Spa Preview: Bringing many things to mind

Modern F1 doesn't always get it wrong. Even though you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

This weekend coming the sport returns from its summer hiatus, and there could not be a better place to reconvene. If you know anything about this game then you'll know about Spa-Francorchamps. Its mere mention brings immediate and familiar associations.

There's nothing quite like Spa
Photo: Octane Photography

The picture postcard scenery of the Ardennes. The sheer speed. The undulations. The fearsome turns. The inimitable organic and comfortable feel, as if donning an old pair of slippers. The unparalleled heritage. The clear thread between the current track and the very beginnings of motorsport road circuit racing. No wonder that when you ask F1 drivers, engineers or fans for their favourite modern venue this one is usually said before any other, and about as often without the slightest hesitation.

Spa remains a totem of what is possible even within the sport's ever-narrowing track design constraint; even when replacing a classic circuit with one more palatable to the contemporary requirements. You wonder why no one else tasked with designing a venue in the last decade or so has used it as a template, even in small part, in what they produce - that instead time and again we get identikit autodromes that rarely quicken the pulse. But I guess that's another story.

The latest Lights to Flag Podcast - Driver Market Speculation

The second episode of the Lights to Flag podcast has landed. And it's a special edition looking at the 2017 F1 drivers' market.

On the latest edition I, along with host Ewan Marshall and fellow guest Owen Davies, explore who is likely to be going where for 2017. Even with the 'big three' of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari having confirmed their pairing there still is plenty of intrigue.

We discuss what's likely to happen with the vacancies in each of the other eight teams, and even make predictions of who'll be on the grid for the opening round next season. Plenty of potential fun to be had in quoting those back to me in weeks and months to come...

You can listen to the podcast below. Do let us know what you think, we're very keen to hear feedback. You can also interact with the podcast, such as by suggesting questions or letting us know your comments, via its Twitter account and on its Facebook page.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Mercedes, No Team Orders Please!

The 2016 Austrian Grand Prix was the best advertisement for Formula 1 - wheel to wheel action, tyre strategy and a fair share of controversy! Are Mercedes trying to protect Nico Rosberg by blaming the issue on brake-by-wire? As far as we know, brake-by-wire does not affect the steering wheel! And why were Mercedes hell-bent on making Hamilton lose by strategy or slower pitstops? Every time the pressure piles on, Rosberg eventually succumbs. Definitely not the mental make-up of a champion - does Rosberg deserve to be World Champion?

While Mercedes contemplates team orders, we tell you why it's a terrible idea. If Mercedes were to be inspired by Red Bull Racing, they would have demoted Rosberg to Manor and promoted Pascal Wehrlein in his place - a gift for his resilient P10 too! Pirelli gifted Sebastian Vettel a tyre blowout for his birthday. Sure he would have been happier blowing out candles instead. Kimi Raikkonen had some unexpected champagne, funny that he's having his second wedding before his second world championship. Max Verstappen continues to be everyone's favourite (ours too!) sweeping away the Driver of the Day awards.

Jenson Button's P6 would've seemed like victory to McLaren-Honda. The Japanese manufacturer is considering investing in a Formula E program. Is this to hide from their Formula 1 miseries? We tell you more.

Back-to-back races means that the British Grand Prix is coming up this weekend! Is anyone willing to bet against Lewis Hamilton at his home race? We aren't - Hammer Time awaits, we say! Our prediction? Since Formula 1 loves revenge, Nico Rosberg will be booed on the podium - if he makes it there, that is.

Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 23)

Austrian GP Report - Surpassing yourself

So the Red Bull Ring lives up to its reputation. Both for entertainment and for the strange, somehow, occurring. We got that, plenty of that indeed, in the Austrian Grand Prix weekend even before we reached the race's final lap. Yet that last tour threatened to surpass any of the drama - and strangeness - that this track has been the scene of before. Even team order gate of 2002 now has a rival. You suspect the goings-on therein this time will be debated for as long as with about as much fury.

Lewis Hamilton won out, but as in qualifying
there were adventures getting there
Photo: Octane Photography

We can jump straight to the juicy bit. As we entered the final lap today an intra Mercedes tete-a-tete for the win was playing out, with Nico Rosberg ahead of a closing and apparently quicker Lewis Hamilton. As they entered that last lap it appeared though that Nico had just enough of a gap on his team mate to hang on, but on the run out of turn 1 to turn 2, the track's main overtaking point, Lewis took metres out of him, a consequence apparently of Nico clouting a kerb at that same first turn.

