Monaco GP Report - Righting a wrong

It was the Monaco Grand Prix in the here and now. But, throughout, many minds were on that two years ago.

Daniel Ricciardo got his Monaco redemption, two years on
Photo: Octane Photography

Then Daniel Ricciardo dominated the Monaco weekend, but lost the win due to Red Bull botching a pitstop. This time he dominated if anything to a greater extent - topping every single practice and qualifying session. Again he led the race. Again though he met problems - this time with his engine. But this time he overcame them to win. In more than one sense he righted a wrong.

To begin with the race was typical Monaco. The poleman Ricciardo led from the line and looking untroubled. Then after the round of what was predicted to be the solitary stops all among the frontrunners stayed in the same order. And track position is ten tenths of the law here.

But another thing typical of Monaco is that it can bite. Things, somehow, happen here. Ricciardo knows this better than most.

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)

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Nico Rosberg Should Invite Nicole Scherzinger To The US GP

Is the United States Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton's new home race? Going purely by his Instagram feed, we'd like to believe so. How many of Hamilton's reported girlfriends would cheer him in the Paddock? Would 'Joey' be visiting too? If so, they should broadcast a live car-to-television radio chat between Joey and Hamilton. We actually try simulate what this conversation could be like.

In the 'Race to the White House', who would Hamilton vote for - Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton? Also, would Bernie Ecclestone's pal, Donald Trump, attend the United States Grand Prix in Austin? Formula 1 is a perfect sport for Trump to invest in and we tell you why. All-in-all,  we hope that being in the United States of America does motivate Hamilton to race as Hamilton - he's been Rosberg-like in the last few races.

Nico Rosberg's best psychological attack on Hamilton would be to invite Nicole Sherzinger to the US GP. It would also be yet another battle that Rosberg would win off-track - since beating Hamilton on-track seems unlikely this season. But Hamilton has always beaten Rosberg in the USA and Rosberg has never won here, will his 'fear of missing out' propel Rosberg to win his 8th first-ever win of the season? Surprisingly, Hamilton copied everything but Rosberg's clutch settings in Suzuka!

Let's hope that Hamilton skipped the Pirelli test due to a sore foot and not a sore thumb - after all, that's what people obsessed with social media suffer from! Moving on from Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg's move to Renault would mean that he would at least go the Fernando Alonso and not the Adrian Sutil way. Good choice, Nico!

If Valtteri Bottas partners Hulkenberg at Renault, should Williams request Felipe Massa to stay back for yet another season? Renault said that they would need five years to be World Champion. Given Renault's commitment phobia to Formula 1, will they be around for that long? It is interesting how Sebastian Vettel and Nico Hulkenberg have cited Michael Schumacher as an inspiration in their career moves. Should Jenson Button seek some inspiration too?

Finally, we tell you why Ron Dennis' 5 on 10 rating is terrible for McLaren-Honda and how Mark Webber's retirement automatically increases his chances of being subject to Daniel Ricciardo's famous shoey! Seeing how Ricciardo's 'shoe' has suddenly become so popular, will Red Bull Racing hike their sponsorship rates for 'official shoe supplier'?

Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 34)

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Will The FIA Ban The Shoey?

Nico Rosberg is lucky that Mercedes built him a tank that went through the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix undamaged. Rosberg was lucky on multiple other counts too, including that he had a clean getaway (the Mercedes cars can't take that for granted anymore) and the two VSC periods that helped him climb back up the order.

Daniel Ricciardo had a great result to win the race. Will drivers not want to be on the podium with Ricciardo though, given his love for the 'shoey' (gross!)? Mark Webber was smart, he threw away Ricciardo's shoe - the other podium victims need to learn from him. Given how much the FIA loves clamping down on everything that's fun in F1, maybe they will ban the shoey on the podium too? A BIG thank you to Red Bull Racing for allowing Ricciardo and Verstappen to race fair and square. Ricciardo managed to do what not a lot of drivers have done this season - he kept Verstappen behind on-track (he claims to have learnt this from Verstappen himself!)

Lewis Hamilton made the race interesting - not sure if it was thanks to his engine failure, post-race comments (or both!). Hamilton believes that 'something or someone doesn't want him to win this year' - and he's right. We tell you who this person in the Mercedes garage is, who has been mercilessly trying to keep Hamilton from winning.

