MorrisF1

Finally, a non-sprint weekend… and it’s Monaco. Oh well. In first practice, Leclerc led Hamilton by two-tenths, with Verstappen and Antonelli three-tenths further back. Russell was half a second behind his team mate, then we had Norris, Hulkenberg, Piastri, Bortoleto, and Gasly. Hamilton was quickest in second practice, a tenth ahead of Leclerc. But Verstappen was only half a tenth off, while Russell was two-tenths slower and about a tenth ahead of Antonelli. Hadjar, Piastri, Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, and Bearman completed the top 10. My instinct going into this was to back Leclerc or maybe Hamilton each way (he had odds of 6 pre-weekend). Surprised and a bit disappointed there’s no each way available on Ladbrokes for fastest qualifier. Leclerc’s evens to win the race, Hamilton’s 3, Verstappen’s 8 (Ladbrokes’ odds). Heroically, I backed Leclerc at 2.18 on Betfair to win the race. Normally I’d make a race bet post-qualifying but it’s Monaco. This might well be the last regular F1 be...

While I still dislike sprints immensely this was one of the better ones. It seemed the Mercedes were destined to drive away from the field, but whether it was the squabbling, tyre wear, or something else, they ended up being caught by Norris who had their pace if not better. Antonelli clearly looked quicker than Russell but couldn’t get past and when the Briton introduced the Italian to the side of the track the youngster lost his cool, ranted on the radio, locked up, and lost out to Norris. One suspects their garage will not be entirely harmonious. All three were very close together. A little way further back, the next three were also very tight. Hamilton seemed set for 4th but ended up very narrowly losing out to Piastri and Leclerc (who finished 0.1s behind the Aussie). In the corners the Ferrari’s very good but it lacks straight line grunt. If it rains, this might mean a relative pace advantage for the Prancing Horse, but they’ll also have to survive Ferrari strategy. Verstappen...

Ah, sprint weekends. I wish they’d go away, but at least we will have a decent track this time. Kind of glad I didn’t bet on sprint qualifying as I probably would’ve gone for Piastri each way. Anyway… In SQ1 a red flag emerged after an Alonso crash, although this didn’t stop him beating his team mate, yet again. He’s slated to start 16th, ahead of Perez, Stroll, Gasly, and Bottas. Gasly in particular was screwed, and wasn’t helped when Hamilton deliberately paused in the pit lane to limit the number of drivers who could make a real attempt to put in a competitive time. Lawson and Albon failed to set a time at all as their cars weren’t working. SQ2 was mostly two by two, with the two Audis fastest of those eliminated, Hulk faster, and the two Haas slowest, Ocon being the faster. The meat in the Audi-Haas sandwich was Colapinto. In SQ1 it was even more Noah’s Ark. By just under a tenth Russell leads Antonelli on the front row, and then there’s a couple of tenths back to Norris and Pia...

Well, I was very tired yesterday which did mostly make the sprint easier to watch. Might just be the circuit but it seems the current, updated, regulations have made overtaking much trickier. Not impossible, though, the Mercs had a tussle, and so did Hamilton and Verstappen. But dirty air seemed to cause Leclerc, who looked fast, problems whenever he got too close to Piastri. Rain is possible for the race which might be brought forward, which is one reason I’m posting this sooner rather than later. Update : the race is now starting 3 hours earlier than initially planned, at 6pm UK time. Anyway, in qualifying we had Bortoleto struggle to get out on time and then his rear brakes turn into a barbecue, which unfortuately meant he ended up last. The Aston Martins and Cadillacs also went in Q1, with Lindblad fastest of the men eliminated (the Racing Bull has looked weak this weekend). In Q2, Hulkenberg and Lawson were the fastest men to leave the stage, with Bearman, Sainz, Ocon, and Albo...

F1 is back. Huzzah! Such a shame it’s contaminated with the sprint bullshit. Anyway, ahead of the sprint and qualifying today the idea that struck me was Piastri for the Grand Prix win… but he’s only 7 and I think this is going to see some fierce competition between Ferrari and Mercedes. Leclerc for 7 to win the sprint is worth considering, I just wish it were each way. He does start 4th, but may start tastily. And a first corner incident is eminently possible. But decided not to back anything for the sprint/qualifying. Briefer than usual, rather tired. Morris

Glad I didn’t tip the McLaren bet as it came close but didn’t quite work out. In Q1 we said goodbye to most of the regulars, with the Aston Martins slowest, Cadillac in the middle, and Albon seventeenth. The outlier was Bearman, who made an error in a couple of corners and the field’s tight enough that saw him qualify eighteenth. First weak spot of his 2026 season and he’ll be hoping passing’s easier than last year. In Q2 every single driver was from a different team. Verstappen was struggling with his car and went out as fastest eliminated driver, just ahead of Ocon. Hulkenberg had the pace to escape but an error consigned him to thirteenth. Then came Lawson, Colapinto, and Sainz. Q3 came around and Russell had been looking a step behind Antonelli. And so it proved, with the Italian following his maiden victory with a pole position, Russell alongside him. On row two, McLaren bounced back with Piastri (let’s hope he actually gets to race this time). Leclerc had the pace to make the ...

