aiyaaz

Earned himself a 3 place grid penalty and 2 license points for his little "experiment"...

Spoke to the owner of G&A Motorsport recently and he knows for definite, as he was told by this kid's dad, that this dad put R1.5m into a year of karting for his kid. The kid is one of the top racers for sure, and had 4 latest spec kart chassis' running at the time and they change out their tyres probably at least a few times per week if not a lot more than that. Pretty sure they rebuild their engines a lot as well given their budget. Current kart tyres cost around R3600 per set with full engine rebuilds (top and bottom) somewhere around R16k - R18k I believe. I've always wondered why there are always a bunch of engines on the bench at the kart store workshop at Killarney... There are some seriously wealthy folks out there!

Great race! I remember intentionally skipping watching the Spain GP due to the likelihood of it being a procession, but glad I didn't make that same mistake again. Merc under real pressure this season and unlike in their 2017 and 2018 battle with Ferrari, I don't think RBR with Max and Perez are going to drop the ball. RBR 1-2 is just around the corner and what a statement that will be. Still a long way to go of course, on and off track. Seems like things have gone a bit quiet regarding some teams trying to bend the rules. Pirelli/FIA also keeping the teams under pressure to remain within specs. What I've been wondering though is, say the regulations didn't change as much (or at all) with regards to the floor and diffuser, would RBR have been able to match Merc just by having a better package to start with anyway? Surely with their better understanding of their car and improved Honda engine, they'd have possibly been a better match for the Merc this season anyway?

RBR definitely missed out. They couldn't have asked more of Max really. Sure there was the confusion around the pit stop, being too early apparently, but that is not where the race was lost. It was their overall strategy. Max did everything he needed and more. On the other side, the same could probably said of Lewis. His pace allowed for the opting to the two stop and they smartly kept an extra set of new mediums in case they played that strategy. I like both of them, but on this occasion would have preferred seeing Max take W as it keeps the WDC battle on edge. Still a long season though and ample time for Max to catch up. Perez just needs to get his car on at least P4 in qualy. He should have the measure of Bottas and outdo him just with his tyre whispering. I still place RBR as my favourite for the constructors, firmly in the hope that Perez will come good and start beating Bottas. 19 to go of this great season :-)

I LOVED that he said that in the post race drivers conference! We just need MCL to get closer to RBR in terms of car performance and we'll see Lando taking it to Max proper. He won't be intimidated by Max like some other drivers possibly are.

Norris deservedly driver of the day, what a drive! He had 3s on Danny Ric after the first lap he let him through. LeClerc couldn't touch him, even though they had the supposed tyre life advantage later in the race being on the mediums. And he defended really well against Hamilton before getting passed, keeping in mind that Lewis had a big car/tyre advantage at that stage of the race. I didn't think Lando would be this much faster than Danny and in fact backed Danny to be on top of this battle even early on, but am glad to be wrong as it's lekker to see his talent coming to the fore. It's still early days and Danny needs to get to grips with the car, but Lando is also improving all the time, so I'm not sure Danny will come out on top of this one. Also, Lando has a lekker competitive and decisive mindset if you listen to his onboard radios and interviews.

So Max is out qualified for the first time since Danny Ric did so. Hopefully Perez can jump Hamilton on the start straight with the soft tyres and do a Perez style tyre whisper job, assuming no rain at the start of course. Wouldn't mind a lucky safety car to play into Checo's hands, really want an unexpected winner for a change.

Great idea, but might be better to paint it on a Williams, as he'll then at least be able to see it...

Lewis was one more infringement away from a black/white flag, with the next thereafter leading to 5s penalty. The stewards confused the drivers there today though. But yeah, great start to the season! Can't wait for Checo to start whipping Bottas and punishing Merc for driver choices and ultimately lead to them suffering in the WCC fight.

Maybe a little patience was needed from Max, as the Red Bull with Max at the wheel had the pace today, so he'd surely have taken Lewis with DRS. Lewis did a fantastic job, as good as he could have given with an assumed car deficit. Checo did well after the pit lane start. I hope Checo starts whipping Bottas so that RBR can pull ahead in the WCC.

Funny to see some of the hardcore Merc fans on other forums claiming the sand bags are still on for Merc and that they've been asked to slow their cars for the spectacle. I think RBR just have a comparable, if not slightly better performing car this year and the lap Max put together was mm perfect. The Mercs did look the best on the mediums though, so this should be one hell of an interesting battle tomorrow! ????

