Lewis on his knees while Ferrari on its worse again 🏎🏁🙌🏻

First of all let me appologise for the totally messed up schedule since the time difference is huge and physically I wasn't there while mentally I was.

Suzuka weekend was an interesting one. And, yes, I hope you have missed my blogs since I couldn't update you with Sepang one (it will go live just after this one). So let's get right into what happened in Japan.

1. Lewis on his knees

Let me take a moment to appreciate gratitude shown by Lewis after the race. Here I am not only talking about his words that he owns everything to the team as they were meticulous but mainly his after race actions. Yes, he just fell on his knees in front of his car and bowed his head. This moment became even more emotional since we've heard the team's radio at the very end of the race when Lewis' racing engineer said: "I think that was engine".

Yes, Lewis got some real problems at the very end of the race where he had an amazing start and a few good restarts (SC and VSC). Max who had such an amazing start with a few good moves as well could even overtake three-time World Champion if he had a few more laps. Red Bull number 33 definitely had better pace, I mean he had been regaining about 2 seconds from each of his final laps. Well, that is not a surprise since Mercedes has installed the fourth engine in Spa (X races ago) to keep burning the same amount of oil for more races than Ferrari.

By the way, Lewis added one more pole to his career statistics and finally made it on Suzuka (since it was the only track in current calendar where he had no poles yet). As well as he set a new track record here (1.27.319) which wasn't beaten since 2006 (Schumacher, yes) I bet. So Mercedes was lucky enough to bring their car back to life (they were even faster on softs than everyone on supersofts in FP3) and to get some really good points on the tracks no one expect them to while Ferrari were loosing more and more.

2. Ferrari on its worse

On the contrary, Ferrari problems became kind of a surprise for everyone. Third time in row. Who expected Seb not to fight against Lewis in all three asian races. After struggling almost the whole weekend and being fast just on Friday while everyone expected that the higher temperature must work better for the red cars Seb had to retire in the very beginning of the race having technical problems.

The sequence of misfortune for both Ferraris kept going after Kimi crushed in FP3 causing second red flags in a row and got the gearbox change and 5-position grid penalty. He also couldn't make a good start and even lost a few positions being out in a "spoon" turn at the beginning but at the end of the day managed to finish P5 still. Though it does't make sense at all since Ferrari is not fighting for Constructors Cup anymore being so far from Mercedes (145 points) and he is not an opponent for Lewis nor on the grid nor in the Championship.

Sadly for Seb the time when everyone expected problems for Mercedes became the time when Ferrari became the one to struggle the most.

3. Valtteri is back?

Yes, that is THE question. As Mercedes got their pace back (finally) at Suzuka being so weak in Singapore and Sepang (here I mean the condition and not the race points) and made the updates work (at least a few of them) Valtteri is still struggling to make it closer to his teammate. After Malaysia Valtteri had to admit that all the races after the summer break weren't his best time. Having such problems pilots usually start complaining about the car, the updates, the tyres, the team and whatever but Valtteri admitted that it was just his fault as his piloting style is not that much suitable for Mercedes and he needs to change it. Wow.

As Mercedes was back on top of FPs Valtteri managed not only to set the best time in FP3 (and in the race too) but to crush his car causing more red flags on Suzuka and got the 5-place grid penalty as well. So qualifying P2 and starting P7 Valtteri almost overtook Daniel at the very end of the race which smiley Australian described as "we were almost holding hands". But it wasn't a double podium for Mercedes while it was for Red Bull.

Although, Lewis again asked the team to put him in front of Valtteri as it was a few times throughout this season and Valtteri showed himself as a perfect team player nevertheless it was too obvious for everyone else. Here I must shortly mention close situation in Force India where Checo was not happy with Esteban in front and asked the team about overtaking. As he received the negative answer he claimed that youngster was too slow and had to pick up his pace. Just saying.

4. Bulls are getting stronger

From race to race we can see how Red Bulls climb higher. Firstly Christian Horner claimed that they are going to become closer to Ferrari at the end of the season but in fact they are closer to Mercedes now and better than Ferrari (no offends to any Ferrari fans). Double podium in Malaysia and double podium in Japan and we are getting used to see on the podium not just Daniel but Max as well - as a winner at Sepang and as a challenger to Lewis at Suzuka.

As Max was challenging Lewis and Daniel was challenged by Valtteri the team was happy enough with second race without DNFs for them and with Renault engine itself. Thanks God.

5. Carlos says goodbye to Toro Rosso while Jolyon says goodbye to Formula 1

While the main team becoming more and more stable Red Bull youth team Toro Rosso keeps undergoing some huge changes. After Daniil was replaced by debutant French driver Pierre at Sepang for both Malaysia and Japan another emotional announcement came by. Carlos who was about to go on loan to Renault next season is leaving the team right before Austin which means both Pierre and Daniil are to race in the United States. It also means that Jolyon is not staying in Formula 1 anymore as there is no any place in other teams (except William short list which Jolyon is not in).

Both these situations are emotional enough. Unfortunately the last race for their teams didn't end up well for both pilots as Carlos crushed his car twice this weekend: firstly in FP1 causing red flags and getting 20-position grid penalty and secondly in the race causing yellow flags and safety car and had to retire and Jolyon got 20-position grid penalty and finished just P12 not gaining any points. Farewell to Jolyon and good luck to Carlos and his new team in Austin.

