Austin Preview: Endgame

Lewis Hamilton's fifth world championship, up for grabs in 2018, has suddenly became a matter of when not whether. And with this weekend's gathering being the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, perhaps even the 'when' part is redundant.

Lewis Hamilton usually has Austin races to himself
Photo: Octane Photography

Of F1's six visits to Austin Hamilton has won five of them; taking it back further he's won six US races from the last seven. He's also won six of the last seven rounds anywhere. Do the math, as I believe the youth like to say.

Plus if Hamilton wins again this weekend then the title is done unless his foe Sebastian Vettel follows him home in second. And we have reasons to doubt that Vettel will manage that. In recent weeks Ferrari has both lost competitive pace and unravelled organisationally. While Vettel, perhaps in the same way that a dog imitates the characteristics of its owner, has similarly wavered. Any one of the last four grand prix results replicated will make Hamilton's latest world crown official.

Spa Preview: Back with a bang

It's not true what they say. Not everything about modern F1 is bad.

There's nothing quite like Spa
Photo: Octane Photography

This weekend it returns from its summer holidays and could not pick a better place to reconvene.

Spa-Francorchamps, the inimitable longtime host of the Belgian Grand Prix. Its mere mention brings many associations. The speed. The mighty turns. The undulations. The organic feel. The picture postcard Ardennes scenery. The link to the very beginnings of road circuit motorsport. Little wonder that when you ask F1 drivers, engineers or fans for their favourite modern venue this is the one commonly said, often without the slightest hesitation.

You can add too that F1 races at Spa almost always are diverting. I'm sure there have been dull Sundays here, but it's not all that easy to cite them.

Hungaroring Preview: Straining every sinew

The Hungaroring is a hard one to pin down. This is even though we have had plenty of time to form a view - this weekend's visit will be the 33rd time without interruption that it has hosted the annual Hungarian Grand Prix.

Can Ferrari lead the way like last year in Hungary?
Photo: Octane Photography

It goes right back to when the fraternity first rocked up in 1986. Crowds were vast, its facilities gleamed, the welcome was warm and everything had been laid on. Many cite it as the first of the sort of national-backed purpose-built autodrome that now dominates the calendar. For good or ill.

More pointedly views on the track's layout varied as well. Tight and sinewy with little opportunity to pass, it still has the lowest average speed of any purpose-built track on the calendar. 'Monaco without the houses' quickly became its label. Yet even so the track is challenging and its popularity among drivers is reasonably widespread.

Moreover the Hungaroring over time developed a knack of being the stage of drama, often of the sort wherein great drivers put in great drives - as a technical track on which the driver can make the difference. Nigel Mansell's against-all-odds beating of the McLarens from 12th on the grid in 1989; Damon Hill oh-so nearly pulling off probably the biggest shock win of all time in the Arrows in 1997; Michael Schumacher's suspension of normality in 1998. There are plenty other examples besides.

Hockenheim Preview: Back in the old routine

This year's F1 calendar has something of a throwback look. We're in the midst of an extended (welcome) and crammed (less welcome) European season, as two 'prestige' rounds have returned. The French Grand Prix is back after a long absence, and the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim - the latest of which is this weekend - is back too, following a year off.

F1 returns to Hockenheim after a year away
Photo: Octane Photography

The absence in the case of the German race has a different explanation as well. This Grand Prix used to alternate between Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, but the latter fell into financial bother and dropped out. And rather summing up the modern F1 host's absurd predicament Hockenheim didn't step into the resultant breach as it didn't fancy making its loss from staging the race every 12 months rather than as it currently stands every 24...

So we now have a German race every other year. And in another typical characteristic the event's future seems to linger under permanent doubt; its current contract expires this year.

The modern Hockenheim circuit is mostly about braking and traction as it doesn't really have corners that are quick or long, instead being made up of straights separated by short and often sharp turns. It's also something of a power track as a high proportion of the lap is full throttle. Although the modern tendency is to lament the new Hockenheim in comparison with the old version used up to 2001, in these senses the new place chimes with the old.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Best Time To Own A Formula 1 Team?

