#was there really an f1 career to destroy in the first place?

[httpiastri]

Listen I’ve got no issues with Franco and not even that many with Williams, but it’s a confusing move to me. They’ve given Franck a chance for 9 races, but they can’t give him a seat for the next 2? Years minimum. So he’s either got to step back to f2 or go into a reserve role or pray someone else picks him up but given how shit the car seems to be, can he do enough to make other teams look at him?

Like, open seats wise, merc will take Kimi if they’re putting a rookie in, and so Uber would likely go with Zane or bortoletto if they’re willing to step out of their academy. RB have too many juniors to choose from that taking franco would be a slap in the face to anyone in their academy.

Idk like it’s just a confusing decision to me. I’m all for giving young drivers a chance, but idk I just don’t see a way this leads to a longstanding career. Very few drivers take their second (and maybe third) seasons out and then manage to come back. it's just too competitive. Idk I’m just worried Williams is about to destroy the career of another of its juniors by pushing them up to f1 too soon with no real plan but I’m probably exaggerating

yes definitely a strange move in a lot of ways!! i sadly dont see a seat opening up for him anytime soon in williams nor in any other team, which sucks. but that's the way f1 goes! they only have seats for the top top drivers and that means that tons and tons of young talents wont ever get to race a single f1 race. so for franco to be signed for nine whole races is something i think he's super grateful for, even if it doesnt lead to anything!! because to be fair, even before this, it wasnt really looking up for the williams juniors. now i guess it's a race between him, zak and luke for a seat whenever carlos or alex decide to move on… good luck boys 🫡

[cobraonthecob]

it's not something drive to survive started (though that show loves those narratives because that is drama central). sports have been looking for their next young talent since like forever (due to most sports being so physically demanding that if you are really talented, then you have to debut as a teen you likely have to stop your professional career in your mid 20s because your body can't keep up [or you could just have a mediocre career all your life or do it as a hobby, but that's boring], and that's assuming you're not in a sport like figure skating that breaks you in two years and dumps you for the next young talent [content warning/trigger warning for described state-sanctioned child abuse and eating disorders]) and motorsport isn't immune from it even if motorsport gives surviving drivers a very long career

anyways, the overall tl;dr is that if a rookie underperforms, they get dropped and find another motorsport discipline. most drivers who leave f1 usually go do endurance, indycar, nascar, formula e, or super formula. it's also a matter of being lucky enough to sign onto the right team at the right time: either you join a midfield team when they're great (like yuki in his debut year with the at02), or a midfield team who starts shit, but then figures their shit out (like mclaren in 2023 or liam when he got to reap the rewards of nyck's and yuki's contributions to upgrading the at04) during the course of the season or a strong team gets an extremely talented driver at the right time (lewis in his debut year beat fernando alonso on countback, five 2nd places to fernando's four, earning him p2 in his rookie year). sometimes the stars align for somebody really talented, and sometimes they're just like 'eh, you've got better things to do in this motorsport discipline here'

sebastian vettel joined the grid when he was 19 (in 2007), and then redbull got very invested in finding a young talent before the other teams did, and they struck gold with max (also because of max there was a rule in place to keep everyone under 18 out of an f1 team until toto really wanted his own max verstappen and found antonelli). the reason why there was a carousel of max teammate's after daniel left for renault was because redbull managed to start building cars that could really challenge for the WDC and WCC, and in order to snap up both, you can't put all your eggs in a max verstappen basket

you have to make sure the other driver can be a step above the other team's second drivers. in 2021, even though max was awarded the wdc, the wcc went to mercedes because valtteri was more successful at scoring higher points than checo. that's the interesting nature of formula 1, where it's two competitions in one where you have to be better than your teammate, but your teammate has to be better than another team's second driver

now the problem was, pierre just didn't mesh well with the car, and was dropped in favor of alex, a rookie who was doing better than kvyat (who was dropped for max, so it would make no sense to swap pierre for the guy redbull dropped for max). they gave alex a little bit longer time to adapt due to the fact that he was a rookie, but after 2020, with checo having lost his seat at racing point but with a race win where in the first lap he was p20, alex was dropped from the line-up as redbull realized that no one in their junior team was remotely ready (as yuki would be debuting in 2021) to handle the pressure of being max's teammate, and instead have been using checo since checo had been in the sport just as long as daniel had

with nyck (i'm assuming that's the nick you're referring to and not nicholas latifi), the issue was that he was a 28 year old f1 rookie who insisted he wasn't really a rookie and was primed to destroy yuki (which is old for athlete standards) only for everyone to find out that the at04 was the worst car at the start of 2023 alongside with daniel being seatless and making the prodigal son and coming back to redbull. now, i don't claim to fully know the details of what's going on behind the scenes, but daniel has stated that 'going back to redbull would be a fairy tale ending for his career' and there was no way redbull would just drop checo for a driver who got thrashed by a driver whose career started in 2019 vs daniel's 2011 (daniel was also paid millions not to drive for mclaren lol). so with a struggling 'not a rookie and i'm ready to thrash yuki tsunoda' nyck de vries and redbull wanting safety nets in place as checo's form dipped that season, they put daniel in until he broke his hand and liam stepped in and everyone went 'where the FUCK were you hiding this one????'

now vcarb's stuck in a dilemma for that second seat lmfao. you have daniel, whose career has been dipping since he left redbull (though he occasionally has flashes of the old daniel, where he has gotten a podium and a race win before that disastrous 2022 year) but he has been in the sport since 2011 and has been able to attract very strong sponsors (he's why we have that title of visa cashapp rb). but now you have liam, who scored p9 at a track he's never been at before, and one of the toughest tracks on the calendar, and is the new face of the grid

now the narrative is no longer keeping the older drivers, because if you venture onto social media, you will see an influx of people ask why drivers like valtteri or hulkenberg are still around (you are only as good as your last five races, even if you're a 10x grand prix winner or a consistent strong midfield driver, though this mentality is very absent when it comes to fernando, though i partially blame that on fans hating lance so much they actually do their research OR they are fernando fans and just want one more victory for fernando, so they turn all their hate onto lance when it comes to that other seat in aston martin). now fans push for more young talent, especially because there's a long line of f2 champs who didn't get a seat

or you're guanyu, who did get p3 in the standings in his graduate year and was unlucky to get the promotion over rookie champion oscar piastri (despite the fact that if oscar had a free shot at alfaromeo, he would currently be languishing in that paint can on wheels) and white fans have heart attacks over a person of color scrapping every bit of advantage they can get to make it to formula 1 (because guanyu moved to europe at 12/13 in order to even have a shot at the higher formulae). guanyu is now currently trying to get that cardboard box disguised as an f1 car onto the grid, and yet people are clamoring for theo pourchaire or whatever other sauber driver they have to be a part of sauber next year, even though valtteri is also struggling with this car. what a rookie is going to do is only get the fandom's ire when they can't resurrect a fossil

with logan, he was williams's top scoring junior driver in f2 (in his first and only f2 season, he was p4 in the standings) and with williams saying farewell to nicholas latifi and nyck de vries (disastrously) choosing alphatauri, williams chose to pull in one of their own academy drivers rather than felipe (who is part of aston martin's driver academy but is the champion of f2). williams's problem is that the car is pretty awful for a rookie to drive (2022's car was so bad that they only specialized in straightline speed, which is why that car was so successful at monza and nyck got extremely lucky that alex got appendicitis then + not at any other circuit, otherwise he probably would've been like jack aitken [stepped in for george who stepped in for lewis at sakhir 2020, didn't place anywhere near the points and has now moved onto other motorsport disciplines]), which is why you see alex and logan having weird crashes because their car was like 'this is too much, fuck everyone, bye'.

which becomes a nasty cycle: none of the top teams want to sign a rookie because they don't want to deal with expensive crashes and no big name sponsor to help foot the bill (i have not seen ferrari sign on a rookie and redbull literally has vcarb to dodge that problem), but that means the midfield teams have to be the ones to get rookies on the teams in the first place, even if that car is a trash can on wheels like the 2021 haas, 2022 williams, 2023 alphatauri, or the 2024 sauber. then, when rookies aren't performing well, it's off to the next rookie even if that rookie will do just as badly

I feel like I’m F1, when the teams see a younger driver that’s good there too eager to try and get them for the upcoming season and rush them into F1.

Also I feel like it’s been happening since when DTS came out. It happened with Pierre, Alex, Nick, Logan.

Maybe it’s just the pressure of trying to do so well because of how they did in the F2 and such, but F1 also comes with challenges that a tough🤷🏽‍♀️

So now, I’m kinda worried for these new drivers coming into F1 because if they don’t give their teams the results they want, what’s going to happen??

What’s y’all thoughts?

[vro0m]

vro0m’s rewatch - 138/310

2014 British GP

Huh, Lewis is on a plane?

Uhhhh…

He just jumped from the plane.

And that's how he gets on track. Or as he says so himself "and that's how you make an entrance!" 

"I can't even tell you how much fun that was," he adds.

Quali report. It was very wet and then sunny. The Williams, who had the frontrow locked in the last race, were both out in Q1. The Ferraris also struggled, Raikkonen being out at the wrong time and going wide in the rain while Alonso spun. Marussia, on the other hand, got both cars in Q2. Bianchi got the team's best ever qualifying with 12th, Chilton was 13th. For some reason, in Q3, Seb didn't go out on track while the track was dry. Most cars went back in as the rain started falling again. Both Toro Rosso drivers and Daniel ended their quali there. Lewis was then on pole. He thought he'd done the trick and let Nico through and aborted his own last lap (that sounds like a rookie mistake my boy). However, the last part of the track dried out faster than the rest to everyone's surprise, and Hulkenberg went fastest in the last few seconds, then Seb did, and then Nico. Lewis ended up 6th. Well learn your lesson there's really no excuse to not push until the end and being that cocky in such a tight WDC battle. Your own fault.

He looks shocked.

He says he "obviously" did not expect the track to dry that fast.

He's not in the mood to talk. "I don't really have anything to say to you at the moment so…" 

During the parade of course he's happy about the crowd and the fans. Coming here is like it's the first time and seeing the support and it seems there's more people every year. 

Of course, given it's the British GP, we get a segment about Lewis. He talks about his karting origins. He says they'd show up at the track with his dad and they were nobodies. He was 8 years old. His dad would spend all his free time during the week preparing the kart and making it look good. "Then I'd come and destroy it," he laughs.

They’re at the Rye House kart raceway, with David Coulthard. That's where he started his career. Coulthard says he himself used to come here 14 years before Lewis was born. So it's basically been here forever. Lewis says the place has changed a lot and they've done a great job with it but the track is still the original one. Coulthard asks if Lewis has the same warm passionate feeling when he thinks about his karting career than when he thinks about his F1 career. He says he does. He says the karting days were the best. You think you're going fast then all these guys in faster cars go past you out of nowhere. He says one guy hit him on the inside of turn 1 and sent him into the wall. He smashed his helmet and face on the steering wheel. He had a nosebleed.

It was the day before his first ever race. "I got pushed around a lot when I was younger but I gave just as much back," he says.

Coulthard says they should go out there and he'll show him some of his skills.

Lewis says "you haven't been in touch with Nico recently have you?" They laugh. Coulthard asks if he thinks he's part of some conspiracy to take him out. Lewis jokingly shrugs. "Maybe, maybe, I gotta be careful!" 

So they race each other and there's loads of giggles. He's really happy karting. "I've always been known as a late braker," he says. It's because his dad used to watch where the best racers braked and made Lewis brake even further than them. He often ended up in the pond that was on the track while he learned how to brake late. 

At first Coulthard was in front. At some point Lewis overtook him and then let him in front again. Now he's back leading and Coulthard is starting to struggle. "Come on! Drive, man!" Coulthard pushes but skids around. Lewis giggles. "Damn nearly crashed." I swear I haven't heard him laugh and genuinely enjoy himself so much in my life. That's the happiest I've seen him so far. And it's not doing F1. 

He meets the kids from the karting school. He talks with them. 

Oh and here we go. 

"I just remember being with Nico and we were just always just talking about, you know. just how cool it'd be one day to be teammates in Formula 1, that'd be crazy!" He says it was all a fantasy at the time. 

They raced with the kids as well and some of them were going for it, he says, and some of them were more shy, and they laugh as one of them even overtook Coulthard. 

A girl asks Lewis who was his toughest competitor so far. Guess his answer? It's always the same. Fernando Alonso. 

He says he’ll never forget winning his first British GP and how special it is there, both because it's his home race and because of the history. Oh. We see old footage of Coulthard and Lewis.

They've known each other for a very long time. Coulthard jokes that some of these kids are bigger than he was when they first met. 

On the grid Niki says Lewis is "highly motivated". "Let's wait and see what he can do!" He also says they're on different tyre strategies. Interesting. Weird thing to say before the start of a race… 

Oh no. 

Noooo. Come on. 

On the way to the grid there was worrying team radio from Lewis asking about his brakes. Cut to an image of him stranded in the pit exit with smoking brakes indeed. He asked the team if there was a problem but the journalist also says he then smiled at her and Eddie Jordan as he was walking away from the grid and seemed relaxed. Well, I'm not. 

Formation lap 

And they're racing! 

Oh wow, great start from Jenson who started 3rd on the grid (!). He immediately passed Seb, who started 2nd. Hulkenberg (4th) slots behind him and is also ahead. Maybe it's rather that Seb has had a bad start. And here comes Lewis! He's wheel to wheel with Seb! (Yellow flags?) Oooh did they touch? (The yellow flags are not for them but Seb made a little move to push Lewis off track.) Lewis is ahead anyway and there's a crash behind them! It's Raikkonen! OHH MY GOD. it's a big one and he's taken some cars with him! Yeah he wiped out Massa. Safety car is out immediately. Oh no. Massa turns around to try to get back on track and hits Raikkonen lost tyre that was stranded. Is Raikkonen okay? Oh… that's bad. He's out but he's limping, supported by a marshal. He's clearly hurt. It's a red flag. Let's see what happened. 

Raikkonen goes wide in the corner and loses control of the car as he joins back. He spins and hits the barrier and gets bumped back onto the track. Massa lost control of his own car and spun actually luckily because he was gonna t-bone Raikkonen. He must have made a sudden move to avoid him and that's why he spun. Then instead the only contact that happened was between his rear left and Raikkonen's front wing. It could have been way way worse. Oh yeah. Brundle points out what happened is as Raikkonen joined back he hit a bump that made him lose the rear and that's why he started spinning. Good catch. 

Unfortunately, because the red flag happened before the first lap was completed, they're gonna restart. So everything that has happened until now is null. Everybody will restart in their original grid position.

Later in the redflag Hulkenberg is told the race will restart behind the safety car. 

Max Chilton entered the pitlane after the race was red flagged so now that's under investigation. Ultimately he gets a drive through penalty. 

News about Raikkonen : the spokesperson only says things we already know at first. It was a big hit but we've seen him walk out so that's already good news. Then he says the first reports stated that his ankle was where he was hurting most. Checks are underway. "But all in all for now he seems okay". 

At some point in the red flag, they talk with Anthony Hamilton. He says it's been a bit strange this weekend so far for Lewis. He was well prepared, with good pace. And it didn't go as they expected. He's asked how he's been after quali. Anthony agrees that he was devastated. "The thing with Lewis is he's real, you know?" he says. "What you see is what you get. There's no faking it in this business, you're either gonna be the best driver and if you're the best driver, you know, you're gonna have a personality around you that makes you want to be the best all the time." He says you can't get out of the car and pretend to feel the opposite that you do when you're like that. "And it's a difficult job, difficult job. Last night was tough for him." The journalist asks what he sees as a father : a son under pressure or a son figuring out how he can get back on level terms with his team-mate. He says he doesn't see Lewis under pressure. "We started on the backfoot" and him saying ‘we’ makes me feel so many things. And they've been chasing ever since. He says the problem is when you chase, sometimes you chase a bit too hard, and he thinks sometimes you're better off doing your own thing. "And that's the only advice I would ever give Lewis, is just say 'look, just go out and do your own thing', cause the cream will rise." The journalist asks if "he's needed [his] shoulder more than usual over the last couple of weeks". (I get a flashback image of him holding Lewis after Abu Dhabi 2021.) Anthony says no. "He's a grown man, he knows his business, he's got a great management team behind him." (What an amazing thing to hear him say after everything they went through after Lewis decided he didn't want him to be his manager anymore.) He adds his managers are doing a great job for him. "You know we're the family, and it's nice to have your family around every now and then and that's what we've come here to do." Well, that was a lovely interview. Crofty adds that Lewis told him last night that he would spend his evening with his mom. Cute. 

