The Week in F1 7th January

7th January 2005 - Christian Horner Appointed Red Bull Sporting Director 

This week 14 years ago, a young Christian Horner was appointed sporting director of Formula 1's newest entry, Red Bull Racing. The energy drinks company bought out the old Jaguar team at the end of 2004. Previously, Horner had excellent success with the Formula 3000 team Arden, who won both the 2004 drivers and constructors titles with future Red Bull driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, also winning in 2003 with Bjorn Wirdheim. The step up to Formula 1 was always Horner's aim as shown in his attempt to buy the Jordan team from Eddie Jordan but withdrew when these talks broke down.

After the buyout of Jaguar, the old regime of the team was essentially ripped out by politics. Tony Purnell and David Pitchfirth were in charge of the Jaguar team and ran the team as if it was a democracy. As is seen over the years however, that is not the way to run a successful Formula 1 team. Look at the way Ferrari have ran they team over the years. The overall feel was that Purnell and Pitchfirth were naive and an operation under the Jaguar name should have been more successful on track. Adding to this, there was a strong sense that major issues such as engine and reliability problems were never properly addressed. 

Guenther Steiner was also added to the Red Bull operation as technical director, a role he held up until 2002, when Purnell and Pitchfirth regime began. The rest, as they say, is history as Horner led the team to four consecutive drivers and constructors titles between 2010 and 2013.

9th January 1977 - Wolf's First F1 Victory

Jody Scheckter scored the Wolf Formula 1 team's first victory on their debut at the Argentine GP. Walter Wolf, an Austrian who made his money in the oil business, first entered Formula 1 in 1975 and partnered with Frank Williams, who had not yet made his name in the sport. 1976 saw the team named Wolf-Williams but it was clear very quickly that Wolf did not want to be a support to another team. The partnership lasted one season and Wolf cut the name Williams from the 1977 team name. Peter Warr was brought in to run the team and Scheckter was signed from Tyrell. Their debut race saw them take the chequered flag through some good fortune as James Hunt, who had a 15 second lead and defending his title, crashed out after an error and Ferrari's Nikki Lauda, who would go on to win the title, retired with car trouble. It should be noted that the Wolf team were still there all season fighting for the title but the more consistent Lauda won the title, beating Scheckter by 17 points, and the Lotus of Mario Andretti, who possibly had the best car, but the poorer reliability. 

9th January 2003 - Jos Verstappen Joins Minardi

Back in 2003, Jos Verstappen, father of F1's hottest commodity Max, signed for his 6th and final team, Minardi. Jos would call it a day at the end of the season on a career that could have delivered the heights that his son is currently experiencing. Astoundingly quick during his karting days, he had started less than 50 races throughout Formula Opel Lotus and German F3 before making his Formula 1 debut alongside Michael Schumacher in Brazil 1994 in the Benetton. Any similarities there?

Always viewed as one of Formula 1's quickest drivers, amazingly his highest finish in the sport was third at the 1994 Hungarian GP. Given the machinery he had during that year and with his talent that he was unable to win a race. This was down to inexperience more than anything else and the fact he was in and out of the car as officially he was the teams test driver. 

This was as good as it got for Verstappen really. He will ultimately be remembered for two things. The massive pit fire that occurred at the 1994 German GP that he somehow survived and for running into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya at Brazil in 2001 when he was a lap down. A Verstappen being involved in a lapping crash? Where have I heard that recently?

An Emotional Farewell

The 2016 Brazilian GP will live long in the memory of F1 fans for numerous reasons, whether it be for the many (and at times unnecessary delays), the high-profile crashes or the sensational wet weather skills of Max Verstappen. However, for myself at least, the race will be remembered for the outpouring of emotion shown by Felipe Massa and the Formula 1 community on his final appearance at the Interlagos circuit.  The toughest of people would have been forgiven for having a small tear in their eye at the sight of Massa in the wall at the entrance to the pit lane. It was not how the script was supposed to end. His incident caused the pit lane entrance to be closed, which allowed viewers around the world to witness just how much the Brazilian GP means to him, and what he means to the Brazilian people.

