Melbourne

"The car was incredible!
What a race,
What a pace."
Charles Leclerc post race radio comment.
Says it all.

A beautiful sunny day race in a liberal democracy.
Beer ads and all.

Just what we needed.

Las Vegas GP? Really?

   LV is a crap town, and this promises to be yet another blunder of great dimension. And I say this as a Sicilian whose Dad's friends built the place and Rat Packed…well the original place, not the post 1980s family fun, (right), Blazing Saddles prop set city of today.
   I expect the city fathers, I'd say mothers too, but it seems just little too on the nose, but the city managers in coordination with Liberty, when are we going to be free of you, Media, and the list of local who's who cares (Live Nation Entertainment and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Las Vegas will act as Founding Partners while MGS Sphere, Resorts World Las Vegas and The Venetian Resort are onboard as Presenting Partners.) will insure an event ranging from the embarrassing to the catastrophic.
    With no natural sense of proportion I expect this multi-various bunch will just do actual on-the-ground infrastructure build out on the cheap, while the lion's share of the raised and budgeted capital will go into tasteless and overly obvious promotion to get butts at the tables and the slots.
   It's like the nightmare outcome of that shit show on Netfix "Drive to Survive".
   This whole folly of the ridiculous now seems on the verge of inspiring the inept at Liberty Media to use this Great American Market push to curtail actual F1 races, like Monaco and Spa.
   To read quotes like "We believe that Formula 1 simply belongs in the United States," Domenicali is quoted by European media outlet Sky Deutschland. "We want to make the American market the most important one in the sport." 
   And: "McLaren Racing CEO and Californian Zak Brown thinks the sport could survive without its flagship Grand Prix in Monaco and other historic mainstays like Spa-Francorchamps.
   "I would prefer Monaco to stay on the calendar, but just as the sport is a whole is bigger than any individual driver or team, it is also bigger than any individual Grand Prix," he told Reuters,"…As a Grand Prix and F1 historian, who has written in depth about the sport from the beginning, I'd say this is disheartening, but it is actually just disgusting.

   Miami…Las Vegas…the motive behind these two races and the great American push remind me of the old LBJ quote, "When somebody says they're a good 'ol boy, I put my hand on my wallet'.

   But, then again, I could be wrong…nah, they'll screw it up.

VGM

Photo: Miles Callan.

VELOCITY GROUP MAGAZINE

contact@velocity

Before we even got to the first race of the season controversy was rife in F1.

 

   The primary discussions centering around the cars themselves. The rules changes delayed for a year have filled the automotive press. I invite anyone so disposed to review the Cliff's Notes of these changes on number of websites from the FIA to F1.

 

   There were, and are, many expectations inherent with these rules. One of the most anticipated is the Aero changes that will eliminate 'trailing dirty air', which has prevented close quarter racing; the ill effects on tires and cooling inhibiting the following cars from challenging to the full extent of their possibilities. Another new component element is the larger tires from Pirelli. These 18" low profile tires dramatically reduce sidewall height and thus, flexibility. More on this further on in race coverage. I expect my readers here have done their research into these changes, their potential impact, and comments of drivers on the character of the new cars from the pre-season testing at Barcelona and Bahrain.

 

   The next interesting impact on F1 has been global politics.

   The initial impact here being a result of Putin's unwarranted and criminal invasion of Ukraine. The immediate impact was the cancellation of that crappy parking lot race in Sochi. The second was the dissolving of Haas F1's sponsoring relationship with the Russian manure oligarch, and the firing of his son Marzipan. Good riddance. The kid never should have been there, as well as this was the most egregious example of a bought seat to embarrass the sport.

   The second impact has yet to take place, unfortunately, as F1 is letting the Saudi race go forward. This is a shame as MBS is nothing more than a Bedouin bandit who is currently conducting a global theft of every citizen and commercial interest effected by the barrel price. This false global inflation caused by the greed of Covid revenue recovery, so deeply effecting industry and specifically personal travel coming out of the mobility restrictions of the pandemic is, yes, criminal. Unfortunately the US oil and gas producers, geldings all it seems, are too timid to act with any brass to change this situation as they too rub their hands together at the economy damaging unjustifiable market prices. Shame F1 hasn't taken a stand here, as I'm sure the camera will pan MBS and his inner circle of sycophants during the race coverage, providing that varnish of respectability while tarnishing F1. Having spent corporate time in the area, it is once again a shame to see a rentier State that contributes nothing, taking the global economy for a ride…now onto the driving.

