The Evolution Of F1 Circuits, by Leasing Options

As we roll on towards the latter stages of the Formula 1 calendar, Leasing Options thought it'd take a moment to delve into the history of some of the circuits on the calendar that have been raced on for decades to see how much they've changed since they were built.

New Motorsport Week article: Virtual Reality - why the Australian GP's Virtual Safety Car was fair enough

Photo: Octane Photography

F1 rumpuses can often blindside you. The Australian Grand Prix last weekend seemed straightforward enough. Albeit was tilted by a Virtual Safety Car appearance letting the man in a net third place vault to the win by losing less time in his pitstop as a consequence.

But some thought it not so straightforward. There was grumbling about the Virtual Safety Car's impact. That it was the latest example of F1 being farcical.

In my latest for Motorsport Week I outline however why it was, mostly, fair enough. Or at least no great surprise.

You can have a read of my thinking here: https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/17505

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Mercedes' Party Mode Could Spoil The 2018 F1 Party

Is Mercedes' mystical 'party mode' a myth? Well, for Formula 1's sake, let's hope so. However, full marks to Mercedes for scaring the living day lights out of the competition in qualifying, although that lap has to be attributed more to Lewis Hamilton's talent than the Mercedes package. If the 'party mode' is for real then it will end up ruining the 2018 party for all of us.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal pick the best moments from the 2018 Australian Grand Prix, wonder why Formula 1 didn't test when the teams did and why Max Verstappen's assessment of the race isn't accurate. Also, we have a special guest on our show - tune in!

(Season 2018, Episode 9)

Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes and audioBoom for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Australian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Death of a party

Photo: Octane Photography

You may be aware that I write race reviews of every F1 Grand Prix for motoring website Motor Verso. This year we have a different format for them. They will all be collated in a single 2018 F1 summary article, which we'll add to race by race, to give us a grand review of the season come the year's end!

The first of these was now been published. It features my take on the 2018 pre-season expectations and further down my thoughts on yesterday's Australian GP, and Sebastian Vettel's surprise leapfrogging of Lewis Hamilton. Virtual Safety Car and all.

Here's the link: https://www.motorverso.com/2018-f1-summary/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Australian GP Report - Who's smiling now?

For all that much is new in contemporary F1, the pecking order in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne's Albert Park looked terribly familiar. The grand reveal of the first qualifying session confirmed the efficacy of the pre-season testing grapevine. We had a tight midfield with Haas heading it. Ferrari and Red Bull close to each other. Mercedes well clear. There was a hiccup - Valtteri Bottas binned it in qualifying and started 15th. Yet Lewis Hamilton stunned all with his final effort and was nine tenths clear on pole.

Sebastian Vettel took a surprise Australian Grand Prix
win, and smiles were reversed
Photo: Octane Photography

There was much talk of a special Mercedes 'party mode' for the last of quali, denied by all in the silver camp. And when jibed by his rival Sebastian Vettel on the subject Lewis retorted that his late boost instead was the desire to "wipe the smile off your face".

"I think what goes around comes around," Seb rejoined. "He's free to have a party tonight and then hopefully Kimi [Raikkonen] and myself will have a party tomorrow."

It seems he's as good a mystic as racing driver.

Come the race things initially were in a similar vein to qualifying however. Lewis didn't run away from the Ferrari pair next up but looked undeniably comfortable. As for Vettel, he wasn't even the fastest Ferrari as Kimi set the Scuderia pace. In that familiar way it was all rather follow my leader too.

Australian GP Betting Preview - Early birds

You know what they say about the early bird. It applies to F1 betting. As this point before the season actually starts is unique; only now do none of us really know who among the season's cars and drivers is actually quick and not quick when it matters. And this gives opportunities.

There are opportunities for the F1
gambler prior to the first race
Photo: Octane Photography

The pre-season testing consensus was that the 'big three' of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are close, more so than we've got used to. But equally there was a sense from testing that Merc remains out front. Plus in this hybrid era there's been little money to be made from backing anyone else - four championship doubles from four; 63 race wins from 79...

Lewis Hamilton therefore is the unimaginative bet for 2018 but also likely the safest one, and you can near enough double your money on a Hamilton title by backing him at 5/6.

Nevertheless if Red Bull is indeed starting a season strongly for once then the 8/1 available for Max Verstappen to win this year's championship looks pretty good medium range value.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - F1 Under Pressure From IndyCar, MotoGP & Formula E

The classic racing in IndyCar, MotoGP and Formula E in the last week has ensured a dream start to the Motorsport season of 2018. Will Formula 1 enthral us at the season-opening 2018 Australian Grand Prix with a multi-driver battle for victory, or will we be subjected to another race (or season!) of dominance from Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton? Whatever it may be, the pressure is on Formula 1 to match up to the level of excitement and racing action the other series are able to offer.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal wonder if the drivers of the future will be expected to perform more duties than just racing. And of course, the marketers in them discuss Formula 1's first-ever global media campaign with keen interest. There's a lot more than Formula 1 could do within their 'Engineering Insanity' video.

