New Motor Verso article: F1 Is Right To Ask The Fans, But Needs To Keep A Few Things In Mind

Photo: Octane Photography

As you've probably noticed that F1 has suddenly discovered the fan's survey it seems, not least with the high profile one from the Grand Prix Drivers' Association released during the Monaco weekend.

In my latest article for Motor Verso I look at this shift and outline that while it's welcome, the sport needs to be wary of a few things too.

To an extent it was a perfect storm for me given that as well as my F1 knowledge (ho ho) I also have experience of working professionally in survey research. So hopefully I have something to offer...

You can have a read here: http://www.motorverso.com/f1-right-ask-fans-needs-keep-things-mind/

On Motor Verso you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out weeklong test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - A Strategy Of Errors

A special extra midweek episode of the Inside Line F1 podcast has landed. This time Kunal and Rishi discuss the various (surprising) proposals from the latest Strategy Group meeting, such as the reintroduction of refuelling, wider tyres and customer cars. It's entertaining listening as always, you can have a listen below.



Kunal has been writing on F1 for eight seasons, you can visit Kunal's website at: http://www.kunalsf1blog.com/ and you also can follow him on Twitter here.

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Here's the latest Inside Line F1 podcast. This time Kunal and Rishi look back on the astonishing Monaco Grand Prix, including some chat about the young phenomenon that is Max Verstappen, Jenson Button and McLaren's first points of the year and that pit call. You can have a listen below.



Kunal has been writing on F1 for eight seasons, you can visit Kunal's website at: http://www.kunalsf1blog.com/ and you also can follow him on Twitter here.

Monaco Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - The Two Sides of Monaco

Here's a nudge in the direction of my Monaco Grand Prix review for the Motor Verso site.

We all know the things that are associated with Grands Prix at Monaco - processions, brilliant dominance and the possibility for twists. What made this one stand is that it included just about all of them in a single afternoon.

You can have a read of my review here: http://www.motorverso.com/monaco-grand-prix-two-sides-monaco/

As mentioned these race reviews will be a permanent feature from me on Motor Verso this season, so do keep an eye out for them. Do check out the site too: on Motor Verso you'll find motoring news, car reviews and features - the team on the site carry out weeklong test drives of the latest cars - as well as photos and videos of the machines.

Maldonado baiting hits a new low

Forgive me for returning to a familiar subject of mine, that of Pastor Maldonado.

But I feel compelled as in Monaco last weekend he achieved something new, that surpassed even what had gone before. We know that by now Pastor gets no benefit of the doubt and is assumed to be at fault for every incident he's involved in. Well in Monaco we found out that Pastor gets no benefit of the doubt and is assumed to be at fault for incidents he's not involved in too. He doesn't even need to be anywhere near the incident in question it seems.

Sounds strange I know. But, stay with me, it happened.

On lap one of the Monaco race Felipe Massa reported car damage on his team radio (and this was relayed to us watching on via the world TV feed) and he indeed pitted at the end of that tour with a right-front puncture. The incident that caused this was never shown but somehow word got to the media that it was the result of a first corner collision with...Pastor Maldonado. David Croft in his Sky commentary said this for one, as did other media outlets.

Massa and Maldonado clashed at the first corner. Massa is in the pits and is already one lap down #F1onNBC

— F1® Racing on NBC (@F1onNBCSports) May 24, 2015

And of course with this 'news' some didn't need additional encouragement to dust down their trusty jibes.

Latest episode of A Racer's Experience - the Monaco Grand Prix

Here is the latest A Racer's Experience episode, in which I talk to Matt Nicholas about last Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix as well as look ahead to the Canada Grand Prix in a fortnight as well as at the revised F1 for 2017 proposed by the Strategy Group.

Our discussion starts at around 4m and 15 seconds below.



Also in this episode Matt talks to Conor Daly about his brief Indy 500 and to Adam Alexander about NASCAR.

You can also check out the other A Racer's Experience episodes here.

Formula 1 Is Cruel, by Kunal Shah

There was furore yesterday! Lewis Hamilton was robbed of a victory in the 2015 Monaco Grand Prix due to a 'miscalculation' by his World Champion team Mercedes – he finished third. A cruel joke on his motivational phrase – 'drive it like you stole it'! (Read: Drive It Like You Stole It)

A picture painted a thousand words on the Monaco podium
Photo: Octane Photography

Today, the furore continues on social media. Ardent Hamilton fans accused Mercedes and even cited that this was 'fixed' to let the local lad (Nico Rosberg) score his third successive home win. Blah! If Formula 1 is cruel, its fans can be even crueller on social media! (Read: Mercedes Wants A Blonde On Top)

Hamilton should've won, there's no denying that. Did he deserve to win? The answer to that depends on the how you interpret the word 'deserve'. He was the fastest driver in Monaco and did deserve to win. (Read: Did Bernie Call Mercedes…?)