 

Bahrain

 

   Practice was probably the most interesting it has been in years. The expectation to fully witness the solutions to the FIA rules of each team in pre-race trim, and the driver translations of the changes into the required speed and handling inspired schedule adjustments with remote control in hand.

 

   For every F1 enthusiast hoping for Mercedes to, shall we say, have their sails trimmed, their desire seemed fulfilled as Lewis and Russell were turning mid-field lap times. Of course there was much discussion of Swabian Star sandbagging.

   Considering the pre-season impact on Haas, it was very satisfying to see the rehired Magnussen waking the slumbering team with top of the mid field lap times. Bottas was also awakening the Alfa team, much to the pleasure of the Marque's many fans.

   For Ferrari fans, of which there are so many throughout the sport, it looked as if the pre-season testing optimism was not misplaced. For the past two seasons Maranello seemed to be putting its head down and internally focusing. They now turned their face to the public with the results. To the satisfaction of those many fans.

   Alpine still seems to be in a building process. It is very disappointing to see Column favorite Fernando's great deep blue metallic Alpine team color replaced by that ghastly pink water company livery. I don't care how many times he and Ocon's cars are referred to as the Pink Panthers, it still looks like the German Pork butchers livery on the 930 Porsche in the late seventies. Porcine.

   After so many years of rebuilding following the Honda debacle, last season ended with McLaren looking to be on the rise from mid-field. This validation wasn't on display in practice.

   Readers of this column are aware that we have found RedBull's antics far from praise worthy. One of course can't help but to respect Adrian Newey, his masterful designs have spoken for themselves predating his involvement with the Ginseng merchants. As for the rest, well there is Perez…but as an historian of the sport, there has been some curiosity as to their becoming engine suppliers, or shall we say propulsion unit engineers, in name. It will take more than Newey's genius to fix problems under that hood.

   Aston, with those  truly elegant cars, had brought back Hulkenberg to replace a Covid afflicted Seb.

   The talk of impact on supplier cars performance was expressed in understated terms from the announcing booth, while expressed on the track as ascendant, Ferrari, and descendant, Mercedes.

 

   As we know Charles made a clear statement about the Ferrari by taking pole. Maxie Nappies came across second, Carlos and Perez on the second row, Lewis and Valtteri in his new Alfa, on row three. Magnussen and Fernando on the fourth row. Russell and Gasly on the fifth, and on back to Ocon, Schumacher, Norris, Albon, Zhou, Tsunoda, Hulkenberg, Ricciardo, Stroll and Latifi.

 

   This column is not for race coverage but commentary. so let's comment.

 

   It looked very much like close quarter challenges have been achieved with the new Aero. There was lots of it through the field, and a pleasure to see.

   One of the truly refreshing qualities was provided by the new tires. Gone are the bounce and fly curb cuts. Everyone was being very precise through the corners. There was some real driving at work here. This alone will make the season thrilling to watch.

   The catch and release ground effects did produce some rather dramatic, one is tempted to say chassis oscillation, but from the look of the helmet movement, it was down right bouncing. The new aero ground effects grabbing the chassis and sucking it down, then strangely a variation in height releasing it, to be caught again, then released. A season of this looks like a prescription for cervical Stenosis.

   Between the no sidewall flex tires and the ground effects aero, these look be some very stiff chassis.

   The most dramatic close quarter racing was Charles and Max. Using the much discussed straight line RBS speed Max made the move on Charles into turn one, then Charles took back the lead, then again, then again. Charles maintaining the lead here. Superb.

   Once again Maxie Nappies showed the Championship has not matured him in the least. Coming out of the pits the team radioed him to cool it while warming the tires so maybe they would last. Then Charles came out from his stop ahead. Maxie got on the horn, yelling at his team that he'd "…be ahead of Charles if he'd pushed on the out lap, and that he's never going to listen to them again!" Need a hankie there Maxie?