The drivers are getting ready to go again now. 

So here they go again, under safety car, in an unclear order. Okay. It's Nico, Jenson, Magnussen, Lewis, Seb, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Kvyat, Bottas, Bianchi. So not the starting order at all, in the end. Massa and Chilton are DNF because of the damage due to Raikkonen's crash.

The safety car comes in at the end of the second lap, and here they really go again! 

Valtteri overtakes Kvyat for P8. Lewis is attacking Magnussen. He's halfway up to him on the straight but has to back off in the corner but Magnussen goes wide and Lewis is ahead! P3! Valtteri overtakes Ricciardo for P7. Nico sets the fastest lap. Lewis is closing on Jenson! And it's a done deal, P2. Alonso gets himself up in P10. And Valtteri keeps going, he overtakes Hulkenberg. He goes a bit wide and locks up but he's still ahead. At the front, the gap is 5 seconds. And we learn Lewis' engine blew up in FP2 and he didn't get to do race runs so he's only going off of Nico's data today. There's a close battle for P7 between Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Kvyat and Alonso. And DRS is enabled. Alonso overtakes Kvyat for P9 in a few beautiful moves over a few corners. Ricciardo attacked Hulkenberg but couldn't make it so here comes Alonso, P8. Lewis is losing time over Nico, 5.5. And Alonso is all over Hulkenberg now. It won't be long. Oh ho ho, but he's now under investigation for being out of grid position "on original start". Well well well. Ted says he's seen pictures and he's a clear half a car ahead of his box. Anyway he's past Hulkenberg, in P7. 

We hear Raikkonen's impact was 47G. Brundle reminds us that the medical alert in the car that triggers automatic medical check up is set for 25G. For reference. 

Lewis is still losing over Nico. Ricciardo attacks Hulkenberg, who goes very wide. And here it is, Daniel up in P8. It's lap 10.

And Gutierrez is out on the gravel and it's a DNF. Yeah he ran into Pastor Maldonado, or the other way around, idk. Maldonado jumped on his tyre btw he must have felt it through his spine. Yellow flags. Seb pits from P5. He's out in P11. The gap is down to 4.8. Alonso gets a 5 seconds stop and go penalty for the start infringement. Bottas overtakes Magnussen for P4. Meanwhile the gap to Rosberg is down to 3.7 already. And Valtteri overtakes Jenson for P3! Bono tells Lewis he's the fastest man on track while Nico's engineer tells him to push hard now. 2.5. And here you go. The journalists were wondering when it'd come. "It's hammertime". Nico is in the pits. A 2.7 stop, he's back out on another set of mediums. He's out in P2, 16 seconds behind Lewis. 

It's lap 20. Nico says he has gearbox problems on the downshift. Lewis is losing some of his advantage by not coming in. He needs to pit. Nico is told they're looking at the problem. And Ricciardo overtakes Hulkenberg for P8. Lewis is still not stopping and everyone is surprised by that, including me. It's stupid. Not coming in never works. Lewis says his tyres have started to drop off. The gap is down to 14 something seconds now. Lewis is told one more lap. Alonso is closing on Jenson for P4. And Lewis pits. And it's a slower stop again, 4.1. Seriously what's that about? He gets the hard tyres. Ahhha wait. They talked about splitting strategies. Nico went from mediums to mediums so we know he'll stop again. Might Lewis be trying to one stop the race? He almost went halfway through the race on his first stint with mediums didn't he? Is he trying to go to the end on these hards? Mmmh. I don't know how I feel about that. Brundle thinks he'll do a short stint on these and then change back for fresh mediums. Idk. Seb is closing on Magnussen for P6, and he's ahead! We're halfway through now. On the radio, Lewis says "don't worry about the pit stops guys, but let's get a good one next one okay?" So first of all I think they should worry about the pit stops because they are consistently shit, it's not a one time thing, it's time to worry about it now and second of all does that mean Brundle is right and he is indeed going to stop again? Alonso pits. He serves his 5 seconds penalty and gets back out in 9th. Lewis is only 5.3 seconds behind Rosberg and catching him at the moment. Rosberg sets the fastest lap but Lewis immediately takes that from him, going NINE TENTHS faster on HARD TYRES?! Jesus fucking christ. That's the gap already down to 4.5 in like. Half a lap. Unbelievable. 4.1. 4. Alonso overtakes Hulkenberg for P8. And by the time we're back to the lead, it's 2.6?! I can't believe what I'm seeing. Why would Lewis pit again for mediums in these conditions? 2.1! Like I feel like I'm not conveying this enough but I'm literally writing this continuously, there's no wait time between these comments, the gap is reducing faster than I've ever seen a gap reduce. It's unreal. He's truly gaining 0.5 in a matter of a couple of seconds, like, in maybe 2 or 3 corners. I've never seen this before in this rewatch. If I was Rosberg I would be sweating out of my ass. He complains about the upshift at turn 8 again. He’s slowing down. Lewis gets ahead. Nico is stuck in fifth gear and he asks for his team to just get him to the finish line. He's not in fighting condition. That also explains how very fast Lewis was catching him. Yeah. Nico is going 60km/h now. He's going off, and rejoins, tries to reset things on his steering wheel, is given instructions, he's on the grass, yellow flags, DRS disabled, he comes to a stop, on lap 30, it's over. 

Rosberg is still fumbling with his steering wheel. A marshal kneels down next to the car and talks to him but he gestures him away. No. He took the steering wheel off and puts it back on. The marshals rock the car back and forth but that doesn't change anything. That's it. He finally resigns himself. Bono tells Lewis to look after the car, and that Nico has had to stop. Essentially you can relax, you're gonna win, as long as you don't overdo it. He's 24.8 seconds ahead of Bottas anyway. He slows down a bit indeed and coasts. There's 20 laps to go. Nicolas is there too of course we see him watching in the garage. Valtteri pits for hards and comes back out in P3, now 41 seconds behind Seb. DRS is enabled again. They probably will pit once more right? They have plenty of time to do so now. And Valtteri overtakes Seb for P2. Seb pits right after. He's back out on mediums 0.3 seconds ahead of Alonso. Dangerous situation lol. And he gets overtaken indeed. He's not giving up though. He'll come back at him for sure. Yep. Yep yep. Here he comes. Here he comes… He's ahead! NO! He's not. Alonso holds on to his position! Seb complains over the radio. "He can't do that, I would have crashed into him!"

It's lap 40. Lewis says his tyres are good. Now Crofty thinks they might indeed go to the end on these as they're not in danger anyway. But he does pit. It's still slow, 3.4, but who cares at the moment, he's still 20 seconds ahead of Valtteri, with 10 laps to go. Seb attacks Alonso again but can't make it. Seb complains he didn't leave space again. Love, I hate Alonso but that's what racing is about actually. Alonso's team says "we are reporting track limits to the race direction". Tsssk. They're fighting off track now. Crofty reminds us it's Alonso who's been shown the black and white flag for not respecting track limits at the beginning of the race. A little bit later we see again Alonso go all four wheels out. Seb : "And another one". Oh my god again, Seb gets ahead but Alonso defends and keeps his spot. Again! They're wheel to wheel, for so long! None of them is backing off. But Seb has the inside line at the end of the straight and this time, it's done. 5 laps to go. He's still yelling over the radio. "He did the same thing again, he can't do that! If I don't move out of the way, he (inaudible) off the track!" When I say yelling he's properly yelling btw. 4 laps to go, it's Alonso yelling now. I don't understand anything except that he's talking about DRS. A bit later he says "I need to get past him (inaudible) immediately." Crofty says he still thinks that he should be given the place back for some reason. Delusional. Apparently he says Seb got the DRS at the start of all of that because he went wide or something? I don't get it. It's ridiculous. 3 laps to go. Oh he says he gained an advantage by going off track essentially. Ted says he keeps ranting over the radio saying Seb used DRS illegally where he shouldn't have. Mmmh. Ted says he doesn't even think it's possible in that he doesn't think you can activate the DRS out of the DRS zones and without the detection etc. Jenson is now one second a lap faster than Daniel, who might not be able to keep his P3. 2 laps to go. Oh no. Seb says to check the brakes because he can smell something burning. Oof. Come on not after all of that… but it might be coming from somewhere else as Maldonado's car is smoking intensely. He goes off track, and that's another DNF. Jenson is 2 seconds away from Daniel. Lewis starts his final lap as Bono tells him to be careful in certain corners as there might be some oil after Maldonado stopped.

And it's the end of the race! 

Lewis WINS the British GP for the second time in his career! Valtteri is P2 and the fight for P3 is ongoing but it's Daniel who crosses the line first, ahead of Jenson.

"You can't touch this Lewis, home grand prix win! Beautiful work, lap it up, boy," says Bono, in a really breathy voice that would make all fanfic writers lose their minds. "ENGLAND!" answers Lewis in sing-songy tone before he starts chuckling. "What a great feeling guys! I couldn't be happier, I'm sorry about yesterday but fantastic job today, this weekend, and as always and thank you s–" The comm cuts abruptly.

Let's just take a second to appreciate Valtteri's very very nice ass. Look at it. So round.

My god Valtteri is looking at him like he's in love with him already. (Sorry i have no idea why this gif is so fast and I’m too lazy to redo it rn).

He's emotional. I love him, he's so sensitive. 

Valtteri asks what happened with Nico. Lewis hums. The Merc representative says gearbox problem.

Coulthard says it's Lewis 5th win of the season, equal to the number of wins he had in his 08 championship year, and asks him about his emotions. He says it's very mixed at the moment (?) but he's seen everyone cheering them on for the whole race, he says that carried him on. DC asks what he felt when he saw Nico had issues. Lewis says he got quite a good gap at the start and he tried to just look after the tyres but after that he used them to catch him. And then he went on the hards and was catching him a second a lap, he couldn't believe he had that kind of pace. But he says obviously you never wanna see your team-mate fall behind and they wanted another 1-2, but at the end of the day he really needed this result so he's grateful for it. He's now 4 points behind in the WDC. The crowd chants his name as they leave the podium. 

In the post race interview, the journalist says he won the first time here July 6, 2008 and now he won it again July 6, 2014. How does he feel? He says he didn't realise the date.

He stops in his tracks and apologises to her first, for being so speechless the day before after the qualifying. He says he went from one end of the spectrum to the other today, "turning negatives into positives". He thanks his family for their support and all the fans because they've made a difference. He says he could see them all and hear them all.

The journalist says he never has to apologise to them or his fans and she's very right for that. It makes him smile. She asks how he turned it around given he was in a bad place mentally the day before and he had to come there in front of so many people and try to win a race.

He says it's really not easy, "especially when, you know, you make it really hard for yourself when you put yourself that far back". He got a good start "but really last night erm…" he smiles and takes a second. He said he got positive messages from his family and friends and Nicole (omg are they still a thing?!) and his mom and sat down to chat with his dad and his brother and his sister came to surprise him with his dogs and so they spent time together also with his nephew "trying to get away from the negativity and then uh, you know, said a big long prayer this morning and came here and just got back to work as usual". He says he can't really explain how you do it but he's grateful he was able to. She says he comes here and sees his name on the flags and he wants to win this race for the fans but also because he needs the momentum for the WDC. “There must be so many different things on your shoulders at the moment." He says definitely, there's a lot of pressure not only in the championship but also when you come to your home race you wanna win it that much more and he's on the back foot because he's been chasing all year as his car has stopped twice ("through no fault of anyone it was just unfortunate") and to catch up you feel like you need to do more so he's really grateful he's been able to win these points today

That’s it for today!

[jimclarkposting]

the epic highs and lows of walter wolf racing

yes, it's the canadian team that rocked f1 in the late 70s! named after walter wolf, who was massively wealthy and decided to throw his money into racing. it doesn't sound promising—but he took cars more seriously than most other hopeful entrants.

ask not what he's doing with that yarn.

we're examining the highs of this venture, and the lows as well. buckle in, strap up. we have some careers to propel and destroy (and only 4 years to do it in).

part 0.5 - wolf-williams

first, we have to start with where the team began: as wolf-williams, in partnership with frank williams (yes, that frank williams) in 1976. good ol' walt had been hanging around the races for the previous year and thought it looked fascinating, so he decided to get some cars together (basically from the remains of the hesketh organization, which had just flopped) and snag some drivers as well.

who did he choose? well, one of them was jacky ickx, who was the first of the drivers to find his career...um, stalling with wolf. after only half a season (in an utter dog of a car, it must be said) jacky was dropped from the team and never really did anything outstanding in f1 again.

it starts off low, people.

jacky, sombre in black and white, and his teammate michele leclère (no idea if this photo is representative of anything).

part 1 - the first joyous years with jody

it wasn't the best start for a new team, especially once walter kicked out frank williams and installed peter warr in his place (some people might have opinions on this!). still, for the 1977 season, the team was going to go ahead as walter wolf racing. finally!

because the team was financed solely by one man —a really rich man, but still— there was usually only one seat in the team throughout its tenure, meaning no teammates.

but who secured that one seat? that's right: jody scheckter.

yes, jody with a massive canadian flag on his back before he'd joined up with gilles. fate!

and the truly, truly incredible thing, what really sets wolf apart from other teams (like hesketh, for the most part) is that wolf was genuinely good right from the very beginning. i mean that literally - they won the first race they entered!

(this is the epic high i was talking about.)

buenos aires, 1977. really getting into the spirit of winning!

of course they couldn't win every race that came their way, but what they did achieve in 1977 was fourth place in the constructor's championship (impressive for a team with only one driver) and second in the wdc for jody. nothing to sneeze at! and it very firmly set jody up as a world-class driver in his own right...someone that ferrari might take an interest in, perhaps...

his three wins that season (yes, canada in a canadian team — you get it)

but we're getting ahead of ourselves. jody still had one more year with wolf before tossing it in to move to ferrari, and it was another decent season - although not as spectacular as the year before. still, the team's performance was enough to entice world champion james hunt over for 1979.

part 2: james hunt, the decline and fall

yes, james went to the team which had risen from the ashes of hesketh, his debut constructor (everything is so delightfully connected in this sport).

sadly, the 1979 season was not destined to be anyone's greatest. james memorably quit halfway through the season and never raced in formula one again, becoming the second of wolf's drivers not to finish out a year. so, after limping on with a replacement driver (nobody special, keke something or other) for the remaining races, walter wolf gracefully threw in the f1 towel.

don't worry, this photo is from 1977 (also, i love james).

unfortunately, we end on a truly epic low.

part 3: conclusion (and...gilles?)

or wait! that's just the story for the formula one team. what about can-am?

see, walter's ambitions weren't limited to f1 only. no, in his can-am cars he installed a young canadian whippersnapper by the name of gilles villeneuve, who he might have enticed over to his f1 team if only james hunt hadn't snapped him up for mclaren. and then if gilles himself hadn't decided to transfer to ferrari to be jody scheckter's teammate...

what did i say? oh yeah - everything is connected!

[dizzyduck44]

George v Lando

So we hadn’t even stumbled out of 2021 before it started. The inevitable George v Lando thing that is coming. Did Mercedes make the right decision? Will George be able to cope with Lewis as a team mate? How long till Lando wins a race?

So let’s slow it down a little, breathe and I’ll explain why this has always been an unfair comparison and will be for another few years and more importantly why Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull aren’t stupid.

The first argument you will hear is the number of podiums Lando has compared to George. Well yes the McLaren is a far superior car than the Williams and in fairness George’s only podium required a biblical rain storm to be achieved. Lando should by rights have a few more already.

In the same bracket you will hear George beat Lando in F2. When you really look into it though the points gap is flattering. Lando had a meltdown in Russia. Going into the wrong pit box, then somehow starting from the wrong grid position the next race, taking the penalty and finally binning it in the wall all in one weekend gifted George the title. Would George have been champion had they gone to the last race with Lando (and Alex) breathing down his neck? That aside when they were wheel to wheel on the track though, it was hold your breath and close your eyes stuff as fearless (and clean) doesn’t even cover it.

Qualifying. Unquestionably these two are outstanding qualifiers. If it comes to pushing the car to the limit with every inch of your talent on display over one lap, under pressure, these two are two of the best in the world. That isn’t going to change anytime soon. Lando’s results look more impressive but see comment above about the cars.

They both had their maiden wins snatched away from them by pure dumb luck. Let’s be fair, George should have won in Sakhir, Lando in Sochi. I think we can agree they were both equally destroyed afterwards. No one can deny the hunger either of them have.

So if they are so evenly balanced then why are people saying Mercedes should have taken Lando over George?