6. What's more 

What is more about this weekend is that we saw very diverse rain conditions from normal on slicks to rainy on wets on Friday and back to normal on slicks on Saturday. As the whole FP2 was too rainy we saw just five pilots showing times on wets with HUGE aquaplaning for brave Esteban and Lance but many different boats on the pit-lane :)

We also were unfortunate enough to see Fernando going to the back of the grid at Honda home track getting 35-position penalty in front of amazing Japanese crowd. We were also unfortunate to see how Pierre, Lance, Marcus and Pascal were denied a chance to show better times and were out in Q3 after Roman crushed and caused red flags.

Still, we were fortunate to see Esteban making a great move and pretending to grab a podium for a while driving P3 after starting P6 which was amazing for the youngster. Marcus' crush, more yellow flags, virtual safety car, tough fight in the middle of the grid between Felipe, Kevin, Roman, Nico and Pierre, Nico's retirement because of the stuck DRS and Lance's retirement because of understear problems, curbs and edginess pushed hard - that what was the race about out of the Mercedes-Ferrari fight ruined by Red Bulls.

I hope you enjoyed this race as well as this blog. And, yes, Lewis might become a champion in Austin but let's talk about this later!

I will see you in my old-new blogpost on Sepang coming by. Stay tuned :)

Ferrari sandwich as a miracle for Lewis 🏎🌟🏁

What a weekend of a night race in eye catching Singapore. Three safety cars, eight retirements, wets, inters, slicks, tyre strategies, rain as a miracle for Lewis and Ferrari sandwich for Max. Let's get right into this!

1. Miracle for Lewis 

To say that this wasn't the best weekend for Mercedes means to say nothing. It was terrible. No pace, no chances for the win, nothing really from the leading team and everyone knew this from the very beginning. The team struggled from Friday till the end of Saturday. 

Quali made it not easy for both Lewis and Valtteri as well putting them into P5 and P6 which meant difficult start behind Ferraris and Red Bulls. They were hoping for the rain to mix all the rival's advantage and give the chance to be smarter and quicker and it happened.

But let me take a minute for Lewis' race start. Which was more than amazing. He has chosen the very safe way which helped him not just to overtake everyone at the very beginning but not to become a victim of what happened in front. As team radio claimed he had to bring car home in one piece. As a result - 60th career win, one more podium with a bottle of champagne for British superstar (who is going vegan by the way).

2. Ferrari sandwich 

What happened in front? Well, since it's been a few days from the race we have all the cards opened. Now we clearly know that the one to blame in this crush was Seb. In Ferrari's press release he claimed: "I had an average start and then I moved slightly to the left trying to defend my position from Max. Then I got bumped on one side as Kimi’s car hit me. I’m not sure what happened." As it is clear Seb thinks that nothing has changed for Max and Kimi after their retirements as they are not fighting for anything in the championship right now.

Perfect! So Seb has mistaken and the only person who suffered the most from this  stupid mistake was just himself. Round of applause for Mr. Sebastian Vettel who has beaten the track record in Q3 claiming his pole. 1:39:491 - this is how fast you can go on Marina Bay City Curcuit.

Rain made it quite difficult to beat the times further but it made different tyre strategies possible. The grid has divided into two sides: the ones who started the race on wets and the ones who started it on inters. Probably inters won as Lewis, Dani, Valtteri and those three (I mean Seb, Kimi and Max) in front used them and the other part had to pit and change into them later under safety cars. Slicks were in action after approximately 24 laps so Kevin was the first one to go for ultrasofts as he was fighting with everyone (especially Felipe) wheel to wheel. Carlos, by the way, was the only one to go for supersofts.

3. What podium is it for Daniel?

Wait a minute! I am trying to count as there were too many this season. Dani showed truly unbeatable pace on Friday leading both FPs, he was also good on Saturday but was beaten mostly by his teammate. After well done quali for both Red Bull cars starting the race P2 and P3 everyone thought that Max could finally make it to the podium. Max who had too many DNFs this season while Dani had too many podiums.

But once again. Max became a victim. Not a victim of engine or technical problems as he used to but a victim of that Ferrari sandwich made by Seb mostly. If you don't believe me - just look at this picture and you'll get it.

Although FIA has decided that it was a racing accident and no further action is about to happen here.

4. Retirement competition

Did you see all those jokes about full house DNF in Singapore? I mean Max, Daniil and Fernando. All three of top-DNF drivers this year were out in one single race almost at the very beginning.

Not only Max, Kimi and Seb but Fernando had also retired after that crush-start. Fernando tried to manage driving with his damaged car but couldn't and had to box in the very beginning. 

And, yes, Daniil ended up in a wall. Not super surprising but since his teammate Carlos finished the race P4 with his best career result ever Toro Rosso probably had some chances in Singapore. So Daniil should have been smarter in his pathway after overtaking Kevin but he wasn't.

The last and third safety car in this session was provoked by Marcus being turned in a very thick place after hitting the wall. Not to mention how much Lewis was unhappy with the last SC as he gained a lot of advantage and had to lose it all and fight again at restart. 

Two more DNFs happened in case of some technical and mechanical problems so both Renault and Haas had to lose an opportunity for some really good points as Nico and Kevin had to retire at the very end.

5. Turning point of the championship

Lewis said after the race that the rain was that miracle he needed so much and as soon as it started raining he knew he would win. At the same time Seb who was extremely happy on Saturday gaining probably an unexpected pole was quite sceptic of his own DNF. 

