New Grand Prix Times article: What does Nico trouncing Lewis tell us? Not much - it's a matter of chance

Three races into this season, and at the top the results could hardly be more stark. Nico Rosberg on a maximum three wins; his team mate Lewis Hamilton floundering with barely half of his points.

Photo: Octane Photography

And with this a few have sought to draw significance from it, continuing the sport's default of believing results must tell us something, at some point down the line. About what Nico is doing right or Lewis is doing wrong.

But in my latest article for Grand Prix Times I argue that such a view isn't necessarily helpful, as it reckons without that mysterious thing called random chance. That however much F1 rails against the idea Lady Luck does play a role. And in this case, most of what has gone wrong for Lewis in 2016 so far has in fact been outside of his control.

You can have a read here: http://www.grandprixtimes.com/news/id/11842

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Lewis Hamilton, Can He? Will He?

With a 36-point deficit in the Drivers' Championship, can and will Lewis Hamilton win his fourth title in 2016? Will Nico Rosberg's lady luck shine all season long? While Ferrari vs. Mercedes might seem to be a farce, Nico Rosberg vs. Lewis Hamilton is serious business, say Mithila and Kunal in this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

Apart from Hamilton's race notes, Rosberg needs to read and learn from his party notes. Burger King, like really? And we ask the question everyone wants to - are Hamilton's off-track activities making him lose focus on-track? He might not have anymore jokers left, but isn't he the joker himself?

APPLAUD! All 22 cars finished the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix, 3 different teams made it to the podium and Fernando Alonso finished his first full race of the season. APPLAUD!

Could Raikkonen and Ricciardo have raced to the podium had it not been for their opening lap issues? Also, did Mercedes try too hard to get Hamilton to test all of Pirelli's compounds in China? We tell you why Force India is a dream team as they 'follow their leader' and has Haas run out of 'beginner's luck'?

18 driver, 18 bills and 18 credit card payments - it seems that DUTCH is the flavour of the Formula 1 season. We also speculate why Raikkonen, Palmer, Magnussen and Haryanto missed the #racingunited dinner in China.

Finally, 22 minutes to dry a damp patch on the main straight? Whoever said that the Chinese are most efficient!

Tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 12)

Chinese Grand Prix review for Motor Verso - Stuck On Repeat

Photo: Octane Photography

Really I could have copied and pasted my review of the Bahrain race and used it again. The parallels between that one and the one in China just passed were spooky. Not least for Nico Rosberg who once again had his three nominal rivals with races compromised by the time of the first turn, meaning that even that early the race was his barring the unusual. And the unusual never arrived.

Also just like in Bahrain there was plenty to keep us entertained well behind the imperious Nico. Some fine comeback drives, and rather the soap opera between best-of-the-rest Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat.

I give my take on it all in my latest Motor Verso race review. You can read it here: http://www.motorverso.com/chinese-gp-2016-review-stuck-repeat/

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.

Chinese GP Report - Everything's coming up Rosberg

Ground-hog day, this one in China. It had the same winner, yet again. His third from three this year, and his whole sixth on the spin. And his charmed existence as seen throughout the season so far continued without a join. You'll know who I'm on about. The ubiquitous Nico Rosberg.

Everything went Rosberg's way yet again
Photo: Octane Photography 

In many ways today's Shanghai race simply was an extension of Bahrain's two weeks ago. First corner carnage behind him impacted all of Nico's other three nominal closest challengers, and this put the race into the palm of his hand. In a minor variation Daniel Ricciardo led him off the line this time, but on the soft tyres compared with Danny Ric's not-long-for-this-earth super-softs the Australian was was expected to clear out of Nico's way before long. He did so but under unfortunate circumstances as on lap three one of Ricciardo's rear tyres couldn't handle the excitement and went pop on the main straight (a consequence of debris apparently). Nico smartly took a lead he never was to lose.

From then it was a matter of ticking off the laps, smoothly extending his advantage, occasionally setting a fastest lap presumably to keep himself sharp. Only once, a handful of laps from the end, did he have a minor veer from his racing line groove. But that was your lot. Come the end he was a whole 37 seconds to the good. Yet another maximum was his.

Shanghai Qualifying - Back in the old routine

Today's qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix was one for old stories. Appropriate on a day that F1 returned finally to its previous qualifying system, plenty of long-established tales looked possible. And in the end the main one was that about Mercedes holding all of the aces, and that it plays them to full effect when it most matters. The oldest story of all.

Everything continues to come up Rosberg
Photo: Octane Photography

The first story of the day in Shanghai was one with a old whiff, well from 2014 anyway. That Lewis Hamilton for some reason cannot get a clean weekend this campaign. We knew in advance he'd get a five-place grid drop at least for this one due to having to replace his gearbox ahead of time, but in the qualifying session for him it got worse. Much worse. He didn't appear for a while due to engine woes, then when he did with six minutes of Q1 to go it transpired it was mainly done as there was little to lose and the problem was far from solved. He aborted after a lap as ERS problems had cooked his goose, and is consigned to start last tomorrow with a new engine, once again in damage limitation mode. It won't be much compensation to him presumably that it'll be entertaining for the rest of us watching him proceed through the pack.

"These things are sent to try us" he later mused philosophically, before adding looking ahead to the race while "you can overtake here, tyres don't last as well", but "it ain't over 'till it's over". As for his Mercedes? "It is quick".