Lando has been seriously underrated for his first two seasons. There were glimpses of what was there but being far too cautious on his behalf muted it. 2021 though with a shiny new contract and the attitude from McLaren of as long as you bring the car home, we don’t care how you do it, let him finally be the kid who blasted through every championship at breakneck speed, not due to his family’s money, but because he won them! He threw the car round like Max, showed he was on Charles’ level of crazy when it came to overtakes and got in Lewis and Valtteri’s way A LOT! The teams know, with the right car, Lando will deliver.

Then you have poor George, arrived in F1 with all the expectations on his shoulders and got handed a milk float, let’s not sugar coat this. Lando said it himself, it’s really hard to lose places when you are starting at the back! However it only took one race in the Merc for all those expectations to be proven. He’s not had the chance to show what he can really do yet. He’s still stuck in the mode Lando was in for the first two years. He’s desperately waiting for someone to take the stabilisers off and let him go for it as well. I’ve no doubt he will. I’ve no doubt George will show why he was the it kid with all the buzz around him for so many years.

Now the issues. For George this is the step up to the big time. His sink or swim moment. He’s never properly had to race Max or Lewis, or Charles. He raced Lando in F2 but honestly Lando, the kid two years younger than him but still got to F1 the same year as him, despite being an age category below for most of his career, will have more confidence at the front of the field. Max is World Champion already at the same age. I don’t think George will be out of his depth but maybe a little more cautious and feel the pressure to prove he is up there.

The reason there is doubt is no one can hand on heart say who is the better driver at this point. Nikki Lauda and Jackie Stewart couldn’t decide between them as juniors. Everyone knows that they could be in the fight for every World Championship from here on in with the right car. That’s why Christian Horner keeps both drivers in high esteem and takes every opportunity to praise them. If Red Bull lose Max, they want George or Lando, regardless of what it costs. That is an open secret, one Zak Brown knows all too well (Pato is being prepared for every eventuality).

The issue Mercedes has is Lando might not be the right ft for them right now, he is still painfully young. That two year difference to George is evident in lots of ways and sadly he is still too young really for a team as cutthroat as Mercedes in my opinion. That being said, last year he was a gigantic pain in their arse! How many times could you sense Toto sitting there thinking, very good, very cute, impressive, but we have been stuck behind you for 6 laps GET OUT THE EFFIN WAY KID!!!

If we were being cruel Lando made Valtteri look average more than once, effectively opening the door for George.

Honestly I think it’s about control right now. Mercedes can’t afford to let George wander off to someone else. He’s far too good for that. If he’s going to be a World Champion, he will be their World Champion. At the same time when you don’t have another seat to offer, how do you control Lando? Maybe the quickest way was to give him the Merc seat? Do you offer the seat to him on Lewis’ departure, double your chances? What’s the right answer? You can tell from the way Lewis talks he thinks George was the right choice, but he wants someone who drives like Lando to push him and defend for him.

In 2-3 years time I expect both of them to be at Max’s level and then we have a real Championship on our hands.

All whilst praying Ferrari haven’t nailed the new regulations and you all have to fight Charles and Carlos as well. Talk about a plot twist 😂

[formula365]

Champions in the making - Emilia Romagna GP review

The breakthrough kid

It is not always possible to pinpoint the exact moment in which a driver goes from young promise to champion in the making. There can be breakthrough performances, in which a driver lays down a marker and announces himself to the world, but more often than not the progression is so gradual over a number of seasons that the driver eventually makes it to the top in slow steps, a sink filling up drop by drop from a leaky faucet.

But every once in a while, we get to witness a breakthrough moment, one of those weekends that, when looking back into a career, will be seen as a pivotal moment in which the promise has come good, which removes the doubt of whether that potential will be fulfilled. Moments like Sebastian Vettel winning in a Toro Rosso, or Max Verstappen becoming a Grand Prix winner on his Red Bull debut; we knew, there and then, what they would become.

It wasn’t his maiden win, but this is what we witnessed this weekend from Lando Norris.

Coming into this season, the young Brit knew this could be a make or break year for him. He had done really well to match his more experienced teammate in his first two seasons, but the challenge with his new partner was at a different level. No disrespect to Carlos Sainz, who is definitely a talented driver, but Daniel Ricciardo is a proven race winner, someone who had driven for Red Bull and been considered by Mercedes and Ferrari. The Aussie had spent the last two seasons destroying Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon, no slouches themselves, which meant there was a risk for Norris to be swallowed up by the Honey Badger’s performances.

His first two seasons had shown glimpses of his talent, but also a certain on-track shyness, in contrast to his expansive personality off it. He himself admitted during pre-season that he needed to improve on his aggressiveness and push harder on wheel to wheel battles; he had to drive the car ever closer to its limits. After a couple of seasons maturing and honing his skills, now was the time to be a more imposing figure behind the wheel, including within his own team.

Bahrain had already shown glimpses of that. He started the race behind his teammate, but passed him early on and never looked back. Imola, though, was something else. McLaren didn’t have the right set-up throughout Friday and both drivers seemed to be struggling, but on Saturday Norris looked to be one with his car. Bar a small mistake on his last run, he would have not only out-qualified his teammate, but also Verstappen in a much faster Red Bull. The track limits infringement left him P7 on the grid, but on Sunday he would more than make up for the mistake.

He had blistering pace from the get-go, to the point that he radioed his engineer when stuck behind his teammate to ask to be let through. In a moment that could be defining for the season, Ricciardo did let him through and then saw the youngster disappear down the road in the chase for the Ferraris. On the restart, he made light work of Leclerc (with much faster tyres, to be fair) and then fought Hamilton hard for several laps until the lack of grip on his rubber forced him to concede.

Overall, Norris showed a wide array of his skills at Imola: blistering one-lap pace, attacking, defending, tyre management, determination to come back after the mistake on Saturday, even authority in the team when he asked to be let through his teammate. A complete performance that leaves no doubt about his talent: he has the skills to be a future champion, the only question remaining is whether he will have the consistency to deliver over a full season. Given his mental approach - he is very open to speak about mental health - it seems he is addressing that side of his driving as well.

Until now, Norris had been the fun kid with a turn of pace, the meme-generator and half of a McLaren bromance. The end of the partnership with Sainz might have been a liberating factor for him: in order to be taken more seriously, the banter has to take second place to his driving, and with Ricciardo also looking to leave his more goofy side in the background, this can be the perfect time for Lando to do the same and let his driving do the talking. He certainly did that this weekend.

Talking points

* My oh my, do we have a fight on our hands. Verstappen v. Hamilton is already becoming such a compelling story it is hard not to make it the subject of every race review and preview; the feeling is that this will be a fight for the ages, that we will have a season to be remembered for many years to come. This time around it was the Dutchman who had the upper hand, with a superb start to go from P3 to P1 into Tamburello. He gave no quarters to Hamilton on the outside and then managed the race beautifully, although he was left unchallenged in the second half after Hamilton’s crash. The game is most definitely on.

* The reigning champion may have given some small signs of the pressure getting to him. Mostly unchallenged in recent years, Lewis made an uncharacteristic mistake when lapping back markers and then seemed to have had a scrambled brain moment as he struggled to get out of the run-off area. He is human, after all, some might have thought. The red flag gave him the opportunity to reset and come back to re-claim P2 and a podium place he would have certainly lost otherwise. He showed his mental resilience then, but it will be interesting to see how he (and Verstappen as well) will manage the pressure of a title fight (hopefully) over 23 races.

* One of the big talking points post-race was the massive crash between Bottas and Russell. Approaching Tamburello, drivers hit speeds above 300 kph, so it’s no surprise it was a nasty one, and that both drivers felt the other should have done more to avoid it. Controversy aside, the big question has to be why was Bottas defending P9 from a Williams. Like Monza, Turkey and Sakhir last year, when the Finn gets caught up in the midfield he struggles to move forward, and even manages to fall further back. To make matters worse, in all these races his teammate was caught in similar situations and had no problem cutting through the field. When the dust settles, Bottas will certainly have some soul searching to do.

* How good is it to see McLaren and Ferrari fighting each other for top spots? The two historic teams collected all positions from P3 to P6 and seem to be a step above the rest of the midfield contenders. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, rivalry in F1’s history, and it’s great for the sport to see it reignited.

* The only midfield team that seems to have the pace to challenge them is AlphaTauri, but they are struggling to convert their pace into points. Tsunoda ruined his weekend with two (very rookie) mistakes, while Gasly’s race was ruined by the decision to start on full wets. He still made a great recovery drive to finish P7, but this felt like another missed opportunity for AlphaTauri, specially at a track they know so well. They have a genuine shot at finishing in the top half of the table, which is Franz Tost’s goal for the team, but in order to achieve that they have to start using their pace to score points.

* If AlphaTauri will be left ruing their weekend, Williams will be doubly so. With two drivers qualifying in the top 14, they had genuine hope to score points for the first time since the crazy rain-soaked German GP in 2019, but two crashes negated their shot. Latifi barely got going so we will never know what he could have achieved, but Russell was clearly in the mix and will be left pondering how high he could have finished if he had been a bit more cautious. With scoring opportunities so limited, that might have been the wiser approach.

* The second Red Bull continues the saga of the topsy-turvy weekends. One of the narratives for Albon in 2020 was that he was not able to have a clean, incident-free weekend, and that was limiting his results. Perez is going down the same path, and although he did manage to salvage a P5 in Bahrain, here he was left empty-handed. It’s still very early, and the signs from the first race were positive, but for Red Bull to challenge Mercedes he needs to be up there consistently.

* Ahead of the season, very few people would have betted for Stroll and Ocon to be beating their teammates, either in qualifying or in the race. The two youngsters are showing that world titles (a combined 6 after all) aren’t a guarantee of continued success.

* On that topic, it is worth noting that most drivers that are newcomers to their respective teams are struggling at the moment. Sainz at Ferrari is the exception; Perez, Ricciardo, Alonso and Vettel are all underperforming, some more than others. This quartet is uber-talented, though, so expect them to get closer to their teammates as the season progresses and they become more accustomed to their new cars.

* Curb your enthusiasm, Yuki. We love to see his on-track flamboyance: he is one of the most exciting drivers to hit F1 in the last few years, but it can work against him too. He needs to find a balance but two races in these growing pains were to be expected. Once he finds that balance, he will be one hell of a driver.

Driver of the day: Lando Norris

Moment of the day

The battle between Hamilton and Norris. The young Brit managed to hold off the 7-times champion for a handful of laps, with tyres well past their expiry date and no DRS; Leclerc, for comparison, was on mediums and was passed by Hamilton on the first lap he didn’t have DRS. Norris’ positioning was perfect and he was brave on the brakes. Eventually the lack of grip and Hamilton’s bravery led to the inevitable, but Norris put up an excellent fight.

[formulatrash]

Lewis just got his 7th title. I'm happy for him.

Me too. What Lewis has done is so almost incomprehensibly titanic, in any sport, that it feels like something that needs contextualising again and again.

It’s easy, if you remember Lewis in the hybrid era, in Mercedes, since Rosberg left - whatever the recency is that creates the illusion it’s almost straightforward for him to perform at this extraordinary level - to minimise his achievements, even if you don’t intend to. Lewis now is a force of nature so impossible to rival that it wouldn’t really matter if you gave everyone GP3 cars and told them to go, the rest of the field would just be closer together behind him. 

I am, as Tumblr constantly likes to remind me, very old - nearly as old as Lewis himself - so I remember him arriving in the junior formulas and hoping that he’d get to F1. He was goofy and nerdy and awkward and a bit of a gamer - actually way more like Lando than you’d believe, in retrospect but he had this burning, furious defiance that he was going to get there and win. Because that was what he needed, to overcome the barriers and my god, there were a lot of people openly saying what they try to at least code these days, back then.

Lewis when he was young was a Verstappen-esque firecracker of teammate beef. I don’t know that anyone other than maybe Max could have taken on Alonso, at that point, in his junior year - he’d destroy Nelson Piquet Jr, despite all his weight of racing heritage, the next - and it took a level of pretended self-assurance that I don’t think Lewis had, then, at all.

He’d proven himself all the way up, was still proving it. Licking his and McLaren’s wounds, meekly apologising after the end of the spygate scandal he’d had nothing to do with while Fernando pranced off from the smouldering remnants, there were plenty of people who were so pleased to see Lewis humbled. 

He took the championship, instead. Which made a lot of people very angry, despite really it only being Felipe Massa who had a right to be. It was very underrated, in the British press; made more striking because Jenson Button’s win, the following season, really wasn’t and the ludicrous bar that Lewis would have to jump to prove himself was moved again.

Not just good enough for F1. Not just good enough to take on a two-time champion. Not just good enough to become a champion himself in his second season. Lewis was regarded as a sort of curious celebrity most people barely considered an athlete or British, in the press.

He’s never gone a single season without winning a race. Even in dog cars, biding his time for an opportunity. Olden times McLaren was a different, dysfunctional beast to the one Andreas Seidl has somehow steered back to success and especially the Dennis era was run with a pretty iron fist* so it wasn’t necessarily somewhere the drivers had much ability to steer developing the car and you can see how badly that affected them in the KERS and ERS era. 

Comparatively, joining Mercedes, Lewis walked into an opportunity where instead of having to furiously fight for that, he could work on it as a project for the whole team. People really underestimate how hard he works, in terms of factory hours and how it wasn’t always the fastest car. 

The team pitted him and Nico against each other to force the project forwards and that turned into a destructive mess, backfiring on them quite badly. It’s probably the worst call Mercedes have made, in their modern F1 existence, although a cynic would say: it worked.

Yes, they trod a line of near-implosion for years that was only steadied by Nico’s retirement but they became, unquestionably, the best, in the inter-garage arms race. Lewis didn’t necessarily become a better driver in the sense of having more brilliant race craft for it but things like qualifying laps, at which he is now without doubt the GOAT, became so crucial that he learned to take on more and more feedback from engineers without ever forgetting it. 

When they tell them, on the radio, that their teammate is finding more speed through corner X and braking later - and they’ll show them more detailed telemetry - then Lewis can, like any driver, take that on and do it. But he can also make hundreds of micro-adjustments per lap without ever forgetting them or dropping one - again, they all can do it, sometimes, perfectly but he just doesn’t ever not. 

Since 2016 he’s been able to grow as a driver without being in the pressure-cooker of mind games with his teammate and that shows, too. A more outward-looking, globally-focussed Lewis, a Lewis who’s more comfortable sharing elements of himself, treating himself less like an industrial espionage project.

(some irony, for a man who started his career amidst spy gate)

If Lewis was a white boy from a millionaire or billionaire family, his achievements in sporting terms would still be staggering. He’s neither of those things, so they’re placed on a different scale.

It is now, even for the most racist, the most close-minded alleged fan of the sport, impossible to deny that he has the records on paper. They can’t take away the seven titles and 94 wins, no matter how they try to minimise them. The bar that was constantly set higher has been met and exceeded and a driver who, for a lot of years, looked set to be a one-off champion whose brilliance could be more easily swept away as a footnote to diversity, has become the benchmark against whom other achievements can be measured. 

That Lewis did that despite the odds against him? The racists won’t see that and sadly can and do try to deny it but that is a world-changing, sport-transforming moment that’s been a decade-and-a-half in the making, since F1 started looking achievable for him. 

Lewis has nothing left to prove, so all that furious energy he’s used for years to get this will take other outlets - he still, after all, as everyone, has a lot to change. I am so excited to get to work in the sport during this era, to see what kind of transformative effects he’ll have, has already had. The work shouldn’t be on Lewis and mustn’t be on him alone but you do absolutely fucking love to see it getting done.

Anyway, I’m so proud of him. I’m so astounded by the skill and focus - the relentless pursuit that’s driven him all this time and that isn’t diminished at all by having got here. I truly believe Lewis is gonna carry on awhile yet and it’s fucking exciting just to think about what we’re going to witness this short-ass nerd kid who looked kind of sulky and defensive in press conferences for years do.

(and, of course, the first driver accused of being a social media poseur who didn’t pay enough attention to the sport. Plus ca change...)

*This is a really petty example but you had to wear a tie if you went to MTC, as a visiting journalist, in the beforetime. 

[f1-disaster-bi]

Maybe cold hands in warm hands oor squeezing hand for comfort and encouragement for the prompt? Would die for anything hulk-centric really, though im a sucker for nico/kevin and max & nico platonic friendship

Thank you for requesting one of my favourite couples! This ask sent me down a Nico spiral because I miss him!

It’s Nico-centric with some Kevin/Nico and platonic Max&Nico, and a little surprise!

