formulafixated

[formulafixated]

formula fixated: an f1 (and others) blog 🫶🏻

welcome!

this is a little corner of the internet for me to yap en masse about the thing i love to an unhealthy degree: formula one.

quick intro though. i am a cl16 and lh44 fan first and foremost, but i'm also fond of op81, aa23, eo31, yt22 and mv1. as for retired drivers, i am obsessed with sv5 and jb22. i really love the v10 and v8 eras of formula one other than the current era. i might post about these drivers and eras a lot! my favourite circuits are monza, singapore, suzuka, spa and baku.

i also love indycar, and support arrow mclaren/pato, david and rossi! as for formula 2 and formula 1 academy: rooting for the prema teams again this season!

so this blog will just be somewhere i can post my longer and shorter bits of writing about different topics i find interesting. history, drama, scandals, things i find cool etc etc. this is for my enjoyment and entertainment, but i hope it brings other people some enjoyment too! i'll also end up reblogging stuff too in case u don't care abt what i'm yapping about!

anyway, that's it. hope you stick around! 🫶🏻

[formulafixated]

The 2010 Season: The Greatest Ride

(This is an old blog post from July 19th 2023)

AKA: Niamh yaps about a random F1 advert from 2011. Here's a bit of a curveball.

My original plan for my second blog post (a deep dive of sorts into the mythic nature of being a Ferrari driver) has been momentarily put on hold to make way for whatever this will be. And I have yet to know what this will be or how it will turn out but stick with me, okay!

Some context first. Picture me at 11pm eating some Shreddies as a before-bed snack and finding things to watch on Youtube while I do (because eating without having a video to watch is a fate worse than death), when I come across a video titled "BBC F1 2011 INTRO". I'm instantly like "oh awesome, love me a bit of The Chain", thinking this would be similar to other F1 intros of the 2010s era.

(Try and tell me you can listen to that song without thinking of Formula One.)

I was wrong.

What I was witnessed to instead was enough to make me stop eating altogether. I put the spoon down. My Shreddies were left to drown in the milk but I didn't care, I was physically unable to move as a result of this video. It was a montage of various moments from the previous 2010 season (a beloved season to me), set amongst Hans Zimmer's iconic 'Time' from Inception and over the top was a poem narrated by Eddie Jordan.

"But Niamh, that sounds way more boring and normal than you made it out to be. Shreddies drowned for this?" I hear you say. You underestimate how much a bit of film soundtrack and spoken poetry can impact a girl. I was so impacted, in fact, that I was suddenly fully prepared to pause my planned blog post (which in all honestly I still have yet to find the inspiration for, so maybe this is a good thing!) and write this one instead. I have got to talk about some of these quotes and what they refer to. Think of this as a sort of 2010 season mini recap, but only the most dramatic moments.

Here is the video, by the way. I urge you to check it out.

https://youtu.be/k_hFOC42Qcw

Let's begin!

(A warning: this is all just going to be meaningless drivel from my brain. But you probably already knew that)

“It had charging snorting bulls in the ring tamed only by those two who rode them. Unable sometimes to tame themselves, unable to control their own beast within”

Who doesn't love a metaphor? Obviously this refers to Sebastian and Mark at Red Bull and their tumultuous relationship that had started to develop by the second year of their partnership. Most people think mainly about 2013's Multi 21 incident when talking about the pair's most tense moment, but 2010 had its fair share of these too. Firstly, the wildly entertaining Turkish Grand Prix saw them collide after Seb attempts to overtake Mark on the inside. Due to the angle of Seb's car they made contact and he is sent spinning off into the gravel, with Mark managing to escape being stuck and continuing the race. This moment is so iconic, I think, because of Seb's reaction to it (watch it on Youtube if you haven't already, it's great) and the fact it was the catalyst for the downfall of their relationship. Not helped by the fact that three races later at Silverstone, an incident with Seb's front wing in final practice meant that the team replaced it with Mark's newly upgraded one. Seb then went on to take pole position in qualifying. As a result, talk about favouritism within the team arose. But that's a blog post for another day. Anyway, I love this quote and I think it sums them up perfectly; sometimes they really were unable to tame the beasts within. The way the shot moves from Seb laughing with Britta to Mark in the background looking all solemn and serious? Art.