The business of Formula 1 seems to be changing. With Liberty Media looking to restructure team payments, budget caps, standardisation, etc. - is this the best time to invest in a Formula 1 team? Will owning a team finally be about its business rather than passion? We discuss more in this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

Daniel 'Shoey' Ricciardo is the hottest property in the paddock these days; we actually celebrated his win in Monaco with a shoey! Lewis Hamilton - will he seriously get to designing race tracks? After Miami, he's shown interest in redesigning the Monaco street circuit. We also tell you why the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix wasn't as boring as some of the drivers called it out to be. Finally, who could replace Brendon Hartley at Toro Rosso? And thank you Pirelli for renaming your tyre compounds for next season; we appreciate simplifying Formula 1. Tune in!

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

(Season 2018, Episode 17)

Monaco Preview: A welcome change?

Once upon a time, Formula One fan and general wit Clive James noted that "it is said these days with increasing frequency that Monaco makes a nice change from Grand Prix racing". With the latest visit upon us, it's hard to argue.

Despite everything, there's something about Monaco
Photo: Octane Photography

Really, what is it with the place and its 'jewel in the crown' status? If you're to be critical, the Monaco round is an anachronism. If you're to be very critical it's an absurdity.

A narrow, bumpy and tortuously sinewy tunnel of barriers. Famously Nelson Piquet described its challenge as akin to riding a bicycle around your living room. Track position is ten tenths of the law. The wider cars introduced last year if anything added to the fraction.

It doesn't get much better off the track either. Cramped and claustrophobic with ostentatious poseurs everywhere who in all probability don't care much for the sport. Not outside this weekend at any stretch.

But, conversely, what it is about Monaco lays within all of this.

Shanghai Preview: Great brawl of China

Much about the Chinese Grand Prix feels big. Not just due to the vast host country, the Shanghai International Circuit set the standards on dimensions too. The gleaming futuristic architecture towers and spreads. Paddock occupants are sure they walk far further in the Shanghai weekend than any other.

Most things about the Chinese round are big
By P - originally posted to Flickr as Image_7, CC BY 2.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5026860

The race's genesis is big too. A Government-backed Grand Prix in a coming economy and geopolitical power.

The track has much of the typical Tilke layout. A bit-of-everything - quick, medium and slow corners feature. A long straight - underlining the theme of vastness it's reckoned to be about the longest in F1 - and a big stop at the end plotted with overtaking in mind. Trademark Tilke long fast esses elsewhere.

And heading into this Chinese Grand Prix the chief considerations are appropriately big. In Australia's season-opener things looked simple even with Sebastian Vettel's win - that 2018 was going to be a stroll for Mercedes and especially Lewis Hamilton as testing had indicated; as Mercedes had dominated habitually in recent years indeed. In Bahrain though things turned. Ferrari left Mercedes behind in qualifying and held it off in the race.

Sepang Preview: The days of future past

Sepang was the future once. When it arrived in 1999 it was the great leap forward. Bernie Ecclestone hailed the venue for the Malaysian Grand Prix immediately as "the best in the world".

The future once - the Sepang venue makes its F1 curtain call
By Morio (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

It was a template too. The built-from-scratch all-mod-cons Hermann Tilke typology is now familiar. This was the first.

The template stretches to the circuit layout - a long straight book-ended by tight corners (this track has at least two of them indeed) intended to provide overtaking, with a variety of types of turn elsewhere including a high speed esses section.

Even its motivation was as would become grimly samey - the Malaysian Prime Minister wanted to promote the country as an industrial and business destination and bankrolled the event to this end.

Singapore Qualifying - Doing it when it matters

It looked like it would be very different. But, when it mattered, first place looked rather familiar.

Sebastian Vettel against expectations
pipped the Red Bull pair
Photo: Octane Photogrpahy

In this latest Singapore gathering F1, it appeared, was going back to the future. On a twisty track that would suit its car and an aero upgrade under its belt, Red Bull topped all three practice sessions and the first two parts of qualifying. At points of the weekend the RB13 pair looked on another level. Just like old times.

But qualifying is a high bar. Ferrari and Mercedes would crank their power units up. Plus there are more general considerations here. Like Monaco track evolution at Singapore is skyward - good times cannot be sat on. Like there solid things are near to punish those who get it slightly wrong.