Nico Rosberg's penalty was strange. It seems that the FIA does not want drivers to overtake on track at all! Rosberg has notched up so many penalties this season that he's halfway to a race ban. Clearly, 'someone or something' is conspiring against him to get him so many penalties!

Hamilton's bad luck was Mercedes' bad luck - they lost their second attempt at equalling the record for the most consecutive wins in Formula 1. Speaking of records, Jenson Button notched up 300 Grand Prix starts - and McLaren celebrated this by turning their paddock into an English pub (luckily no shoeys on offer there).

Ferrari's race was like how their whole season has been - all talk. Surprisingly, Raikkonen is outperforming Vettel. Perhaps Vettel go the Alonso way if Ferrari are unable to deliver a winning package in 2017! Is McLaren now part of the midfield teams with Williams and Force India? If so, they're still at the bottom of that midfield.

BMW recently announced their motorsport program and it doesn't feature F1, but does include Formula E and the WEC. We guess they've been listening to Fernando Alonso's criticism of the sport and decided to stay out!

Here's the big question: Can Hamilton still win the World Drivers' Championship? Of course! Five races, 125 points to go. Let's hope a clutch, an engine or swapping of teams doesn't decide this year's champion.

Suzuka is up this weekend, and it promises to be a real cracker. Will it be a Mercedes 1-2 again, or can Red Bull Racing challenge them?

Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 32)

Silverstone Preview - F1's home gig

Every year at around about this time I experience a creeping sense of conflict. I'm not one driven by patriotism, indeed I'm often downright suspicious of it. And this applies especially to F1, wherein nationalities have never mattered a jot to me. But even I cannot deny that there is something special about the British Grand Prix.

Despite everything, few would claim that there isn't 
something special about the British Grand Prix
Photo: Octane Photography

It can't even be said that the appeal of its hardy host of Silverstone is immediately and universally apparent. In contrast to many 'prestige' F1 circuits which seem to fit quintessentially into their surroundings, Silverstone even all these decades on retains a feel of being rather imposed on a barren, windswept wartime airfield plain. It lacks the postcard scenery and undulations of Spa, the intensity of Monza and certainly the glamour of Monaco. The late Christopher Hilton once noted, possibly harshly, that "people get emotional at Silverstone but not emotional about Silverstone. Even when they're trying to save it, they're doing it because they want the British Grand Prix to survive, not because emotion dictates Silverstone."

Yet still few refute that the Northamptonshire circuit sits right alongside those events mentioned in being part of F1 furniture; some will perhaps even claim that it deserves to be prioritised ahead. And this is for a number of reasons.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Verstappen's Typical Teenage Tantrums

Max Verstappen showed his trademark speed at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix, but did he also show some immaturity? Is he behaving like a typical teenager?

Verstappen's request on the radio for 'team orders' shows that he's learned well from our current and previous World Champions.

In this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast, Mithila and Kunal talk about how the opening round in Australia showcased the best and worst of Formula 1. They wonder why Rosberg's race winning drive wasn't covered as well on TV just as Hamilton's off-tracks antics received their due interest.

Given our reigning World Champion's interest in taking selfies while riding a bike, should Bernie also put out a message saying 'Think Before You Take A Selfie?'.

As we wrap up this show, we wonder why Formula 1 is this expensive and why Haas won't have be paid in their first year despite delivering a dream result on their debut. And finally, a Vettel-Webber show on Formula 1? We'd love that, won't we!

Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 08)

The rise and fall of Vettel the crash kid

The Mexican Grand Prix was one for ending lengthy runs for the the team in red. Neither Sebastian Vettel nor Kimi Raikkonen made the end which meant it was Ferrari's first double non-finish, astonishingly, since the Australian Grand Prix in early 2006. The team's first in close to a decade in other words.

Strange though it sounds, Sebastian Vettel
was once F1's pariah
Photo: Octane Photography

But for Vettel personally it also marked the end of a distance run. Him binning it out of the race was his first retirement due to an accident or spin in well over five years, since the Turkish Grand Prix in 2010 (yes, that one). And if even this didn't strike as being impressive in itself then add to it also that there was a time when Seb was roundly abused as F1's 'crash kid'.