“It had intrigue and inviting. It had a prancing horse and a rider asked to take a fall”

It's quite easy to wax poetic when it comes to Ferrari, but I think this line is just so good. I love it when Ferrari is referred to as the 'prancing horse', there's something so elegant about it. The lineup for 2010 included newcomer Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, who had already been part of the team for a few seasons. The season before Felipe had undergone surgery due to an accident at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and understandably he had a slow return back to his usual form once the 2010 season began. As a result, by the German Grand Prix, Massa was 31 points behind Alonso and therefore not a championship contender. It was during the last few laps of this race that Massa was ahead of his teammate for a 1st place finish when he received a message from his race engineer Rob Smedley informing him that Alonso was faster. He quite literally said, ‘Fernando is faster than you, can you confirm that you understood the message?’. Felipe let his teammate through to take the 1st place trophy. Ferrari, despite claiming that the incident didn't involve illegal team orders, were fined $100,000 for the controversy. It didn't help that Smedley literally apologised to Massa after the original message... whoops. How many riders of the prancing horse have been asked to take the fall?

"It had those who would not lie down and told that they were not the chosen one."

The term "chosen one" has so much weight to it, right? Obviously this line relates to Mark during his time opposite Seb at Red Bull. Mark frequently vocalised his feelings surrounding the apparent favouritism within the team despite their adamance that there was no such notion. The initial tension caused by the swapping of front wings at the British Grand Prix was soon diminished once Seb took a trip off track and received a puncture, meaning Mark was able to storm ahead and take the win. During his cool down lap he announced over the radio, "not too bad for a number two driver", referring to the idea that Sebastian was Red Bull's favourite. This wouldn't be the first time Mark brought the subject up in a public manner, so it's definitely true that he refused to lie down and accept what was happening. No matter how much they tried to deny it, Sebastian was always Red Bull's 'chosen one'. The chosen one hand picked personally to bring the team to the top after years of disappointing results. And that he did. But God, did Mark try his best!

"It had new and old; new faces, new machines, new blood. And an echo of the past, a name, a memory."

One of the moments that genuinely gave me chills. The 2010 season brought with it five rookies, including Nico Hulkenberg and Karun Chandhok, as well as new teams. There were also new regulations regarding a ban on refuelling, a ban on double diffusers and a collective agreement not to use KERS. But despite the fresh faces and rule changes this season indeed brought several echos to the past. The 2010 season saw the return of a familiar name in Team Lotus, which hadn't taken part in F1 since the 1990s. Their livery even referenced the classic green and yellow colours of the original Lotus cars of the 60s. One of the rookies introduced this year was Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton Senna (who even raced for Lotus during his career). I remember while I was watching the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, Bruno's engine overheated and there was a shot of his eyes through his visor. Martin Brundle reacted to the shot by saying, "that scares me, that looks like Ayrton through the crash helmet when the visor is open... it stops me in my tracks." Despite his unremarkable rookie season, I'm sure he brought back a lot of memories for F1 personnel and fans alike. In a similar vain, 2010 was the year that 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher returned to the grid to drive for the also returning Mercedes GP team after retiring in 2006. 2010 was the year of throwbacks and nostalgia.

"It had the spectre at the feast; a falling god now reigning against his own mortality and risking that of others."

Used to talk about Michael, this line was SO interesting to me. Firstly, the description of him as the 'spectre at the feast'. This phrase can be linked to a scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth where the ghost of murdered Banquo appears at a feast, and is used to refer to someone or something that brings misery or sadness to a happy or celebratory occasion. So why was this used in reference to Schumacher? Of course, the legend's return to the sport brought with it a lot of hope and anticipation that he would return to his former glory once he raced again. Nevertheless, Michael struggled to get good results in his first stint back. A new generation of cars and regulations, and a team which struggled to improve upon its previous success (Mercedes GP replaced 2009 constructor's champion Brawn GP), can't have made it easy for him. Thus commenced a season of misery and disappointment for those once hopeful fans. A so called "spectre at the feast". "A falling god reigning against his own mortality"; a god of the sport attempting to reestablish his former glory but unfortunate timing and circumstances meant he had to accept he was no longer untouchable. The last part of the line refers to Michael's sometimes aggressive driving style, specifically the incident at Hungary where he squeezed former teammate Rubens Barrichello against the wall of the pit lane while defending. The dangerous move was punished with a 10-place grid penalty the next race. People often claimed that while Michael never lost his ruthlessness, he had lost other aspects once apparent in his original F1 stint. Whoever came up with that line deserves a Nobel Peace Prize in literature.

