My Top 10 F1 Drivers of 2018: The Rest…

Here are my views on those F1 drivers from 2018 who didn't make my top 10 ranking from a few days ago. If you're interested, you can read the top 10 here.

Photo: Octane Photography

Going through the 'other 10' in final drivers' table order brings us first to Sergio Perez, for whom 2018 was more of the same – for good and ill. He racked up plenty of points plus in the way that apparently only he can bagged a podium finish when the very rare opportunity offered itself. Yet Perez couldn't alter his long-time predicament of lingering in the middle ground between being a good midfielder (with money) and a talent that a top team will covet. It didn't help that, while there as ever wasn't much in it, his Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon had the pace edge for the most part. Nor did his hooligan performance in Singapore, first showing not much effort to avoid a collision with Ocon then – far worse – having a rage swipe at Sergey Sirotkin.

Kevin Magnussen's season was rather a breakthrough. With him at last getting the many benefits of a second season in a race seat, the results flowed particularly in the early part of the campaign. He didn't always string things together though, and more broadly once team-mate Romain Grosjean sorted himself out Magnussen tended to be the second Haas. He also gave more evidence to sustain his enfant terrible image – the criticisms can be excessive but still his move on Pierre Gasly in Baku then on Charles Leclerc at Suzuka were hard to defend. He sometimes gives the impression of revelling in the status but equally it may become a burden.

Singapore GP Report - Night terrors

How great it must be to exist in a moment where everything, almost no matter what, seems to run your way. And - yin and yang - for your direct opponent the experience must be simultaneously crushing. And it is.

Lewis Hamilton took another win -
and this one was unexpected
Photo: Octane Photography

In this Singapore round Lewis Hamilton won again and Sebastian Vettel cruised home third; thus Hamilton's title lead is up to 40. Vettel is on the cusp of needing snookers.

Worse for Seb and Ferrari it was not meant at all to be this way. This for Hamilton was the ultimate scrum won against the head, as not only was the Ferrari the quicker car in theory this has long been viewed as an outlying Mercedes bogey track. As it transpired Hamilton not only won but did so with something like comfort. Well, as comfortable as the working-out-for-two-hours-in-a-sauna Singapore race ever gets.

"They put up a good fight this weekend," noted Hamilton afterwards of Ferrari. "I'm not sure where their pace disappeared to..."

Italian GP Report - Come together

After Spa last week we thought things would be different. But in its back yard the chief theme of 2018 reasserted - that Ferrari for all its stunning speed isn't beginning to make good on it where it really matters. That something insists on coming along to trip it up. Sometimes of its own doing.

Lewis Hamilton against all expectations
defeated Ferrari to win
Photo: Octane Photography

Matters in the Italian Grand Prix weekend started just as expected though. Continuing the Spa pattern Ferrari on Monza's rapid circuit had a clear pace advantage, including on its title foe targets Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. After qualifying the grid's front row was all red. But a day later things were scarcely recognisable. Hamilton had won and left Ferrari's homeland with an extended 30 point lead in the championship table over the Scuderia's Sebastian Vettel.

And with the talk of big themes this shift was not down to just one thing. Rather a lot of - often ostensibly minor - things came together. Lenin reminded us that everything is connected to everything else. It's especially the case in F1.

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. The acorns that grew into the mighty oak of Ferrari's defeat were planted the day before the race, in that very same qualifying session. There was one fly in Vettel's Saturday ointment, that his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen took pole position ahead of him. The Finn was aided by that he ran behind Vettel on track and thus got the benefit of his slipstream on Monza's many lengthy straights. Vettel meanwhile had been fed out by his team a little late and therefore didn't really benefit from the car ahead in the same way (Hamilton's, as it happened).

Canadian GP Betting Preview - Isle of Lewis?

Races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve around Montreal's Ile Notre Dame are synonymous with madcap action and results that are hard to predict. Since 2000 not much more than one race in three here has been won from pole. While as usual in 2018 a coherent case can be made in advance for - and against - the prospects of each of the big three teams of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Montreal wins usually mean one person in particular
Photo: Octane Photography

But on another level a Montreal race is a straightforward call. As Lewis Hamilton has won here six times including the last three. He is very much a local specialist - bravery on the brakes and hustling a car through chicanes with no room for error is just his thing. He tends to beam throughout his Canadian visits.

There is the question of whether Mercedes can master the three softest tyre compounds this weekend as it very much didn't in Monaco, but on the other hand it came to Montreal 12 months ago under a similar cloud and in the event took a comfortable 1-2.

And luckily these sort of doubts mean Hamilton's odds to prevail are a bit longer than they might have been - 7/5 for him to win and 13/8 for the pole both look good.