Holding Hands (3) & (8)- cold hands in warm hands, squeezing hands for comfort and encouragement

 Nico/Kevin - Everything’s Perfect

Being back in the paddock was always a strange and bittersweet experience. One that didn’t get any easier despite the amount of time he now haunted the back of the Aston Martin garage.

It was like a dream.

One that you forgot when you woke up, drifting just out of grasp as you tried to cling to it. Slipping through your fingers and leaving you wondering what that fleeting feeling of happiness was about.

Nico had been out of F1 for two years, and it didn’t get any easier as he watched the cars fly by on track under the guise of collecting data for the team.

He had wandered off to a secluded corner of the track, wrapped in his own gear to avoid the cameras following him. Although they would still find him and later, he would have to listen to more ‘what a shame’ comments despite the fact that they all knew it was over for him the minute he lost his Renault seat.

No podiums. No wins. Just a good track record as a midfield driver.

He couldn’t complain. He had given it his all, won points for his teams and proved himself time and time again on track. Yet he had had to accept the truth when it had come knocking two years ago; that sometimes when you tried your hardest, the world would still fuck you over and you had to pick yourself up before the failure destroyed you.

Nico wouldn’t say he had reconciled with his ending in F1, but he was at peace with his reality, and although part of him ached to be in those cars as they flew past his little hideout, it didn’t hurt like it had when he had first lost his seat.

He had found something to live for other than racing and Nico wouldn’t trade what he had built in the last two years. Not even for Mercedes seat and million-dollar contract.

No, as he watched the cars fly by and his phone buzzed with a text from his mother, displaying his lock screen that never failed to make his stomach ignite with butterflies.

The picture was a simple one. Black and white. Yet the sight of it brought a joy to his chest that overwhelmed him more than any possible podium or win ever could, because it was everything Nico never knew he was missing until the absence of racing gave him the possibility to make it real.

It was a picture of him and Kevin, his forehead pressed against his husbands. Both of them staring in awe at the little girl cradled carefully in Kevin’s arms. A tiny little thing swaddled in a blanket and little pale-yellow hat; her tiny fingers wrapped around Nico’s. She may have been born early, but Freja held her father’s finger with a strength that left Nico feeling her little touch for days.

Unlocking his phone greeted him with another sight that made his heart melt. His mother having sent a picture of their year-old daughter with one hand in Zeus’s fur, smiling widely at the camera as she clenched the little rabbit teddy her favourite uncle had given her tightly in her other hand.

If he had been still racing, he would have missed this. They would have never had the chance to settle down like they had always planned. Neither of them wanting to have a kid when they were travelling the world for racing, having to leave them behind or risk exposing them to the paddock.

Nico’s F1 exit had let them start talking about, start planning once he had grieved his career and they were in a place that let them move forward.

When Freja was six months old, Kevin had finished his last race in F1. While others were commiserating with him, Kevin had been grinning, knowing he was coming home to Nico and Freja.

The paddock had been baffled when Kevin didn’t try find a seat somewhere else, but instead accepted a consultant and reserve driver role at Haas.

Even Guenther had tried to help him get into Indy Car, offered him support and seats, but the Haas team principle had melted when Kevin had invited him to their home hidden away in the Danish countryside and introduced him to Freja.

Nico wasn’t sure he had ever seen Guenther smile before that day, but as he sat on their living room floor, playing peek-a-boo with a laughing Freja sitting on Kevin’s knee, he had grinned at the adorable little girl.

Nico couldn’t blame him. Freja carried Kevin’s genes with her cute little nose and big eyes, it was impossible not to fall in love with her.

He missed her more as he stared at the picture, trying not to feel guilty for leaving her with his mother when Haas had asked Kevin to step in this weekend and Aston wanted him on retainer because Sebastian had an emergency at home that may require him to step down before the race.

For now he sat alone in one of the far away stands, watching his husband drag the Haas car around the track and proving he still had it, even when the car was a piece of shit.

‘I though I saw you hiding over here’, an amused voice came from his right as some plopped down on the seat next to him, pressing against his side as they rubbed their hands together.

Nico tore his eyes from the track as Kevin zoomed past on a flying lap and to the young Dutchman sitting beside him, grinning at Nico while trying to get his hands warm. One of the Redbull junior drivers taking the car for a spin during this free practice, leaving Max to hunt down his friend.

‘Haven’t you ever heard of gloves?’, Nico sighed, pulling off his own and taking Max’s freezing cold hands in his, trying not to shiver at the cold spreading from Max’s hands to his warm ones.

‘Eh, gloves are for weaklings, or German’s that can’t handle a little cold’, Max teased, relaxing as Nico rubbed his hands between his gently, aware that cracked skin from the cold could make driving painful for the younger man.

‘Still just a bratty kid, eh Snoepje?’, Nico grinned back at him as Max rolled his eyes, pulling his hands from Nico’s and tucking him into his pockets.

‘I thought that nickname would die now that you have a little one of your own’, Max sighed, but the way he looked at Nico with affection let the older know he didn’t mind it one bit.

‘Oh no, that’s never going to die, Snoepje’, he laughed, ruffling Max’s hair as the other tried to duck away, ‘You were our practice kid, like we would ever forget you.

Max huffed, but there was a soft smile on his face that made Nico proud to see. His little friend having grown out of his younger more brash years into a settled man that Nico was proud of.

‘How is my little Mause?’, Max asked, leaning into Nico’s side once more as the older opened his phone, showing him the picture from his mother, ‘I didn’t think she liked that rabbit when I gave to her, she barely played with it!’.

‘That’s because she was too busy trying to pull your hair Max, she loves that teddy. She sleeps with it every night’, Nico laughed, scrolling to his gallery to show Max the latest pictures of Freja.

Most of which included the rabbit she had affectionately called ‘ax’, not having yet mastered the ‘M’ sound as Max gazed on lovingly, asking Nico when he could visit once more to play with her. Even offering to babysit so Kevin and Nico could have a night to themselves if they needed it, an option Nico made sure to tell Max as they walked back to the paddock that he would take him up on.

Nico hugged him tight, ruffling his hair before watching the other disappear into the Redbull garage before strolling past his own, waving at Lance who was getting out of the car and continuing to where Kevin was holed up in his makeshift drivers’ room.

His husband was always a sight to behold when in a race suit and his hair all tousled from his helmet, even in the ugly Haas race suit, Kevin was beautiful as he offered him a smile, holding a hand out to Nico as he slipped into the room.

‘Everything okay?’, Kevin asked softly, linking his fingers with Nico.

And he knew, knew that Kevin was asking if being here was okay. If seeing Kevin race had brought back all the negative emotions that losing his seat had come with two years ago, but Nico simple smiled at him, squeezing his hand in encouragement and comfort as Kevin gazed at him with those big eyes that their daughter had inherited from him.

‘Yeah Schatz, everything is perfect’.

[deekssteve911]

Driving Standards 2022 

This is an issue. Competitors are being killed. Injured. Forced out of the ‘sport’. For what? Ego? It is not racing, it is definitely not ‘sport’.

And, most of all, it is not acceptable.

And it IS worse today than it was in the eighties and nineties.

And that is NOT rose-coloured glasses. I was there, both times. And today.

Having rejoined Silverstone, steering the ARDS programme, and joining the ARDS board of directors as Silverstone’s representative, it is absolutely my remit to get involved here. Because, since I retired from full time racing in 1998 - then again in 2002, the standard of driving - and attitude - has darkened measurably.

Cards on the table here, I’ve made moves in my earlier ‘career’ that I am not proud of. A combination of being overly-psyched, determined to get to the front, under pressure from sponsors for results - under pressure from MYSELF to get results - meant that I made some pretty reckless moves. Some, fairly high profile - hitting bridges, carrying the BBC Grandstand onboard camera, starring in ‘Havoc’ videos (and hospital wards), stopping races - I’m lucky to still be here. I saw racer’s lives ebbing away - Andrew Coulson in Formula Renault in 1993 at Oulton Park comes to mind - saw things I will never forget. Despite it all, I still love the sport.

But, coming out of retirement in 2015, briefly, woke me up to the changes. My first test day in a borrowed Aerial Atom on the Grand Prix circuit at Silverstone saw an out of control ‘gentleman’, (sic), driver in an Aston GT4 outbrake himself, and run hard into the back of ‘my’ car, ( - then later that same afternoon totally destroy both his Aston and a visiting Lamborghini Trofeo at Maggots ...). imbecilic driving, truly. Silverstone marshal’s had to stop the apoplectic Italian Lamborghini driver from delivering retribution. For what gain?

What had really changed? Rich trackday warriors in powerful GT4 cars stuffed with driver aids - successful businessman, with no time nor ego to serve their apprenticeship in low powered cars whilst they built up their skill sets, and muscle memories. Teams so desperate for the dollar they were prepared to kid these same people on that they were ready for 450 BHP, or an evil-handling powerful ‘historic’, professional sim builders and facilities who allowed delusional novice drivers to build their hours to the point they really believed they were - are - ‘ready for action’. And a sport that worries so much about making the point of entry ‘accessible’, that any consideration of paid for ‘tuition’ or ‘education’ is a taboo topic - because of a ‘barrier to entry’.

Having become involved in F1 Esports as twice-World Champion Brendon Leigh’s coach and mentor, and having in 2008, presented the ‘GTA Academy - Bedroom Gamer to Le Mans’ TV programme, I know EXACTLY  the value of sims. As an ‘ADD ON’, ‘NOT IN PLACE OF’.

When I made that very first ARDS video, way back in, maybe 1993, (?), I remember spending a whole weekend sifting through BHP’s VHS 🤣 motorsport videos picking the sections I wanted to use in my ‘how not to ...’ part of our training video. Scroll forward, 2022, apparently you cannot use clips like that anymore, it offends people - so, Motorsport UK rather cleverly enlisted the sims they have bought for their academy, to remake the scenario - only with a better scenario outcome. 

Let’s be clear here: I watched the ORIGINAL footage with some trepidation. These, by and large, were not competitors driving on the limit disputing race places that would affect the outcome of a championship. For the most part they were minor places, albeit, in important championships - certainly to the drivers. But they WERE ridiculous shunts. And, once or twice, shunts that could easily have been catastrophic. In my era, I remember a Formula Ford driver being rolled and having his head crushed fatally by the Snetterton armco barrier. One of these exact example shunts could easily have ended that way. Props to the drivers concerned for lending us the onboards, that takes balls. Thank you gents.

Paul Crawford, Motorsport UK’s very experienced Esports Manager and I re-ran the scenarios on the sims, in each case scripting a better outcome. Better financially too - I reckon we saved about £500k of damage with our preferred scenarios. And all the competitors finished. 

Listen, we all make mistakes. Me more than most. And returning to race at my advanced age, albeit only in a ‘classic’ way, I’ll make more. But a lifetime of experience, losing friends on the racetrack, seeing a thousand cars and dreams wrecked, has made me focus on my sport - and our business. 

We ALL need to work to make it better. That’s all of us. Keeping it clean requires a mentality reset, not just drivers - teams - officials. Especially including myself. We all have to commit to it. And work at it.

Banger racers have it sussed - they do not spend hours at the paintshop, ordering parts, applying sponsor’s vinyls, setting up suspension to the nth degree. We do. And we are travelling at twice the speed. It’s going to hurt, and its going to be expensive.

There is another way 🏁

[crystalracing]

Under the skin of the enigmatic Raikkonen

KIMI RAIKKONEN IS ONE OF THOSE BLOKES WHO polarises opinion, that people seem to either love or hate. Ironic really, considering he is the epitome of getting on with doing his own thing, not manipulating anything, staying clear of boring politics and not worrying about things he has no control over. As a private man who can be difficult to read – not to mention one who a proportion of Formula 1 followers think has passed his best –he is, as our cover suggests, F1’s enigma. Which is why Ben Anderson’sin-depth 14-page feature, beginning on page 14, is probably the best and most-balanced thing you’ll ever read about him. Based on interviews with Raikkonen himself and those around him, it properly assesses his role on the F1 grid, and in the paddock. Ferrari announced a one-year contract extension for Raikkonen on Tuesday – after the last page of our feature had gone to press – but one thing for sure is that he is closer to the end of his F1 career than the beginning, and this week’s Autosport also provides a study of a talent at the opposite end of the spectrum. There hasn’t been a buzz this big about a young British prospect since Lewis Hamilton was rising the ranks, and Kevin Turner’s chat with Lando Norris (p28)tells us all about his cracking recent F1 test with McLaren. It was good timing that the interview coincides with two more wins in the Formula 3 European Championship at Zandvoort (p40). Funny to think that Norris hadn’t even been born when Raikkonen made his Formula Renault UK debut in 1999, and was only a toddler when Kimi first raced a Formula 1 car…

“IF YOU STRUGGLE, PEOPLE SLAG YOU OFF, BUT IT DOESN’T BOTHER ME”

It is very rare that a driver comes along who challenges preconceived notions of what it takes to be a Formula 1 driver. But when a true prodigy breaks through into grand prix racing through sheer force of talent, they often create a sort of butterfly effect.The world we thought we knew before is suddenly changed, and will never be the same again. Kimi Raikkonen should go down in F1 history as one such driver. It has taken Max Verstappen’s remarkable recent ascension to motorsport’s pinnacle to further redefine the boundaries of possibility – so successful in one season of junior single-seater racing that he simply must be in F1 immediately. Since 2015, Verstappen has been thrilling fans, threatening reputations, and rewriting rules with his fearless and superlative brand of racing. Fourteen years earlier, Raikkonen laid the template –arriving with Peter Sauber’s eponymous team after a brief but highly successful stint in Formula Renault. Raikkonen had competed in fewer than 25 car races; surely he couldn’t be ready for such a monumental leap.Yet there he was – 13th on the grid for his debut in Australia, within four tenths of a second of sophomore team-mate Nick Heidfeld, scoring a point in his first GP, finishing not much more than 12 seconds behind his team-mate. Raikkonen looked immediately like he belonged – a driver so naturally gifted he could bypass F3 and F3000 completely, turn convention on its head, yet be immediately and properly competitive in F1. Truly astounding. The question with all prodigies, in any sport, is what next? Will they fully harness that ability, show the necessary will and dedication to ally proper craft to their genius, and transform themselves into a truly unstoppable force? It is this unique blend that tends to define the ultimate greatness of an athlete – whether they burn out early and fade away in the Wayne Rooney style, or evolve into an era-defining machine in the mould of Cristiano Ronaldo. Raikkonen’s stats suggest he’s something of an underachiever. This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix will mark his 263rd grand prix start; only four drivers – Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso – have started more. For a driver of Raikkonen’s ability and longevity to have scored ‘only’ 20 wins and 17 pole positions, plus a single world championship achieved in fortuitous circumstances in 2007, seems out of kilter. Damon Hill would not consider himself to be the most naturally gifted driver ever to grace F1. Raikkonen could make that claim, yet Hill achieved more wins and poles than Raikkonen has, in much less than half the number of starts. And yet Raikkonen is still good enough that he is still racing for Ferrari – F1’s grandest team – at the ripe old age of 37, and Tuesday’s announcement that he will remain for 2018 means he will continue doing so for another season at least. That shows Raikkonen still has something serious to offer in the eyes of those who make the biggest decisions in Maranello. Sport is always about much more than pure numbers. Personality and style also count for as much sometimes. Raikkonen commands a strong and loyal fan base, energised by his ‘Iceman’ reputation, one he says he’s done nothing conscious to cultivate. Publicly, Raikkonen comes off as a cool, aloof, anti-hero character – a no-nonsense antidote to the clean-cut corporate image of modern racing. His ‘wild-child’ early years curry him huge favour with those followers of F1 who pine for the era of James Hunt, when drivers partied away the nights and drove by the seat of their pants in the day. But even lovable rogues like Hunt and Raikkonen are driven by a fierce competitive instinct that belies their devil-may-care reputations.We are left with a confusing picture. How to reconcile the incredible natural ability that once redrew boundaries at Sauber and McLaren, and claimed a historic post-Schumacher world championship for Ferrari, with the later seasons of struggle: bettered by Felipe Massa, outpaced by Romain Grosjean, destroyed by Alonso, now playing second fiddle to Sebastian Vettel? Herein lies the enigma of Kimi Raikkonen.