Lewis who was supposed to leave Singapore being the second left it with 28 points above his rival. And Valtteri who by the way risked his life as he couldn't drink in the race blame on the broken bottle is closer to Seb now but farther from his teammate. Ferrari who has not that many tracks left to their advantage  in this championship suffered from double DNF for the first time in its history and probably lost the Constructors cup and maybe even the championship to Mercedes.

6. Contract time 

Mostly important to mention that this weekend not only became the turning point of the championship battle but the turning point for the future as well. Mercedes confirmed Valtteri signing for 2018 as well as Force India confirmed Checo. 

McLaren finally divorced with Honda who goes to Toro Rosso now as well as Sainz "divorced" with Red Bull future going to Renault alongside Nico for 2018. Although his future is still up to Dr. Marco. Now it became clear that Jolyon is probably leaving F1 after an amazing race this weekend which makes the fact just sadder.

We are still not sure about what might happen to Sauber next year as well as Toro Rosso. But it's the question of few races now I must confirm. 

On this point I should close this controversial post and start waiting for Malaysia and more news coming. Stay tuned!

Lewis leading the championship on the Ferrari land 🏎❤️🇮🇹

Sorry to disappoint a huge Tifosi crowd but Mercedes not only got a one-two at Monza but made it to the top of the championship with Lewis putting Seb down with three points now.

What an amazing race, first of all. I honestly thought that Monza might be boring in case there was not much to do for the teams who had less power than Mercedes and even less to do for those who could not compete with Ferrari as well. But after quali I definitely changed my mind - if you haven't seen it, then go and watch because that was the thing that made this race so unpredictable and interesting at the same time. Not to mention all the grid penalties, a ton of them. They truly messed up the starting grid. 

1. Epic wet quali

Note: this part of the blog was pre-written on Saturday while the feelings were fresher.

 Okay. Just let me breathe normally cause the quali was E-P-I-C. Let's start with the fact that four hours instead of just one were worth seeing Lewis beating all-time record and getting his 69th pole. It was also worth seeing AMAZING Lance and Esteban, and of course Max who unfortunately couldn't start where he finished. Well, have you ever expected a grid like this? I mean, yes, in Monza.

The whole Saturday wasn't that well for everyone as long as we only had 16 minutes in FP3 and the quali was stopped after less than five minutes when Roman crushed after HUGE aquaplaning. It was dangerous to go on track - it was true but fans and TV and everything demanded quali to take place at the right time. Sadly for Roman who started the race P20 as he didn't make it to 107% and also got a few more positions on the grid because of the penalty.

After the track was cleaned of debris we had 2,5 hours of expectation before the action would be back. And guess what? Since Q1 was restarted from 13:31 everyone was switching from wets to inters and back to wets during the whole quali and that was interesting. Who expected both Williams to be in Q3 and be so fast? Who expected Red Bull to almost claim the pole or even one-two in Q3. I mean WHO EXPECTED LANCE P4 AND ESTEBAN P5? Here I really feel sorry for Max and Dani not to start from their positions but SO HAPPY for youngsters to start P2 and P3, especially Lance to be the youngest ever on the front row! 

By the way, sorry those who love red cars but Ferrari sucked at Q3 and there's no explanation why both drivers couldn't manage their cars, tyres and speed. I mean even McLaren with all their problems made it to Q3 with one car (Stoffel) claiming that Fernando could knock his teammate out but did not. 

2. Lewis dominating on Ferrari land

Alright. Lewis? Again? Yes! Record breaking, fast, confident and now leading the championship Lewis Hamilton made it at Monza! In front of huge Tifosi crowd with all those red flags everywhere. 

He has not only beaten Michael Schumacher's (yes, Ferrari pilot) all-time pole record but claimed a great victory leading almost the whole race and making a great start as well while everyone else was struggling (his teammate Valtteri even lost a few positions at the very beginning). And now he is leading in the championship before seven most diverse races of the year. Champ? I hope so.

3. Almost retired Max and brilliant Daniel 

As I already mentioned we got lots of grid penalties that time. Can you imagine that eight of twenty drivers were thrown to the back of the grid while Lewis was the only one to start the race from where he was qualified. So, both Red Bulls became victims of those penalties and both started from the back. But guess who finished almost on the podium? Yes, it was Dani and we kind of got used to such go-throughs from Australian. Driver of the day (from P16 to P4) with those amazing overtakes.

Being that happy for Daniel I remember the moment when my heart almost stopped. It happened when Max got a puncture after their contact with Felipe and had to pit and start his race from the very back again. Thanks God he did not retire and even finished P10 after two pit-stops and driving the car with Renault engine. 

Max was quite not a gentleman in that race as he squeezed Kevin out of the track fighting for the 10th closer to the end and crushed into Roman at the very beginning of the race damaging both Haas and his own front wings.

4. Youngsters under pressure 

My excitement had no borders on Saturday as Esteban and Lance claimed those amazing results in rainy quali and got P3 and P2 on the starting grid. Align all this excitement I already knew how much pressure they both would have. Especially Lance starting from the first row next to Lewis. 

Unfortunately they both couldn't manage the faster cars behind and both lost their positions finishing P6 and P7. Lance even was attacked by his own teammate on the last lap but Felipe stopped at the right time as there was a chance to be overtaken by Checo who was right behind them all. 

