US Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Lewis's Roundabout Route to Realisation

Here is my latest race review for Motor Verso, for last weekend's US Grand Prix at Austin.

Photo: Octane Photography

And what a weekend it was. So much so that not even the various all-time marks falling Lewis Hamilton's way with his latest championship clinched could get all of the attention. It started as the story of the hurricane, and us not getting a race at all looked a genuine possibility. But we did get a race, and the weather did its bit towards one that was enthralling and roller-coaster like, and one in which for much of the way even Lewis's title for this weekend anyway looked a long shot.

You can have a read of my review here: http://www.motorverso.com/us-gp-2015-lewiss-roundabout-route-realisation/

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.

Mexico City Preview - New, but far from new

This weekend we have our only new round of the season. But of course it's not actually new. Far from it. Further this ain't your usual parachuting into a raw territory with little motorsport heritage or support in that apparently habitual modern F1 way. Again, far from it.

There is plenty of support for F1 in Mexico
Photo: Octane Photography

This weekend indeed F1 returns to Mexico for the first time in 23 years, and this is a country with a strong and rich motorpsort previous as well as plenty of current-day support and enthusiasm. There right now is a Mexican driver in Sergio Perez and another one in Esteban Gutierrez who has one foot stepped about but is expected to step it back in shortly. The Haas team is to announce its second driver for 2016 this Friday. In Mexico. Read into that, um, what you will.

And Perez indeed beamed at the news that his home gig is to be re-established: "They've been really pushing for so many years, since I came to Formula One four years ago" he said last year. "The spirit of the fans is massive back home. It's great for my country…I'm just very proud and excited."

US GP Report: Land of the three

You know the one about not judging a book by its cover. Well today's US Grand Prix in Austin provided proof positive of its wisdom.

Lewis Hamilton indeed clinched his
third drivers' title in Austin
Photo: Octane Photography

Lewis Hamilton won out from his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg and with it confirmed his third drivers' title. It's a title that's looked inevitable for a while of course. Indeed you could make a case that it's looked inevitable ever since Lewis's imperious win in the season-opener in Melbourne. Whichever way you slice it it has been crushing.

Whichever way you slice it too Lewis's latest triumph ensures his place in the sport's pantheon if he was not there already. Three drivers' titles, only the tenth ever to do that, only the second Briton as well as the first of his nationality to win back-to-back championships. Only extreme churls will suggest this one at least, or much of his other success, wasn't deserved either.

More broadly the final top three in the Austin race of the Mercs with Lewis ahead followed home by Sebastian Vettel looked almost identikit for the 2015 season, but make no mistake there was nothing standard about how we got there today. Nor for much of today's race was there much standard, nor indeed inevitable-looking, about Lewis clinching his latest crown in the here and now.

Austin Qualifying - Order out of chaos

So after yesterday and all that F1 so far today has gone some way to salvage things. We had a qualifying session as (re)scheduled first thing on Sunday morning, or at least we had most of one. And one that did rather a lot to demonstrate in a way that couldn't be missed just what level of skill the F1 driver operates on.

Nico Rosberg mastered the conditions to take pole
Photo: Octane Photography

There was still rain around in Austin for the quali hour. Someone reckoned it had fallen for something like 28 hours solid. But it was lighter than before, and F1 cars could run although the track remained saturated and in places close to perilous.

But even with all of the uncertainty we yet again ended up with an all-Mercedes front row. Reminding us once again as Jackie Stewart for one often does that cars with the most grip in the dry also will likely have the most grip in the wet.

And as is also becoming a pattern in recent times it was Nico Rosberg who claimed pole position. That's now three poles in a row for him in a season wherein he'd only got one (also the one time he'd beaten his team mate) before the start of that run. It's all too late to save the championship but at least like the best captains he's going down with his ship. Which given the water around is a metaphor that seems particularly appropriate this time.

Austin Qualifying (or not) - The story of the hurricane

What a joke...I am convinced the US GP is cursed....

— Ben Hunt (@benjhunt) October 24, 2015

It had a depressing familiarity. First the qualifying start was delayed by half an hour. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then (hallelujah!) that if the weather didn't break quali would be 0900 tomorrow instead. Then eventually, at about 1600 local time, some three hours after the qualifying action was due to start, they gave up indeed to reconvene tomorrow morning.

The Austin weekend has been characterised by rain
Photo: Octane Photography

Why always America, as The Sun's Ben Hunt lamented? That most scared of prizes for the sport? Ten years on from Michelin-gate. Also in the land of the Dallas farce; the Las Vegas car park; the Phoenix ghost town; Watkins Glen running out of money; Long Beach and Indy lost to the sport's financial hard ball?

As for this time, as Bob Dylan might have had it, this is the story of the hurricane. The outer edges of Hurricane Patricia hitting the Austin Grand Prix weekend yesterday and today. Bringing with it vast quantities of rain and often of the horizontal variety. The first practice session on Friday did happen, albeit in the wet. The second was canned, due to lightning in the area and strict rules in America about requiring people (such as marshals) to work in such conditions.