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.

F1 2018 Season Preview: Williams - In the balance

We talk a lot about the Williams decline. We used to think of the team a little as we do Mercedes now - bound to get it right and run at the front, whatever else happens.

Photo: Octane Photography

But the Williams decline can be traced back a long time, all the way to 1997. And in the last decade and a bit it's been mainly midfield flailing. Was the upturn with the Mercedes engine in 2014 a dead cat bounce? Since, in results at least, it's been in a state of downward drift.

Its heritage is a burden in a more tangible sense. Williams retains the infrastructure of a large team, but these days is without the money to make it work. Instead it is being usurped by Force India which has a streamlined model, with plenty outsourced, that gets much better results at that level.

The latest staging post of the Williams decline in the popular consciousness is its driver selection for 2018. The team that once lost prize Honda engines by refusing to take on a Japanese sop now has two pilots whose cases owe at least something - many think a lot - to the money they bring.

Why, despite everything, I'm hopeful for the Russian Grand Prix

Confession time. I actually entered the Russian Grand Prix weekend in a hopeful state of mind for it. And ended it, despite everything, with reasonable optimism too. A position that for much of that time felt rather like one in a minority. But please, stay with me.

I ended the inaugural Russian Grand Prix with optimism
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The event as far as plenty were concerned was ill-starred from an early stage. Sochi as a town is small (some 350,000 inhabitants) and remote; Moscow being a three hour flight - or if you prefer a 24 hour car journey - away. F1 isn't well-established in the country either. All of which carry implications for it attracting a crowd and achieving viability.

Then of course there are some of the happenings within the country that cannot be defended, and that its notorious President Vladimir Putin clearly was going to associate himself closely with the race (as indeed he did). We can add to it the more recent events of 2014 - the Ukraine situation and allegations of Russia's contribution to it - which for plenty exacerbated the point and meant that up until the 11th hour some were talking of the race not taking place at all.

Further thoughts on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Who goes where?
On the subject of silly season, this year's version still has a way to go. We're now firmly ensconced in November and only four teams - Ferrari, Mercedes and the two Red Bull collectives - have confirmed their driving line up for 2014. Many of those remaining haven't even confirmed a single member of their duo.

You'd have thought that Nico Hulkenberg
will now be confirmed at Lotus
Photo: Octane Photography

Much of the blockage apparently is due to waiting for the Lotus-Quantum-Hulkenberg situation to resolve itself. The Quantum Motorsports consortium is looking to buy a 35% stake in the team that would greatly ease Lotus's financial situation, and would in turn allow it to sign Nico Hulkenberg for next year (if it didn't come off it was thought that the team would instead go for Pastor Maldonado and his £30m annual wedge of PDVSA money). Over the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend Quantum chief Mansoor Ijaz said the deal was now virtually done, and that he supports the recruitment of Hulk, so there'd now be something seriously wrong if the rapid German doesn't end up there. And it should, you'd have thought, create a knock-on impact of a few other pieces falling into place elsewhere in this particular puzzle in short order. The resurgent Romain Grosjean is expected to fill the other Lotus seat.

Next up, McLaren which is most likely to retain its current line up, but its delay in confirming as much suggests it still hasn't given up on recruiting Fernando Alonso for next year (which would really put the cat among the pigeons). Murmurs persist that the team isn't too thrilled with Sergio Perez, and may even at Checo's expense fast track its young prodigy and FR3.5 champion Kevin Magnussen - whom Woking considers an excellent long-term prospect - into a race seat for next year (a few say that Alonso-Magnussen is the plan for 2015). And Perez dropping out of McLaren, with his Mexican commercial possibilities, presumably will create a ripple further along this particular game of musical chairs.

Further thoughts on the Japanese Grand Prix

Esteban emergent
I've surpassed myself and managed to squeeze yet another team mate vs. team mate matter out of the Suzuka race. Well, a variation of one anyway.

Much of the focus afforded on the Sauber team in recent times has been on Nico Hulkenberg, naturally. But less widely noted has been that the other Sauber pilot has been coming onto a game too.

Esteban Gutierrez - coming onto a game
Photo: Octane Photography

Esteban Gutierrez arrived in the sport this year with a rather (in my view) mean 'pay driver' tag. OK, his access to Mexican wealth no doubt oiled the wheels and his GP2 form was a little patchy, but third place in the GP2 table last year, in addition to GP3 and Formula BMW championships, at least suggested he wasn't an idiot. But for much of his freshman year in F1 the only thing that he distinguished himself by was an egregious error in the Chinese race, driving into the back of Adrian Sutil. Otherwise, it was mediocre runs and finishes far from the top ten pretty much all round it seemed.