5. Karma in progress

Another fight "on the edge" happened in the very middle of the grid while Jolyon had to cut the chicane and gained a place in front of Fernando who was so unhappy with that fact on his team radio that he kept saying that the penalty was ridiculous and only after hearing that Jolyon had retired he was satisfied saying "karma". 

Although, Fernando himself had to retire on strategic purpose as well as Sauber's Marcus did. Among those who had retired as well was Fernando's teammate Stoffel who had "no power" (normal Alonso quote).

Then we saw Lewis and Valtteri standing next to Seb in front of huge Tifosi crowd. Here Lewis said a volcanic thing that "Mersedes' power is better that Ferrari's" and that was so true but so risky. At the same time Seb explained that something didn't work in the car the biggest part of the race so he wasn't pushing too hard. I can go on remembering those things for ages but let's just sum it all up here.

What did we see this weekend? Breathtaking classic Monza race (no safety car for 6th time in a row here), unpredictable rainy quali, LOTS of grid penalties and a totally messed up starting line, huge speed over 250 km/h, some ordinary problems like Sainz' engine and Magnussen's broken suspension on Friday. Interesting weather conditions. Not proven Force India's team orders (in case of no need) aaaaand total Mercedes' domination on Ferrari land.

That is all from Monza. Just seven more races left and Singapore's next, Have a great week and don't miss a thing!

Lewis joining the "winning 200th GP club" while Max competing in number of retirements 🏆💪🏻😵

Cheers to all Formula 1 fans as the holiday break is finally over and we are warming up before the very end of the season in Spa. Spa is amazing. Spa is unbelievable. Spa is everything Formula 1 needs: fast corners, speed straights, areas with critical G force level, engine power, aerodynamics and downforce - all in one. People say this track is where engine matters the most but its not just about what's inside the car but about its chassis as well. So the weekend promised Mercedes to be in front of everyone else in case they are much better in power this season but unpredictability is still what we love in this sport.

From the very first free practice wasn’t that clear who gonna dominate here in Spa that time so Mercedes had to push harder not to loose "their" track to Ferraris. And what was the most surprising that it wasn’t Seb who was "flying" the whole weekend but Kimi who has just signed the new contract with Scuderia and was able to focus on JUST driving now (not that he didn’t before).

As Seb lost all the FPs to his teammate he was still able to make it to the front row of the starting grid because of Kimi's mistake (as it was clearly claimed). Seb admitted that he probably wouldn’t be able to start the race from P2 if Kimi compiled his best lap in Q3. 

So Seb not only lost his first part of the weekend to Kimi but also the race to his principal rival - Lewis being too active at the restart and not able to attack after pushing too close before Eau Rouge. Well, Seb still has 7 points before Monza next week but it doesn’t seem too promising for him.

1. Lewis dominating in his 200th Grand Prix

Weekend at Spa was very special for Lewis in many terms. First of all, his 200th F1 career Grand Prix and his 200th race start on Sunday. Secondly, his 68th pole which means he has equaled Michael Schumacher. Thirdly, new Spa track record - 1.42.553 sec.  And the last but not the least being able to join the "winning 200th GP club" alongside Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Good job and just 7 points left to start climbing over in the championship again.

2. Valtteri losing the podium in his championship fight

While Lewis was definitely shining the whole weekend being voted the driver of the day, his teammate Valtteri wasn’t doing that well from the very first FP finishing P5 and loosing two positions in the race because of the fatal mistake he made just after restart letting not just Kimi in front but Daniel to finish on the podium as well.

Although Valtteri admitted that he still IS in the champions fight as long as eight more races are left in this season. Promising for his fans but barely real as long as the team claimed the possibility of team strategy in the end of the championship.

3. Max losing his patience next to Fernando

Not only Mercedes and Ferarri have divided into two parts when one teammate is happier than the other. Red Bull suffered as well since Max' car had to be retired in the very beginning of the race in front of 80 thousand fans from his homwland wearing orange. 

Sadly it became the 6th retirement for Max this season and as he claimed he is now competing against Fernando (who probably declined finishing the race pointing on "engine problems" that were not found) in terms of retirements. The bad luck continues as long as Max is sure that not too many races like this left for him to quit the team.

4. Force India's on fire

The sensational highlight of the weekend was definitely the double crush between two Force Indias both times provoked by one and only Checo Perez. Firstly he decided to overtake Esteban squeezing the frenchman into the wall and secondly he didn’t let him to attack before Eau Rouge so both of them might be retired after the possible crush (thanks, God, it didn’t happen). Fortunately the biggest damage for Esteban was his broken front wing changed under safety car. At the same time Checo suffered from the puncture of the right rear and ended up retiring from P17. 

Team management finally commented on the situation making it clear that it was the last time the team let both drivers to race. Now they are about to listen to the team orders and if not - there might be further actions. It is probably what we have waited for so long from Force India.

4. Daniel a.k.a the king of restarts

The safety car provoked by the actions of two "pink panthers" pissed off Lewis being caught between SC and Seb (who still had the chance to work on his tyres behind Lewis). Lewis was so unhappy with the ACTUAL safety car on track in case it was too slow for him. 

After the race Mercedes' boss Totto Wolff commented on this incident as a lucky one to help to change the damaged tyres on Lewis' car and win the race. The same SC gave the chance to Daniel a.k.a the king of restarts to give his best to finish on the podium for the 6th time this season. Incredible result from Australian.