After coining the term 'Return on Penalties' last week, this week, they discuss the 'Battle of the Renaults' and the new driver rivalries it could throw up. And there's a new feature that we plan to introduce - 'What Toto Said This Week!'

Finally, predictions for the first race of the season are the hardest, but they give it their best shot. Let's hope the season isn't as boring as their predictions are though. Tune in!

(Season 2018, Episode 8)

Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes and audioBoom for your weekly dose of Formula humour

Melbourne Preview: Fount of knowledge

"Nobody knows anything". So goes William Goldman's celebrated line on Hollywood.

There is always tension around the opening round
Photo: Octane Photography

And although F1 has in recent times has given a good impression of one whose results can be called well in advance, it applies to that too. No matter what else happens the first season's gathering, and particularly the first qualifying session, always will have the paddock on tenterhooks.

As it is a confirmation. Talk is replaced by numbers on a stopwatch which are hard to deny. After however many weeks and months of work, clues and no little speculation, this impending season-opening weekend around Melbourne's Albert Park is the latest F1 equivalent of getting your exam results. And despite the attempts to give an impression otherwise, no one really knows what will happen.

As is expected between seasons with no great regulation shift pre-season testing just passed in Barcelona suggested no grand reshuffle in the competitive order since 2017. Yet it offered points of intrigue, not least the prospect of a tighter battle between the 'big three' teams.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Key Questions Ahead Of The 2018 F1 Season

Yes, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix is less than a fortnight away. In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, we ask some key questions that will be answered through the 2018 Formula 1 Season.

Apart from the usual questions around Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, we ask if Kimi Raikkonen knows the cost of a litre of vodka. Where will McLaren be in 2018? Hopefully not at the Honda HQs in Japan! Btw, we totally believe that for McLaren to be a force to reckon with in Formula 1, they should build their own engines.

Also, we wonder if the art of rolling restarts will be lost to drivers and Formula 1 and if Renault is explaining their drivers and customer teams the 'returns on penalty' equation as they prepare to use four power units this season. Tune in!

PS: Like McLaren, we are facing some pre-season testing issues with our new recording system. We promise to be back to perfect sound (ceramic microphones, of course) by next week's episode!

(Season 2018, Episode 6)

Subscribe to the Inside Line F1 Podcast on iTunes and audioBoom for your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour

Mithila and Kunal from Inside Line F1 Podcast review the Australian Grand Prix on Firstpost

You'll be aware that on Talking about F1 we share the excellent Inside Line F1 Podcasts every week. Mithila and Kunal from the show, not content with that, have debuted videos on Firstpost, a leading news website in India, reviewing latest F1 goings-on.

You can watch the post-Australian GP episode of Firstpost Pole Position below:

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Dear F1, Time To Make Our Races Longer

We've a split vote! The 2017 Australian Grand Prix entertained us, while it failed to entertain others. However, this was the shortest Formula 1 race in Australia, is it time for Formula 1 and the FIA to increase the total race distance? All this while the powers are wondering if there should be two races every weekend after all.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal dissect the opening race of the season. They pick the funniest moments, which includes Rosberg's tweets and Verstappen's radio messages. Btw, do you know which Formula 1 driver is nicknamed 'Chilli'?

They also talk about Portugal's interest in hosting a non-championship race for Formula 1, the McLaren-Honda-Alonso saga (obviously), thank Pirelli for getting their Formula 1 tyre right and about the Vettel-Webber bromance on the podium in Melbourne. Tune in!

For your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour, remember to subscribe to us on iTunes and audioBoom.

(Season 2017, Episode 12)

Australian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - The shock of the new

Photo: Octane Photography

So the new F1 is different after all. For a lot of the Australian Grand Prix weekend things looked rather like a film we'd seen before, up to Lewis Hamilton blasting off the line to lead early.

But then things changed, as Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari simply faced them down and won. Their pre-season hype was justified after all. And thus for the first time in a long time something other than a Merc is leading the F1 world championship. For the first time in about as long Mercedes was defeated in a race on pure pace rather than peculiarity. For the first time in a long time we have a multi-team fight for the world title. For now anyway.

I give my take on all of the Melbourne goings on in my first Motor Verso race review of the new campaign. You can read it here: http://www.motorverso.com/australia-gp-2017-review-shock-new/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Australian GP Report - Red Revival

"Quite mad in a positive way," was how Sebastian Vettel described it afterwards. It was that. One of those races in which you have to rub your eyes so to be sure that you know what's going on. As it's such a shift from what you were used to.