The statisticians of Sky TV got on their computers and analysis showed, he didn't have the speed even if he tried to beat Charles on the clock.

   Then Gasly's new RedBull supplied power unit decided to commit pyroside. Hmmm.   The course workers standing around wondering whether to go near the thing. Everyone used the cover of the safety car for a third and soft tire dash to the checker pit stop.  With Charles in the lead, Max decided he needed some more attention and spotlight and began complaining about his steering, perhaps the hydraulics had gone was the guess from the pits, with a pleasantly snaky toned, "just have to deal with it, nothing we can do".

   Was it Martin Bundle who suggested that perhaps his pit crew had had enough of his insults and dumped him off the jacks, or did I imagine this? Probably the latter. Wishful thinking meets just deserts. Then Perez spun with a frozen drive train, hmmm.

And Max was called in to retire, whining as usual.

 

   Meanwhile, the real racers flashed red across the line, Charles having led every lap and set fastest lap in the bargain. On the victory lap Charles and Carlos formed up and came around for the side by side, front page above the fold photo of Ferrari's victorious season opener. A very relieved Lewis, having held station in fifth moved to the podium. Lewis, in the pit lane post race interview, said, "Everyone likes to see Ferrari win." Gracious as usual.

 

1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

2. Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari +5.5 seconds

3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes +9.6

4. George Russell, Mercedes +11.2

5. Kevin Magnussen, Haas +14.7

6. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo +16.1

7. Esteban Ocon, Alpine +19.4

8. Yuki Tsunoda, AphaTauri +20.3

9. Fernando Alonso, Alpine +22.3

10. Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo +23.0

11. Mick Schumacher, Haas +32.5

12. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +45.8

13. Alex Albon, Williams +53.9

14. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren +54.9

15. Lando Norris, McLaren +56.3

16. Nicholas Latifi, Williams +1:01.7

17. Nico Hulkenberg, Aston Martin +1:03.8

18. Sergio Perez, Red Bull DNF

19. Max Verstappen, Red Bull DNF

20. Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri DNF

 

   It was the best possible start of the 2022 season.

Well, not for McLaren perhaps, but the Papaya and blue will come back.

 

 

   In last week's intro I mentioned MBS and his global market shenanigans. I knew my readership to be astute enough to appreciate the predicate here of the motivation; The Administration's cancellation of support for the Saudi's war in Yemen (Feb '21) . The greatest national economic and humanitarian crisis of the 12th Century, or excuse me, I mean the 21st Century, until Putie's current crimes of course.
   As if we needed a reminder why MBS is solidly in the column of clowns on the wrong side of history, we need look no further than Saudi's Spring Military campaign, in this pissy little proxy war with the Iranians, Thursday in Yemen. Which earned Saudi the immediate response of a rocket attack right in Jeddah at the Aramco facility.
   "And we'd like to welcome F1 to Jeddah…"
   Reminds me of the scene in Lawrence of Arabia when General Allenby (Jack Hawkins) asks Lawrence what he needs to continue the fight. Lawrence responds artillery. A number of times.
   After the meeting Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains) asks Allenby, "Are you really giving them artillery?"
   "No."
   The implication being they'd never get it back, starting a cycle of tribal religious wars.
   And so it goes.

   The rocket attack resulted in a quickly called meeting between the team principles and the Saudi Ministry of Sport, the Saudi Defense Minister and an unnamed Foreign defense minister, to determine whether to go on with the race. The rocket attack, coming when it did at the end of P1, had the drivers more than casually concerned. The Aramco facility is a mere seven miles from the track and the resulting conflagration darkened the city sky. It took four hours for the FIA to convince the drivers to proceed. There is even an unconfirmed report as of this writing that the Saudis threatened any team or driver that tried to leave the country they would be detained.
   That really brings event promotion public relations to a new level…subterranean level.
   Send in the clowns.

   And one final point of the complete political hypocrisy of the, I'll be kind and say Host country, is the covering of all the Estrella Galacia brewery sponsorship labels on the Ferrari F1 cars and drivers. The full depth of this faux-theological nonsense made apparent by the fact that the sponsoring sub-brand is EG's O alcohol beer.
   Red plastic noses and big shoes all around.