Been bit off-colour of late, so this and the next post may be briefer than normal. In shock news, Mercedes topped the first practice session, Russell two-hundredths ahead of Antonelli. Norris and Piastri were about a tenth further back and very close to one another. And a tenth further back we had Leclerc and Hamilton. Verstappen was four-tenths down the road, a little ahead of Lawson, Ocon, and Lindblad. In a more surprising result, Piastri topped second practice, less than a tenth ahead of Antonelli with Russell a further tenth back. There was three-tenths back to Norris, then a couple of tenths to Leclerc, who led Hamilton (surprised the Ferrari are seeming behind McLaren, if practice is accurate). Hulkenberg put his Audi seventh quickest, ahead of Albon, Bearman, and Verstappen. Piastri or Norris for pole is tempting. They’re up at 11 each way, boostable to 12. Mercedes have been dominant in qualifying so far, but if McLaren have got their act together, it could be worth a shot...

Two quick points of order before I over the sprint, qualifying, and thoughts on race betting: First off, I’ve been mildly pestilent. That’s no excuse for accidentally calling the last post Australian rather than Chinese but it’s the only one I’ve got. Secondly, I listened to rather than watched coverage of the sprint qualifying. There was a telemetry error for the Mercedes-powered Mercs and McLarens and *that* is the reason behind them appearing to maintain such a good top speed along a straight. While not official confirmed it seems highly likely both Saudi and Bahrain will be cancelled. This would leave us with just Japan, in a fortnight, before the Miami Grand Prix on the 3rd of May. To make things even trickier, that’s meant to be a sprint weekend, so there’ll be over a month of developing upgrades and then one practice session only. Even better, the race after that (Canada) is also a sprint. Anyway, with that out of the way, to the sprint. Sprint Race Antonelli had an awful star...

After the first and only practice of this sprint weekend * sigh * we had the joy of sprint qualifying. Smooth, recently resurfaced track, so takes a little time for tyres to warm up. And track evolution is very high (will affect proper qualifying too). Can still be rough on tyre wear, apparently. SQ1 and SQ2 all have to be on medium tyres, SQ3 has to be soft. Perez did not take part in SQ1 due to his car being wonky. Verstappen hit top speed and started clipping at or before halfway down the long straight between turns 13 and 14, which isn’t great… The Red Bull looked worst of the big four by some way. We said goodbye to Sainz, Albon, Alonso, Stroll, and Bottas, with Perez last of all due to not running. Mercedes, however, could hold around 320-325kph down the whole straight. McLaren are able to do something similar. In SQ2, Norris complained of being blocked by Antonelli which could lead to a penalty for the Italian. Very tight among those just in or out, but the half-dozen out were H...

Well, qualifying was quite the twisty, turny thing. Reliability is looking very iffy, from outright failures (Bortoleto/Verstappen) to problms that could be resolved (Ferrari, although this did require a visit to the garage). Q1 had half the eliminations due to reliability. Neither Stroll nor Sainz were able to leave their garages or set a lap. Verstappen did start a flying lap but when he tried braking for the first corner his car decided this meant slapping on a handbrake, and he went straight into the barriers. This did, however, bring out a red flag and buy time for Mercedes to mend Antonelli’s car. The other eliminated chaps were Alonso, Perez, and Bottas. Q2 saw us wave goodbye to Hulkenberg (a tiny margin behind Bortoleto, who reached Q3 but whose car failed him at the end of Q2 meaning he couldn’t set a time), as well as Bearman, Ocon, Gasly, Albon, and Colapinto. Mildly surprised, post-testing, that the Haas and Alpine look behind Racing Bulls and Audi. Ferrari got through b...