Against what we'd got used to, Vettel and Ferrari prevailed
over Hamilton and Mercedes
Photo: Octane Photography

Vettel won the Australian Grand Prix for Ferrari, ahead of the usually-imperious Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. And there was no unreliability, weather intervention, weird tyre behaviour or anything else unusual. He was plain quicker than his haughty Mercedes foe.

The placid new Merc recruit Valtteri Bottas summed it up. "The red guys were a bit too quick". Well one of them was anyway.

Plenty have noted that it's the first time since the start of the hybrid era that anything other than a Mercedes has led an F1 world championship. Impressive enough, yet the break from the norm is greater than that. Aside from the grand outlier of Singapore in 2015, and Malaysia earlier that year that owed more to tyres, you really have to dig back to find the last time Merc was beaten genuinely on pace like this. Perhaps you'd have to go before the start of its imperious march from the get-go of 2014. This new F1 is different after all.

Melbourne Qualifying - Plus ca change...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Much is different about F1 in 2017; judging by testing it was supposed to look different at the sharp end on-track too. But things die hard in F1. The identity of the guy on pole for the Melbourne season-opener is of the very familiar sort.

Lewis Hamilton remained on top
Photo: Octane Photography

Lewis Hamilton - the perennial, and the guy who got pole position in the final four rounds of last campaign too - is on top still. Perhaps things are closer this year. Time certainly will tell on that one. But virtually all weekend around Albert Park Lewis has been a step ahead. And was when it mattered, as he took the top slot for tomorrow's grid with balmy comfort, by over a quarter of a second.

And he of course was buoyant. "It's been a fantastic weekend so far," Lewis said afterwards.

"I'm just incredibly proud of my team. This rule change has been huge and such a massive challenge for everyone. The guys have just worked so hard to make this car what it is today."

2017 F1 Betting Preview - Flutter on Ferrari?

A new F1 season, and particularly one with a whole new lot of technical regulations, comes with plenty of potential for big change to what we've grown used to. So with it is there betting value for those minded to have a flutter? Quite possibly.

Is Ferrari where the betting value is?
Photo: Octane Photography

Many sober analyses from the pre-season testing just passed have the Ferrari all of a sudden ahead of everyone. OK, given false dawns are not unheard of down Maranello way we remain cautious, but even so 4/1 for Sebastian Vettel to take the drivers' world championship this year looks very tempting. As does his 7/2 available to win the race in Australia.

And what of the other Ferrari? There wasn't much to tell between Seb and Kimi Raikkonen last season especially as Kimi got his car handling to his liking in the latter part of that campaign. Plus if this year's Ferrari is indeed fine-handling it should play to his strengths. It is more of a long shot, but you can get the Finn at 10/1 to win the title and 8/1 to win in Australia, both of what look rather generous. As especially does that you can get 11/10 on Kimi to win more than 1.5 races this year.

In recent years though Ferrari has tended to be furthest off the Merc pace in qualifying, due to the latter being able to turn its engines up therein, so Seb's odds to take pole in Melbourne (10/3) may be less tempting. But what therein of new Mercedes charge Valtteri Bottas? A man whose quali skills are thought particularly strong? You'll get 21/5 for him to get the pole in Australia.

Lewis Hamilton's odds, given his usually rightful status as firm favourite, haven't always been the place to look in recent years to make a quick buck. Still the new uncertainty mentioned at the outset may conversely make it worthwhile this time - betting on Lewis to win the title (at 6/5), win the Melbourne race (5/4) and even to bag Melbourne pole (6/5) will get you double your stake back if they come in. The last one of the three looks the best value of them.

Melbourne races are known for frequent safety car periods, and indeed eight of the last 10 races there have featured at least one. And 5/4 for one safety car appearance this time, and 22/5 for two, appear tempting. The frequency of safety cars, as well as the reports of difficulty of overtaking, may also make it worth going for a long shot driver to finish in the top six.

And if you fancy a frivolous extreme long shot punt then why not go for the 40/1 available on Fernando Alonso to win a race this year. Yes, I know. But consider that a single, albeit maybe unlikely, change of Honda suddenly getting its engine right (yes, I know) will do rather a lot to make it a probability, and it might just be worth your while.

All odds quoted in this article were accurate on the Oddschecker website at 2200 GMT on Tuesday 21 March 2017.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Will Bottas Make Us Miss Rosberg?

As we excitedly countdown to the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, we wonder if we'll be treated to an epic Formula 1 race or a Sunday morning snooze fest?