Inside Line F1 Podcast - Vettel - Ecclestone, F1's CEO

Sebastian Vettel recently said that he fails to understand the 'selfie generation' and social media. This is possibly why he is 'most suited' to replace Bernie Ecclestone as F1's oh-so-important CEO, say Mithila and Kunal in this week's episode of the Inside Line F1 Podcast.

The leaked payment reports also indicated that McLaren Honda were paid nearly $82 million in 2015 - a tad too much to pay for entertainment alone! On that note, will Fernando Alonso miss racing in China too? Another chance for Stoffel Vandoorne to be the next Max Verstappen?

Honda announced that they will focus on 'power' in their 'power' units; a season too late? And we also bring to you our special feature - 'Hamming Around With Lewis Hamilton'.

After being humiliated by Fernando Alonso in public a few weeks ago, Johnny Herbert decided to strike back via a video starring his arch-rival, Lewis Hamilton.

Could the famous 'MSC' abbreviation be back in F1? Why the Chinese Grand Prix could be shorter? And finally, why Hamilton might have none or very few followers in China?

And btw, F1 now has a Tinder-type app for their Paddock Club guests. We tell you more, tune in!

(Season 2016, Episode 11)

Shanghai Preview: Mysteries of China

You'd be forgiven at this stage of the season for thinking that the F1 calendar is a little samey. And the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit that awaits us this weekend won't do a great deal to dispel the notion.

The vast, inimitable, Shanghai facility
CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/
w/index.php?curid=146360

Many of the characteristics will be familiar, particularly when compared with the previous round in Bahrain and with the one that follows in Russia. A Government-backed Grand Prix in a country that might be termed a coming economy; a round that appears more motivated by national promotion than of making a successful event per se; a squeaky-clean and towering Hermann Tilke-designed facility that at its first visit felt like a distinct stride on from what had been seen before. Even now indeed no other venue rivals the Chinese one for vastness - paddock occupants reckon they walk further in the Shanghai weekend than in any other.

And a bit-of-everything layout, with a long straight - underlining the theme of vastness China's is reckoned to be the longest in the sport - and a big stop at the end created with overtaking in mind, as well as a trademark Tilke fast esses part elsewhere. Like the Bahrain venue we've just been to as well this one arrived on the calendar in 2004, and a little like that one it's thought even with its bit-of-everything quality as among Tilke's less free-flowing, being more tight and technical.

New Motor Verso article: What’s Going On With F1 Qualifying?

Photo: Octane Photography

One way or another the 2016 F1 season so far has been the season of the qualifying session. Not for good reasons either. An excruciating new system was introduced, then after its excruciating nature was confirmed it was retained for another round nevertheless, and looked for a time that it might be retained for round three as well. Only in recent days, after any amount of wrangling, was the obvious done and it agreed to return to the 2015 system.

For Motor Verso I do my best to explain what it was all about. And no, despite appearances it wasn't actually all about qualifying. It wasn't simply that all involved were idiots either. Well, not entirely anyway.

You can have a read here: http://www.motorverso.com/whats-going-f1-qualifying/

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.

1982 and all that - is history repeating?

Nineteen Eighty-Two. For the historically-minded F1 fan the rather Orwellian air isn't inappropriate. Even in a sport rarely shy of providing notoriety it was a season that has strong claim to being its most notorious of all. It was possessed of almost everything, both highs and moreover desperate and extreme lows.

For extreme ill and some good, the 1982 F1 season
is possibly F1's most notorious
By Dijk, Hans van / Anefo / neg. stroken, 1945-1989, 2.24.01.
05, item number 932-2344 - http://proxy.handle.net/10648/
ad1aa58a-d0b4-102d-bcf8-003048976d84, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23244991

And was one of a sort that perhaps is being repeated now. To an extent at least. Thankfully the worst of the 1982 season's depths look unlikely to be replicated this time; as most probably will not the scaling of the higher peaks. But the family resemblance is there.

You'll be aware that F1 right now is in a state of civil war. That some political wrangle or other is at all points it seems elbowing into view. F1 in 1982 was just the same.

It even then as now had roughly the same protagonists, and literally the same in the case of Bernie Ecclestone. Though unlike now the warring factions then were Bernie and his FOCA organisation set against the FIA (or FISA at its sporting arm was then known) and particularly against its autocratic head Jean-Marie Balestre. Now Bernie and the FIA are allies, and they are allied against the teams. Again the rather Orwellian whiff is present - three 'superstates' of the governing body, commercial rights holder and teams in perpetual war, alliances shifting like water.

Top trophy winners in Formula One, by Aford Awards

Formula One racing is one of the most thrilling sports around. It's been a recognised sport for approximately 60 years now, where it has constantly developed into the nail-bitingly exciting sport we know today.

To the victor, the spoils
Photo: Octane Photography

As the sport has morphed and grown, so has the variety of its winners and notable drivers, with many of them becoming celebrities in their own right.

Of course, with sports comes winners, and with winners comes awards - particularly trophies. So, what is it about Formula One trophies that make them stand out from the crowd compared to other sports?

The history of Formula One trophies is a rich one; there's been that many winners and extraordinary efforts made over the last few years that it’s very difficult to only pick a select few.