8bitracing-blog

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Almost 4 years have gone by. We keep you in our thoughts Michael. 

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A future Williams F1 driver? A bitesize summary of our two candidates. 

Robert Kubica’s ability in his prime has never been in doubt. But now? Out of Formula 1 for almost 7 years now, a huge question mark still stands over the lasting effects of his horrific rally crash. A second chance could provide the basis for one of Formula one’s greatest comebacks, provided he can once again display the extraordinary speed from his BMW Sauber days. Only the man himself knows what he is now capable of. 

Paul Di Resta, a safer choice? Hardly renowned for the spectacular, Di Resta has however picked up his fair share of point scoring finishes in his 3 previous F1 seasons. For a Williams team aiming to stabilise and target Force India in 2018, they will need an experienced driver capable of pushing the car into those top 7 finishes the Force Indias so often find themselves in. The current Williams car has not shown this ability, and is Di Resta really the kind of driver that we can reliably attribute to pushing the boundaries in car potential?

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Japanese Grand Prix 2017 & current season state - Quick review

(A small disclaimer - this post is more of a discussion of current events within F1 than a weekend review. In future reviews I’ll try to keep the focus more directly upon events that took place within a race weekend).

Well...as race weekends go, for Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team that couldn’t have gone much better. Unfortunately, we the audience were denied the opportunity to see if Mercedes had regained an advantage in terms of its race pace against the Ferrari, and far more importantly, robbed of a potential battle to rival the infamous clash of 1989. 

So, we had to make do with the sort of race we have seen a lot throughout 2017, Lewis Hamilton playing his game of “maintain the gap”. However in this instance it wasn’t the Ferrari giving chase, but our slowly waking giants in team Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel’s gradual fall through the order was sadly not that surprising, given the fragility of the Ferrari car in recent weekends. As such, I’m not going to dwell on it, as everyone and their dog has been talking about the disappointment of Ferrari, and poor old Maurizio Arrivabene has enough problems besides the 10 new voicemail messages he's got through from Mr Marchionne. 

No, no, we have to talk about red bull, and their current form. There will be no getting carried away here and saying they can win a race on pure speed alone because the unfortunate truth of the matter is that they can’t. The Malaysian Grand Prix victory came off of the back of a number of factors falling their way, most notably Ferrari’s current implosion (and some of the more favourable track conditions we’ve seen this year to take the fight to the Mercedes). However, it seems that unbelievably, the team that is known for producing the best chassis in F1 has arguably done it again. A lot of fans chastised Mercedes and Ferrari for their stance on refusing to provide red bull with a half-decent engine. But they were right, as the simple fact of the matter is that if they had done so, they’d currently be watching that purple car disappear down the road every weekend.

Despite the Red Bull engine being branded as a “TAG”, it doesn’t change the fact that the engine is still a Renault. The same engine that currently sits within a works Renault car that has earned precisely 261 FEWER points than the Red Bull has this season. We all know the Renault chassis is hardly fantastic, but a lot of Renault’s problems also stem from a power plant that has proven to be underpowered, inefficient and as unreliable as...well not quite a Honda engine, but you look at the number of DNF’s between the Renault-powered teams this season and try to tell me the Renault engine is currently able to power a championship-winning team, because its not.

Thats enough Renault-bashing for one day though. Let’s move on to the silly pink car with a not-so-silly points haul. Once again (surprise surprise) Force India proves to be best pound for pound team on the current F1 grid. It’s amazing how well they do when their drivers aren’t allowed within 50 meters of one another. It has been fascinating to watch this intra-team rivalry develop over the season, made better by the fact that these two drivers are a complete match for one another. Every time one driver seems to get the upper hand the other will bite back, its just a shame that they've come to blows so many times, as we lost another chance for a big juicy battle that was somewhat lacking in this Japanese GP. Perez currently has a 17 point buffer over Ocon in the championship, and whilst I’m sure many people will be looking elsewhere, this will be a mini title fight that I will be keeping my eye on all the way to the final race. 

For Haas, a double points finish couldn’t have come at a better time. They leapfrog Renault in the constructors and even more significantly have moved within 9 points of Toro Rosso. I say this couldn’t have come at a better time, as unfortunately for Toro Rosso, they have lost their only consistant source of points in the form of Carlos Sainz (Jr.). Sainz has collected 48 of the 52 points for Toro Rosso, leaving the Red Bull sister team in the unenviable position of relying on Daniil Kvyat and...well it’s supposed to be Pierre Gasly, but he has Super Formula commitments so its our favourite Kiwi, Brendon Hartley in the car for next weekend. It’s really not looking good is it? Kvyat, hardly considered a mainstay in the point-scoring positions (4 of Toro Rosso’s 52 points). Hartley, a fantastic prototype driver but a one-off race weekend hardly ever amounts to more than being the primary recipient of the lions share of blue flags. Gasly? It’s anyones guess. Talented he is no doubt, its unlikely he’s had sufficient time in the car to be grinding out those top 10 finishes. Due to this, I can only see Toro Rosso slipping behind Renault and Haas before this season is out. 

Going in to the final four races, Williams have extended their small but significant buffer over 6th placed Toro Rosso to 14 points. Like Force India, Williams doesn't have the vast sums of money to throw at R&D, team hospitality units and shady ex-FIA employee recruits (sorry Renault fans) that the wealthiest teams do. Therefore, 5th place in the constructors - and most importantly the prize money that comes with it - is incredibly important to this humble team. When you’re in a performance rut over successive seasons in F1 it’s incredibly hard to get out of. As you do worse in successive seasons, you recieve less money to spend on the next season of racing, a phenomenon that Williams have experienced before. Hopefully therefore, Williams can see out these final four races and maintain their 5th position in the standings, as otherwise I will worry for them going in to 2018.

For McLaren and Sauber, another race weekend to forget and most certainly a case of looking to the future. McLaren’s switch to Renault power next season is a chance for the team to finally display their long-claimed potential in their chassis (and the chance for me to write a lengthy blog post on the subject). For Sauber, it seems the team currently has neither the personnel nor the resources to prise themselves from the bottom rung of the F1 ladder. A worrying prospect, given their previous financial struggles and near-collapse. 

Now, with a week to go until the American Grand Prix, we can begin to hope for the sort of race that we missed out upon in Japan. COTA is a circuit that has proved a very happy hunting ground for Mercedes in the past and throws up the first potential chance for Lewis Hamilton to claim the 2017 drivers title. Ferrari will need to be flawless next Sunday, and on current form, I wouldn't hold my breath.