   They may have widened the last corner, but the course, as laid out as a walled slot car track, is crap. Nothing says sporting concern for the drivers like those vertical concrete run-off areas. I'm sure Mick Schumacher would agree. A simple spin turns into an evening Medi-vac copter ride.

   This said, the onboard cameras caught two most superb Quali laps. First Charles, his Q3 lap was smooth and precise . Then Perez. The impressive quality shared by both was they seemed effortless. Certainly faultless.
   It was truly a pleasure to see Checo get pole. Though tired of RBS, Checo's story is the redemption tale that always makes for a good plot, His firing at Stroll Inc, whatever they were calling themselves then, was ignominious. RBS's hiring of him was simply a good call. And this afternoon in Q3 we were shown why. Often talent can go unrewarded in F1 because of the performance timeline created by the ascent or descent of a given team. Who would have thought  Frank Williams team or McLaren would become mid-pack strugglers? Yet, here talent can founder often appreciated by the cognoscente, but also unrecognized upon the podium.
   Carlos lap was excellent as well, and rightly deserving of his third on the grid. Now all he has to do is stay away from one of Max's amateur out-of-alignment  maneuvers at the start.
   George Russsell's third row placement with the only Mercedes engine in the top ten speaks volumes of the season. While it was expected that Adrian Newey would find some excellent solutions under the new rules, and Ferrari's taking up residence in the wind tunnel would define efficient aero, no one expected Mercedes power to become a detriment. But it's early season. This is still a 22 race script that has yet to be written.

   Guess the Houthi rebels in Yemen must have liked quali as well. Afterwards they announced that they would be holding back rocket attacks on Saudi for three days, until after the race and everyone has gotten packed and left.

   The start was clean. As everyone moved off and began to find their pace and place it settled into pattern of individual and overall competitions. The first to really stand out was between teammates Fernando and Ocon. This ten lap internecine rivalry was closely fought, and at times seemed counter productive to the long term strategy of the team, but it was another fine example of how the new rules are providing, and going to provide, some of the best individual battles on course. Here we saw individual driver talent and car craft presenting itself with a fully engaging immediacy representing the most advanced state of automotive engineering as intent on  a nearly spontaneous level. It is as if we are witnessing something that is nearly chemical between driver and car. And this was happening thoughout the field.
   There were highlights and low. Lewis, with stealth and craft, moved from 16 to 6th. Then the gremlins hit. Fernando's car just seemed to lose drive. Then Ricciardo's McLaren as well. Both close on the pit entrance. Then there was Bottas' Alfa being rolled into the garage. All on the 38th lap. A technical safety car period followed. Speeds cut to 40%. This would have been a perfect time for Lewis to capitalize on his gain with a free pit stop, but with both the Alpine and McLaren being pushed up the pit entrance, pit lane never opened.
   A low light for Perez was this tech safety car period. On the lap before Charles was given a stealth instruction by his crew to come it, and the crew came out. But the instruction was merely to stimulate response by Red Bull who came out and Perez came in. Charles drove on for a hot lap and cement the lead. Perez came out into fourth, giving up his lead to this point. The safety car freezing him in place.
   Now this seeming play-by-play is only presented to set up the commentary. In the closing laps Max was able to move in close with Charles. Max's petulance seemed to be getting the better of him. A couple of times he got on the horn and complained that Charles had gone over the pit lane entry line. As if this was going to result in a penalty in his favor. The second time his team responded with a dead pan, "Leave that to us, just drive." RBS wanted to win on track, not through a penalty.
   Charles seemed to bait him into a passing maneuver that was short lived in benefit. Max attempted another ill conceived pass, that resulted in them both locking up side by side, except Charles read it faster, nailed it and took off. Max got back his footing, and suddenly, as if he had suddenly matured to the level of World Champ in one lap, he bided his time on the last lap and made a solid, mature, well thought out pass, with room for both and pulled ahead to take the checker a mere half a second ahead of Charles.
   As Max, Charles and Carlos got out of their cars, removed their helmets and met before the interview, Max was gracious and shaking hands. What's this? Sportsmanship?
   It is as if the drivers are actually enjoying themselves. Smiles all around.
   And it was an exuberant Jenson Button, announcing for Sky, that seemed to so well sum up the effect of the new engineering, "Go Kart quality (close) racing."
   Can't wait to see the cars and drivers on a real F1 track.