It sounds silly now, indeed it was rather silly at the time, but there once was a prevailing view in and around the sport that Seb went to pieces in wheel-to-wheel situations. That he couldn't hack it under pressure. That even he was a danger to others.

Related to the barbs he was the sport's number one pariah of choice for a good while. To think too that a suggestion that lingered on rather longer was that Seb always had it easy in his time in F1. Not so.

New Motor Verso article: Why Webber was wide of the mark on pay drivers

Photo: Octane Photography

Even though he departed the F1 stage at the end of the 2013 season Mark Webber has remained one with a lot to say about the contemporary sport. It tending not to be complimentary.

He was at it again recently talking about the depth of driving talent in current F1 as well a the number of pay drivers.

For all that it won the Australian applause from the gallery for Motor Verso I look at Webber's comments and outline why they're a little wide of the mark.

You can have a read of it via this link: http://www.motorverso.com/webber-wide-mark-pay-drivers/

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.

Red Bull and equalisation - the wrong people but the right idea?

It wasn't the greatest surprise in the world. But it still had its intended jarring effect.

Yes, Red Bull didn't miss the opportunity of hosting (and funding) its own F1 event at the track it lends its name to in Austria to step into the pulpit.

Dietrich Mateschitz (left) had a lot to say around the
 Austrian race
Photo: Octane Photography

And even though the broad thrust of what it said was long since familiar the fact that it was this time delivered with such blunt aggression meant that its reverberations were a great as, perhaps greater than, ever. As all gathered for the Austrian weekend the Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz fired a grand opening salvo, mainly against its beleaguered power unit supplier Renault, in the Red Bull-owned publication SpeedWeek: "Besides taking our time and money they [Renault] have destroyed our enjoyment and motivation. No driver and no chassis in this world can compensate for this horsepower deficit. How many more things have to happen before we lose all enjoyment?" Crikey.

Then its Red Bulletin Austrian race weekend freesheet followed up with some fire of its own, with 'What's wrong with Formula 1?' emblazoned across its front page early in the weekend (albeit contrary to common assumption it was related to the views of Niki Lauda on what F1 needs to change rather than those of a Red Bull figure). Come race morning too presumably in an attempt to make a point about what it viewed as the sport's predictability that front page declared Lewis Hamilton already the winner of the Spielberg race, along with a few other future ones besides. The irony wasn't lost on Nico Rosberg afterwards.

What's up with Vettel?

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I? Look at the matter of Sebastian Vettel I mean, and why the appearances so far in the 2014 campaign are that he is struggling. Moreover whether - despite everything - the opening four rounds of this said campaign are evidence that he's not all that after all.

After the China round last weekend wherein his team mate Daniel Ricciardo was well on top, it all went into overdrive. Kevin Eason in The Times for one wondered out loud 'whether this race had illuminated the claims to greatness of two champions', one of which was Vettel of course. Eason went on: 'Could this be the end of the Vettel era or are we too quick to underscore those doubts about the true talent of a young man who exploited a truly superior car to the full for four seasons? The argument has often been put forward that, for all the excellence of Mark Webber, Vettel has never been up against a truly gifted team-mate - a Hamilton or a Fernando Alonso.'

Sebastian Vettel - under siege in 2014
Photo: Octane Photography

And he wasn't the only one. The BBC's Andrew Benson noted similar: 'There is no arguing with the scale of Vettel's statistical achievements in the last four seasons. But there was always a question about how much was driver and how much was car.'

As you might imagine, social media and internet forums were also awash with such deliberation.

Of course the tendency to believe that you're only as good as your last game isn't one exclusive to F1. And social media, which seems to rather cater for pendulum thinking, everything being opined as an extreme, appears highly fertile territory this sort of interpretation. But in F1 the tendency appears especially strong.

Final thoughts on 2013: Dark matters

The 2013 F1 season was a year that promised much and in many ways disappointed. It was a year undermined by political intrigue, aggravation, sometimes scandal. A year that perhaps won't linger in the affections, aside from recollection of a driver and team in unison performing at the top of their respective games in taking the honours, a partnership that has been formidable for a while and was increasingly so as this campaign went on. We might have witnessed the team in some ways at its worst this season, but we also saw it at its very best.