BLAZING A TRAIL AT SAUBER

Raikkonen’s first season in F1 was very strong by conventional standards for a rookie, but when you consider his fundamental lack of experience in car racing it was truly exceptional. His results were very good – four points finishes in total, twice finishing fourth (in Austria and Canada) and placing inside the top 10 in the world championship. Raikkonen made a vital contribution to what then constituted Sauber’s best F1 season, but it was his raw speed that caught the eye. Third time out, Raikkonen qualified only a tenth behind Heidfeld in Brazil, and thereafter matched his more experienced team-mate 7-7 on Saturdays. Not only that, Raikkonen performed with a calm assuredness that belied his lack of experience. “Kimi was very young [21] and not experienced at all – it was very risky,” says Sauber driver trainer Josef Leberer, who worked with Ayrton Senna at McLaren and recalls his season alongside Raikkonen with fondness. “A lot of people said, ‘I don’t understand why Sauber were doing this’. But it worked. “He’s not the kind of guy who sits days and hours on the computer. Such an intuitive driver, his instinct is incredible. This way I would say he’s one of the best. It comes naturally. No bullshit. Just wanna be fast, no excuses. “He was not spoiled, so you could talk with him and be straightforward, and he was an incredible, cool guy. Doing the massage in the morning we had to wake him up and he said, ‘Let me get an extra five minutes of sleep before the race’. I’d never seen this – the second race in Malaysia and he wanted to sleep an extra few minutes! Can you imagine being like this in your second race? “He made such an impact. We had a feeling and he was fast immediately. You could see he had the requirements to be a top driver.” Raikkonen’s extraordinary ability to drive an F1 car quickly without the educational foundation enjoyed by his peers left a lasting impression on the paddock. Renowned motor racing journalist and author David Tremayne was Sauber’s press release writer during Raikkonen’s rookie campaign. He recalls a driver aloof and reserved in public, but completely different when hidden from the glare of a camera lens. “He was very quiet, like he is now,” explains Tremayne. “You thought, ‘What is this kid like, is he going to be another Mika [Hakkinen]?’ But he clearly wasn’t in terms of the way he conducted himself – he wasn’t forthcoming. Kimi didn’t want to do any of the other bollocks. He wanted to get in the car and get on with it. “[But] at Monza I heard all this raucous laughter on top of the media bus at Sauber. I went downstairs and it was Kimi, Peter Collins, and a guy who turned out to be Kimi’s kart mechanic – and it was Kimi doing all the laughing. “It was the only time I ever saw what you might call ‘the real Kimi’– with mates, completely relaxed, no need to be protective of anything.

I think he has the ability to compartmentalise. There was a lot of fire in him but you didn’t get to see it. He’s very self-reliant. I don’t think he needs an entourage. “As a driver, he was wonderful to watch. Felipe came in the following year and he was quick but always on a different line. Kimi was just cool and calm with it – not pushing the car or wrestling with it.”So many drivers dream of being world champion, work hard to achieve that dream, but never even make it onto the grid. Others carve out opportunity but become overwhelmed by expectation or consumed by pressure. It seems Raikkonen benefited not only from exceptional natural ability behind the wheel – after all there are many drivers who share that sort of skill – but also a mental resilience and confidence that helped strip away the extra burdens that might have destroyed someone of a different character. Raikkonen never dreamed big or got carried away by the prospect of fame and fortune. It seems it was this aloof attitude, bordering on indifference, that made him so perfectly suited to thrive in F1. “It was a good team to be in; nice people – I still have lunch there,” Raikkonen tells Autosport, relaxing into his seat as we discuss the first stage of his long career in F1. “For me, it was very easy in someways because I didn’t really expect anything.“I didn’t know anything about F1. I never went to see a race. The first time I saw it live was when I was in a test myself. So for me it was like if you just go to Formula Renault [for the first time]. I had nothing to worry about – what’s the point? It either goes well or it goes bad. What can you do?” Ultimately, it went very well indeed for Raikkonen, who made such an impression that he was poached by Ron Dennis to replace retiring double world champion Hakkinen at McLaren for 2002. Even a wunderkind like Verstappen had to wait four races into his second season before earning promotion to one of F1’s biggest teams… 

McLAREN: WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN  

Some paddock insiders consider Raikkonen’s five-year stint at McLaren to be his absolute peak. His first grand prix victory at Malaysia in 2003 briefly made him F1’s youngest winner since team founder Bruce McLaren. Raikkonen won eight more times for McLaren in those five seasons, as well as taking 11 pole positions and 36 podiums from 87 starts. He quickly established himself as one of grand prix racing’s most exciting stars, but a world championship title eluded him. He was second to Alonso in 2005, but came closest to breaking through two years earlier, when Raikkonen lost out to Schumacher by just two points. “Back in those days he was massively quick,” recalls Pat Fry, McLaren’s chief engineer during Raikkonen’s stint with the team. “It’s a shame car reliability and engine reliability didn’t work for him really. If you look at him through the early 2000s, he was right up there with the best, wasn’t he? He was absolutely outstanding driving the McLaren through 2003, 2005. He should’ve won the championship in 2005.” Raikkonen was unfortunate in that his time at McLaren coincided with Schumacher’s most dominant seasons at Ferrari and latterly the brief but potent rise of Alonso at Renault. Only once during that period, in ’05, could McLaren be considered to have produced the absolute quickest car on the grid, and senior personnel admit it was too unreliable to ultimately get the job done. In this context, Raikkonen achieved much of his success against the odds. Apart from his first year with the team in 2002 – when he was paired alongside stalwart David Coulthard – Raikkonen was never beaten by his McLaren team-mate across a season. He won many admirers inside the squad for his fearless style of racing. “He was blindingly quick – sometimes the circuit wasn’t big enough to contain him in those early days, but he was pushing to the max and everyone liked it,” remembers McLaren’s chief operating officer Jonathan Neale. “He used to scare me. He scared me because he was so completely fearless. You just knew there was no way he was going to give anything less than 110%, and I don’t mean that lightly. He was just a force of nature.” Out of the car, McLaren found a “completely uncompromising” driver, whose “maverick” style didn’t always sit well with the team’s clean-cut corporate image. “We struggled to find out who he was as he didn’t say very much,” adds Neale. “[But] everybody underestimates him at their peril. He did have a fantastic sense of humour. If there were two drivers going on stage, to do a presentation or a question-and-answer session, he’d be sitting in the back and he’d do an amazing mimic. He had the voices and the phrases, all of that, so he was a sharp observer. “There was never a dull moment, but he was a great racer –somebody who is still spoken of highly in the team for what did with us, for us, and the style in which he did it, which was uncompromising. It was uncompromising in the car, it was uncompromising in the set-up, he was uncompromising on whether he wanted to be with a sponsor. It’s not always easy, but isn’t it refreshing when you find somebody who is brave enough to be candid and frank and not prepared to cower to conformity?

“He wouldn’t suffer fools. Everyone was taken at face value, no airs, no graces, nobody standing on ceremony, what you see is what get, very grounded, but enormous following with the mechanics and engineers – real loyalty. “Because that fire burns very intensely, it was kind of polarising –either you got it or you didn’t. It is quite difficult getting engineers close to him – to be able to have that rapport and reach him without being too much, too little, not a fool. “Any whiff of bullshit and you were toast! But [race engineer] Mark Slade was very good with Kimi and they had an understanding. Mark knew when to leave him alone, and when to push him and there were occasions when Mark was quite assertive with him, but because he built up that trust he could be. It is easy to be intimidated by somebody of that temperament.” Slade has worked with Raikkonen twice through the Finn’s F1 career – first at McLaren and later at Lotus. Slade responded well to Raikkonen’s no-nonsense attitude and fussiness for precision. He says the Raikkonen that drove for McLaren arrived at Woking “well-rounded” and was “massively impressive”. “He knew how to manage tyres, he knew how to set up the car – it was like working with someone who’d done it for five years,” Slade recalls. “He knew exactly what he wanted. It was not like working with a new driver. “The only aspect that was a little bit ragged early on was in qualifying, when we had to put the fuel in the car for the race, so 2003. He had a little bit of a tendency to want to be on pole regardless of the amount of fuel in the car. And there were a couple of races where he went off trying to achieve too much. “We basically banned him from watching the other drivers’qualifying laps. We just told him, ‘Go out and drive the car as quickly as it will go’. We did that for the rest of this season and he didn’t do any more mistakes.” Raikkonen is often portrayed as a lazy driver – someone who simply relies on his natural feel for the car but isn’t particularly interested in doing anything other than driving. Slade argues that’s a misunderstanding of Raikkonen’s approach. It’s not that he is uninterested, rather that he sees clear delineation in responsibilities within teams, and wants to trust those around him to do their jobs properly without interference. Slade admits this approach can compromise Raikkonen when internal politics arise.

“There were times at McLaren when things didn’t go the way they should have for Kimi and if he had been just a little bit more involved, that could have swapped things around a bit,” Slade says. “In the middle of 2005 there were certain things happening with the design direction of the car that didn’t suit Kimi and there was a lot of tension and pressure. I was having to fight Kimi’s corner, because he wasn’t really doing much himself. That was quite stressful. “He didn’t like hanging around in the office for very long. His debriefs were very short, but he gave us the important points and that was almost perfect for me, because it meant we didn’t spend lots of time talking about what was not relevant. He won’t rant about it. It’s just, ‘That’s what we need to fix’. Simple as that. “If people try to push him in a different direction, it’s not going to work because you need him on board. You need to be on board with him and he needs to be on board with you. For me, it was enjoyable to work with him, because it was logical and straightforward. “One of the biggest difficulties with drivers who are less consistent with their approach is trying to filter out this inconsistency. It becomes very difficult very quickly. If he came in saying there’s something wrong with the car, the chances are there’s something wrong with the car – even if you can’t see that on data. Ninety-nine percent of the time he’s right. “When we were doing Michelin tyre testing, they desperately wanted him to do the testing. They told us at one point that he was the best test driver that they worked with. They used to give a little array of tick boxes for different characteristics of the tyre – what the tyres were doing, what the characteristics of the different compounds were. They said there were some drivers who got most of the points correct, but he always got them all correct. “And his consistency of lap time when we tested eight different compounds – his baselines would be within one tenth, and that meant that they could properly analyse the lap time data as well as the driver’s comments.” Slade says he’s never seen anything else like Raikkonen’s “extraordinary level of sensitivity” to the car, to the point where Raikkonen could detect problems with McLaren’s traction control so aware the engineers couldn’t see in their trackside data. The chase for a ‘perfect car’ can be a real curse when too many things aren’t working correctly, but this degree of feel made Raikkonen a formidable weapon during F1’s tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin. “That played a big part of how it went,” says Raikkonen. “I was very happy to do the tyre tests. We could test 20 different sets of tyres and choose exactly what you wanted, whatever you feel is best for you. It was one extra thing that you could use.” Raikkonen does not agree with those, such as Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe, who would say his McLaren years represent Raikkonen at his peak. But he was certainly unfortunate not to win at least one world title with McLaren, and Slade recalls some truly stunning drives by Raikkonen during that period. “No doubt Michael, Fernando and Kimi were the three guys,” argues Slade, who feels Raikkonen could have won “15 straight races” in 2005 with better reliability. “Then, just slightly behind, DC, [Juan Pablo] Montoya and a few others. When it came to the driving and his racecraft, Kimi was right up there.“In the middle part of the [2005] season the car was phenomenal and he was driving phenomenally well. At Monza, he qualified fastest with the full tank of fuel [before a grid penalty]; at Silverstone, he was half a second per lap quicker than Montoya, who won the race; in France he started 13th and finished second. Japan was awesome because he came from the back and won. “One of the best races he ever did was Indianapolis in 2003, when we were on the Michelin wets and the Michelin wets were rubbish. He finished second. It was fantastic. He just drove his heart out. He didn’t win the race, but it was an absolutely phenomenal drive. “Nurburgring 2006 – the engine was terrible that year and he finished fourth. I remember him coming to the bus afterwards, sweat pouring off him, and he said, ‘I just drove 60 qualifying laps’, and you could see he had. We knew he had to drive phenomenally well to achieve that with the car we had then.” By now Raikkonen had grown increasingly frustrated with life at McLaren and reputedly made an agreement with Ferrari as early as late-2005 to join the Scuderia for 2007. “He signed with Ferrari two years before he moved to Ferrari,” confirms his then-Ferrari team-mate Massa. “I remember when I signed for Ferrari, Kimi already has his contract; the only way I stay in Ferrari is if Michael stops.” Schumacher announced his first retirement from F1 after winning the 2006 Italian GP at Monza. Thus, the way was clear for Raikkonen and Massa to usher in a new era at Maranello.

MARK SLADE RAIKKONEN’S ENGINEER AT McLAREN AND LOTUS

Does Kimi have particular traits in his driving? He’s very, very smooth, very gentle, very precise – minimal inputs into the car. He wants the car to do the work. Most drivers tend to be a bit more aggressive with inputs, which can have benefits when the tyres are hard and difficult to get into the working window. The other thing is power steering. He came to us and complained about power steering. We spent a lot of time fixing it. Then he went to Ferrari and apparently complained about power steering there. Then he came back to Lotus and complained about power steering. So the feel of the steering is very, very important. He doesn’t want any friction in it. He doesn’t want any play on the brake pedal. Also, Mark [Arnall] always carried a special cloth to clean the windscreen, because if there was a slightest finger print or scratch, we had to change it.

He says he hates understeer and you often hear him complain about the front… Even at McLaren there were occasions where we did have issues. Canada was a good one in 2005. We were slower on new tyres than on used tyres because he couldn’t get the new tyre temperature to work. The start of the lap can be a real problem if he just hasn’t got the front grip that he needs to get the car into corners. I would say that’s probably the only real weakness. There were times also that was an advantage, because he was a lot more gentle on tyres. When we won the race with Lotus in 2013 in Melbourne, he just walked away with it because he could do one stop. Those tyres were absolutely perfect for him, then Pirelli changed the tyres and that disadvantaged him unfortunately.

Why does he often seem to make mistakes in qualifying? He takes a high-risk approach to qualifying. It’s all about corner entry speed. And if you get the corner wrong you tend to drop a lot of time. Other drivers probably prioritise the exit a little bit more. He’s trying to carry speed through; that is high risk. 

WORLD CHAMPION THEN DITCHED BY FERRARI

Raikkonen’s Ferrari career got off to a dream start – pole position and victory in his first race in Melbourne, and of course he went on to claim the championship as Ferrari backed his bid to overhaul the McLarens of Alonso and rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton. Raikkonen succeeded in this mission by a solitary point when team-mate Massa moved aside for him to win the season finale in Brazil.“For me it counts much more than any others – if I had won with McLaren or with somebody else,” Raikkonen says. “Ferrari is Ferrari.I got close a few times in the McLaren. I mean yes in some people’s eyes I [could] have won three championships. I didn’t deserve it.In the end, whoever gets the most points deserves it. “Would I be happier with three championships? It makes no difference. I am happy with what I have achieved.” It felt as though F1 almost owed Raikkonen that championship– regardless of the peculiar circumstances – as payback for the disappointment and near-misses at McLaren. But although he finally conquered the world in his first season as a Ferrari driver, Raikkonen never fully established himself as the team’s number one. Raikkonen says his biggest concern before coming to Ferrari was having to adjust to Bridgestone tyres after years spent honing his car on Michelin rubber, but according to Rob Smedley – Massa’s race engineer throughout Raikkonen’s first stint at Ferrari – the tyres were “never the limiting factor” for Raikkonen during this period.“In terms of raw talent he definitely was one of the best drivers on the grid when he came to us,” Smedley says. “[But] he very much needs a particular set-up. He needs the front to work for him very positively. He turns the car in very early, a little bit like Michael, like Fernando, like Valtteri [Bottas]. They turn very early in the corner, and due to that he’s very demanding on the front-end in that phase of the corner.“He needs to start sending the car into the apex almost immediately when he starts thinking about the corner, especially in medium-speed corners. When he first came to us, it took us a longtime to understand what he wanted. “He’s the driver who, probably the most I’ve ever seen of anyone, is absolutely and entirely unfazed by rear locking at the start of heavy braking. To be able to deal with that and not to be fazed by that is something quite incredible. “We spent a lot of our time in that winter of 2007 attempting to understand how on earth he was putting the brake balance so far rearward. He was running probably 8% more rearward than Felipe and the other drivers – that’s another planet. “We were quite surprised by that, but actually what he was trying to do, in his own way, was to make the car turn as soon as he asked for it.As soon as he asked for response out of the steering, he wanted the car to turn. He had a particular way of driving the car and I think it took us a little bit of time to understand that. Once we did, we got performance from him.” But not consistently. Raikkonen was closely matched with Massa through most of 2007, but would likely have been asked to support his team-mate’s own bid for the championship had Massa not suffered a damper failure while running ahead of Raikkonen in that year’s Italian GP – and narrowly leading Raikkonen in the standings. Massa, who describes Raikkonen as “for sure one of the strangest people I’ve met”, was a fan of the Finn’s honesty as a team-mate, but rates Schumacher and Alonso higher: “Definitely Michael and Fernando were stronger – not quicker, but more complete.” The following year Raikkonen was cast into the supporting role, as his title defence fell apart amid a run of four consecutive non-scoring races in the second half of the season. Massa was unlucky not to become world champion in ’08 and was Ferrari’s leading driver through the first part of a difficult 2009 campaign too, before he suffered a terrible head injury during qualifying for the Hungarian GP. “We never were really comfortable – like if you drive and you have to try and do things that are not normal,” says Raikkonen of his first stint at Ferrari. “We never really found it and put things together. We changed the cars a little bit, but we just struggled compared to what we did in the first bit.” Raikkonen showed flashes of form in a very difficult 2009 Ferrari, which was not a strong answer to the regulatory upheaval of the previous winter. He qualified on the front row and finished third at Monaco, but he wasn’t proving so relentlessly impressive as he had done in his McLaren years– against a team-mate not rated as one of the absolute best on the grid.