We're hoping for that a single team (read: Mercedes) doesn't dominate, but even if they do, will Valtteri Bottas be able to challenge Lewis Hamilton? Or will he make us miss Nico Rosberg? The pressure is on the Finn given that the Mercedes bosses have given him four races to prove himself. But will the fans be as patient?

And there's more to look forward to in Australia: is Ferrari vs. Mercedes possible? Will Red Bull Racing's RB13 look different than the one that appeared in pre-season testing? A pink Force India, an after effect of Holi? The rookies: Esteban Ocon and even Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo's new party trick, Mercedes' finger hole clutch paddle and finally, a 'Fittest Driver of the Day' award?

For your weekly dose of Formula 1 humour, remember to subscribe to us on iTunes and audioBoom.

Tune in!

(Season 2017, Episode 11)

Melbourne Preview: The confirmation

The opening race weekend of an F1 season is exciting. Really. As no matter what else is happening in the formula the first gathering, and particularly its qualifying session, will pretty much every time have most in the paddock and many beyond on tenterhooks.

The opening race gathering of the season will
answer many questions
Photo: Octane Photography

As it is a confirmation. After however many weeks and months of work, clues and no little speculation, this impending season-opening weekend in Melbourne will be the latest F1 equivalent of at last getting your exam results.

To borrow from Clive James, who himself was harnessing the celebrated Hollywood-ism of William Goldman, "at the start of the season, nobody knows anything". Granted, even with pre-season testing's myriad mysteries - and even then that no one will have stood still between the end of testing and this first gathering - teams love to create the impression that they know what's going on. That they have incredibly accurate models and intelligence to channel pre-season into a competitive order. And from the various analyses that spring up as well as the more general mood music, the rest of us get a broad sense of it too before it's all done in anger.

But it is not until the actual hour of qualifying that it is nailed down. The chat fizzles away. The stopwatch suddenly will be very hard to deny.

Australian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Not so familiar

Here is my first Motor Verso race review of 2016, for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix of last weekend.

Photo: Octane Photography

And there in the nick of time F1 delivered a thriller. Suddenly the talk of crazy qualifying systems, of the sport in crisis, seemed far far away. Suddenly there is a sense of glad confident morning around. Not least among the nevertheless familiar-looking top three finishers from last Sunday's race.

For Motor Verso I give my take on what went on in Melbourne, as I will in every race this season.

Here's the link to my race review: http://www.motorverso.com/australian-gp-2016-review-not-familiar/

Do check out the Motor Verso site too; you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out week-long test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Australian GP Report - Stop me if you think you've heard this one before

Mercedes-Mercedes-Vettel. Hey ho. But you know the one about not judging books by their cover.

There wasn't too much standard about
Nico Rosberg's latest win
Photo: Octane Photography

There were considerable adventures in getting there. And varying from what Friday and Saturday had indicated it was in fact Nico Rosberg of the two Mercedes that won out in Melbourne's season-opener. Something that should feel familiar and perhaps doesn't, given it's his fourth win in a row.

In another common fallacy, for all that we love to predict F1 races ahead of time we forget that in this sport we have a standing start, and after that in a blink the picture can look very different. It was the case today.

Reminiscent of the Hungary race last year the Ferraris vaulted the previously-imperious Mercs at the get-go with Lewis Hamilton particularly punished. Vettel jumped the two silver cars off the line but what really did for them was that Nico, who'd got a better start than his team mate, ran deep into turn one taking Lewis with him (it didn't look deliberate, more that Nico was off line and locked his front wheels). This allowed the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen past them both too, and Lewis with his momentum checked lost more places to run sixth.

Melbourne Qualifying - Cloud with a silver lining

As the 19th century German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder once said, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy". And to put it in F1 terms no new qualifying system survives contact with the sport's reality. Or at least this one didn't.

Not waving but shrugging? Lewis Hamilton
took pole in an absurd session
Photo: Octane Photography

It sounded nice in theory. The clock ticking down continuously and drivers being eliminated incrementally. But it reckoned without F1 as it is. Tyres are designed to degrade and available sets of the softest tyres are finite. These two things coming together mean one chance effectively to set a time. And it showed - today marks tended to be set early and then many under threat of elimination had given up well ahead of the cut-off time as they'd run out of tyres. Even if they had been minded to reply the new system didn't give them an opportunity to as times were too tight. Much of the qualifying hour became an absurd exercise in watching the clock ticking down as cars sat in the garage. Their inevitable exit already set.

Underlining the absurdity, only the two Mercs - not even the Ferraris in other words - went out for a final effort at the end. Then when the pole was won and we got the usual back-slapping on the pit wall, then as the drivers wandered into the weighbridge with their job done, someone noticed that there still was three minutes plus remaining on the clock as it ticked down gingerly, yet removing drivers one at a time. It rather encapsulated the farce.