It was going well for the Bull pair nevertheless, but then they discovered that Sebastian Vettel sets the bar highest of all. Particularly in Saturday's final throes.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - A Lose Head & A Loose Headrest

The 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix did test the usage of the words 'lose' and 'loose'! In this week's episode, we wonder if Pirelli will soon run out adjectives for their 'soft' tyres and if they'll debut a mega ultra super soft tyre someday soon. And mind you, a single set of this compound might last the entire race duration too!

We look back at Daniel Ricciardo's 'curse of the No. 3' that actually worked, the much-debated Hamilton-Vettel clash, Valtteri Bottas' recovery drive to P2 and has Lance Stroll proved his critics (including us!) wrong already?

A triple header Formula 1 weekend in 2018 will be a treat for the fans, but if you're a die-hard fan, you can forget about planning a holiday in June/July 2018!

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

Baku Preview - Through the looking glass

As we know, F1 does like to exist beyond the looking glass.

Last year's inaugural Baku race was not as expected
By crossland_alan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/57293550
@N07/27719040512/in/dateposted/, CC BY-SA 2.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55250694

Twelve months ago the sport rocked up to a new street circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan, expecting something "not like anything we've seen before in F1".

Certainly its challenges looked different. A real downtown circuit. Plenty of forbidding walls. Much of it claustrophobic with a twisty narrow section around the castle reminiscent of Mirabeau-Station Hairpin-Portiers at Monaco. But also a 2.1 km straight longer even than anything at Monza.

In the event much was familiar though. Based on the GP2 races we expected frolics aplenty - safety cars and trips down narrow escape roads making it a lottery. Also there was an ultra generous DRS zone with even quicker cars vulnerable to being overtaken, particularly on restarts. All making it a matter of survival.

Barcelona Preview: Intrigue rather than invigoration

'Is F1 too boring?' Time was that such shrieks were an annual event, after every Spanish Grand Prix at the Montmelo track near Barcelona it seemed. There may be more of it this time.

The Montmelo track near Barcelona has long been
associated with follow-my-leader
Photo: Octane Photography

For all of the feelgood about this year's F1, on-track racing - or lack of it - remains an elephant in the otherwise pristine room. We also have just gone through a race in Russia with zero overtakes. And now we have one at Montmelo, long associated with passing being theoretical only.

The numbers back this up. No fewer than three in every four Grands Prix here have been won by the pole-sitter while on only three occasions since the race debuted in 1991 has it been won from a start off the front row. All of that trio too had peculiar circumstances (not least last year when the two front row starters helpfully wiped each other out before turn four...).

The theory backs it up also. It's a circuit with plenty of medium-to-fast long-ish turns that the modern aero-laden F1 car can't follow another through very happily. That it's a default testing venue takes away another variable, as all have a firm sense of the optimum set-up.

Sochi Preview: F1's ugly duckling

There's always one, isn't there? That F1 venue people find particularly hard to love. No new thing either. Nivelles, Detroit and others have had periodic pariah status historically. More recently it was Valencia. Then it was the Mokpo venue in Korea. Now, dear reader, I give you Sochi in Russia.

The Sochi venue in Russia has been hard for F1 to love
By Липунов Г.А. - Own work, CC0, https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48625966

It has ugly duckling status for a number of reasons. The race was in many eyes tainted at source, even though Bernie Ecclestone's attempts to get a Russian/USSR round onto the calendar stretched back literally decades. A Grand Prix in the Soviet Union to be held on the streets of Moscow appeared on the provisional F1 calendar as long ago as 1983 indeed and several mooted options came and went in the years that followed.

Yet even by the time the race finally was penned to debut in 2014 - around the buildings and circular medals plaza of that year's Winter Olympics venue of Sochi - plenty thought we could nevertheless wait a little longer. Its very existence was controversial from several months out with unrest in Ukraine and Russia's alleged contribution to it dominating many headlines. Some thought too resultant sanctions would mean the race's money would run out.

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)

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.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Forget Rosberg vs Hamilton, 2016 Is Verstappen's Year

The 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix could have given Formula 1 a new World Champion, but it didn't. However, it confirmed a fact that didn't need much confirming - that Max Verstappen is absolute World Champion material. Irrespective of the outcome of the World Drivers' Championship, 2016 will be remembered for the brilliance of Max Verstappen.