“In ’08 Felipe was still in the stage of rapid improvement and overall Felipe was pretty much quicker than him, definitely in qualifying,” adds Smedley, who reckons Raikkonen’s “pure natural talent” made him better than Massa at looking after the rear tyres in races.“That was one of the things that really surprised me, because I expected him to come in and be blisteringly quick but not really manage things in such a mechanically sympathetic way, and in fact the opposite was true. One of the strengths he’s always got is that he can take the tyres further than anybody else and, wherever he goes, the team tries to exploit that.“It’s never a matter of application with Kimi – you just plug him in and he just does it. You often wonder [what would happen] if he had the level of application of others with his level of natural skill and tenacity, [but] one thing you can say about him is that he doesn’t bring any politics. The guy is absolutely apolitical.“I think that comes a little bit from not being interested in this world. The thing that is really important to him is going racing on a Sunday afternoon, qualifying, trying to be better than anybody else. And all the other periphery bits do not interest him. “And that’s kind of where he probably differs to 99.9% of the rest of us in F1. You wake up thinking about it, you go to sleep thinking about it – much to the annoyance of my wife! But that’s how we are– constantly striving to do better and be the best. I don’t think Kimi has that. I mean, he likes it here, he comes and drives his car, then he goes home, and doesn’t think about it a great deal after that.” The feeling inside Ferrari was that Massa was establishing himself as the quicker driver, and that messed with Raikkonen’s head. Raikkonen’s form certainly picked up following Massa’s accident. Kimi was on the podium at Budapest, Valencia and Monza, and beat Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India to victory at Spa. His performances were made to look all the more remarkable by how badly Massa’s stand-ins Luca Badoer (who qualified slowest of all at Valencia and Spa) and Fisichella (who took over after Spa) struggled. But it wasn’t enough for Ferrari, which elected to pay Raikkonen out of the final two years of his contract to bring Alonso on board for 2010. Raikkonen is still guarded about the events that unfolded behind closed doors at Maranello, but says he was keen to get out of F1 in any case. “I have nothing to hide really,” says Raikkonen, who originally never planned for a long career in F1. “That’s how it played out and I was happy at that point to say, ‘OK, that’s fine and I’ll go’. Honestly, somethings happen in life and I didn’t feel bad about it. Obviously, I had a contract, but that got dealt with. They obviously wanted something else at that point, and for me that’s how it goes sometimes. I wanted to do something else anyhow.”

RETURN FROM THE WILDERNESS

Raikkonen was temporarily done with F1, but F1 wasn’t done with him. Throughout his two-year stint experimenting in the World Rally Championship, proposals were made for his return. Eventually, Raikkonen realised he missed the joy of wheel-to-wheel competition so began thinking seriously about a comeback. He held talks with Williams – “I had a meeting with Toto [Wolff]; he came to my home” – and Lotus, before opting to make his comeback with the Enstone outfit.“The year before I got people asking me if I wanted to come back– there was a lot of talk but I felt if I want to come back I needed to have a current team that people will at least try to put the money into,” Raikkonen explains. “I didn’t need the money, but I wanted a car and a team that actually had some chances to do something good, rather than just being there.”Raikkonen enjoyed a superb first season with Lotus. He finished every one of the 20 races held in 2012, was on the podium seven times, and claimed a victory in Abu Dhabi – the infamous GP where he told the team to “leave me alone I know what I’m doing” over the radio while preparing for a safety car restart.Then-Lotus team principal Eric Boullier recalls a driver who was“a bit rusty over one lap” at first, but “brilliant” in the races, despite spending two seasons out of the game.“His capability and racecraft was amazing,” recalls Boullier.“The good thing for him [was] he had Grosjean near to him, and he [Grosjean] was very fast on one lap but not as good [overall].The most amazing thing about Kimi is he has a great understanding.He has a GPS in his head. He’s doing his own strategy, it’s amazing. ”Boullier recalls the 2012 Hungarian GP as the perfect example of Raikkonen’s craft, where the Finn came from the third row of the grid to beat Grosjean (who qualified on the front row) to second by saving his tyres and running longer in each stint. “You just have to guess sometimes what he wants, because he’snot the best communicator in the world,” Boullier adds. “Kimi gets quite stressed sometimes; he needs people who understand him and can handle him.“He is charismatic – actually, his charisma is strong enough to make people fans of him. What would be better would be to have more motivation to push people around him. He’s not as complete as maybe a Vettel, but he is a great driver. Some drivers need support. He’s one of the guys who can do it on his own. He’s incredibly talented.“He’s quite easy [to work with] to be honest – as long as you give him space to breathe and you’re not on his back all the time.

That was key – to let him live his life. ”Reuniting Raikkonen with Slade (who came across from Mercedes to work with Kimi again) also proved crucial in helping Raikkonen get the most from his comeback, and Lotus get the best out of Raikkonen. “When he first came back, he was really enthusiastic,” remembers Slade. “Unfortunately, he got messed around a bit on the salary side of things. That was an annoyance, but in terms of the driving, I felt he was still exactly the same. I don’t think it’s any secret that he’snot a big fan of the F1 paddock scene and the stuff that goes with it.”It seemed those two seasons of F1, racing on the most extremely fragile rubber of the Pirelli control tyre era, also suited Raikkonen’s particular skillset. Often he would score a big result by making fewer pitstops than his rivals, but Raikkonen himself reckons the design of that generation of Lotus – conceived by James Allison’s team around the Renault V8 engine and exhaust-blown downforce – made more of a difference, giving him the “pure front-end” grip he needs to drive well. Whatever, the combination gelled superbly. Raikkonen added eight more podiums to his tally in 2013, winning the first race of the season in Melbourne and finishing second six times. An unfortunate retirement at Spa that year (thanks to a visor tear-off blocking a brake duct) broke an incredible run of 27 consecutive points finishes stretching back to the Bahrain GP of 2012. “He’s relentless,” says Slade. “I’d say Fernando is the closest in terms of achieving consistent results.” But into the latter part of 2013, Grosjean began to establish himself as the stronger and generally faster of the two Lotus drivers,even though he was twice defeated by Raikkonen overall in the championship. Grosjean describes Raikkonen as “the perfect  benchmark” and says he learned a lot from racing alongside the Finn. “As team-mates we didn’t talk much – maybe three times in two years!” Grosjean says. “Everybody thinks he doesn’t give a shit; he actually does. He works. Same as Fernando – the only thing he thinks on Sunday is 2pm, how to get the car to where he wants it to go.“Once I had a rear soft spring for a race and Kimi tried it and liked it. He was pushing to get the springs. He was trying even though you think he doesn’t [care]. It was interesting that everybody thinks he [just] comes and drives the car and goes. He actually works. ”Their head-to-head record as team-mates is also skewed slightly by the fact Raikkonen skipped the final two races of 2013 – quitting the team over a financial dispute and electing to have surgery on a long-standing back injury, legacy of a testing accident during his first season in F1 at Sauber. “Unfortunately the whole thing [was] destroyed by people that, in my mind, were just stupid to be honest,” Raikkonen says. “They had a great thing on their hands. “It’s not my business, but I left there purely because I didn’t get paid. Without it, who knows? But then obviously I got the offer from Ferrari. I never had a bad feeling with them when I left, despite people thinking that. You know how people always think it will end in a mess, but they offered me a new deal and I went back.”

WHY RAIKKONEN OWES HIS SECOND F1 CAREER TO RALLYING AND NASCAR

Kimi Raikkonen’s two-year sabbatical from F1 in 2010-2011 led him to try his hand at other forms of motorsport he’d long wished to dabble in but never had the time to do so while fully absorbed into grand prix racing’s goldfish bowl. Having sampled Rally Finland in the summer of 2009, Raikkonen contested most of the 2010 World Rally Championship as part of the Citroen Junior Team, and nine rounds of the 2011 championship with a DS 3 run under his own ‘Ice 1 Racing’ banner. There were many incidents, but also many top 10s. “I always wanted to try the rally stuff, because it looks so difficult,”says Raikkonen. “I wanted to see how it would go and I was happy to have the help from Red Bull to do it. I still think it’s a great sport, it’s so difficult. The problem is that it needs time – experience counts a lot more in rallying than in circuit racing.“In rallying you have to put the same effort in driving, but you [also] have to listen to your co-driver. The most difficult thing is that you have to think about what he says and then react. That takes too much time. When that starts to happen automatically then you can go faster, then it gets easier.I was close to getting to that point,then things happened and I ended up back in F1. ”Raikkonen also travelled Stateside in 2011, to try his hand at NASCAR. He contested the lower-tier Nationwide and Truck series races at Charlotte, qualifying mid-pack for his Nationwide outing.It was this experience that refired Raikkonen’s enthusiasm for circuit racing and accelerated his F1 return. “Without that happening then I would definitely not be here today,”he says. “I would never have lasted this long if I hadn’t had a few years doing something else, trying things.

MARANELLO COMEBACK

It was during Raikkonen’s financial dispute with Lotus that he agreed a two-year deal to return to Maranello. Initially, it looked as though signing Raikkonen was the perfect insurance policy for Ferrari,which seemed in danger of losing Alonso after failing to carry the fight to Vettel and Red Bull in 2013. But despite publicly criticising the team and being admonished by company president Luca di Montezemolo, Alonso stayed put (for the moment) and he and Raikkonen became team-mates for 2014, as Massa departed for a fresh start at Williams. Raikkonen’s first season back at the Scuderia was a real struggle.The first year of F1’s current V6 hybrid turbo era was Ferrari’s least competitive since 1993. The car was bad, Raikkonen couldn’t adapt it to his driving style, and was demolished in the championship by Alonso, 161 points to 55. Jonathan Neale recalls how McLaren found its suspension development pulled “in two different directions” owing to Raikkonen’s demand for instant steering response from its cars, and Pat Fry, who was Ferrari’s chief engineer when Raikkonen returned in 2014, found his team coming up against an age-old problem – one exacerbated by stiff and hard Pirelli tyres that Raikkonen often struggled to get working for a single flying lap in qualifying. “He has a very smooth driving style – you’ve got to get rid of the understeer in the car,” says Fry. “You can obviously play around with suspension geometries and stuff like that to try and give him the feel,and sort out power-steering and all that stuff. ”The process was made trickier by Alonso’s long-standing presence as Ferrari’s number one driver, which inevitably led the team in a development direction that suited Alonso, before he departed for the ill-fated McLaren-Honda project.“In all the years I’ve worked with Kimi, the year I saw him struggle the most was that first year back at Ferrari,” says his long-time trainer Mark Arnall. “Coming from Lotus, where he had a good front-end on the car and had podium after podium after podium, it’s not like he suddenly forgot how to drive – he just couldn’t get a balance with that 2014 car.” But Raikkonen commanded the faith of technical director James Allison, with whom he worked at Lotus previously, and knew that he would have to play the long game at Ferrari to get back to where he needed to be.“I knew what I was getting into,” Raikkonen says. “With the engineers, I wouldn’t say they were bad – maybe the fit wasn’t what I wanted. It just didn’t work, I suppose, and our car was not very good.

“The front end has to be right there. If it’s not right, it’s not right,unfortunately. When it’s right things are very easy. Even when you have a good year, it’s a little percentage that’s perfect. There’s always something. There’s so many things that you have no control over.“Some days everything goes perfectly fine, and some days whatever you do it seems to be against you, but I’ve been long enough in the sport to know it. People look at you in one race and if you struggle they slag you off, but I’m used to it so it doesn’t bother me too much.“I want myself to do well and I know what I can do. That’s more important for me. Obviously, it’s not nice when you are in a team like Ferrari and the results are not coming, [but] I had no issues with them and I knew that things would turn out to be just fine with time. It just took some patience.” Raikkonen’s form has gradually improved since that annus horribilis, during which time the Ferrari senior management has changed, the technical structure has changed, the identity of his team-mate has changed, and so has his engineering group. Drafting in Dave Greenwood as his race engineer at the end of 2014 has made a massive difference for Raikkonen. “The car has been getting better and better every year, and a big part for me has been the people,” Raikkonen explains. “Dave is for sure one of the greatest guys that I have ever worked with. I would compare him with Slade – I very highly rate them. “For me it’s important that when we do something, everything has to be exactly like it should be. A very easy example: the ride height,if it’s [supposed] to be 20mm, it has to be 20mm; it can’t be 21mm or 19mm.“When everything is ‘close enough’, and you have five or six things like that, we all know in F1 how much difference small things make,then suddenly the lap time is not so perfect anymore.”Vettel has generally outperformed Raikkonen since arriving at Maranello in 2015, but their similar set-up demands and harmonious working relationship is helping drive Ferrari’s development in a single direction, and the Scuderia is now finally carrying the fight to Mercedes in the world championship – though it is Vettel leading the charge rather than Raikkonen. “Of all F1 drivers, he is probably closer to him [Vettel] than any of the others,” says Arnall, who arranged for Vettel to travel with Raikkonen on a private jet when Vettel was first in F1, and recalls Vettel’s rapid progression playing badminton against Raikkonen. “Kimi always liked Seb and I think Seb always liked Kimi. They are good friends – as much as you can be in this sort of environment. “The thing about Kimi is that he is not political at all, so I think to be a team-mate of, he is actually very easy as he doesn’t stir up any shit in the background – he is very transparent. Harmony in the team is something that is massively underrated. It makes a huge difference.”Paired alongside Vettel, Raikkonen’s own performances have steadily improved too, to the point where he has earned three contract extensions, which will keep him in F1 until after his 39th birthday.Questions about his ultimate speed and consistency remain, though, stoked further by occasional criticism from Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, who has described Raikkonen as an occasional “laggard” in races. But Raikkonen’s pole position in Monaco proves he can still be faster than anyone when things are right, and his pernickety obsession with car set-up and tyre behaviour, plus the deep levels of valuable experience from F1’s tyre war era he can bring to bear in an age of severely limited testing, make him a valuable commodity, even if the price is the odd lacklustre performance.“I think Kimi is one of those guys that if he thought, ‘I just can’t drive one of these cars as quick as I used to’, he would stop,” reckons Arnall. “Kimi brings a shit load of experience,he’s very good with the development of the car, very non-political, an easy team-mate for people to have, so I think as an overall package,he is [still] very good.“I think his belief is that he can still compete near the top. He is very honest with himself – if he didn’t think that was the case, he’d stop.”Many would argue that he should have stopped a while ago, that his continuing presence on the grid, in such a coveted seat, is baffling when you consider he hasn’t been definitively quicker than any of his last four team-mates in F1. But what does Raikkonen himself think – does he believe he is as good a driver now as he ever was? “That’s so hard to say,” he replies. “I feel that I can drive as well as 2007 and 2001, or whatever people think has been my best ever [year]. For me, if I didn’t feel that I can drive well, or couldn’t win races or championships, I wouldn’t be here, because I don’t have interest to waste my own time and everyone else’s time. “I value my own time too much to use it on something that I wouldn’t be happy with, or that I wouldn’t think that I can actually do well. Plus, all the other people who would waste their time and money or on something that I just want to be part of. It’s not the most friendly place to be if you don’t really want to be…” That Ferrari continues to place its faith in Raikkonen suggests it feels, beyond the headline results and numbers, that he is still fundamentally among the very best drivers in the world, and that it recognises those deeper layers of style, character, substance and ability that make Raikkonen something more than the sum of his parts. He is enigmatic and mercurial, hasn’t been world champion for a decade, but clearly possesses extra qualities that F1’s biggest team finds are still worth investing in. He may lack the single-minded dedication of some of his peers,he may not be the out-and-out fastest driver on the grid anymore, he may well be too Button-esque in his over-reliance on particular car characteristics to drive quickly. He may not be as adaptable as some of his rivals, and F1 may only be a job to him, rather than an all-consuming obsession – but what’s wrong with being naturally gifted enough at your job that you don’t feel the need to take your work home with you every day?His critics will argue that’s not good enough, that Raikkonen has long outstayed his welcome. If Ferrari hands him another contract extension, they will no doubt be outraged if this enigma is given yet another lease of life. But one thing is for sure, Raikkonen will not care what they think. “I can live my life very happy,” Raikkonen says. “Obviously, my aim is to win races and I’m not happy when I’m not doing well. My biggest issue when I’m getting older is that I care too much. In the past, I didn’t care much. Now, when I have a bad weekend it’s more painful because I care more. Before it was still painful, but I got over it very quickly. “I never tried to be anything else than myself. If people like it, that’s good; if people don’t like it, that’s fine. As long as I’m happy what I’m doing, that’s my only interest. I’m not trying to please people because then I don’t live my life as I should. I live my life for myself. “I always said I have a life and that F1 is just a part of that. It’s not like F1 is all your life and then you have nothing. In my mind, I have the opposite. I mean F1, yes I love it and I enjoy doing it, but it’s not my life. My life is outside of it, and that’s how it should be.”

