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The 2017 season has barely been over a week and Sauber are already motoring ahead with their plans for next year, hosting a livery launch in Milan that announced their driver lineup for 2018 as well as showed off a significantly revised colour scheme.
Valtteri Bottas converted his pole position into a race victory relatively comfortably, in a final race of the season that was resoundedly disliked as being dull by almost everyone. Lewis Hamilton, who finished second so obviously has some grounds for dissatisfaction, said of Yas Marina: "It's a great, great track but unfortunately it doesn't suit the cars very well."
Valtteri Bottas was the fastest driver in Q3 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, with the Finnish driver securing pole position for the final race of the season. Lewis Hamilton was just a tenth of a second behind him, leaving the Red Bull and Ferrari drivers to split the second and third row of the grids between them.
Ahead of the final race of 2017 in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli launched their lineup of tyres for the 2018 season, including two new compounds and extending the range from five to seven levels of hard and softness. The tyres are all one step softer than what we've seen this year, but there's a new superhard tyre that is orange. The hard tyre turns blue, or ice blue, as they call it.
After testing out a rotating selection of drivers for the past few race weekends, Toro Rosso have hit upon a pairing they like - the current form of Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly. The duo have been signed for 2018, with both set for their first full season in the sport.
Valtteri Bottas' pole position lasted only moments as Sebastian Vettel swept past the Mercedes to take the lead into the first corner. There was chaos in the opening laps, as Romain Grosjean picked up a puncture and punted himself and Ocon off track. Daniel Ricciardo spun, dropping him down the field, after he'd made a good start trying to recover from a low grid position.
Lewis Hamilton's qualifying session came to an abrupt and early end when he crashed heavily into the tyre barriers just four minutes into Q1. The red flags came out whilst the car and the driver were recovered - he was fine - and then the action continued. The two Saubers, Stroll and Gasly were out in that first session. Brendon Hartley got his Toro Rosso through to Q2 but didn't participate in that session.
Felipe Massa has talked of his disappointment and sadness that his home country has failed to deliver a safe environment for the F1 paddock to race in, after several high profile incidents for teams leaving the circuit. Lewis Hamilton revealed that part of the Mercedes crew were held up at gunpoint, with shots fired, in an armed robbery, with Williams and FIA officials also in the convoy of cars.
Toro Rosso have really been struggling over the last few races, suffering power unit problems that have cost them running time and more importantly race finishes. Both drivers are due to have grid penalties again this weekend, and it has sparked a war of words between Toro Rosso and their engine provider Renault.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were in a class of their own during Friday practice in Brazil, battling each other for the top spot and leaving the rest of the field in their wake. Hamilton dominated both sessions in the end, but they finished the day just four hundredths of a second apart.
Massa announced his F1 retirement at the end of 2016 but was recalled to Williams after they needed an experienced driver at the last minute. Fast forward one year, and with the Williams team fifth in the championship standings, they're looking forward to the 2018 season and their driver lineup. That won't include Felipe Massa, as the Brazilian driver has announced his second retirement from the sport.
The pressure was all on Sebastian Vettel's shoulders going into this race, the title fight in his hands. Earning pole position was the best he could do on Saturday, but unfortunately it was all for nothing. In the first two corners, he, Verstappen and Hamilton ran alongside each other, jostling, bumping wheels, so that eventually Max moved into the lead, whilst Hamilton and Vettel dropped back with a puncture and front wing damage respectively.
After several close practice sessions, we were expecting a tight fight for pole position ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. It was exactly that, with Max Verstappen looking supreme and set for his first pole in Formula One, until Sebastian Vettel swept past and snatched P1 by just 0.086 seconds.
The first practice session in Mexico featured a lot of Friday drivers, including Giovinazzi, Leclerc, Gelael and Antonio Celis, who was driving in front of his home crowd. Unfortunately, he spun his Force India and hit the barriers, causing a red flag whilst the incident was sorted out. Stoffel Vandoorne only managed three laps due to an engine problem, Verstappen spent much of his morning in the garage, and Brendon Hartley stopped out on track, before getting going again only to disappear in the garage.
Lewis Hamilton won the Japanese Grand Prix but it wasn't an easy victory for the Mercedes driver, as he was chased to the line by Max Verstappen, with Daniel Ricciardo making it a double podium finish for Red Bull. Verstappen crossed the line just one second behind the race winner after a close battle to the finish, but Hamilton would have been happy it was a Red Bull following him and not a Ferrari.
The recent reshuffles at Toro Rosso aren't over this season, with news at Renault having an impact on the team after this weekend's race in Japan. Jolyon Palmer announced after qualifying that Japan would be his last race with Renault, and that being the case, the team have snapped up Carlos Sainz for the rest of the season. And, for Daniil Kvyat, that means a chance to step back into a race seat, after being cast aside in favour of Pierre Gasly last weekend.
All of the sessions in Suzuka so far this weekend have featured a crash, and qualifying was no different. Romain Grosjean was the unlucky culprit, crashing his Haas into the barriers hard, and ending Q1 a minute early. The session wasn't restarted and there was plenty of damage to the Frenchman's car.
The anticipated rain hit both free practice sessions in Suzuka, but FP1 got underway on time. About halfway through the session, however, Carlos Sainz crashed heavily in his Toro Rosso, ending with the car sprawling across the track and bringing out the red flags. The action got going again with twenty minutes to go, but halfway through that the rain started to fall and the times saw no improvement – Vettel was the fastest.
Lewis Hamilton's pole position saw him lead the race in Malaysia initially, but he couldn't stop the charge of Max Verstappen, who overtook the leading Mercedes and never looked back, taking his second victory in Formula One. Joined on the podium by teammate Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull had a really good day.
Sebastian Vettel may have been hoping for a slightly calmer weekend in Sepang than he had in Singapore, but that was not to be. The Ferrari driver found himself down on power in the first qualifying session, returning to the garage at a slow crawl. The team tried to patch up his power unit but found themselves unable to send him out again, meaning the German failed to qualify. He's been given permission to race by the FIA, but will be at the rear of the field.