His long walk from his stricken Williams car to the garage saw him draped in the Brazilian flag, and fighting back the tears. What came next is something that I doubt will be seen again in Formula 1. Upon his arrival to the garages, what seemed to be the entire Mercedes and Ferrari teams came out to applaud Massa, with a guard of honour waiting for him at Williams. It was a stunning show of respect from the teams and shows just how much Massa will be in the paddock. 

He can look back at his career in F1 with pride and knowing just how much of an effect he had on the paddock and the fans in his home country. His two wins in Brazil in 2006 and 2008, the latter giving him the World Championship for all of 25 seconds were massive highlights in a distinguished career. The 2016 Brazilian GP shares one big similarity to that day in 2008 which was the way Massa handled himself. He could have moped about and sulked, but this is not who Felipe Massa is. He carries himself in a way a World Champion would: professionally and in a humble manner. He is a unique character in Formula 1, one that will be truly missed in 2017.

Canadian GP 2016

Rosberg's Gap Down to Nine as Hamilton Wins

Nico Rosberg has seen his championship lead cut to just nine points as Lewis Hamilton claimed victory at the Canadian GP in Montréal. Hamilton finished ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Williams' Valtteri Bottas. Max Verstappen bounced back from a disappointing Monaco showing to finish 4th ahead of championship leader Rosberg. Kimi Raikkonen's recent poor form continued as he finished in 6th. Daniel Ricciardo's scrappy race saw him finish 7th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez.

Hamilton's victory was not as straight forward as he would have hoped as Vettel, who was on a different strategy to Hamilton, pushed him hard throughout. Vettel got off to a dream start as he came from 3rd to lead into the first corner. Behind Vettel, the two Mercedes had another coming together, although not as severe as the one in Spain. It did however see Rosberg having to run wide at turn 2 and drop to 10th. Rosberg was on a recovery drive from lap 1 and seemed to have the same tyre issues that cost him dearly in Monaco. He did not surge back through the pack like many would have expected. He did what he could and so easily could have finished 3rd. As he was chasing Bottas for the final podium place he peeled off into the pits after a slow puncture was discovered by the team. Rosberg recovered again and was hunting down Verstappen for 4th and made his move on the penultimate lap when he went up the inside of the young Dutchman at the final chicane. Unfortunately for Rosberg, he lost the back end of his Mercedes under braking and spun off into the run off area. He was fortunate not to hit anything and held off Raikkonen's challenge on the final lap to secure 5th but it could have been more for Rosberg.

After his scintillating start, Vettel led the opening stint of the race and was locked into a two-stop strategy after Ferrari opted to stop him under the virtual safety car that was caused by the retiring Jenson Button on lap 12. With Vettel pitting, Hamilton was able to use his one-stop strategy to his advantage. Vettel re-took the lead whilst Hamilton made his one and only stop but conceded the lead after making his second stop. Vettel looked as though he was pulling Hamilton in as the laps tumbled but, another uncharacteristic mistake by Vettel saw him run wide as the final chicane and all but gift Hamilton his 45th victory in Formula One.

The main talking point from the race was surely Rosberg's championship lead eroding so dramatically over the past two races. Three weeks ago, Rosberg looked to be in total control of the championship having won four of the first five races. By the time the European GP in Azerbaijan is complete in just 7 days, Hamilton could have toppled Rosberg for the championship lead. Rosberg needs a strong showing at the European GP but possibly more importantly, the team need to work out their start procedure. In Canada, we saw a carbon copy of Australia where the Mercedes pair where almost at a standstill as Vettel left them for dust. If Ferrari keep improving their engine performance at the rate they are now, and are able to jump the Mercedes at the start, Mercedes will have a real fight on their hands.

Who is Making the Ferrari Pit Calls?

Something does not seem right at Ferrari this season. After the Canadian GP, Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said that the team overestimated the tyre degradation, naming this the reason that the team opted to pit Vettel under the virtual safety car.