MARK ARNALL- RAIKKONEN’S LONG-TIME PERSONAL TRAINER

How does the Kimi of now compare to the Kimi you first knew back in 2001?

He didn’t really care too much about the PR stuff, he wasn’t interested in that glamour side of it, being famous, I think he would much rather be anonymous! Every time he got in the car all he wanted to do was drive the crap out of it. When I started working with him, I could never imagine him being a father. Now seeing him with two kids is a phenomenal transformation. He is fantastic dad. I think all drivers, everyone learns, go through life and grow; experience teaches a lot. If you look at Kimi, the PR stuff he does now and what the sponsors say, everyone is super happy with him, and he’s got a global following of fans.

He doesn’t give much away in public; is he a shy character?

I think that mysterious side to him is intriguing for people. I don’t think he is particularly shy – the whole fan side of things,he obviously understands Formula 1, knows he is a popular driver, but it is not something he deliberately tries to play to, he just tries to get on with the job and what comes with it comes with it. One area he is very good is with kids. There was a guy who come up to me in Spa once, with this charity, to say this girl has cancer and she’d just love a picture with him or to say ‘hi’, and he spent 25 minutes sitting down and talking to her.

Is he quite a difficult character to work with? He polarises opinion – some people get him and say he is brilliant,others say he is completely closed off, difficult to work with…

The nicest thing I’d say about Kimi is what you see is what you get. Zero bullshit, zero politics. Kimi’s always been his own character and will always make his own decisions. He’s got a very strong head on those shoulders, so if he doesn’t want to do something, it is really difficult to get him to do it.

It sounds like he is not too demanding, quite independent and knows his own mind.

That is quite an accurate description of what he is like. I think he is probably the opposite to what most people think. If I was to describe Kimi, it would be ‘Mr 110%’. Goes into the gym and goes 110%. If he is lying on his sofa, he’ll go 110% horizontal! When he drives anything, it would be 110%, if he goes out it is 110%. I think that is just the way he lives his life.

The public persona is the ‘Iceman’: cool, disinterested, closed-off. Is he really like that?

In most situations, he is like that, but Kimi is actually a very warm, big-hearted character, and he has got a phenomenal sense of humour, but that is not really something people see. He needs to like people as well. If he doesn’t particularly like being with someone, he doesn’t do anything other than just ignore them.There is no bullshit, if he doesn’t like someone, he is quite straight about it. I think I’ve seen all the different versions of him, but I wouldn’t carry on working with him if I thought he was an arse. I actually really like him. I think he is super genuine, superkind. That is something people don’t really see so much.

[softgossip]

10 Best Offline Android Games of All Time That You Can Play Without Internet

Best Offline Android Games are easy to find in play store. Friends, many people like to play games from us and there is also a good option for passing time. But if you play games online, then we get to see many advertisements that make us very angry and many of us use free VPN app for playing games. But friends, today I will tell you some good and always the favorite Android games that you can play offline. If you do not have mobile data or network, then you can still enjoy all these games. Friends, sometimes it happens that we go to a place where there is no network and our time does not pass and we are bored. And in such a situation if we think of playing online games, then it cannot be possible. Solving all these problems is possible from all these Best Offline Android Games.

So, let's know about these Best Offline Android Games

1. Asphalt Nitro

Asphalt Nitro is a hot racing game that is just 37 MB in size. This app has been downloaded by more than 50,000,000 people and has a maximum positive rating of 4.5. This is a fantastic racing game of luxury cars that gives you a feeling of a luxury control. Have you thought that a game of 37 MB can be so much interesting, if you are not sure, you should play this game once? 2. Asphalt 8

In Asphalt 8 you will be able to race in high-performance vehicles such as bike to car. All the vehicles present in this are less than any dream machine. Its graphics are quite overwhelming, from the scorching desert of Nevada to the glittering city of Tokyo. Asphalt8 has lots of features to make it Best Offline Android Games While racing in it you will feel that you are talking to the air. You can increase the speed of your bike or car to such an extent that you will feel as if your bike has risen above the ramp. You will find exciting tracks like 40 different high-performance tracks such as Venice, French Guiana, Iceland, Nevada Desert, which will give real-life experiences like the City of Real Life. In this exciting game, there will be more than 400 Levels that will be filled with difficulty, 3. CSR Racing 2

With lots of supercars, this is a wonderful game that will take your adventure to the extreme extent. In this game, you will get a full list of supercars so that you can take your race to a different level. This game will have many luxury cars like McLaren F1, Ferrari 250 GTO or Bugatti EB110. Now your dream to run a supercar will come true. Its graphics are of high quality which will give you the real-world experience. All the features that a fan of a game wants in a car racing feature are present in this Best Offline Android Games. 4. Major Mayhem 2 - Gun Shooting Action

Major Mayhem 2 is a super fast, fun, action-packed shooting game. In this game, you will be given many fun tasks. And to complete those tasks you will have to kill many enemies with your bullets. While playing the game, while shooting the bullets on enemy chests, you will consider yourself a real hero. These games will feel like a real graphics. There will be very powerful guns in this game that will make you so powerful for the kill to your enemies. 5. Red Bull Air Race 2

Red Bull Air Race 2 is the sequel to the popular Android mobile hit game Air Racing. The combination with high speed, low altitude, and extreme mobility makes it the most exciting air racing game on mobile. With touch or tilt control, you can play your game with complete control. Play this game online or offline in any mode. Collect and customize high-performance, race-tuned planes in your hangar. Then upgrade and configure them to match the demands of each unique course. Hire a crew to maximize your plane's performance and effectiveness against your rivals. With all features, it is a favorite of Best Offline Android Games. Amazing graphics bring real-world locations to life on your mobile screen. Feel like to skim over San Diego Bay water or roam around the Indianapolis Speedway's Infield. Experience the thrill of high-speed racing like never before with 11 places and more than 500 races! 6. Subway Surfers

Running and jumping from the middle of the trains is really a thrill-filled game in which you will get a tremendous control. In this game, you have to help Jack, who is going to rescue an angry inspector. You will find many characters like jack which can bring more charm to your adventures. 7. Temple Run

You do not need to know about Temple Run. There will be hardly anyone in the world who will not know about this game. This is a fun and exciting game of a mysterious world. This game has gained great popularity with Amazing Graphics and Super Control. 8. Traffic Rider

Another masterpiece in the field of traffic racer This time, you will experience much wider gaming behind the wheels of a motorbike, but in this game, you will get the fun and simplicity of the old school. Traffic Rider is a complete career mode game, in which the first person takes a tremendous racing style to a new level by adding the perspective of viewing, better graphic design and cutting-edge sounds of real-life bikes. The essence of smooth arcade racing is still present but is saved for the next generation shell. Overcoming traffic, beat exciting missions in career mode and ride your bike on the streets of the endless highway, in this game you can buy a new bike and upgrade it. 9. Trial Xtreme 4

You can feel the adrenaline pumps because you take your bike to over 160 challenging levels. In this game, you can earn easy money by running, tournaments and head-to-head pairs. You can prove yourself as the best Xtreme bike rider between your friends and you can add your name at the top of the world ranking chart in this Best Offline Android Games. Do not think it is a racing game based on general skill - because its brand is based on the new Xtreme Physics engine and super-responsive control that will help you burn from crazy obstacles and move you to the most exciting ride of your life! 10. Warhammer 40,000: Free blade

When a young Imperial Knight is destroyed by the twisted forces of chaos and looks at their elite house, then they join forces with the Dark Angel Space Marine Chapter as Free bled. In over 170 single player missions, you will experience an epic story because you command your free blade on a journey of respect, redemption, and retribution. Test your skills and patrol the world of Tarnish to kill endless invaders in this Best Offline Android Games. You will attack the enemies by feeling the power of an exciting unstoppable war machine with your fingers. With the use of cannons, missiles and thermal blasts, you will feel like an overwhelmingly dusty atmosphere to destroy your enemies. On your mobile, you will be able to experience an overwhelming vision. Experience 40,000 characters and creatures like you are in any other world. I hope you guys enjoy this article and able to find the best for among the Best Offline Android Games. So, thank you for reading this article and I will promise that I will bring many this type of articles for you to keep up the reading with Softgossip. Read the full article

[myracingcareer]

Interview to Invictus (the manager of Rocco Rapido)

Why Did you know and play in MRC? I play MRC for a long time, much longer than I've ever thought. Grown up not far away from Sauber base in Switzerland, I always was a fan of motorsports. One day I thought it would be nice to play an online game. Thanks to Google I‘ve found MRC…

Do you remember your first victory? And World championship? I already had a few victories with my first driver at season 5. However, the first race I can clearly remember to have won was at the very beginning of Rapido's career. At that time, there were no quick races and almost every single race was fully occupied with at least one top driver participating. Therefore the start of a career was much more frustrating than it is today. At this race the world‘s #1, Paolo Grandi, was the man to beat. Impossible for a 18y Rapido. It was raining and Rapido had a good strategy, nevertheless was he just 3rd. But a few laps before chequered flag Grandi was kicked out of the race by the 2nd-placed driver and Rapido came to an unexpected victory. After the race Braveheart (Grandi) congratulated me and predicted Rapido a great career... Of course I also remember the Drivers’ Championship. It was not too long ago. However, to me the Constructors' Championship the season before was much more important. At the beginning of the F1 adventure, McLaren was a backbencher team. Slowly but steadily and step by step we’ve made our way to the front ranks. In the meantime, McLaren has established itself at the top and almost no one can remember that it was a fight for every single point for many seasons. At that time, there was no lottery called “Qualifying” like it is today.

What is the best driver for you in the history of the game? Rapido! No, I'm just joking. For me it is Paolo Grandi. Braveheart was not everybody's friend, but he is still the best strategist this game has ever seen. Unfortunately he has never won the Driver's Championship, but at least he was able to win the Constructors' title with Mercedes AMG (today Porsche). Btw. does anybody know that Breaveheart is a Sudoku Champion in real life? 

What is the difference between driver of F1 and team manager? These are two totally different things. For me MRC is 2 games in 1. As team manager, you are responsible for the success of a whole team. You need strategic, long-term planning and it costs you a lot of time. You also must coordinate the communication between team manager, assistant, drivers and owners, what sometimes can be very frustrating and annoying. And a small inattention can destroy a whole F1 season (ask the manager of Williams). As driver (or rather, his manager) you are responsible for just yourself. If you like to, you can climb up the ladder by only driving a few races every week without much further planning. It doesn’t really matter if this is F1 or another series. But don't get me wrong, I don’t say that’s easy to be successful! 

What was your favorite victory? Always the last one! 

What is ypu program in the game, for this and Next season? After the disappointing season 22 I‘d like to win both F1 titles. It doesn’t matter if Rapido or his teammate Morales Garcia is on the top of the podium. So far, fortune has been a bit more on our side than past season. This also is Rapido’s last F1 season. We have already found an adequate substitute for him and of course we want to fight for both titles again in season 24. Rapido will enjoy his early retirement by driving some other series for the next 2 or 3 seasons.

What is your best driver in RL ? As a child, we always watched F1 at the TV on Sunday. Senna vs. Prost, that’s was a legendary battle (yes I’m that old!). But I'm also a fan of Alonso. Unfortunately, the real McLaren is not nearly as good as the MRC one.

What is your and mclaren's future jn the game? I hope that McLaren can defend a place at the top 3 for a long time, I am quite confident. Maybe it is even possible to reach the top of the F1 rating one day. At season 20 we were very close to Red Bull, but unfortunately the stroke of bad luck has cost us a lot of rating points. Now we’re working to slowly close the gap. My personal future at MRC is still uncertain. I am still convinced that MRC is one the best online strategy game, but it‘s possible that Rapido Jr. will never enter the stage. There are many things I like, otherwise I wouldn’t invest so much time. Nevertheless, in my opinion there is too little progress as there have been almost no interesting new features for a long time. There are many good ideas and suggestions to be found in the different forums. Unfortunately, very few of them have ever been noticed, not to mention realized. Sometimes it is just a trifle that disturbs me. For example, that the possibility to set specific race days for private series haven’t been implemented. However, over the years, my personal situation has also changed. I now have two little children and it is just normal that priorities change. For all these reasons, it would be difficult to start a successful new career with enough accuracy and patience. Maybe this is also because Rapido is the benchmark. It would be very tough to top this career. But never say never. I’m still here… Author: Torak

[swordgorl]

if you're still doing oc questions, vactum A1, A11, B2, C8, D2, E4, F1, G4, H5, I4, J7, K4, L9?

jiasndfiadsf sorry this took so long i accidentally deleted the tab when i was nearly finished earlier and then i forgot about it

A1. What of the Meyers-Briggs personality types they most fit into? INFP, ENFT, et cetera…

I did a test using answers that they’d use and got ENFJ which fits imo

A11. Does your OC put others’ needs before their own?

Usually yes but most of the time they’re so exhausted the just don’t have the energy to do Anything

B2. Do they get frustrated when lines at places like pharmacies, check-outs, delis, banks, et cetera, are moving slowly?

Maybe if they’ve got somewhere important to be they might get a bit irritated but otherwise they’ll be glad for the chance to relax and will probably fall asleep

C8. Is your OC more practical or ideal morally? I.e., do they hold people to high expectations of behavior even if it’s not realistic for the situation, or do they have a more realistic approach and adapt their morality to be more practical?

They have a couple beliefs that they hold to no matter what, like saving as many people as they can, even if it means things like endangering a larger amount of people that would otherwise be fine, etc etc. They’ll kinda instinctively hold everyone else they’re working with to the same standard as well.

 D2. Do they believe in an afterlife?

There’s kinda a thing that the magic humans believe about their atoms n shit transforming into new things, which is why they have their corpses launched into stars, but as for their conscious Vactum believes that theres just a big ol’ void of nonexistence, and they cannot wait for the sweet release.

E4. Did they enjoy school if they went to it?

No they absolutely loathed the Stormcaller base/academy thing. They blew it up the first chance they got.

F1. What sort of home do they live in now, if at all? How did they end up there?

Well, after they blew up the Stormcaller place, when they weren’t out on adventures they alternated between living on what was essentially their flagship and a cool crystal place that An’samar… inherited, I guess? It’s weird to explain without spoilers.

G4. What kind of childhood did your OC have?

They had a really good childhood before they got kidnapped. Living it a village sized family meant they were close to lots of people and also got lots of attention from different people.

H5. Does your OC believe in marriage (or their culture’s equivalent)?

Vactum finds the concept of marriage a little weird, coz their communal family didn’t really have a system like that. Like yeah some couples preferred their own company to others but there wasn’t a formal recognition of that.

I4. How often do they cook? Do they order out a lot?

They were learning to cook before the Stormcallers came for them, and during their time with the Stormcallers they didn’t have the time to cook properly, so once they got some free time to themselves they learnt how to cook, and did it as much as they could.

J7. How much interest in environmental health do they have?

As long as it isn’t like a galaxy-wide infection destroying all the wildlife everywhere or anything it doesn’t rank too high on their list of priorities? Like yeah various planets’ environments are important but not as important as ensuring the planets and their inhabits don’t get eaten up.

K4. Does your OC ever use their PA to get an advantage? I.e., use their ability to be invisible to steal or get out of things, compete in track while their species is a naturally superior runner, use their invulnerability in careers like police work… If so, do they have any hang-ups about it?