5. Best of others

Alongside this huge fight in the front there also were some interesting breakthroughs from the middle of the grid. Not to mention Felipe who had quite an unfortunate weekend crushing his car way too much on Friday, failing the quali and getting the 5-place penalty for speeding under yellow flags on Saturday but still finishing P8 from P16 on Sunday. 

Kind of the same it was for Roman struggling with the brakes (from P11 to P7) and for Daniil having some technical problems, plus, being penalized (5 positions on the grid) blame on Toro Rosso (from P19 to P12). Really good job for Renault with Nico finishing P6 and Jolyon being still good after getting the 5-place penalty as well. And, of course, Stoffel: 60-place pen on the grid but still finishing P14 in front of some others (I mean driving on Honda engine). 

Misfortune caught not only retired Max and Fernando (with no power as usually) but also Pascal who had to retire after a few laps and Kevin whose Haas had really good pace this weekend but the team couldn’t manage tyre situation and had to extra pit under the safety car in the wrong time.

This whole weekend was quite interesting in terms of diversity of what happened: red flags after Massa's crush on Friday, raining session with two drivers to try it on the track (Danny and Fernando), inters in the beginning of Saturday, track record beaten multiple times again, best race lap from Seb -1.46.577 sec., special helmets from Max (orange one) and Felipe, lots of gearbox penalties (Marcus, Pascal, Jolyon, Daniil, Stoffel), speeding under yellow flags penalties (Felipe and Kimi) and one "tyre" penalty (10.000$ for not giving back Lance's tyres after 40 minutes of FP), contract extensions (Kimi, Seb until 2020 and Stoffel) and looooots of different tyre strategies.

Bad times for Williams, huge improvement for Renault, kind of a promising end of the season for McLaren - that's what we saw. Lots of contracts for the next year to be signed, interesting fight for the title between Seb and Lewis, records to be beaten and hearts to be on fire - that's what awaits us in less than a week at Monza. Stay tuned!

P.S.: Just wanna let you know how much I missed writing those race blogs :)

Birthday blog: the most important life choice 🖤🏁😳

Better late than never. Here we go. My birthday blog or what was the most important of what happened to me last year.

I haven't been thinking a lot. My choice was clear. The most important and life-changing thing was my choice to work in motorsport. 

It isn't a long story. It isn't too romantic but I wanna share. So in March 2017 I've been working for the sports department in Russian information agency called R-Sport. That time I was chosen to cover Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi having the advantage of three foreign languages.

In the end of April I came to Sochi and felt dumb. It was super hot (I prefer cold and rainy weather). The whole area was strange but nice. We went to the circuit on Wednesday to explore and on Thursday for the media day. Firstly I didn't like the whole Formula 1 thing. It was too unknown and too fancy. My four days there led me from hating the Paddock thing to absolutely loving it. I met so many amazing people from drivers to journalists who seemed strangers to me at first but became a kind of a family at the end. That moment I realized: F1 is an independent, maybe strange but amazing world. 

Valtteri won for the first time in his life. I was happy for Mercedes but sad for Lewis finishing P4 and for Danny being out. I stood in the Paddock watching the teams packing and I felt like a very important part of my life is leaving me alone. That evening was frustrating. Later some more important things happened. Football cheated on me but I don't feel like telling this story here. 

I came back to Moscow, lost my job (not the best point of my life either) and decided to watch Spanish GP. Just in case. That moment was absolutely fatal. I loved loved loved F1. Since that GP I started watching every single one, decided on starting this blog and writing for motorsport media. It all worked and I couldn't be happier.

I am sure I have so many future opportunities like working full time and becoming a proper motorsport journalist in Paddock. It all awaits me in my closest future and, yes, now I can tell. I AM IN LOVE WITH MOTORSPORT AND I LIKE IT ❤️

"A man of his word" defeated by two Ferraris: Lewis is 14 points behind in the championship 🏎🚨🏁

Oh, hi! Have you noticed that mathematically we reached the middle of the season one race ago in Silverstone? But let's be honest - psychologically it happened just a few moments ago at Hungaroring. Congratulations to all Ferrari fans, by the way! That was an impressive one-two for red cars in Budapest. It is hard to accept but Ferraris were definetely way better on this track and even the special engine mode Lewis used to overtake Kimi didn’t help.

What I noticed first the qualifying was quite different from what we used to see lately. Mercedes was struggling a lot the whole weekend what I cannot say about Ferraris. Baricello's track record (not beaten for many years) was beaten multiple times firstly by Ferraris. Both Seb and Kimi had enourmos pace so Kimi was blaming himself after the race for the mistake in quali which cost him a lot. 

1. An ideal team player

As I said - congratulations to all Ferrari fans. If you know me you also know that I'm not a fan of those red cars even more than I am not a fan of Seb. I've been asked multiple times why. I couldn’t explain earlier but here at Hungaroring I came up with a concrete answer. I don’t like Seb as a Ferrari driver not for who he is or for how he behaves but mostly for the fact he COULD NOT be on top of the championship without team's help. Here I don’t mean the car, engineering, settings or whatever - here I mean team tactics, politics, strategy, priorities. Call it the way you like to. I am pretty sure there's some "rules" that do not let Kimi to fight against Seb (as it fortunately let Valtteri in Mercedes). 