Nico covered the inside line and Lewis with the momentum went for the outside, but under braking for that hairpin Nico by appearances simply speared straight on and his hand movements (or lack of them) on his steering wheel told their own story, that he'd made little attempt to make the corner and instead had crudely sought to run Lewis out of road. There was contact between the silver pair and this time the biter was bit as while Nico exited the corner still in front the shower of sparks from his Merc was telltale - his front wing was askew and Lewis passed easily for the win. Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen got by Nico too before the lap was out, leaving the latter an ignominious fourth.

Red Bull Ring Qualifying - Circus act in the Ring

Despite the madcap appearances, it could really have been called in advance. Well, in a broad sense anyway if not in the specifics. Mercedes was meant to dominate at Austria's Red Bull Ring this weekend; really rationally it should have done. But this is a track where, in time-honoured tradition, things are rarely that simple. They weren't that simple for today's qualifying hour. On reflection, they were indeed much less simple even than that.

In a crazy qualifying hour of a crazy weekend, Lewis
Hamilton eventually took the pole
Photo: Octane Photography

A wet but drying final session to set the grid, ensuring that the timing display resembled the whirring display of a fruit machine. One with those known for bravery in such conditions getting well in among the usual front-runners. All the while grid penalties for a few big guns were somewhere at the back of minds, to be factored into calculations. All the while it was borne in mind too that this is Austria...

Some of the what-it-is-about these Spielberg visits can be explained: it's a short lap made up essentially of seven turns which ensures a tight grid, as does that this track, in its layout and altitude, isn't too sensitive to downforce which the normal pace-setters tend to have more of. The tight turns at the end of long straights draw plenty of errors. Sudden arrivals of rain are known here, and one of those before vital Q3 added plenty to today's fun. Yet even with these some matters simply are intangible, almost like there is something - other than precipitation or altitude that is - in the local air.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Why Bernie Ecclestone Backs Donald Trump For President

We love Bernie Ecclestone, we do! F1's CEO loves to make controversial statements and we love to extract our pound of humour from those controversies. In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal tell you why Bernie Ecclestone backs Donald Trump for President. And if you're a Hillary Clinton fan, we tell you why he wouldn't back her candidature.

But this episode isn't about Ecclestone alone, we talk about Filipinho Massa's victory over our favourite, Daniel Ricciardo. Massa Jr.'s celebration skills must be applauded - mark of a true champion. Did Felipe hire Max Verstappen's PR agency though to work on his son?

Should we undergo a rule change for 2017? Why is Mercedes resisting it and why is Red Bull Racing for it? Also, what should the rule changes be? We share our perspective and tell you why the teams will always differ in theirs from us fans.

Rio Haryanto seems to be running out of money. Is F1 in BIG trouble if pay drivers run out of money too? Btw, aren't the Indonesian Govt. doing a little too much to fund his race seat? It's a Manor, after all.

In this day and age of super hero movies, it comes as no surprise to us that Super Formula > Formula 1.  And are the new-age 'rocket science' F1 cars no longer attractive for the upcoming drivers too?

Finally, will Lewis Hamilton win his third consecutive Russian Grand Prix OR will Nico Rosberg leave Russia with 100 points? And apart from Vladmir Putin, who else will join the Mercedes drivers on the podium?

Tune in! (Season 2016, Episode 13)

Bahrain GP Report - Rosberg keeps rollin'

When things are rolling for you, they roll for you. Really, you enter a race with three credible rivals, yet one has dropped out before the race has even started and the other two have had their days severely compromised as quickly as the point of exiting turn one. Already the day is as good as yours. It's hard to imagine how it gets much better.

Nico Rosberg had another win come his way
Photo: Octane Photography

That's exactly what happened to Nico Rosberg in today's Bahrain Grand Prix. First off Sebastian Vettel didn't last even to the end of the parade lap, his Ferrari engine going pop; redolent of Michael Schumacher in France 20 years ago. The red cars' reliability hasn't looked near to being perfect in the 2016 calendar year and in this instance F1 once again demonstrated that it abides closely by Murphy's Law.

Then neither Lewis Hamilton nor Kimi Raikkonen got good starts. Worse for Lewis a rather lairy Valtteri Bottas hit him at the first corner, the upshot of it all was that Kimi was P5 and Lewis could continue but in P7. Worse still for Lewis was that his car was damaged, particularly in the floor, and some later spoke of it costing him up to a second a lap. For more than one reason he was condemned to damage limitation. While moreover the matter of first place was done pretty much by the first turn.