I bring this up because this is not the first time this season that the Ferrari team have made a call on strategy which has resulted in them throwing away a victory. In Australia, the decision not to run the medium tyre due to their lack of knowledge handed victory to Nico Rosberg who ran the medium tyre. Possible errors in Spain meant that with no Mercedes on track, Ferrari let another possible victory slip through their fingers, handing it to Max Verstappen. The latest episode has now occurred in Canada. Vettel did what he had to on the track but I believe that the team have been letting him down from the pit wall. Vettel could have easily had two victories this season, but strategy calls have cost him. Even after his second stop in Canada, Vettel closed to within 4.3 seconds of Hamilton and closing still until his error completely binned his chances of victory. It is an area that needs to be improved before big pressure arrives from the top of the Ferrari company.

Who Will be at Williams Next Season?

Although it is still early in the season, it doesn't mean that the rumours about the 2017 driver line up can't begin. Over the Canadian GP weekend, it was the Williams team driver line up that had the rumour mill buzzing. Rumours that Jenson Button will leave McLaren and return to the team that gave him his debut back in 2000 were all over the press. Neither party were quick to play down the reports but stopped short of saying something was in place. Ron Dennis has made no secret of his desire to have Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren car in the not so distant future and a move to Williams may suit both parties. So who would partner him? Rumours going round claim that this will be Felipe Massa last at the team and would probably mean his last in the sport. With Max Verstappen being tied down at Red Bull now, it may be possible that Ferrari would turn their attention to Bottas to replace Raikkonen who, after a promising start to the season has went on a downward spiral. However others such as the Force India pair of Hulkenberg and Perez, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and even Haas' Romain Grosjean would believe they should be looked at as well. At the moment, it looks like Williams hold the key to the driver market for the 2017 season, although it is very early days.    

Russian GP 2016

7th Heaven for Rosberg

In cruising to yet another victory at the Russian GP, Nico Rosberg entered a very exclusive club, becoming only the 4th driver in the sport’s history to achieve the feat of winning 7 races in a row. Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton finished a distant 2nd to Rosberg again, but mounted a brilliant drive from 10th after another engine issue in qualifying kept him out of the pole position shootout. Kimi Raikkonen scored Ferrari's 700th podium in Formula 1 after finishing 3rd behind the two Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas couldn't make the most of a front row start as he finished 4th, with his team mate, Felipe Massa bringing his car home 5th. There were welcomed points for McLaren and Renault as Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen finished 6th and 7th respectively, both scoring their first points this season. The Haas team returned to the points with Romain Grosjean finishing 8th ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and McLaren's Jenson Button who finished in 10th, and set a new record for points scoring in consecutive seasons - his 17th point scoring season in succession. However, the main talking point of the race was again Dani Kvyat and Sebastian Vettel. It was handbags in China in my view but Russia was a different story as Vettel crashed out as a result of Kvyat. 

Rosberg once again got a stunning start and managed to avoid the chaos behind him. In China, Kvyat had plenty of space to put a move on Vettel, much to the Germans annoyance at the manner and speed at which it was done. Fast forward two weeks to Russia, and Kvyat is charging off the grid into turn one. They made it through into turn 2 and Kvyat just couldn't slow down and went straight into the back of Vettel. To make matters worse, going through turn 3 Kvyat hit Vettel again, causing the former World Champion to spin off into the barriers. Vettel was understandably furious with the young Russian, racing in front of his home fans, and gave a foul mouthed assessment of the situation. Further back more collisions occurred which saw both Esteban Gutierrez and Nico Hulkenberg collide with each other, taking them both out of the race. With another chaotic start and bits of car everywhere, the safety car made and appearance whilst all of the debris was cleared up. To make matters worse at Red Bull, the accident that Kvyat caused had a horrible effect on team mate Daniel Ricciardo's race, who had to make an emergency stop under the safety car and had to queue up behind Kvyat. Effectively, the whole team’s race was over by turn 1. As always however, there are drivers who benefit from this kind of situation. This time round it was Alonso and Magnussen, who qualified right down the field but were able to score good points.  

