Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

No one there to watch

Word on the street is the Formula One race in Las Vegas - happening this weekend - is struggling to attract a full paying crowd. Tickets to the race weekend are discounted on the secondary market, while hotels rooms are cheap and widely available. We have exactly one person to blame for this: three times Formula One World Champion, Maxwell Verstappen.

Is there even interest in the 2023 F1 season at the point? Verstappen - and his Red Bull team - wrapped up the championship many races ago. I’ve certainly stopped following the series closely since then. When there’s literally no stakes in a race, of course people are wont to tune out. And because Red Bull is the most dominant car, the suspense of who can win a Grand Prix is gone as well. Max is a generational talent in a generationally great car, that is for certain. However, that combination does not make for interesting races to spectate.

It seems the promotor of the Las Vegas race (Formula One Management itself, oddly enough. Race promotors are typically third-party) underestimated the overall interest level. The scheduling gods did the race no favors: by scheduling it at the tail-end of the calendar, it risks having a race with nothing to fight for. Fans all want championships to go right until the final race of the season, but that’s not all that common. In the recent decade, I can only remember it happening twice: Rosberg vs. Hamilton 2013, and the controversial Hamilton vs. Verstappen in 2021.

A brand new race - third race in the United States this year - with nothing on the line is not a good recipe for commercial success. Never mind the superbly high prices FOM is charging. Sure, the ultra rich can buy premium packages with white-glove service. Plebs like me on the other hand aren’t willing to suffer through horrendous travel logistics and the high costs (tickets and hotel) just to watch a procession. I bet the current situation would be completely different if the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend is a potential championship decider.

Four more days until yet another Verstappen victory.

Lofty dreams.

Let's go George!

I am very excited for this weekend’s Formula One race. Current world champion Lewis Hamilton tested positive for COVID-19, so in his seat goes young George Russell from the Williams team. While we all hope Sir Lewis recovers fully and quickly, the spectacle of seeing the Mercedes protege put into the fastest car on the grid is something new and refreshing in this decidedly dull season. Spare a thought for the Mercedes reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne, though: it must suck to not get the seat even though you are the official third driver of a two-car team.

Obviously, team Mercedes is looking towards the future. This is a unique opportunity (spurned on by an unfortunate event) to see just how good young Russell is. Over the past two season, George have built a reputation for being a fast qualifier, handily outperforming the underwhelming Williams car and his teammate. The question was always: could he replicate this in a wining car? We are about to find out this weekend, and it makes this second Bahrain race must-see television.

And how desperate Valtteri Bottas will be to win the race - or at least place in front of Russell? After four season of playing second-fiddle to the all-conquering Hamilton, losing to Russell this weekend would be the death knell to Bottas’ racing reputation - he’s just not world championship calibre. However unfair that may be, that’s how motoring fans will perceive him if he is to lose out to Russell. God forbid if George actually wins the race; that would be scandalous for Valtteri.

Don’t forget the F1 drivers will be racing on a new layout of the Bahrain circuit - the outer loop. With qualifying times estimated to be well under the one minute mark, laps will come quick and fast. Fingers are crossed for some exciting racing and massive amounts of overtaking.

I bolding predict a race win for Russell.

We’re going to school!

Vettel will leave Ferrari

The 2020 Formula One season has yet to turn a single wheel in anger - thanks to the coronavirus - and we are already knee-deep in the ‘silly season’. Yesterday the bombshell dropped that four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel will not renew his contract with Ferrari after the 2020 season; today, the official Scuderia Ferrari twitter account confirmed the news. Lots of cliches can be thrown around, but indeed it marks the end of an era at the famous Italian team, with Ferrari firmly placing their future hopes and aspirations on young Charles LeClerc.

Such is the cruel fate of the sporting world: the young upstart replacing the aged veteran, no matter how many trophies rest on the mantle of the latter.

If Vettel fails to capture the world title this season, it will mark his tenure with Ferrari as somewhat of a disappointment. So much fanfare was made when he made the jump to the Scuderia from Red Bull, bringing with him four consecutive driver championships, and the legacy of one Michael Schumacher, Vettel’s racing idol, whose success with the Maranello squad is stuff of legends. With just over a dozen victories and zero championships in the past four years, the promise brought on by Vettel’s arrival in Italy has yet to be fulfilled.

For sure, the utter dominance of team Mercedes during this current turbo-hybrid era means that the promise of many other drivers and teams throughout the grid were for naught as well. However, Ferrari produced a competitive car in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, but Vettel simply could not deliver. This older Vettel have shown a vulnerability in not reacting well to pressure, famously crashing into wall at the 2018 German Grand Prix, the turning point of his championship battle with Lewis Hamilton. Unlike the young phenom that won four titles with Red Bull, we did not see the same fight in recent seasons from Vettel.

And now his seat at the Scuderia will be vacant after the 2020 season; the drivers musical chairs have begun in earnest. Who will be lucky person to step into such a hallowed seat? Will it be Lewis Hamilton, whose own contract with Mercedes is expiring at the end of the year as well. At which team will Vettel land? A prodigal return to the Red Bull team, perhaps? If Bernie was still in charge of F1, I’d bet he would engineer a move for Vettel to team with Hamilton at Mercedes - it will elevate interest and ratings of F1 instantly, something direly needed right now with the sport suffering from the shutdown affects of COVID-19.

Not the quarantine Market Street.