But then there's Rosberg – the driver who makes the most of his luck, in Monaco and otherwise (all right, 2014 Abu Dhabi GP notwithstanding). But Formula 1 is cruel. What should've been a regulatory race to the finish turned sour when Hamilton and Mercedes over-thought their need for new tyres and reacted to it. (Read: Formula 1 Is Funny)

Monaco GP Report: All about Monaco...

When one says the word 'Monaco' to an F1 fan several things no doubt spring to mind. Even over and above the usual slightly wearing stuff about posers on yachts and ostentatious wealth. And in terms of what we associate on track with Grands Prix around the Principality we got just about all of them in a single afternoon today.

For much of the way Lewis Hamilton had the Monaco
Grand Prix in the palm of his hand
Photo: Octane Photography

First off, the stuff we know about. For much of the way we got the slightly tepid entertainment we've grown to expect here. And with it something else we've seen plenty of times through the famous circuit's confines of the guy out front looking masterful with the race at his mercy.

Today that man was Lewis Hamilton. Leading into the first turn here is thought to be about 95% of ensuring the win and for Lewis, who managed that after his fine pole yesterday, for much of the way it looked 100%. At least. Immediately he cleared off from team mate Nico Rosberg in P2 and Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in P3, who ran as a pair throughout, and did so decisively. He was 0.8 seconds away at the end of the first tour, 2.4 after five. Around there it hovered for a while (Lewis apparently managing a brake problem for a time), then when they hit traffic Lewis made yet more hay, and come lap 25 his lead looked an unbeatable eight seconds plus. It stayed of that order after all made what we assumed was to be their only tyre stops.

Such is Monaco's way it looked all over bar the shouting. But Monaco has another way. A flip side. And everyone - especially one assumes Lewis - was sharply reminded of it before this Grand Prix was out.

Monaco Qualifying: Deja vu denied

So there were no repeats. He made sure of that.

Entering this Monaco Grand Prix weekend plenty it seemed were determined to talk about what happened 12 months ago. Nico Rosberg winning the oh-so important pole position here, aided at least in part by a trip down an escape road at the death while top of the times meaning no one - including most pointedly his team mate Lewis Hamilton - could improve. And oh how we heard about it afterwards.

Lewis Hamilton made sure that history didn't repeat
Photo: Octane Photography

And heading into the crunch part of today's qualifying session there was a creeping sense of deja vu. Just like last year Lewis started the weekend looking serene, but as Saturday went on Nico was showing signs of creeping ahead. In morning practice Nico was the quicker of the two silver cars and then in qualifying itself he topped everyone in Q1 and Q2 - Lewis periodically it seemed having reason to be dissatisfied with his tyre pressures. Just like last year too the pole battle turned out to be a private affair for the Mercedes.

Then as if to provide a flashing arrow for those who hadn't quite picked up on it all, at the end of Q2 Nico got his braking wrong at St Devote and had another exploration of one of the Principality's escape roads...

But Lewis wrenched the whole thing back when it really mattered. In the first runs of Q3 his time was 0.136 under that on his team mate. And then when they made their second efforts Nico in effect surrendered by again getting his braking wrong at the St Devote and abandoning his lap due to the time lost. The pole belonged to Lewis but he saw no harm in adding a coup de grace of taking another two tenths off his mark.

Monaco Preview: Hey ho, silver

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

Despite everything, there's nothing quite like Monaco
Photo: Octane Photography

What is it with the fraternity's annual stop-off and its apparent 'jewel in the crown' status? There are so many reasons to dislike Grands Prix around the Principality. If you're to be critical the Monaco round is an anachronism. If you're to be very critical, it's an absurdity.

Narrow, bumpy, sinewy. Nelson Piquet once declared famously that its challenge is like trying to ride your bicycle around your living room. The cars never are allowed close to their full potential around its confines and that has been the way for decades. No-one can pass here, and that's been the case ever since the insertion of the 'swimming pool section' (apparently to give more room for grandstands...) in 1973. By now, had the Monaco Grand Prix never existed then suggesting to establish it would be an act considered something close to certifiable.

It doesn't get much better off the track either; all cramped and claustrophobic as well as that the event attracts various ostentatious posers who in all probability don't care much for the sport other than in that one weekend of the year.

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