Hungarian GP was a bright example of what I called "rules" here. Kimi was for sure faster than Seb and had no steer problems from the beginning which German was struggling a lot. He couldn’t even attack curbs and was slower in that case. Kimi asked the team multiple times if they can give him a chance to fight for more as long as he had better pace, younger tyres and a few more advantages. But no reaction came on the radio in that case so he had to stay behind Seb to protect him from what Mercedes could do using his steer weakness. We have no official information on Ferarri's contracts before the summer break. But what I personally think is that we can be sure now that Seb IS SO HAPPY with his current teammate that he will do literally anything to make Ferrari keep Kimi for as long as it is possible. 

2. A man of his word

Another happy man this weekend was Valtteri who unexpectedly (in my opinion) got his podium back at the last turn of the race. Lewis starting P4 had the better pace from the very beginning of the race so we all expected him to attack Valtteri to fight for the win. The main issue was huge radio struggles Mercedes had in the middle of the race so they just couldn’t manage the actions of their drivers. Lewis asked the team to let him in front or to let him attack Valterri right when I (as a Mercedes fan) expected him to do. Being honest, I was pretty impressed with team's decision to ask Valtteri to put Lewis in front BUT if the champion couldn’t overtake Kimi in like 10 laps of special engine mode Lewis had to give the position back. 

Knowing Lewis I could expect him to escape the last action and finish on the podium just in case. So I was super shocked but really happy when Lewis gave the position back at the very last turn making it clear that Max could not do anything to beat any of  Mercedes. Lewis accepted that it was hard for him but he is "a man of his word" and a team player. After the race Totto Wolff would say that it definitely WAS one of the hardest team decisions and they all hope it won't cost them the championship title. Anyways, huge respect to Mercedes and their team values which made all of us so proud.

3. Max hitting the relationship with Daniel

The other man who showed an incredible race and made it even more interesting was one and only Max Verstappen. Max was the one who made a huge start at Hungaroring and jumped from P5 to P3 immediately. Later on his teammate Daniel decided to fight for the position. Blocked left front made it all. Max hit Daniel and the honey-badger was out while Max got ten seconds penalty (unfair in my and Christian Horner's opinion) which for sure deprived him podium chances. 

Going back to a few latest GPs I'll remind you that we already had some huge team argues like between Esteban and Checo in Force India or Daniil and Carlos in Toro Rosso leading to race collisions and some serious consequences. Thinking of all those "team battles" personally I was really happy to see Red Bull drivers' friendship or bromance (if I can say). After Max and Daniel's collision - I was so not happy with the words Dani used to describe the situation as blame on "immaturity and youth". Daniel definitely wasn’t nice to Max' actions. I hoped that the situation won't go further so it didn’t. Max claimed his appologies - Daniel accepted. For me that was the worst highlight of the weekend which hopefully will not ever happen again.

4. Failure in action

Hungaroring is famous for it's slow and consistent corners which make pilots to be very physical and cars very sensitive. In spite of some strong expectations we saw a few good overtakes but we also we saw some unfortunate retirements. I have mentioned Daniel's already but the most painful for me was the one for Roman. Mechanics' mistake was fatal and cost them not only retirement but also 5000$ fee for driving an unsafe car. Really sorry for Haas. 

If you are close to F1 (which I am sure you are if you are reading this) you know about the breaking news happened on Saturday right before the quali. Felipe got really sick after both Friday sessions but doctors said he is still able to drive on Saturday so FP3 was taken by him also. Sadly Felipe felt really sick right after the session and former F1 driver and show presenter Paul Di Resta had to take place in the cockpit of the car he never drove before (I mean he drove cars 3,5 years ago, not in era of turbo engines). Incredibly he did really well in quali finishing P19 (not falling of 107% and not even P20)  and he was doing pretty well in the race too but the team decided to retire probably because they just wanted to save the car or change some of the elements without any penalties.

5. Happy birthday, Fernando

The last but not the least I probably should mention the special birthday gift which Fernando made for himself. Both McLaren drivers have finished in points. Sorry, you didn't know? Well, Fernando made it to the FASTEST RACE LAP at Hungaroring - 1.20.182. IT IS so impressive considering the fact that he drove McLaren Honda (you probably remember their engine problems) beating everyone and finishing P6 the next day after his birthday. 

Fernando made it even more interesting fighting with another spaniard Carlos pushing to the limit. Anyways, nice finish for both McLarens (even though Stoffel could probably do better). And what about the upcoming holidays - F1 made an interesting idea to picture Fernando next to the sea shore in his racing suit posing on a deckchair next to the real Fernando doing the same. 

6. Quali and other surprises

What's more Q3 was definetely quite surprising for me as long as we haven't seen any Force Indias or Williams there (since Williams updated their car it just became worse I must say) but we saw both McLarens and even one Toro Rosso of Carlos. By the way, Daniil got one more penalty point and three positions on the grid for blocking Lance which I just don’t feel like commenting. Blame on his team for sure. 

Nico keeps showing amazing results since Renault updated the car. The same wasn’t that common for McLaren and especially Stoffel who also did great in quali. Unfortunately Nico got the five-positions-gearbox-penalty so it wasn’t his best race comparing to what he could really do. His teammate Jolyon also received the new bottom but managed to crush twice on Friday which puts him under pressure even more remembering all the rumors and the fact that Kubica is driving Renault tests probably right now. Anyways, Jolyon wasn’t the one to provoke multiple red flags on Friday. It was Antonio Giovinazzi who managed to crush Kevin's car (depriving him two FP sessions) and also Pascal (no comments).

