Ricciardo, making the Raikkonen fastest lap bet likelier to come off). However, the race was entertaining, and I managed to wake up in time for it. And betting is inherently risky, with luck sometimes favouring stupid bets and damning good ones. Off the line, it was mostly formation flying, with the unusual exception of Verstappen slipping back. He appeared to simply forget about the Haas, and Magnussen got him at the first corner. Raikkonen had a good look at Hamilton but couldn’t quite pass the Briton. From there, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel began to inexorably pull out a lead on Magnussen et al., with ...

After qualifying, I must admit I’m rather relieved that my decision not to back Verstappen for pole didn’t end up looking rather daft. Things were far more competitive at the sharp end from all three teams (ok, Hamilton’s ultimate lap wiped them out, but still). On the other hand, I am looking somewhat silly for not tipping Raikkonen to be top 3 in practice, so the karmic balance is maintained. As it turned out, third practice was wet and qualifying was dry. I thought that meant Red Bull would be a distant third. But that shows what I know. In the first part of qualifying it was pretty much business as usual. Toro Rosso, now powered by Honda, were top and bottom of the leaving group, Hartley 16 th and Gasly 20 th . Between them were both Saubers (Ericsson outperforming highly rated débutante Leclerc) and Sirotkin just 19 th . The midfield was looking intensely competitive, with Haas, Renault and McLaren appearing to be in close contention. As things panned out, both R...

And so, the new season is about to properly kick off imminently. With the annoyingly early Australian Grand Prix. I think qualifying starts at 6am UK time, with the race now at the stupid ten minute past the hour mark of 6.10am. Also, I think the clocks go forward this weekend. In other stupid news, the new F1 theme tune was revealed this week. Reaction has been very mixed. Personally, I think it’s alright (certain beats remind me of the Metal Gear Solid 2 theme). You can hear it for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTETwgQnbsQ Not as good as The Chain, of course. But that’s not the stupid part. The stupid part is the ‘action lap’, an idea to have no commentary at all for one lap whilst the theme tune plays. Not confirmed but I’ve heard it might feature a compilation of action replays of dramatic doings to that point in the race. It’s a dumb idea. You can never tell when a great overtake, sudden rain, pit stop woe, or enormous crash will happen. Speaking...

The first test was notable for bad weather (which is not one of Spain’s usual traits). Cooler temperatures reduced early running and then a whole day was lost to the Beast from the East. Correspondingly, teams ran a lot more on a wet and cool final day than they otherwise might have, but this did at least give them a chance to play with full wets and inters (slicks coming on later). What did we learn from the first test? Not much. But, engine reliability was generally good and breakdowns relatively few. Vettel suggested Mercedes were still fastest but that it would be very close between them. The second test had better weather and more running from everyone. Red flags did appear, but this is to be expected. It might alarm McLaren fans that they had relatively many breakdowns. Toro Rosso did likewise, but this is testing so it’s not surprising. Did we learn much? No. Pace is very very hard to judge by testing times (for example, Mercedes didn’t take any hypersofts at all). I...