ABSOLUTELY! Fair to say this puts the sand bag theories to rest...? RBR definitely have a great car this year and with Max at the wheel, he's surely got to be slightly ahead of Lewis as the favourite. Yes, it's early in the 23 race season, but RBR starting with a great car and given their season development record, they must surely fancy their chances. I wish Perez took a set of softs in his last crack though. Nevertheless, I reckon his best strategy now is to start on the hard tyres...

Yip, the self proclaimed best on the grid has it all to do in that Alpine. What was great to see though was the long run race sim runs, with Max and Lewis being identical on pace. Now, nobody can be sure of the run plans, but if FP2 was a close reflection, we are in for one hell of a season. Let's hope it plays out like that. The data analysis puts Lewis ahead by just over a tenth, theoretically, but Lewis would need to put all those sectors together in a single lap though. What was also great to see is that Perez was about just over 2 tenths away from Max in race sim and given his tyre whispering ability, RBR definitely have a serious chance this year. Also, Bottas looks like he is having trouble with tyres...no surprise.

FP2 timesheet 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.847 2 Lando Norris McLaren 0.095s 3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 0.235s 4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 0.280s 5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 0.371s 6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 0.383s 7 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 0.447s 8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 0.546s 9 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 0.636s 10 Sergio Perez Red Bull 0.656s 11 Esteban Ocon Alpine 0.754s 12 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.765s 13 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing 0.893s 14 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 0.922s 15 Fernando Alonso Alpine 0.923s 16 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing 1.015s 17 George Russell Williams 1.484s 18 Mick Schumacher Haas 2.450s 19 Nicholas Latifi Williams 2.553s 20 Nikita Mazepin Haas 2.602s

So just as a nice long weekend approaches, both my laaities decide to get sick, meaning me being homebound for literally the entire weekend...I had no other choice but to stay home, binge and complete season 3! ???? Once again, another brilliant season. Oh and to those that haven't watched it and do not want any spoilers, try and avoid F1 sites as they're reporting the events from episodes like "news".

Not lekker to watch them drive around in a mini sandstorm now in session 2! Windy there today in Bahrain with a lot of sand on the track. Renault engine cover is humungous as previously stated, but earlier in the day with the sun shining, their livery looks lekker. Also, the AM looked gorgeous in the session 1 sun.

While I tend to agree on them probably not having a great a car for 2021, it can't get worse than 2020, right? I'm thinking that they'll be free of the shackles imposed on them towards the latter part of 2019 by the FIA and with a new PU, hopefully they'll be more competitive. Surely they wouldn't agree to a PU development freeze so easily if they didn't have something good up their sleeve...?

"Shelby American" was great, as was "The 24 Hour War", both on Netflix.

I didn't watch the whole launch, but that was a nice touch from MCL with the video stream of Danny's little nephew and his parents. Also, that video they sent Ferrari to take good care of Sainz was pretty cool. Such a lekker TEAM vibe they have over there. It's going to be a big challenge for them especially having to integrate a new PU, albeit a better one, it still poses many unknowns and they've got less time to test this year. But even with those challenges, I've also got a good feeling about their chances for this year and really hope they're able to push Merc and RBR harder and maybe steal a result over them here and there.

Very interesting part of the Webber book indeed! That was really a good read and also gives Webber's insider perspective of how things at Red Bull work. Imagine you as a driver winning a race but the garage looks all morbid afterwards because the wrong driver won!

There any release date on season 3? A lot to cover indeed...Valtteri version who knows what, Albon, Tracing Point, Cyril (not Ramaphosa), Vettel, Gasly, Haas, Russell, Hamilton... Not sure they'll enough episodes to cover all the drama and baggage!

Yeah I also reckon it must have been something along those lines, as I'm sure LH would have wanted a more longer term deal at a nice salary to counter the possible driver salary cap in the coming years. But assuming Merc stay in F1 for a good few years still, they sit in a nice position now with LH, Bottas and Russell available from 2022 onwards, so they can take their pick. I was reading an article yesterday where it mentioned that Toto still has a good relationship with the Verstappens...now imagine from 2023, a pairing of Verstappen and Russell!

https://www.planetf1.com/news/finally-hamilton-and-mercedes-announce-new-deal/

This livery definitely looks lekker. But when I look at this picture, all I can think is, 2022 COME ALREADY PLEASE! Need the new regulation changes, and hopefully the move to ground effect aero, amongst other changes, will work out as hoped.

Max clear #1 on a longer term deal, with #2 Perez coming in on a one year deal and if he performs well, will probably get renewed...RBR pretty much hoping Perez will be their "Bottas". I read somewhere that Helmut was even thinking about putting Tsunoda alongside Max, but went against that because a WCC battle is on the cards. Tsunoda no doubt has talent based on junior formulae, but I hope they don't put too much pressure on him to be the next Max.