And yet at the campaign's outset we were full of optimism, coming off a season wherein the fare were was more competitive and varied than had been so for a long while, and was played to a close and dramatic climax. There were not many reasons to think that things would be much different this time, yet we didn't to any great extent get more of the same, and worse the main thing that we did get more of was politics.

The Pirelli tyres dominated the discourse in early 2013
Photo: Octane Photography

The F1 fraternity is a fractious lot, and the sport can never be detached completely from disputes; the tendency merely has to be managed. But this campaign contained rather a lot to manage, and much flowed over the brim. The matter that dominated the discourse in the first half of the year - much more than any driver or team - were the dark matters of the Pirelli tyres. Dark in more ways than one.

Early in the 2013 season some noticed that the rubber, with Pirelli deliberately engineering degradation in, didn't allow drivers to push all the time. This really shouldn't have been a surprise, as that had been Pirelli's approach (at the behest of Formula One Management) since its return as the sport's supplier in 2011 in order to add a variable to the racing and to strategies. And as had also been also been its way it also this year went more extreme with the tyres than in the season before, given that each year the teams' tendency to get on top of the challenges as the season went on resulted in more tepid fare.

My Top Ten Drivers of 2013

Here is my personal rating of the top ten F1 drivers of the 2013 season, seeking to take into account their performance under the circumstances they were in as well as the machinery that they had access to.

A run down of my views on the drivers who didn't make the top ten will follow in the next few days.

Photo: Octane Photography

1. Sebastian Vettel
There can only be one number one. The overarching plot line of the F1 year just passed was all about the latest steps forward made by the prodigious Sebastian Vettel, him further exploring the outer territory of what is required to be a complete F1 performer. In 2013 he was formidable.

As it was for everyone else for Seb it was a season of two halves: pre and post the mid-year Pirelli changes. Yet it's probably instructive that Vettel mastered both. Early in the year, even though the delicate Pirelli rubber didn't always suit, he quickly adopted the role of man to beat: incrementally establishing a clear championship lead via dominant wins when his machine allowed and sizeable point hauls when it didn't.

Then after the summer break Seb was on a pedestal; such was his clamp on first place that race weekends became strictly a battle over second place at the very most. Seb's path to victory was indeed familiar, yet devastating in its repeated execution: take pole with a stunning lap as if it's yours by right; blast off the line and be seconds clear in the opening laps with devastating pace enacted like flicking a switch; manage the gap to the rest and your limited-resource Pirellis from there; make any passes quickly and decisively; and still be at the front when the chequered flag falls. Familiar, yes. Predictable too. But no less impressive for that.

And in a year wherein he always seemed to be pressing, almost always was at the front, from him there were almost no mistakes. Seeking examples wherein he erred is revealing only in its paucity: tapping a wall and later running across the grass in Canada; slightly damaging his front wing against Jenson Button in Hungary; being slightly scrappy in Japan. But that's your lot from a 19-race season. And on the broader level it's possible that Seb never once threw away points this year; that every time he maximised the possible result. Whichever way you define it, his 2013 campaign was just about flawless.

Perhaps it said something that the only chink in his armour made this year was self-inflicted: that around Malaysia wherein Seb allowed his competitive instincts to get the better of him and he rather ambushed an unsuspecting team mate in Mark Webber, against team orders, to win. And his response - all apologetic in the immediate aftermath; unrepentant three weeks later - was bewildering. Perhaps it showed the limitations of seeking to maintain two rather disparate Sebastian Vettels: the smiling, cherubic media darling, and the ruthless self-seeker on-track.

Yet these days Sebastian Vettel is a driver without obvious weakness. He has stunning pace on a single lap as well as in races that he can summon at will. His brain power in managing a race and mental strength in repelling pressure and attempts at needle bear comparison with the very best in F1 history. No one in contemporary F1 works as hard as he; takes such a holistic approach. His overtakes - previously an area where he was criticised - are these days crisp and assured. Somehow after winning everything there is to win repeatedly his motivation and spontaneous joy in achievement appear absolutely undiminished. And on top of all of this he has the confidence and reinforcement that habitual success brings.

