Baku’s incendiary incident provided priceless publicity for the sport but its subsequent judgments need to be more understandable for drivers and fansThe 2017 Formula One season finally reached ignition point in Baku and what a glorious conflagration it has started. Who can not be revelling in the prospect of a championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel defined not by the buddy movie soundbites of mutual respect that had preceded it but by the edge and needle that characterises F1’s truly great rivalries. What had been a gripping tussle for the title now might just have the ingredients to match the heights of Senna v Prost and Piquet v Mansell.It was, fittingly, a heated moment itself that brought the...
German’s high-risk style yields benefits; Force India have bout of indecision; Fernando Alonso engine failure brings McLaren divorce from Honda closerThat Sebastian Vettel does not want to lose points to Lewis Hamilton is a given. What was impressive at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was just how committed he is to the task. Damage to the front wing on lap one was a major setback, coming back to finish fourth a huge recovery and the manner he achieved it a statement of intent. Having chased down and overtaken his team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, and still looking for a podium place, he saw passing the two Force Indias of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon as paramount. Ocon was first and Vettel’s lunge down...
Some say the German benefited from fortune but others believe it was favour, while the Indy 500 competitor Fernando Alonso remains popular in F1Kimi Raikkonen gave every impression he believed he had been sacrificed by his team to boost Sebastian Vettel’s world championship chances after Ferrari’s strategy worked in the German’s favour at the Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton believed it was clear the Scuderia had chosen their No1 driver but Vettel and his team countered by saying it had been accident rather than design. Raikkonen had been losing pace towards the end of his stint on the ultrasoft rubber and the decision to pit him to cover Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen was expected. What was not was the sudden...
The new owners of F1 showed their softer side with young Ferrari fan but are as hard-nosed as ever when it comes to the bottom line of the spiralling cost of the British Grand PrixLiberty Media scored a PR coup in working with Ferrari and finding the distraught six-year-old who had been in tears after Kimi Raikkonen’s early exit from the race. Thomas Danel from Amiens in France was brought to the motorhome to meet his hero Raikkonen and there were smiles all round. His mother, Coralie Danel, was hugely impressed:“This has been the most fantastic day for us. We could not believe it when they came to get us and took us to Ferrari,” she said. “This is great...
Drivers’ championship is shaping up to be close but a better division of F1’s massive spoils will ensure a healthier future for the whole sportFor all the positive noises being made by Liberty Media about the future of Formula One, the company that owns the sport has been positively reticent on one of the most important issues they must address. Behind the spectacle, the sound and fury of a thus far largely successful reboot, F1 is still generating huge amounts of money and as it prepares to begin the European season in Barcelona this weekend, the disparity in how it is distributed is again under public scrutiny.On track, the heightened competition at the front of the grid between Lewis Hamilton...