Despite all of this, the accomplishment of Nico Rosberg should not be overlooked. Rosberg's performance was nothing short of perfect, as it has been all season. Many people point to Lewis' reliability issues, but I believe that Rosberg has the edge over Hamilton regardless. Hamilton has been very sulky about the situation, but he must not forget the issues that have plagued Rosberg in previous seasons. I'm not implying that Rosberg would have won any championships during that time, but he may have been closer. Rosberg should enjoy the wave of luck he is finally getting in F1 while he can, because like the great Murray Walker says, anything can happen in F1, and it usually does.   

Formula Junior Starts in 2016

Maybe at some point in 2016 we will see a start to a race where the first corner is not littered with Formula 1 car parts. I can't remember a season or streak of races where so many collisions have occurred during the first few corners, or opening laps. Australia saw the heavy incident involving Alonso and Gutierrez which came further into the race. From Bahrain through until Russia, the starts to the pinnacle of motor racing have been nothing short of something you can view in GP2. Everybody enjoys close action racing going into turn 1, but the results lately have robbed fans of potentially thrilling races. Incidences in Bahrain involving Hamilton and Bottas stand out, and in China there were bit of front wing flying everywhere. Russia though was the tipping point. Kvyat steaming into Vettel like that was nothing short of amateur, and Vettel had every right to react in the manor he did. I think his interview during the race was handled in a brilliant manor by Vettel as he could have easily stood and slated Kvyat. He remained professional in my opinion and rightly went to speak to Red Bull boss Christian Horner. I believe the problem is many drivers are being thrown into F1 at such a young, inexperienced age. Yes, drivers such as Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton started at a young age, but had been through several racing formulas beforehand. Kvyat for example raced in GP3 for one season and came into F1. Max Verstappen didn't even do that before becoming F1's youngest ever driver. Although he will undoubtedly become World Champion one day, I think he should have had more junior formula experience, as is the case with many others. On Kvyat however, he can take some comfort in the fact that Romain Grosjean was being labelled as a liability on the circuit, and how he is one of the finest drivers out there. Just something to think about.

The Unflappable Finn

What is it about Finnish drivers in F1 and their inability to crack under pressure? As far as I can remember, the only time I've seen a Finn flap in F1 was back in 1999 when Mika Hakkinen spun at the Italian GP and lost it. That was a one off. I bring this up because watching Valtteri Bottas at the Russian GP was a joy to behold. Starting P2 on the grid with the faster Ferrari's behind him (thanks to Vettel's grid penalty) and obviously Hamilton who would charge through the field. Vettel obviously never managed to get near Bottas, but when Hamilton did he put him under enormous pressure which many drivers would crack under. Bottas never once showed a sign of cracking and it took a brilliant move by Hamilton to get past the unflappable Finn. Unfortunately for Bottas, his Williams just wasn't quick enough to get in a podium fighting place, but his race as a whole was brilliant.  

Brazilian GP 2015

Rosberg Setting Himself For 2016

Nico Rosberg recorded back to back victories for the first time since May with his victory in Brazil. The result secured second place in the Driver's Championship and continued his recent resurgence. Lewis Hamilton finished second and is still to win in Brazil, even though he put Rosberg under several periods of pressure. Behind the dominant Mercedes pair, the Ferraris were a distant third and fourth, with Sebastian Vettel leading Kimi Raikkonen. Vettel couldn't do anything to get close to the Mercedes, meaning his debut season at Ferrari will see him finish third in the Drivers Championship with Abu Dhabi still to come.