Moreover, 2013 was surely the year wherein even many of Vettel's most hardened doubters will have been converted. Only professional churls and contrarians can by now be maintaining the view that Seb isn't all that.

Photo: Octane Photography

2. Fernando Alonso
There is no shortage of comparisons made between the Vettel-Red Bull reign of triumph now with that of Michael Schumacher-Ferrari roughly a decade earlier. There are some parallels indeed; but as is usually the case such comparisons aren't necessarily wholly applicable. With Schumi-Ferrari at the height of their powers even if you somehow managed to get your machine onto something like the level of the Ferrari you still had the driver factor to contend with: few doubted then that Schumi was the standard bearer. With Vettel and Red Bull this isn't universally thought to be the case, not quite anyway, as there is one man elsewhere who plenty reckon ensures that they do not have such comfort. The argument stands; many take the view that should Fernando Alonso ever over a season have access to a car nearly as good as any of the rest then the Spaniard's personal offering will be capable of making up the rest of the difference. And appropriately this season he was the last man left still standing before the Vettel-Red Bull juggernaut.

Sebastian Vettel 2013 World Champion: The sign of the four

Twelve months ago Sebastian Vettel swept up world drivers' title number three for himself, merely the latest of his increasingly haughty collection of achievements. And with it all somewhere at the back of minds was the nagging thought that whatever his skills and statistical marks then, at the age of just 25 Vettel - some seven or eight years shy of when the F1 pilot usually peaks - was only going to get better. One year on and you know what? He did get better.

Sebastian Vettel in familiar pose
Photo: Octane Photography

In 2013 Sebastian Vettel was devastating; a notch or two beyond the already formidable figure we had before. Before long in this campaign he'd established himself as they guy to beat, and was edging clear almost inexorably even though his package wasn't at that stage always the class of the field in qualifying or in races. Then the second half of the year - aided by a change to the tyre spec - became a series of Clark-like demonstrations. Only major setbacks would have deprived him wins, and they never came. Minor setbacks seemed the most minor inconvenience. Seb time after time closed in on victories like a heat seeking missile. Of course, he was mathematically champion well before the season end. He was effectively so long before even that.

And the haughty records speak for themselves. Title number four and on the bounce, which can only otherwise be boasted by Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher; equalling Schumi's all-time mark of 13 wins in a season, which also vaults him up to fourth place in the all-time winners' list and does so with a better strike rate than those ahead (Seb has close to one win from every three Grand Prix starts); and then ending the season matching Alberto Ascari's long-entrenched record of nine Grand Prix wins in a row, a record long since considered so imperious as to have an untouchable, almost mythical, air. Vettel in his campaign of triumph took them all.

Further thoughts on the Brazilian Grand Prix

Webber times it perfectly
The most prominent of all of the goodbyes in Interlagos was that of Mark Webber, as he's off to drive Porsches in LMP1 from next year. And it said a lot about him that even in the cynical, fractious paddock this was met with something close to universal emphasis and poignancy. For lots of reasons I - like most - am sad to be losing Mark Webber from F1, both as a driver and man (I outline the reasons in more detail in what I wrote in Further Thoughts from the Silverstone weekend, when Webber announced that he was off).

Mark Webber - walking away at the right time
Photo: Octane Photography

Yet from Webber himself in Interlagos - while there was appreciation at his send-off - there were few tears. I instead sensed that Webber was entirely at ease with his decision to step away from F1; entirely prepared for it. And for that, I'm glad.

Webber has admitted that the Pirelli tyres and the resultant modern endurance-type F1 racing and persistent rubber conservation is not to his taste either in terms of satisfaction or results (it's ironic that he's off to endurance racing to be able to push again), telling The Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago:

'The young guys coming through don't know any different yet but it has been getting harder for me on Sundays. High-speed corners are one of my strengths but that's where you kill the tyres. It's so frustrating. The guys will come on the radio and say "Don't push. Slow it down." You just feel like there's a lot of stuff falling through the net in terms of what you could bring. Vettel is seriously handy, don't get me wrong, but guys like Lewis have been hurt. He just wants to race every lap. And this, at the moment, is just not working for him.'