Austin Preview: Getting it right

It will be no revelation to you that F1's previous round, that in Russia, is not one to win popularity awards. Not aside from those judged arbitrarily by Bernie Ecclestone at any stretch. This is for a number of reasons, as explored in my recent Grand Prix Times article. But cheek-by-jowl it's followed by a round that rather is at the opposite end of this particular scale. One which you will not hear a bad word spoken of. A round that demonstrates that modern F1 doesn't always get it wrong, not even with the outputs of its chief architect Hermann Tilke. This is the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

The Austin stop-off is a popular one
Photo: Octane Photography

And if the Sochi round's unpopularity is down to a few things in combination, Austin's star pupil status similarly is attributable to a multitude of factors brought together.

For starters possibly no other host ever, not even Adelaide, has given such an impression of being thoroughly delighted to have a Grand Prix; so determined to most the most of it and give a lasting impression. Possibly not even Adelaide has embodied a Grand Prix as much. Possibly it's a matter of size - being big enough to have the race but not so big to be just another event there; to be swamped. The Texan city has around one million inhabitants just as Adelaide.

Austin more broadly as a city charms even the sport's grizzled bunch. It is eclectic, outward-looking and lively, also as the self-styled 'Live Music Capital of the World' it's well used to putting on large events and giving visitors a warm welcome.

Magnussen's fate shows F1's unwritten rules

The life of most sports-people is one lived on fast forward. For them even in a successful career allowed to reach its full fruition the time elapsed between being a promising prospect and a past-it usually is less than the rest of us spend even as a school kid. It can be quite the disconcerting existence.

Kevin Magnussen has had to sit out this year, and
he's out of McLaren altogether for next
Photo: Octane Photography

But even within this for Kevin Magnussen the gap between rise and apparent fall has been breakneck. Rewind back only 18 months or so to the 2014 season-opener in Melbourne, and the Dane's freshman F1 race freshly as Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion. It looked like he had seized immediate next big thing status with a fast and flawless debut run to what became second place eventually. I for one thought too that there was a touch of Mika Hakkinen about the apparently imperturbable and monosyllabic blond Scandinavian out of the car and his ability to make a McLaren sing while in it.

But not long afterwards and almost without an intervening period he was thought by a few as a busted flush. Speed still was there, though not consistently and he struggled to eke out life from the modern brand of Pirellis like his team mate Jenson Button could. A creeping tendency as the season progressed to overdo it when he had other cars around lost him friends. Come the campaign's end and having totalled well under half of Button's points total, as well as being behind him on the qualifying match-up, he was the one moved aside to make way for the returning Fernando Alonso. Now a year of limbo on it has just been confirmed that he is out of McLaren altogether.

New Grand Prix Times article: Why, whisper it, I quite like the Russian Grand Prix

The second Russian Grand Prix of modern times has just happened, and it's fair to say that the Sochi event is one that does not command universal popularity.

"F1 Grand Prix Russia 2014 start lane" by premier.gov.ru. 
Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F1_Grand_Prix_
Russia_2014_start_lane.jpg#/media/
File:F1_Grand_Prix_Russia_2014_start_lane.jpg

This is for a number of reasons, some more legitimate than others. In my latest article for Grand Prix Times I explore these, as well as outline why I, despite all this and while it puts me very much in the minority, actually like the Russian Grand Prix.

I also look at a matter that was made obvious by the debut Russian race 12 months ago, and was hinted at by the latest one, that F1's problem of aerodynamics that don't allow cars to get near each other, at least without sticking plaster solutions such as gumball Pirelli tyres, has not gone away.

You can read the article here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/display/10793

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Russia vs. USA In F1 Too?‏

Congrats Mercedes for dominating and winning the 2015 Formula 1 Constructors' Championship. Congrats to Sergio Perez and Force India for a well earned podium finish in Russia. But this week’s episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast has much much more.

Mithila and I wonder if Vladmir Putin's interest in F1 in Russia puts Barack Obama under any pressure to match up at the upcoming GP in America. Is there a Russia vs. USA cold war developing in F1? (Read: F1 Teams, TV Black Outs And Bernie Ecclestone)

We also talk of Raikkonen's Maldonado-styled move on Bottas, Alonso's possible retirement in 2018, Sainz's luck at turn 13 in Sochi, Pirelli's disastrous PR skills and if making team radio private makes any sense. Tune in! (Season 2015, Episode 35)

The Inside Line F1 Podcast is hosted by Mithila Mehta and Kunal Shah. This Formula One podcast offers a unique humourous view on the sport. Follow us on Facebook and on Google+.

Follow on Twitter: Mithila Mehta and Kunal Shah.

Russian Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Repetition in Russia

Here is my latest race review for Motor Verso, for yesterday's Russian Grand Prix at Sochi.

Photo: Octane Photography

There were plenty of parallels with last year's debut race at this venue, though this time - thanks in large part to an awkwardly placed safety car period - there was a bit more entertainment out there. However just like last year there was little doubt over who the winner was to be, and from an early stage. That winner remained the same too.

You can have a read of my review here: http://www.motorverso.com/russian-gp-2015-repetition-russia/

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.