As has been custom this season, the Brazilian Grand Prix didn't deliver much in excitement, despite its history of delivering an unpredictable and exciting race. It started off well, with the Mercedes coming very close to contact at turn one. The incident was almost identical to that of the U.S grand prix, except it was Rosberg who made sure Hamilton wasn't going around the outside of him. This allowed Rosberg to open up a small lead during the first stint. Reliability issues looked like they were creeping for Romberg, who was looking very cautious on the brakes for several laps after the first round of pit stops, thus allowing Hamilton to move within DRS range - but eventually dropping back. Hamilton came back at Rosberg during the third stint, but frustration was starting to get to Hamilton as he couldn't get passed Rosberg. Interlagos' tight confines and narrow straights make overtaking extremely difficult, and Hamilton's frustration spilled over onto the team radio as he requested a different strategy from Rosberg in an attempt to get past. However, Mercedes stuck to their long held policy of keeping their drivers on the same number of stops. And with Mercedes not budging, both drivers stopped three times and Hamilton finished 7.7 seconds being Rosberg. Rosberg's recent good form is hopefully putting him in a good position going into 2016.

Behind the Mercedes and Ferrari's, Valtteri Bottas finished in fifth, but couldn't get close enough to close with his fellow countryman for the third time in four races. His fifth place was enough to secure third place for Williams in the Constructors Championship for the second year running. Meanwhile, having seen Force India team-mate Sergio Perez take the plaudits in recent races, Nico Hulkenberg returned to form to take a fine sixth, and secure his team fifth place in the standings - the best finish in their history. Daniil Kvyat was seventh for Red Bull with Romain Grosjean, Max Verstappen and Pastor Maldonado rounding off the points positions.

Massa Excluded From Home Race

The local hero, Felipe Massa, was disqualified from the Brazilian GP after his tyres were found to breach their temperature limits before the race. Massa had originally finished 8th, after what had been a tough weekend for the Brazilian, who seemed to have some set up issue. He was disqualified after the race for exceeding the revised parameters to ensure tyre safety, which were introduced at the Italian GP following Sebastian Vettel's tyre failure in Belgium. The issue was flagged up after almost half an hour had passed in the race. An FIA technical report into the incident reported that on the grid, the tread temperature and minimum starting pressure on Massa's car was checked after the "5 minute" signal was given. The report went on to say that the temperature measured on the tread of the right hand side rear tyre of Massa's car was 137c, which is 27c above the maximum tread temperature of 110c. The corresponding tyre pressure at 137c was 20.6 psi, 0.1 psi above the minimum starting pressure.

Although this is a violation of the regulations, something stands out about this incident. At the Italian GP in September, both Mercedes cars were found to be under the minimums et by Pirelli. However, after three hours of deliberations by the race stewards, Hamilton's victory stood. How is the incident in Brazil any different, apart from the very different outcomes? Is it because its Williams and not Mercedes? Or is it because it was Felipe Massa and not Lewis Hamilton? Whatever the reason for the different outcome one thing is clear, there needs to be more consistency in applying these rules. 

Has Hamilton Went On Holiday?

After Lewis Hamilton was beaten to pole position and race victory for the second race in a row by Nico Romberg, questions have already crept in about Hamilton's commitment now that he has captured his third World Championship. Rosberg has also secured his fifth consecutive pole position as well, something that Hamilton hasn't seemed too concerned by. Although his calmness over Rosberg's qualifying performances suggests he has switched off for the season, his racing determination counters that argument. This determination was underlined by his request to move onto a different strategy to his team mate, just so he could get past him and beat him.

Something that hasn't escaped my attention is Hamilton's life outside the track since winning the title, and the effect it has had. His arrival to Brazil was delayed by a day because of a fever, which Hamilton has admitted was brought on by a hectic schedule since winning his third title three weeks ago, and a minor car accident in Monaco. A lot has been made about his off track antics since winning the championship. Let's be honest, if you had just won your third F1 World Championship, emulating your hero, you'd probably party hard as well. His minor accident was apparently a result of his fever and general exhaustion.

In Abu Dhabi, Hamilton can match his career best haul of 11 wins from last season, whilst another podium finish would tie the all-time record of 17 podium finishes in a season held jointly by Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher. These personal records will hopefully show that Hamilton is still giving it his all, and that he will want to equal these records. I don't think that Hamilton has switched off for the season, I think that Nico Rosberg has realised that he needs to start now if he is to put in a serious bid to get the World Championship out of his team mate’s hands next year.