Brazilian GP Report: Seb's dry run

We've been here before. Eight times on the spin before today to be precise. And sure enough not even the Interlagos venue's legendary capacity for mischief did anything to upset his confident, preponderant strut. Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix, and did so in familiar style: seizing control of the race early and never relinquishing it, nor ever looking like doing so. In the end, the only thing that was unexpected was that the anticipated rain didn't arrive - well, not properly anyway. Not that greater quantities likely would have stopped Seb.

Sebastian Vettel: rounding off a
triumphant year with another win
Photo: Octane Photography

And as seems to be a race-by-race occurrence at the moment a couple more all-time records went Seb's way today: both Michael Schumacher's mark of 13 wins in a season and Alberto Ascari's record of nine on the bounce - a record before now which always had an untouchable, almost mythical, slant - were matched.

It underlines that Seb is on a pedestal right now, and that his rivals have long since been counting down the days to the season end and to the big shifts in regulations for 2014, which send everyone back to base camp, to put them out of their misery. But there are reasons to think those may not scupper Seb much either.

Interlagos Qualifying: Come rain or shine

You begin to wonder if anything can keep Sebastian Vettel from the top of the order right now. We've scratched plenty from the list of potential possibilities of this in recent weeks; on today's evidence of Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying at Interlagos we can scratch rain too. Such precipitation came down during the session, as it has pretty ceaselessly since the cars first started to circulate the São Paulo track yesterday. But the outcome remained the same. Sebastian Vettel claimed pole and imperiously.

In spite of the rain, Sebastian Vettel
claimed another pole position
Photo: Octane Photography

Vettel as we know has entered one of those virtuous circles that we get in sport sometimes, that he's operating with supreme confidence, reinforcing joie de vivre and borderline contempt for any obstacles in his path, and today it all had its latest reward. Attacking the perfidious track in a way that no one else did; looking planted while all others twitched and felt their way tentatively. And once again his lap times were on another level: his best seven tenths of a second under the quickest of anyone else; more than a second under that of his team mate.

Perhaps only half a metre of snow would be sufficient to stop him...

Interlagos Preview: Seb on cloud nine?

You don't need me to tell you that for a good while now there’s been little to watch in F1 2013-style other than Sebastian Vettel's haughty preponderance. And as we stand before the season's final round it feels ever so slightly like the season's conclusion will be putting all of the Seb/Red Bull's rivals - long since having raised the white flag - rather out of their misery. Indeed it feels like the only thing that could put them out of their misery.

Sebastian Vettel looks set to continue
his run of wins, and a couple more
records will go his way if he does
Photo: Octane Photography

If it seems a while since Vettel was last beaten, that's because it has been. July to be precise, in the Hungarian round prior to the summer break. And now in Brazil yet another record lays vulnerable to Seb's run of success: Alberto Ascari's all-time mark of nine wins on the bounce, a record that for a long time had seemed as mythical and untouchable as the planet Magrethea. Seb in his extended spell of glory is all set to match it. He's also set to equal Michael Schumacher's high tide watermark of 13 wins in a season. And barring unusual occurrences surely he will.

But somewhere in there lies the rub, as if you're looking for a venue in which to avoid unusual occurrences Interlagos in Brazil is probably the last you'd pick. It has an intangible quality - always has - of being a place where things happen, from the sublime to the ridiculous. It has good claim to being the closest thing the sport has to the Bermuda Triangle.

History's examples run the gamut: Ayrton Senna's long overdue and highly emotionally-charged home victory of 1991, with just sixth gear remaining in the box, rain falling and shoulders spent; his follow-up win in 1993 when a freak rainstorm on the pit straight wiped out the dominant Alain Prost; advertising hoardings falling on the track in the 2000 qualifying session (one of which was hit by Jean Alesi's Sauber) which caused the session to be ended early; the madcap wet-dry race of 2003, wherein a freak river ran across the track at Curva do Sol, accounting for several cars, and Giancarlo Fisichella was an unlikely victor after a big crash involving Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso stopped the race ahead of time (and in what surely counts as an Interlagos special, Fisi didn't know about his win until a week later due to a timing glitch); Michael Schumacher's prodigious ascent through the field in his final race of his ‘first’ F1 career in 2006 after a gearbox problem in qualifying and then an early-race puncture sent him to the back, with the big finish of him putting the manners on his Ferrari replacement…; the mysterious technical problem that delayed Lewis Hamilton for almost a lap in 2007 and resulted in a freshman title slipping through his fingers, into the hands of the waiting Kimi Raikkonen; Lewis claiming the 2008 title for himself in the most dramatic of circumstances by passing a hobbled Timo Glock at the last corner, depriving Felipe Massa at home in the most heart-wrenching fashion; Nico Hulkenberg blitzing F1's frontrunners by claiming pole in 2010; and then of course last season’s corkscrew final act, which resulted eventually in Vettel seizing crown number three.