2016 F1 Betting Preview - Rosberg and Raikkonen where the value is?

We start off confused, and end up confused on a higher level. So the adage goes. And it fits rather neatly with the annual round of F1 pre-season testing. Interpreting it comes with all sorts of toxic health warnings - the headline lap times mean little; we don't know fuel loads, programmes being run or other vital details. That even with these all teams are making efforts to conceal where they are in the competitive order, and that applies equally whether they're doing well or doing badly. It never stops us trying to interpret it though. And with testing done and the opening round of the season proper a week away, from looking at F1 betting odds at netbet do we have a renewed sense of where the value is?

Nico Rosberg's odds to finally beat his team mate 
Lewis Hamilton over a season may be tempting
Photo: Octane Photography

There was little in Barcelona testing to suggest that Mercedes has been knocked fully off its pedestal and therefore Lewis Hamilton remains rightful favourite to be 2016 world drivers' champion. This is reflected in tight odds though for him to do just that - a bet on Lewis at 20/57 to bag the title doesn't even give you 150% of your stake back.

If you fancy laying some money Lewis's way then evens for him to win no more than 11.5 rounds this year looks better value - he got 'only' 10 wins last season and you'd think this campaign will be more competitive, although on the other hand there after 21 rounds this time rather than the 19 then.

Nico Rosberg by contrast gets fairly tempting odds. For him to continue his good end of 2015 form and win the ultimate prize in 2016 you can back him at 29/10. Maybe even better value is 5/6 on him to get more than 5.5 wins, which would be to match his total from last year at least (which was six) and with two more rounds to do it in.

F1 2016 Season Preview: Manor - To the Manor Born

Wind back to the latter part of 2014 and very few thought we'd see its like again. After the Russian race - the location possibly not a coincidence - the owner of the (then named) Marussia team Andrey Cheglakov walked, plunging the outfit into administration. Of course there was talk of fighting on from the team's two main threads of continuity John Booth and Graeme Lowden, but the apparent death rattle sounded terribly familiar.

Photo: Octane Photography

It still sounded terribly familiar when entrepreneur and Ovo Energy owner Stephen Fitzpatrick arrived on the scene to buy the squad and provide some funding. The team, now back to being called Manor, still required a lot of things to come together in the team's favour to continue, but come together they did. The two main creditors Ferrari and McLaren decided to cooperate rather than get awkward, Ferrari too agreed to continue a supply of 2014 power units. Manor had fortune also that the administrators had chosen to sell off its assets in stages, and while one auction had already happened by this point there remained enough for the team to form a skeletal operation (and in an ironic twist, it bought some of the missing pieces from the auction of Caterham, the other team going into a similar abyss at a similar time). Around 80 of the former 200 staff were reassembled, though many of the rest had since been snapped up elsewhere. Manor was on its feet again.

Melbourne Preview: Plus ca change...

Such is the speed that F1 moves on, and so rarely do its protagonists look back the way, it's easy to forget that the fraternity heads to Australia to kick off its latest annual campaign in a very different frame of mind than when it last did 12 months ago.

"2014 Melbourne Grand Prix (From Eureka Skydeck)" by Chris
Phutully - https://www.flickr.com/photos/72562013@N06/
13186495033/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia
Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014_
Melbourne_Grand_Prix_(From_Eureka_Skydeck).jpg#mediaviewer/
File:2014_Melbourne_Grand_Prix_(From_Eureka_Skydeck).jpg

Then no one really knew what to expect. The sport had just undertaken probably its grandest alteration ever. Matters, not just in competitive order but also in how racing would be done, threatened to be very different. Perhaps unrecognisable.

Yet while last year's Melbourne season-opener felt like a gigantic leap into the unknown, what awaits us this time is expected to be of the familiar sort. Indeed so familiar that even last year most in advance felt confident that it would happen even among all the other flux. The fight for the win in Australia this weekend should - reliability willing - be a very private Mercedes matter.

F1 2015 Season Preview: Manor - Back from the brink

No one expected them to be here. Certainly not this soon. But by the looks of things, they are.

Photo: Octane Photography

In the course of last year Marussia touched both ends of F1's extremes. To begin with the hardy and popular bunch of racers continued its gradual creep towards midfield pace, adapting well to the new rules and benefiting from a Ferrari power unit. And Monaco of course was the zenith. In Jules Bianchi's hands it looked a Q2 contender only for a differential problem to strike in qualifying. But come the race - despite a five second penalty as well as unnecessarily adding five seconds to his solitary pit stop under the safety car - a feisty drive from the undeterred Frenchman was awarded with ninth place, thus breaking the team's points duck. Yes Jules benefited from attrition, but as outlined he was not without his share of bad luck that weekend.