This is up a day earlier than standard due to Australia’s irksome start time (really hope I get up in time for the 4am race start as that could be quite something). Notes A few quick notes I made after testing I missed from the previous post: Williams being a bit on the chunky side could make them sluggish in slow corners, (might be improved since testing, though). McLaren at the final test didn’t have the latest Mercedes engine so were slightly underpowered. Mercedes may be slightly better on cooling than other teams. Likely handy for hot races but could reverse their usually good performance in Las Vegas’ colder conditions. On the engine question, a change to the compression ratio measurement will take effect from 1 June. We will see if this has a real impact. Big Questions Will it be as hard to follow and overtake as widely anticipated? Will the season end up being an engine formula with a huge advantage for Mercedes (or someone else)? Will better energy harvesting/deployment mean...

Hey, kids. To avoid cramming all of this in a pre-qualifying spiel for Australia, here’s a scattergun of my thoughts post-testing, which is subject to dramatic and immediate change once the sandbags are dropped for the first race of the season. Engine Reference Info Mercedes: Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, and Alpine Ferrari: Ferrari, Haas, and Cadillac Red Bull-Ford: Red Bull and Racing Bulls Honda: Aston Martin Audi: Audi Fuel I think it very likely this will get sorted, but last I heard (a few days ago), not every team had their fuel ready. This matters because failure to do so means using a stopgap fuel which is dramatically inferior (this will affect lap time if it happens). Shell (Ferrari, Haas, Cadillac), BP (Audi), and Red Bull Ford all have their affairs in order. I’d be very surprised if the others don’t, but it’s being cut rather fine. Future Changes There’s chatter of moving to 12 sprints in the future due to ‘fan demand’. This is obvious nonsense and is probably claimed...

Hello, everyone. Welcome to a special, one-off Undercutters episode. No sound this time (just as well, I’ve excitingly developed another, hopefully minor, health problem that would’ve made recording it slightly unpleasant) but I did want to look back at my predictions and see just how wrong I got things. Driver Pairings Pre-season I predicted which of each driver pairing would end up the best in their particular team. My predictions were: Gasly to beat Doohan Alonso to beat Stroll Norris to beat Piastri Leclerc to beat Hamilton Russell to beat Antonelli Verstappen to beat Lawson Tsunoda to beat Hadjar Sainz to beat Albon Bearman to beat Ocon Hulkenberg to beat Bortoleto Whether to count Verstappen or Tsunoda as wins (they were ahead at the time of the Lawson-Tsunoda switch) is debatable, but I’m inclined not to. As for the other predictions, I got Sainz wrong. He took longer than I expected to get up to speed with Williams, although once he did then he did score more than Albon. Oth...

Well, now I wish I’d tipped Russell to top FP3. Ending the season with a couple of good predictions I didn’t tip is a bit irksome. What isn’t irksome is how incredibly close qualifying was, which led to a pretty good grid and the prospect of an intriguing final race, both in itself and for the title. Q1 said goodbye to some big names, with Hamilton, Albon, Hulkenberg, Gasly, and Colapinto going out. Both Hamilton and Hulkenberg’s team mates made it through to Q3 and the German looked fast enough to escapebut didn’t quite hook things up. In Q2 Bearman, Sainz, Lawson, Antonelli, and Stroll exited the stage. Bearman and Antonelli were surprises, as the Briton has looked very good lately (including this weekend) and Antonelli is also on a run of good results. Every driver out in Q2 had a time of 1:23:0. And so to Q3 which I felt had become a probable McLaren duel. Not for the first time this season, I was wrong. Verstappen put in two great laps for pole, and didn’t need the tow he had ...

We had some news between Qatar and now that Tsunoda will be out next year, with Lawson joined by Lindblad at Racing Bulls and Hadjar moving up/down to Red Bull in 2026. Given the second seat has chewed up plenty of good drivers it’s a shame, but not unexpected, to see Tsunoda tossed overboard like this. Quick note: there are three pre-season tests for 2026, the first being in late January, making the off-season unusually short this year. And so the title decider, which, thanks to a combination of disqualifications and sub-optimal strategy still sees Verstappen in with a chance of the title. Norris remains favourite, and Piastri lags them both but could theoretically still win. Gosh. In FP1 Piastri was not running as his car was (long-planned move) taken by Patricio O’Ward, and we had many similar changes in other teams. Norris was fastest, eight-thousandths ahead of Verstappen and 16-thousandths ahead of Leclerc. A tenth back was Antonelli, then Hulkenberg, Russell, Bortoleto, Bearm...