At the end of this thing I just wanna put the amazing media fight between Nico and Marcus. No words - just go and look!

When F1 returns from summer break I am sure we'll know a looooot about contracts and team movements. Stay tuned to my blog. By the way, FOUR weeks without F1 can only mean one thing - historical GPs in action :)

Onboard nightmare: FIA confirms "halo" for 2018 🏎💔✋🏻

Hello there. Are you a person who loves changes or you'd better stay more conservative? If it's new it's not necessarily bad - I used to say being quite conservative in many cases. Not in this one. 

On July, 19th FIA confirmed we are going to have Halo protection system for the championship 2018. Here's the part of the statement: "Following the unanimous agreement of the Strategy Group, in July 2016, to introduce additional frontal protection for Formula One and the repeated support from the drivers, the FIA confirms the introduction of the Halo for 2018. With the support of the teams, certain features of its design will be further enhanced."

Well, I really do think it looks ugly and I am not the only one. I really do think that most of the people somehow connected to F1 are 100% supporting opened cockpits and this "old" way of racing. But if everyone's against than who decides? Why the decision comes despite the total disapproval? Too many rhetorical questions in my mind. Let me shortly go through the options, its pros and cons and leave you to think about for a while (as long as we all have nothing to do but to accept).

Options:

I've been surthing through the internet after I read those terrific news in my twitter and found an interesting poll on motorsport.com. The options there were: accept Halo, accept shield, leave everything as it is, go back to aeroscreen, make cockpits closed and look for other options. So I tried to analyze  shortly what do I personally think of every option. 

For me aeroscreen and shield are quite alike as long as they have the same purpose in different form. Their pros and cons are also a lot alike: making it difficult to see through (blame on glares), getting easily dirty in bad weather conditions, probably some kind of aerodynamics thing (not an expert in this) and so on. Since I haven't been watching F1 for a long time I don't really know a lot about aeroscreen. But I do know about the shield since it has been tested in Silverstone last week and Seb defined it as inconvenient. It is not what I'd like to see but looks 100% better than Halo - that's for sure.

Closed cockpits WILL BE definitely a disaster as long as we know Formula 1 as a championship with opened wheels and opened cockpits. It might just ruin the whole spirit of this amazing sport. Looking for other options is still leading us to cockpit changes which I do feel are not going to be easy acceptable for a long time. Leaving everything as it is is probably THE BEST way which is not happening after that statement.

Talking about Halo, here I will try to give you some pros and obvious cons. 

Pros:

The only real pro which I personally see is the protection from big debris or strong impacts during the accident. That is true. I am not such a big expert but probably it doesn't influence aerodynamics as much as other tested protection systems do so doesn't make worst changes. I cannot come up with more pros but probably they exist.

Cons:

It is ugly. Onboard view is going to be kind of a nightmare. It does not protect from small debris. It has nothing to do with the wind and the downhill power on pilot (especially corners) which is good and bad at the same time. Probably it makes it way more difficult to see through. It also makes it more difficult to exit the car in some particular situations (accidents). 

Well, I can go on for ages. Unfortunately it is the fact now and we can only hope that F1 teams have the power to change the situation (since there we no accidents LATELY which showed that we need this kind of a system). 

The only point to add is the Lewis's words from 2016 he addressed to Halo possibility: "I hope that's not what they bring out, I really do. But if it is, ultimately it's the drivers' protection so we should have a choice individually - I should be able to decide whether to put that on my car. It wouldn't be something I'd choose. I like it the way it is now - when I get in the car I know there's a certain risk. Safety is a very important issue for sure, but there are risks that we take and you have to decide how much of a risk you are going to take. I'd rather drive without it and risk it." Thanks, Lewis!

I am confused, I am embarrassed and I am frustrated. I am also sure you feel the same right now but I'd love to let me know what you think on Halo in any of my social media or e-mail. This blogpost is not a statement but more of a discussion I wrote being emotionally punched by FIA. Thanks for reading though!

Last lap drama in Silverstone: Mercedes beats Ferrari 🏎😳🏁

Oh my God! First of all, congratulations to all Mercedes and especially Lewis fans - that was absolutely amazing. I could be only happier if Max would finally get the podium but we got what we got. Silverstone is by far my favorite track in F1 championship which is making me even sadder on the fact that GP-2019 is going to be the last one due to financial struggles (should I write a post on this?). Here we got the fastest corners where it reaches over 5.2G downhill power (if I am not mistaken in its name). 

And yes, this weekend we got the new track record from Lewis - 1.30.621. Amazing Lewis! Leading from the very beginning of the race and being on top during the whole distance was absolutely stunning. The only wrong moment (in my opinion) was the accident after Valtteri pitted and Lewis refused to let him in front to gain pace for both of them but said "I will drive him with me". I would be probably crazy if they lost their leadership because of what Lewis did but all ended up really well. 

1. From sinner to hero

As you probably remember Friday before the British Grand Prix was dedicated to the amazing F1 show in the center of London. All teams participated except one driver - one and only Lewis Hamilton. Yes, the pilot who has most love in GB decided to keep focusing on the upcoming race and title fight which meant that he took a few days off and skipped the event. Critics never ended. Lewis got a BILLION questions during the press-conference on why he didn't come to the event. The talks were all about him and his fans treatment. 