And there we go. The 2010 season recapped in the words of whichever brilliant mastermind at the BBC F1 team came up with that poem, and a bit of my knowledge sprinkled in as its one of my favourite seasons. There's just something about art when it's combined with Formula One because the effects it has on a simple girl like me is groundbreaking. I eat it up every time! It turns simple car racing to something much more dramatic and emotional and interesting and I value every person who creates art dedicated to F1.

Please never stop.

Anyway. That was really long and probably quite boring, but I had so much fun writing it. I love talking about old seasons and I'll probably do it again in other posts. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!

[formulafixated]

It's Not Easy Being Green (in Formula One)

(This is an old blog post from July 13th 2023)

Some may argue that 11th July will go down as the trigger of 2023's silly season as it was announced, after completing (or for better words; starting) 10 races, AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries would be replaced with seasoned driver Daniel Ricciardo for the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix and beyond.

Safe to say, the internet exploded.

The situation, which has been the subject of numerous discussion for a while based on De Vries' performance and (James Bond villain club reject) Helmut Marko's unfavourable statements in the media, caused a storm online with a variety of differing opinions arising. However, the general consensus agrees that the treatment of Nyck by AlphaTauri and Red Bull has been extremely unfair and has called into question how the team treats its underperforming drivers.

After a string of consecutive poor qualifying and race results, as well as media backlash and criticism from Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, De Vries was released from the AlphaTauri team. After 10 races. Ouch. Replacing him is Daniel Ricciardo, who made his debut in the same team. We call that coming a full circle!

The drama has made me wonder about the general fate for rookies in F1.

I've only been an F1 watcher since the start of this season, so I haven't seen the comings and goings of drivers in the modern era of the sport. However, having a subscription to F1TV gives me access to an archive of past Formula One seasons and I have been watching old races starting from the 2007 season. Over the course of the five seasons (2007-2011) I have watched so far, I have seen a variety of drivers debut with varying levels of success and failure.

Two notable drivers whose rookie seasons set them up to be icons of the sport during this period were Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Seb and Lewis in 2005. Did someone say baby GOATs?

Lewis finished on the podium in his debut race, and ended up becoming the runner up in the championship battle that year. In his debut year!!!!!!! In 2008, rookie Sebastian took his Toro Rosso team (the less successful baby sister of Red Bull) from pole to flag in Monza, the first of many successes not long after his first year in F1. Lewis and Seb have 11 (or 12...) world championships combined; definitely a future that anyone could have predicted from their debut seasons.

With Lewis having the backing of Ron Dennis personally since a young age and Seb being part of Red Bull's junior programme, you could argue that their rookie seasons had an advantagous beginning. However, not everyone debuting in top teams have immediately flourished. For example, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly had unfortunate rookie seasons at Red Bull (both began at Toro Rosso but were promoted to Red Bull not long after) proving that best car doesn't always guarantee success.

No amount of nice scenery can save this tin can on wheels.

In contrast, some newbies have been able to take advantage of the lot they have been given in life and make the most out of a terrible car. Charles Leclerc consistently got his Alfa Romeo into the points in 2018. This year's AlphaTauri has so far proved to be a disaster, and Nyck de Vries was ultimately unable to make such miracles in a shitbox as others have in the past. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda has scored the team their solitary 2 points, but I suppose a few points are better than none at all.

Does the car or the driver lead to a successful rookie season? The former definitely helps, but the latter seems to make the difference in a lot of cases. Lewis' debut car was fast, but his skill has gotten him to where he is today. Seb's debut car was awful, but his talent ensured his notoriety in the sport. Something to think about!

Either way, it doesn't matter much in the end. Formula One is a sport driven by money and if you aren't performing that becomes a problem for the team. Should Nyck have been given more of a chance, especially with half the season still to go to prove himself? Absolutely. Am I surprised how it ended? Not entirely.

While I can be glad to see the remaining 2023 rookies seemingly thriving in their first F1 teams, I can't help but pity whatever poor sod makes their debut at Red Bull next.