…And let's see how F1 handles its next crisis of conscience, the June 10 weekend at Baku. If no one has noticed, the geniuses there are using the global broadcast of the Ukrainian crimes as cover to mass troops at the Armenian boarder. All one can say at this point is, Oh for f^$# sake!

Jeddah

Imola was just another lovely rainy Spring weekend in the Po valley. Showed why every Mille Miglia was always an elegantly epic soaking slog fest. This delightful fourth race of the 2022 F1 season was only marred by a dicey start and strangely poor pit work. Yet still a delight to have shared it with the enthusiastic Italian crowd, through the superbly uninterrupted Sky broadcast. 

Miami GP
Pastel Pastiche

   Is it just me, or has every broadcast media image been reduced to some herky, jerky Tik Tok dance sequence? And please, someone call the disco police. Those white guys in shorts, holding beer cans, looking like the Brett Kavanaugh collegiate drinking drill team really don’t have the rhythm to be filling camera time. Or as someone was heard to say during the broadcast, "Is couth really a word? Or is it just uncouth?" Which is all to say, the Miami promoters really did create a spectator event that just happened to have an F1 race hidden somewhere within it. This new burgeoning Drive to Survive 'Merican audience really is a sight not to behold.
   I was amused, kind of, to hear Martin Brundle referring to the cars flashing by 'the beach club' and the 'yacht basin'. Neither of which were any more real than a Republican politician with ethics…but there was a race somewhere in all that over-hyped media mix.
    For a parking lot circuit all one can say is that it was better than the old Las Vegas Caesar or Sochi parking lot layouts. The amazing thing was that after three such event filled Practice sessions the drivers really showed what talented quick studies they were by managing to keep off those ad choked barriers during the race. Gasly and Norris's shunt showing how lame another blind-spot racing circuit can be. The resulting post safety car start did provide some right through the pack racing that, once again, illustrated the dynamic sustained close quarter driving the new aero package cars are capable of. Also how uniquely nimble their handling is in being able to avoid the unforgiving chemistry of the inflexible sidewalls and the direction altering curbs. Considering what a crap full scale slot track this piece of junk was, there was some really fine driving going on. Achieving 208 miles an hour running from parking isle A to Zed was an impressive showing. Rather amusingly portrayed by the Florida Highway Patrol motorman, sitting on his light flashing bike atop the Freeway overpass taking speed readings with his radar gun. Could the read out on that thing really register a 2? Never had before.
   Amidst all  the hoopla and hype, Charles' precisely superb pole setting lap was a one minute, twenty nine point seven nine six thousandths of a second space through time that made clear why he is the points leader and why we were watching it.
   Was glad to see Carlos make a comeback and stand on the podium. The superb repair to his suspension after the concrete shunt in practice really shows what an amazing job the magicians, I mean mechanics, are capable of. The demands he was making of that car showed there had been no room for error in that garage. Reminds me of the story of W.O.  Bentley who was always railing on about how the riding mechanics of the day didn't really deserve the credit and accolade they were receiving…until he took a race ride with one of his drivers. After which an out of breath, startled and pale faced W.O. announced they were underpaid and under appreciated! 
   Charles really could use that 5 extra miles an hour at the top end, but he still kept Max honest to the very end of a very intense two hour study of heat exhaustion.
   Maxie of course, in his new style did thank the team for a fine job, but in his expected and usual adolescent center of his universe style told them they really had to get the dependability problem handled. Still the squirt.
   And how about Danica and Willie T?  How about not. With Mario, Emerson and Juan Pablo there, Liberty and the promoters had a wealth of capable, and underemployed, interview talent on hand. At least Sky had the foresight to get all three and Jean Alesi on camera with a mic in their hand…And the much touted A-Listers' on the pre-race grid…yawn.
   Oh well, at least we have another year before this pastel tropical parking lot fest is foisted upon us again.