If you ask me what I really do think on that I'd say he has the right. He is one of the most famous drivers and he does a lot (sometimes not in front of the cameras), so it was his decision which he has the right to. 

Anyways he became kind of a sinner to everyone but I don't think he lost fans love. What happened next you should remember. Pole position (67th in his career and 5th in Silverstone which means he has equaled Jim Clark and is about to beat the record completing the same result next year), race win, new track record, new quali time record (1.26.600) and crowd surfing while two Finns patiently waiting in the press-conference :) Hero? I must say yes.

2. Mercedes got lucky enough

Let me begin from the very end of the race. What was that? I mean that tyre-drama two laps before finish. That was absolutely epic. Post-race reports keep saying Kimi and Seb had different type of tyre-issues but that looked really crazy. Pirelli started the investigation and I must say it is highly interesting to know what happened and brought such bad luck to both Ferrari drivers and lots of very good luck to Mercedes.

Being honest, I did not believe that Valtteri had a chance for the podium being almost three seconds behind two laps before finish, starting P9 after his five-place penalty (he qualified P4 which was strange since he was leading FP's whole Friday). Unless this absolutely unexpected problem happened and Kimi lost his pace immediately. I am pretty surprised that he still drove himself to the podium struggling so much.

Ferrari confirmed that those tyre-issues caught them by surprise. But what is most strange about that all is that the SAME problem with the SAME wheel had happened not only to both Ferrraris but also to Red Bull's Max. We saw Kimi quite frustrated on the podium, not the most emotional man was definitely sad about finishing third and not at least second (should we talk about the possible win here? Probably not). His teammate and the championship leader (1 point over Lewis - not a lot) Seb was even more unlucky having a puncture and urgently pitting which led to finishing P7 - not good for him at all.

3. Pit-stop lost for Verstappen

Talking about Max, I am pretty sure that he lost the podium during his first pit-stop. Yes, he probably could stay longer when all those happened to Seb and Kimi and still have a chance for the podium. But I do really believe that he could have the momentum if his first pit-stop would be one second faster. Yes, maybe it was that one second when he lost his position. Of course the team and Max himself explained that there was real need in this and they could not do better. But I still think they could. 

As long as Max did a great start and was defending so strongly against Seb before his pit-stop he surely had a chance. By the way, Christian Horner keeps confirming that both his drivers are about to stay in Red Bull for the next season - reminding you all "just in case" as he said.

4. Amazing honey-badger

Another Red Bull driver on the contrary had a lot of fun overtaking cars as he claimed. Starting P19 having gearbox five-place penalty and super frustrated quali (not even finishing Q1 blame on some technical problems the car had) Daniel finished the race P5. He could even start the race P20 if retired Alonso didn't get more penalty positions on the grid - I mean 30.  

Well, what Daniel did was kind of obvious for me because Red Bull definitely has a better car than many other teams so Daniel was about to fight against Force India, Williams, Renault, etc.- it is not easy but it is way easier comparing to what Valtteri did fighting against Red Bull and Ferrari. Anyways, Daniel finished P5 which is cool and was voted the driver of the day which I do feel is great cause my heart was choosing between him and Valtterri that time. 

5. Sainz vs Kvyat - to be continued

Toro Rosso got lots of bad luck this weekend and their drivers are the only ones to blame. Who crushed in this race again, do you have any guess? Absolutely yes! Daniil and Carlos, ladies and gentlemen. Two teammates who cannot stop fighting against each other. Even situation between Force India's Esteban and Checo became way smoother since they crushed in Baku. 

What I really DO think is that they both are kind of wrong (I mean a little bit embarrassing, of course). Anyways, Daniil keeps saying it wasn’t his fault and Carlos had hit him. Carlos keeps saying it WAS Daniil's fault as long as he crushed into him. In my Spielberg post I wrote: "they'd better behave smarter". Unfortunately they do not read my blog.

6. McLaren on top

Fernando made it possible, probably not in Q3 or the race where he had to retire again due to engine issue. He made it possible at least in Q1 pitting at the very end and being one second away not starting the fast lap on slicks at all but he DID it! Round of applause and lots of screenshots!

Talking about Q1 it definitely was quite chaotic as long as the start of the session was rainy enough to go for green tyres and the end of Q1 was all about changing into slicks and improve the time. By the way, the interesting fact of QUALI which I feel like mentioning here was Kimi. He showed the better time than Seb - that was a good kind of answer to the criticism he got from team management lately. 

7. One lap less - Palmer off

This time we got 51 laps instead of 52 and the reason to that kind of change was Joylion who got a technical problem which didn't let him not only finish the race but even start it. Probably that didn’t make a lot of difference as long as three cars had to pit one more time at the very end. Rumors about Joylion being close to replacing by Kubica, Sainz, Alonso or whoever keep surrounding him and this situation did not help at all.

The finish itself was quite not that predictable as long as we got Hulkenberg P6 and Massa only P10 instead of what we used to see from Williams lately. Grosjean finishing P13 was quite unhappy with the fact that his incident with Lewis took no further action "in case that Lewis is fighting for the title" as he claimed.

Silverstone forecast promised the rain to mix the fight but it ended up not happening which probably was OK for most of the grid. Race itself showed us so much and made the fight for the title waaay more interesting since Lewis is just one point behind Seb and twenty three above Valtteri.

Personally I can't wait till we see the next half of the season since Hungary 'cause literally EVERYTHING can happen here! See you in less than two weeks, amazing F1 lovers.