Selection box - Verstappen is a demon in the wet - Reviewing the Chinese race and previewing night racing in Bahrain
Published by Christine
Every week that goes by, the 2017 Formula One season offers up some more twists and turns both on and off track. This week, we learned that Pascal Wehrlein will return to the car in Bahrain, whilst Fernando Alonso has been busy trying to figure out how to spend time outside of his cockpit. The news that he'd drive in the Indy 500 this year instead of in Monaco was met with mixed reviews, but mostly positive ones. Let's start with a handful of those thoughts.
After McLaren’s shock at the start of this season, when discovering their Honda power unit was woefully underperforming for the third year in succession, the team have turned the tables with a surprise of their own that has rather knocked those travails into a cocked hat. Perhaps that was partly the point but it also informs as to where the team are now, about Alonso, his future and relationship with McLaren.
It’s been 38 years since McLaren has raced in the Indy 500. In next month’s 101st Indianapolis 500, the familiar orange colors will return when two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso partners with Andretti Autosport to make his maiden voyage in an Indy car.
Now with the first night race of the year just days away, it's time to build up to the Bahrain race, starting with some gorgeous pictures from inside the paddock.
My Bahrain GP experience started on Wednesday evening with a welcome function in the paddock attended by several hundred people involved with the event. There was traditional music, local food, a DJ, lots of chat and even a falcon.
Following a sluggish start to the season, Jennie Gow and Sam Collins take a look at whether McLaren-Honda can bounce back in Bahrain.
This weekend will be the 13th Bahrain GP, having been held since 2004 each year with the exception of 2011, though it was scheduled. The track is 5.412km long and has 15 corners and 57 laps in the race, a total distance of 308.484km. Seven drivers have previous won the Bahrain GP, with Fernando Alonso being the most successful driver with three wins and Ferrari the most successful with four.
Ding, ding, Round 3. After 3 years of Mercedes dominance we finally have a fight on our hands! Sebastian Vettel was a touch unfortunate with the timing of the safety car in China, and will be hoping to have a bit more luck in Bahrain than he enjoyed last year, when he failed to start the race. Mercedes on the other hand will be hoping their new recruit Valtteri Bottas doesn’t repeat last year’s first corner lunge on Lewis Hamilton!
It's back to back racing this weekend, which means we only just finished digesting what happened during the Chinese Grand Prix. It was an interesting race in Shanghai, and well deserving of the following round ups.
With the starting grid set (set below for final positions after various penalties were awarded), it was time to race. It rained, but not all the time before the race, so the track was a mix of dry and wet. That said, Toro Rosso’s Sainz was the only driver who opted to start on a dry compound. The rest of the field stuck with the green intermediate tyres, and that seems to have been the wise decision as Sainz only made it to turn 3 before ending up in the gravel.
Lewis Hamilton loves China. One of his strongest circuits. Pole position on six occasions. As soon as the Safety Car came out for Antonio Giovinazzi’s second crash of the weekend (Welcome to F1, kid), the race was effectively done. Vettel was within 18 seconds of Lewis after stopping for slicks, the Safety Car effectively gifted Lewis a free stop, and we’re done here. Even more so given Red Bull played their cards right, Verstappen is a demon in the wet, and their cars are notoriously difficult to overtake in the dry, despite their lack of power.
There is no suggestion that the Maranello outfit is unfairly prioritising the German, who established himself as the operation’s nucleus upon his arrival in 2015, yet Räikkönen hasn’t been handed optimal strategies to date, having also suffered last season when Ferrari’s campaign was blighted by blunders from pitwall.
Finally, a shout out to the Motorsport Sisterhood who posted this astonishingly thorough run through of THAT controversial Aside with Joe discussion.
In a podcast with Mr C from Sidepodcast this week, Joe Saward described a woman's bottom as 'just part of the scenery,' and defended his position for over thirty minutes. What prompted this? Mr C told Saward that he had stopped reading Grand Prix Plus (Saward's magazine) at the point where Saward had put a full-page picture of a grid girl's bottom in the magazine.