And so, with the pretend race and qualifying done, it will soon be time for the penultimate Grand Prix of the year. Norris could sew things up, if he finishes where he starts. In Q1 it was another torrid time for Hamilton.It was also a return to poor form for Tsunoda, who did extremely well in sprint qualifying. The five out were Tsunoda, Ocon, Hamilton, Stroll, and Colapinto. To be fair to Hamilton, the car looked like a dog in Leclerc’s hands too (the Monegasque had a high speed spin but was luckily nowhere near the barriers). Ferrari to have 1 or 2 not classified is a market I’ll be checking. Q2 said goodbye to Hulkenberg, Lawson, Bearman, Bortoleto, and Albon. Once again, Sainz’s fantastic run of form continues, he was four-tenths faster than Albon in this session and reached Q3. Hulkenberg was one-hundredth slower than Leclerc, which is a bit unlucky. At the sharp end it was looking like a McLaren duel, and so it proved. Piastri was the quicker and claimed pole, again, a tenth ...

Incidentally, there’s a 25 lap maximum for stints in Qatar, which means at least two stops due to the 57 laps in the Grand Prix. The 19 lap sprint will be unaffected. This may also affect whether an early (lap 6 or earlier) safety car leads to pit stops or not. The reason is fears over the track chewing up tyres so much they disintegrate. In solitary practice the McLarens were looking good, as was Alonso. Verstappen’s 6th wasn’t great but I was confident he’d bounce back, and seriously considered tipping Piastri (his odds were 7, boosted to 7.5) but ended up not doing so. Come sprint qualifying, more woe for Hamilton. He was out in SQ1, ahead only of the Alpines. Also out were Lawson and Stroll, whose team mate would reach SQ3 (as would Hamilton’s). SQ2 saw the unexpected departure of Hulkenberg as both Saubers formed the meat in a Haas sandwich (Bearman fastest of them). The German had looked very good but failed to hook up a final lap. Out in 11th was Hadjar, due to a lap being de...

Well, qualifying was less than splendid as I managed to combine oversleeping with not being there to see the chap I thought might get pole go out in Q1. But I did catch Q2 and Q3 live, at least. Las Vegas qualifying also saw the rarest of things, wet tyres actually being used (for Q1 and Q2, it was intermediates for Q3). In Q1 (having caught up), we said goodbye to Albon, Antonelli (who messed up his final lap), Bortoleto, Tsunoda, and Hamilton, who was last and always seemed to be struggling. Kind of shocking to lose both a Mercedes and a Ferrari in Q1 just on pace, but it was full wets and clearly the cars didn’t like it. If the race is dry, there may still be hope for them. Q2 was still wets, except for Stroll who was looking very good then put on inters and discovered it was about 10 minutes too early. Hulkenberg was the fastest man eliminated, right ahead of Stroll. Ocon and Bearman were both out, as was Colapinto, who did nicely to save himself form a trip to the barriers when...

Due to the hellishly early 4am (UK) start times this weekend, the pre-qualifying and pre-race rambles are both going to be early. First practice had the unexpected top three of Leclerc, Albon, and Tsunoda, who was one place and less than half a tenth ahead of Verstappen. Sainz, Norris, and Hadjar followed, with Piastri, Russell, and Antonelli bringing up the rear of the top 10. While intriguing I suspect these times may be less than representative. Second practice was back to Brazil, with Norris quickest, but under a tenth ahead of Antonelli. Leclerc stayed fast in third, one place ahead of Hulkenberg. Right behind the Hulk were the racing Bulls pair of Hadjar and Lawson, with Russell a little further back. Albon, Verstappen, and Hamilton finished off the upper half of the time sheet. Piastri was 14th. I was a bit surprised Antonelli was out at 9, 9.5 boosted, so I’ve backed him each way for qualifying. He was second quickest and very close behind Norris in FP2 and while the Mercede...

I tend not to comment, good or bad, on bet results but a Mercedes being top 2 but not the guy who finishes ahead 85% of the time and whom I’d backed was pretty galling. Ah, well. I had a lot of flukey results in previous seasons so 50/50s going against me this year is just the way it goes…and it was a crazy qualifying session. Quick sprint rundown: Piastri out. He spun and was immediately followed by Hulkenberg and Colapinto so it looked like bad luck rather than a serious error. With Norris winning this was another step backwards for the Aussie. Verstappen was 4th, and Gasly got the last point in 8th. Qualifying saw Red Bull make serious setup changes to try and make up for relatively weak pace in the sprint. This had the opposite effect, with Verstappen out in Q1 in 16th. He was ahead of Ocon (as he had been at the line in Brazil last year), then came Colapinto, Tsunoda, and Bortoleto, who was unable to set a time due to his car not being fixed in time. Rough home race for the Brazil...