Once they get their special combination of magics a fair amount of the advantage given to them by it is kinda passive, they can’t really control it since it’s essentially making them lucky in certain ways. But there are other more active uses, and its those that really let them become the most powerful group in the universe because [spoilers].

L9. How did you come up with your OC?

I wanted a King Arthur figure in this universe who would use the cool powers I thought of for that role in interesting ways, and also thought there weren’t enough NB characters that had roles like this in my stories so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[formula1racing]

Why this blog has been quiet… This is a motor racing blog – at least, most of the time. Now and then, I decide that there are things more important than Formula 1. Today is one of those days. Sadly, not all such days are happy ones, but I am going to tell the story nonetheless, because I want the international motor racing community to know about Jill Saward. My little sister. Blog readers who live in the UK will probably know the name already, given the coverage there has been about her in the last week. She was the lead item on most TV news bulletins last Thursday and on most of the newspaper front pages on Friday morning. There were two reasons for this: she was a remarkable person; and she died suddenly at the age of just 51. The family knew that there might be some media interest, but none of us imagined it would be front page news. You may well ask, why is it? And for those who don’t know the story, I would suggest you read this link, but in very simple terms, Jill was “a rape campaigner”. It is not really the kind of job you want to have, because the primary qualification is to be someone who has been raped. Jill was. She was raped physically by a bunch of depraved thugs, but also metaphorically by the British media – although you won’t read that second part in many of this week’s news stories. You will read instead that she was the first rape victim ever to waive her right to anonymity. The reason she did that was because she wanted to make a difference, and because the media had already destroyed every shred of privacy. Headlines about “the vicar’s daughter” were simply too good for the loathsome creatures who sat on the news desks in Fleet Street, and for the low-lifes who chased the story. At the time I was a young reporter at Autosport and I suddenly found myself in the middle of a terrible drama, at the hands of people who were supposed to be my colleagues. My sister was in hospital. Her then boyfriend was in intensive care, having been beaten unconscious with a cricket bat. My father was in a similar state. Ironically, he was a big fan of cricket and the cricket bat, signed by the great Donald Bradman, was one of his prize possessions. It was a surreal time, which has been described very well by my brother-in-law Chris Hudson in the recent days. It taught me a lot about what not to do as a journalist. The case created fierce criticism about press coverage of rape cases because it was clear from the stories published who the victim had been. The Sun, edited by Kelvin MacKenzie, even published a photograph of Jill, with only her eyes blacked out. They were shameless. They argued, cynically, that media identification of victims was only banned after a defendant had been charged. As far as I am concerned, the name Murdoch will forever with tainted by that contemptible defence. The law was changed. The Press Council published new guidelines on how rape cases should be reported to prevent anonymity being breached. The judicial process after the assailants were caught was utterly appalling: the ringleader, who was not one of the rapists and was there simply to steal, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. The two rapists were each given five years for burglary, one got another five years for rape, the other got three years. The message was clear: goods had more value than the female body. The judge, Mr Justice Leonard, made the extraordinary statement when he justified the light sentences saying that Jill had not suffered any great trauma because of her controlled and dignified demeanour in court. The truth was very different, as Jill would later reveal in a book she wrote in 1990. There was uproar after that and the case would plan an important role in changing the law so that today the prosecution in any case can ask the Attorney General to increase a sentence, if it is felt the judge has failed in his duties. Jill campaigned for changes to the law and over the time these would include making rape within marriage a criminal offence, getting other sexual acts classified as rape, tougher sentencing for rapists, a ban on alleged rapists being allowed to cross-examine victims in court and restrictions on the evidence that can be given about a victim’s sexual history. Jill went on to campaign for the rights of sexual assault victims and to improve the support they receive. She became a sexual assault case worker, trained police forces all over the country and most recently launched a new campaign called JURIES, arguing in favour of mandatory briefings for juries about the myths and stereotypes of sexual violence in rape, sexual assault and abuse trial. She also spoke out against those who in recent times have been seeking a change the law so that those accused of sex crimes can claim anonymity. Despite all her work in 2013-2014 around 16,000 rapes were reported, only a third were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service and only 15 percent resulted in charges being made. Only around six percent resulted in a conviction. And none of this takes into account the fact that the rapes reported were probably only a fraction of the number actually committed. I know quite a few women who have told me about being raped but never reported it, because they feared what would happen. For them, Jill was a beacon of strength, someone who was fighting their fight, challenging judges, politicians and anyone else who needed educating on the subject. On another level, Jill made a huge impact by expressing her belief that forgiveness provides victims with the freedom to move on, without being trapped by the past. The concept that one could forgive such awful acts sent out a powerful message about her Christianity. In short, Jill’s life and her campaigns touched tens of thousands of people and made significant impacts in British legislation. At the same time she spent a large amount of time meeting, talking to or texting with rape victims, trying to help them come to terms with what has happened on a personal basis. As a family, we have received thousands of messages in recent days, and I’d like to quote a couple of the ones that came to me, just to help you understand the kind of impact. “The fact that the passing of Jill was the main item on last night’s BBC news speaks so clearly of the significant difference she made in the lives of so many,” one person wrote. Another, from the motor racing world, wrote: “Jill was an incredible woman. Her support got me through an utterly terrible time and helped me to define myself, without reference to the wickedness that touched my life. Without wishing to sound trite, the difference between seeing oneself as a victim and defining oneself as a survivor is profound and without Jill I don’t think I could have made the step from one to another… I hope that the knowledge that there are people like me in the world for who Jill helped from the darkness back into the light offers a tiny bit of comfort to you all. I suspect her devotion to her cause means that she has touched 100s of lives and has left the world in a better place than she found it.” And is there a better epitaph than that? The Saward children were taught and shared the belief that we could – and indeed should – strive to make the world a better place. Motor racing may seem an odd place to do that, but while it is a ruthless but efficient money-making machine, it is also a place where normal people go to escape; a world of dreams that make life more bearable for many people. I’ve sometimes described myself as “a dream salesman” and I have always felt that in this way I could make a difference. This blog is all about inviting people into the sport and letting them understand. When we were young, the family was not complicated. We had one “big sister”, then “the only boy” and finally the two “little sisters”. The latter were identical twins (left). I’m not really sure why but the only boy and the little sisters formed a little gang, in the Swallows and Amazons sense of the word. We did kid stuff. We had adventures. Our parents always seemed to be too busy to tell stories and the twins wanted them and so I, the scruffy schoolboy, became the family storyteller. I remember only too well those two, almost identical, little faces spellbound by some daft story about elephants with tail lights or whatever else came to mind. They were my first audience – and ultimately the way I learned how to tell stories and transport people to exciting places. And then, all of a sudden, we were adults and our paths went off in different directions. We were outward-looking and independent, but bound together by this thing called love. We were never held back by the family and that meant that we could have big dreams and wide horizons. Often we got lost from one another in the forests of life, but then we would be together again, for weddings and funerals, and we would remember that families can draw strength from one another. Motor racing took me into a world in which there are some amazing intellects and an underlying requirement for constant improvement. If you do not move forward in racing, you fall behind. No-one is ever cruising along. And brilliant minds create fantastic ways in which to apply racing technology to the real world. Yes, there are safer and more efficient cars as a result of the sport, but there is so much else as well, including such things as medical telemetry, more efficient trauma teams (based on pit stop techniques) and many other things. I am proud to be part of Formula 1 and to sing its praises. Formula 1 is really only a village which moves from place to place. One of the things which one learns about during a career as a journalist in F1 is the science of brain injury. We’ve seen a lot of it. My sister suffered a devastating subarachnoid haemorrhage, caused by an aneurysm. My first reaction when I heard the news was to ring Gary Hartstein, who was F1’s village doctor after the great Sid Watkins. Gary knows an amazing amount about trauma medicine and I knew he would help me understand. I told him all I knew, and he answered all my questions, explained the procedures and things which I should look out for, which would signal how things were. He didn’t sugar-coat anything – and added that he was available 24/7. He went the extra mile, as so many F1 people do. Gary was also brave enough to raise the subject of the worst case scenario and how we should be prepared to allow organ donation, in order to save other people. People who die young from brain injuries are among the best sources of healthy organs, which can transform the lives of others. Thanks to Gary, I had no illusions. It may be comforting to think that people with cataclysmic brain injuries are “fighting”, but the reality is often very different. Most are quickly gone and they know nothing of what has happened. In Jill’s case, she was kept alive simply to allow surgical teams and organ recipients to be gathered. That in itself is quite a process. And then, when all was ready, the machines were turned off. There are always positives, even at the worst moments, and the knowledge that others were going to benefit from Jill’s organs provided something. It was good too that our parents (both already gone) were not there to endure the loss of one of their children. After that, the flood of messages began, highlighting Jill’s achievements. The experience drew the family together and healed rifts and it reminded us all that we should never take people for granted. If you feel something important, you should say it, because you never know. This blog post is not about raising money. It is about me saying what I want to say, but at the same time, I am well aware that the motor racing world is filled with wealthy people, who have enough money to buy expensive toys. Perhaps this story will convince them to donate to the “Remembering Jill Saward Fund”, which has been set up by the charity Rape & Sexual Abuse (RASA) Centre Limited. This will help to make sure that her work for survivors of sexual violence will continue. If you would like to help then please click here.

[formula365]

Making the pendulum swing - Turkish GP review

There are a lot of reasons motorsports fans love a race in a wet track. For one, rain is a great leveller, reducing the advantages of superior machinery and enhancing driver ability. Another reason is that it is fun to see some of the greatest drivers in the world have to wrestle with the steering wheel; reduced grip, at least to this level, is not a desirable outcome for every single race, but to have it on occasion makes for some great entertainment. And some spins are always a bit of fun to watch.

But the main reason why racing in the wet is so exciting is the unpredictability. These are special races, in which the logic of faster driver in a faster car will win does not (always) apply. Everybody loves an underdog, and these races are the biggest opportunities for unexpected winners in modern F1. Wet races can also provide plenty of changes in momentum, with the pendulum swinging in favour of one driver or another; if someone looks like being in control by lap 10, they might be out of it by lap 20 and back in it by lap 40.

This is exactly what we had in Istanbul this Sunday. Particularly in the first half, several drivers seemed to have the upper hand but, for one reason or another, they ended up falling down the order or, at the very least, could not compete with the eventual winner. In different periods of the race, Stroll, Perez, Verstappen and Albon all seemed like having the perfect set of circumstances to win the race. But Stroll couldn’t keep his tyres from graining, Verstappen and Albon spun out of contention and Perez decided to roll the dice and take the old tyres to the end, sacrificing pace for track position.

Perez’s strategy almost worked. Yes, he was significantly slower than several drivers behind him, and almost lost a place in the podium on the last lap, but he did manage his tyres superbly, as he usually does, to finish in a fine second place. It was, however, not enough to deal with the one man that continues to rise and astonish with how he makes the pendulum swing towards him.

Lewis Hamilton knew after qualifying that he didn’t need to do much in the race to clinch the world title. Bottas had struggled even more than he had, and was three places behind. Stay out of trouble, avoid crashing early and ensure Bottas finishes behind. The Finn made his job even easier by spinning on the opening lap and falling towards the back, from where he never recovered. A scoreless Bottas meant the title was in the bag. Hamilton didn’t need to push.

But he still went for it. He was stuck behind Vettel for a considerable period of time, which meant the Racing Points were too far down the road. As the pendulum swung between different drivers ahead of him, the champion-elect never really seemed with a shot of winning. But Hamilton bid his time and once he had clear air, he saw there was still an opportunity. And he is not one to waste opportunities. He clearly wanted to win the championship in style, not simply have it fall on his lap. In the past, he hasn’t often had the change to secure the title with a win. He wasn’t going to let that go this time around.

In the end, while all the other drivers who were there, or nearly there, made mistakes and lost their cool, Hamilton disappeared down the road, finishing a whopping 30-seconds-30 ahead of the pack. It was another demonstration, as if we needed more, that he does stand head and shoulders above everyone else on the grid. The young pretenders will have to wait a bit longer to dethrone him, because he shows no sign of losing his ability with age.

I try to not focus too much on the winners of a race, and not to write too often about Hamilton, but he makes it really difficult not to. He is a unique talent in the history of the sport and we should very much enjoy watching him while we can. Although there is plenty of talent in the coming generation, we might not see another driver like him for a long while.

Talking points * On Saturday it seemed impossible that we could see a Hamilton win. The Mercedes were completely out of pace, and it was Racing Point and Red Bull who had the fastest cars. It was an intense qualifying, that finished with a first pole for Lance Stroll. The Canadian gets a lot of stick because of his father’s money, but he does have bags of talent and he showed it on Saturday. The race might not have gone his way (Racing Point reporting there was damage to his front wing which caused the excessive tyre graining) but he should take comfort that, after a tough couple of months, he showed what he is capable of. He should use Saturday as a motivator to finish the season strongly. * Saturday also provided another concerning moment in terms of safety. At the start of Q2, drivers were sent out on track while marshalls were still in a run-off area, with a crane, recovering Latifi’s car. If your heart went racing back to Suzuka 2014, you were not alone. Race direction justified it by saying they had been informed the crane would be gone by the time drivers reached that point of the track, but there is no justification to even take that risk. A delay of 2 minutes would have been fine. After the issue with the marshalls on track at Imola, this is the second race in a row with less-than-optimal decisions from race direction. We should hope it’s not a trend, but Michael Masi appeared defensive afterwards and said he didn’t think anything should have been done differently. More than the decision itself, his reaction after the fact is not a good sign. * Wasn’t it great to see Vettel up on the podium again? He has had a torrid year, but had a quietly good race and was there to take advantage of his teammate’s error on the final chicane. It was probably his last podium in red, to leave a slightly sweeter taste to the end of his years with the Scuderia. * It was also great that he was there congratulating his great rival on another title. The respect Seb and Lewis have for each other is exemplary, both of them clearly aware of the hardships they had to go through to reach the very top. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see them go toe to toe more often in their careers. It should have been the great rivalry of this generation. * Sergio Perez’s form since it was announced he wouldn’t stay at Racing Point: P5, P4, P4, P7, P6, P2. And those P7 and P6 would have been P5 and P3 without strategy stumbles from the team. It’s ridiculous if he’s not on the grid next year. * McLaren continue to do what teams that reach the top do well: maximise their results and score valuable points even when their car is not the fastest. Both their cars started behind both Racing Points and Renaults, and yet, of those four drivers, only Perez finished ahead of them. Sainz had a bullet start and kept a cool head to finish P5, just behind the group fighting for the podium. His teammate had a horrible start and was last off the line, but recovered brilliantly to P8, and had a blistering pace towards the end, setting a fastest lap that was a second faster than the next best one. The car’s development might not have gone the way they hoped, but in every other aspect, this is a team firing on all cylinders. * Bottas had a nightmare race, seemingly incapable of keeping his car on the road. The team revealed he had suffered damage in a first lap contact with Esteban Ocon which could help explain his miserable day. Regardless of the causes, P14 is not a results anyone expects at Mercedes. At least now he is free to race the last 3 GPs without the title in his mind. I wonder if a pressure-less Bottas might put up some more of a fight in the coming weekends. * The two Red Bull drivers missed out on huge opportunities this weekend. After the first round of pit stops, the race was arguably Verstappen’s to lose, and, well, lose it he did. He was too greedy when trying to overtake Perez and destroyed his tyres in a spin, which forced to a second stop that effectively ended his race. If he was miserable after missing out on pole, I can’t imagine how he must have felt after the race. As for Albon, he is very much running out of time to impress the Red Bull hierarchy. After Verstappen spun, he was in great position to at least claim a podium, but like the Dutchman, he couldn’t keep his car on the road, and opened the door to Hamilton. To make matters worse, the driver who is apparently being considered to replace him finished second. Red Bull have said he will have until the end of the year to grab that seat, but one has to wonder how much can he genuinely do in the last 3 races after missing out on so many opportunities before? * What a tremendous qualifying from Alfa Romeo. Their pace disappeared on Sunday, but on Saturday Kimi and Gio were two of the stars, putting their cars in Q3. That this happened on Sauber’s 500th Grand Prix entry was only fitting; they couldn’t score points, but there was something for the team to celebrate about the weekend nonetheless.

* Renault’s topsy-turvy season continues. After 2 podiums in 3 races, they leave Turkey with just one point and their hopes of reaching third in the constructors’ championship dashed. They should do well in the final races of the season, as the power hungry Sakhir and the long straights of Yas Marina will favour their car, but if they want to be in the mix up front, they need to better understand the car and what makes it work (and what doesn’t). They have shown they can put together a competitive car, but they can’t win titles if they don’t show up every weekend.