Charles Leclerc impressed again and Max Verstappen finally got his temperament in sync with his talent in CanadaFernando Alonso’s 300th grand prix was far from a celebratory affair: he started 14th on the grid, his lowest position this season, and retired from the race with an exhaust failure. The McLaren racing director, Éric Boullier, had been clear about their car’s problems in lacking grip in low-speed corners that was making them struggle in Canada and afterwards Alonso could not wait to walk away from it. He wanted to talk about Le Mans, where he will race next weekend. He will be in the class of the field Toyota at La Sarthe, a world away from the recalcitrant McLaren. The Spaniard...
The Monte Carlo race, besides producing dull racing, posed the question: ‘When is a grid girl not a grid girl?’ The answer: ‘When she’s a female sponsorship representative’Before the weekend a representative from Formula One management had been insistent that the race would not host the return of grid girls. In January when they were dropped the commercial director, Sean Bratches, said grid girls were “at odds with modern day societal norms” and “not appropriate or relevant to F1”. Monaco’s “female sponsorship representatives” would not be standing in front of grid slots nor holding boards identifying drivers, therefore they were not, F1 avowed, grid girls. Which on Sunday transpired to be arrant nonsense. Monaco most definitely had grid girls. Standing...
The Red Bull driver’s errors are recurring and a win at the track where he burst on to the scene two years ago would be timelyA somewhat contrite and possibly even cowed Max Verstappen may have been expected to emerge in the paddock for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix. The young Dutchman’s poor start to the season reached its nadir when he crashed into his Red Bull team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, at the last round in Baku, but Verstappen faced down the scrutiny with a smile at the Circuit de Catalunya. However, if he is to make good on the promise of his prodigious talent, there is some serious work to be done.Verstappen and Ricciardo had been wheel to wheel for...
How Mercedes fare in Barcelona will be telling – they must work the tyres at the correct temperature to unlock performanceLewis Hamilton was absolutely honest after his unlikely victory in Baku. He knew he had inherited a win that with three laps to go was looking like a third place and a further deficit to Sebastian Vettel in the world championship. He came out of it on top and rightly did not opt to celebrate as he might have were it a harder won victory. He is four points ahead of Vettel but made it clear that relying on good fortune would not be enough in what is shaping up to be a highly contested season. The reality, Hamilton knows,...
The driver’s poorly judged attempt at overtaking Sebastian Vettel in China suggests it is time for the youngster to add a more considered approach to his undoubted raw talentAt the opening of the Formula One season, Max Verstappen was as confident in his own abilities as he ever had been. The young Dutchman has carried this self-assurance since he began in karting and it has been part and parcel of his career in F1.With the new season about to begin, he told my colleague Donald McRae that he felt no need to overthink his craft. “I never even think of the mental side of things because I never had any issues,” he said. But his poorly judged attempt at overtaking...