Austin Preview: Making good on the audition

Twelve months ago F1 as a sport had its most important audition in a long while. And whaddaya know, it only went and nailed it.

F1's final frontier. Its unfinished business. Its itch that it just can't scratch. Call it what you will, but it has applied to the sport's relationship with America for years and decades.

Austin's Circuit of the Americas is an impressive facility
Credit: pdbreen / CC

F1 says it has a world championship, and indeed no season-long annual sporting event can be said to have the same global expanse. It also is not in the least bit shy of following the money. And yet for a generation or more it somehow has failed to establish a proper foothold in the world's biggest economy; indeed for much of that time the sport's turned its back on the place altogether. Despite repeated and varied attempts - some of which were successful only to be abandoned; others bordering on the cringeworthy - the rewards of the US market has always eluded F1 one way or another.

Ten of the Greatest Drivers in F1 - a guest post by Maria Mcquire

Formula One is probably the most well-known and popular car race in the entire world. This series started in 1950; it is an international car race from the category of single seaters where 22 drivers and 11 teams compete for the fabulous trophies. There have been many great and fantastic F1 drivers since the start, but only a few can be the best. Here are a few details of some of the best F1 car drivers ever…

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost (and Thierry Boutsen)
after the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix
Credit: Angelo Orsi / CC

Ayrton Senna: He was a brilliant, ruthless, determined, fast and fascinating racer that Formula One has never seen the like of before or since. He himself accompanied a more professional approach to fitness and dedication to the sport. He was unquestionably the best driver ever in wet weather conditions. One only has to remember Donington in 1993 where Ayrton went from fifth to first before the end of the first lap!

Michael Schumacher: The unfashionable driver of F1, Michael Schumacher, considered as one the best F1 drivers by his constant wins, you either like or dislike. He won five titles with Ferrari during his time, in a seven-time world champion career.

Abu Dhabi GP Report: Wonderfully predictable

The tiny departure from the usual script resultant of yesterday's qualifying was corrected almost immediately. By the first turn we were rapidly back into a performance we've seen many times before: Sebastian Vettel out front; Sebastian Vettel in command. And, almost inexorably, an hour and a half later it was Sebastian Vettel: winner of the 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

We've been saying for a while that we're in one of those periodic spells - that all sports get into and not just F1 - wherein only the very unusual can deprive one of the competitors of victory; we indeed didn't get the very unusual in today's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and sure enough just as night follows day we did get the anticipated victory for Seb.

Abu Dhabi was just the latest of Seb's familiar triumphs
Photo: Octane Photography

The race for first place as mentioned lasted as long as turn one. Vettel - unexpectedly - missed out on pole position thanks in part to a small error on his final effort. But Seb reminded all in today's race that they cannot count on such faltering, however minor, becoming a regular occurrence. He took the lead at the start, pole man Webber slipped behind Nico Rosberg, and everything from that very moment on in terms of first place seemed mere formalisation. Yet even if Webber had led off the line, such was Vettel's command on race pace you feel that almost nothing would have deprived him of the win ultimately.

In that familiar way of his, at the end of lap one Seb was just shy of two seconds to the good, and the gap grew almost inevitably from there. Then it multiplied as those closest behind (a relative term) peeled into the pits early, emerging in among those stretching out their initial stint, with overtaking never straightforward on this Yas Marina circuit. By the time Webber, by now ahead of Rosberg, cleared them Vettel had pitted himself (rejoining still first, natch) and was close to half a minute up the road. And despite apparently spending much of the race trying to go slowly, judging by the radio communications with his engineer, Vettel won in the end by 30.8 seconds. This was no less than another rout.