Lewis Hamilton won his first-ever race in Ayrton Senna's land ensuring that Abu Dhabi hosts the title decider yet again. We guess that Bernie Ecclestone and the Sheikhs would be very pleased given the amount of money they pay as hosting fees!

On the Inside Line F1 Podcast this week, we laugh over Fernando Alonso's sense of humour. He was a horrible cameraman, but hey, at least he gave us a good laugh! Alonso also said that F1 should pay fans to watch the sport. Though ironically, thanks to all his engine woes, Alonso has been the sports highest paid viewer for the better part of the last two seasons!

The success of the wet race in Brazil makes us wonder whether Bernie's sprinkler idea is all that bad after all! Pirelli's extreme wet tyres are so bad, but then we guess that's true of all their tyres. Felipe Massa had an emotional farewell in Brazil, and we are sure that Jenson Button was slightly jealous – though that’s the price you pay for not making up your mind! And a gutsy Sergio Perez dumped his new sponsor on Twitter for a joke that clearly wasn't funny.

Finally, the big question: As we head to the title decider in Abu Dhabi, who is going to emerge as World Champion? Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 38)

Interlagos Preview - F1's Bermuda Triangle

Just like that, it could be over. Without any disrespect intended, and despite his considerable success in 2016 and before, for a lot of us the prospect of a Nico Rosberg drivers' championship has never entirely shaken its air of unreality. Yet when this forthcoming one is done it could be absolute reality.

Will Nico Rosberg in this one triumph definitively?
Photo: Octane Photography

And the task required of him to do the confirming is simple. He needs to win. Or rather, the task is complicated. And not merely as F1 wins can never be said to be easy. It particularly cannot be said to be easy this time given where this one is taking place.

Granted there are plenty of things about this Interlagos venue for this weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix to tilt matters Nico's way. He's won in the last two visits, both from pole. In his own words he has "usually been pretty quick there".

While his title rival and team mate Lewis Hamilton even with his superb recent form - winning the last two with Nico barely within shouting distance - has neither triumphed nor even started from the front of the grid in Brazil before. While, if you're a fan of historical trends, since Interlagos was shifted to a slot near or at the season's end in 2004 it has been the scene of titles being clinched aplenty - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012.

Spa Qualifying - Not so unfamiliar

We are at Spa, but in many ways it was nothing like Spa. The weather for one - unusually hot to the point of being more redolent of Abu Dhabi. Moreover the usual required waterproofs for the annual Ardennes visits have this time not been required at all.

With an open goal, Nico Rosberg fired the ball
into the empty net to bag pole
Photo: Octane Photography

Motor racing at this revered Belgian track usually guarantees drama too, but this time for qualifying at least a major source of it was removed before we'd even got started. We knew in advance that Lewis Hamilton would in effect be scratched.

Long in advance - his grid penalty from taking additional engine parts was pretty much inevitable since his technical failures in the first handful of 2016 rounds, while also it transparently made most sense to swallow them here. His resultant 55 (really) place drop means he starts tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix from the back. It also meant that in today's session there was no incentive for him to do other than set a time within 107% of the front in Q1 so to guarantee his place on the grid, and otherwise sit out to save engine mileage and tyres.

Not all of what we got was unusual though. Much of what we got seemed very usual indeed, starting with this precise matter of grid drops and drivers therefore being best served by putting their feet up rather than do their thing on track. Drafting regs in this game is never easy for a multitude of reasons, but that the upshot was it all seeming to militate against the show on offer to the paying public was one we've heard a few times before.

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)

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Ferrari Should Sign Max Verstappen

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal tell you why Ferrari should sign up Max Verstappen at the expense of letting go the yet-to-find-form Kimi Raikkonen.

We explain why there's no 'crisis in Formula 1' and wonder what Haas Racing's real pace is. As we THANK GOD that Flavio Briatore isn't Bernie Ecclestone's successor, we wonder if Formula 1 needs a Narendra Modi too?

The dubious qualifying format, Pirelli tyres, Ferrari vs. Mercedes - so much to look forward to in Bahrain, including Toro Rosso scoring their first points ever? And obviously, there's no incentive to race to the podium in Bahrain for Kimi Raikkonen (we tell you why!).

And finally, did Kunal crack his best F1 joke ever in this episode? Tune in and find out.

(Season 2016, Episode 09)