Aramco Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix

For the fourth race running the formula repeated itself. The Silver Arrows botch their starts, get swamped by the Ferrari's, Russell jumps Antonelli who loses 3-4 places. In the course on the next few laps the Silver Arrows proceed to undo the damage and end up 1 and 2. Well this race had a new comer in the form of Oscar Piastri, who of course has the same engine. Piastri made an excellent start,  swung around Antonelli and moved to the right to block Russell,who in turn tripped up a fast starting Hamilton, giving Leclerc a chance to follow Piastri and end up P2. 

Antonelli meanwhile ended up behind Norris in P6. That did not last long. In the course of two laps he overtook both Norris and Hamilton to end up in P4 behind Leclerc. By this time Russell had overtook Leclerc and set off after Piastri who had opened up a 2 second gap.

The Mclaren performance looks promising and hopefully ending the one horse or rather wolf race at front. Piastri looked very comfortable holding onto the lead and preempted Russell by pitting first with the Mclaren pit crew executing a flawless pitstop to send him out with track position.

For the last 15 years Suzuka has never seen a safety car. But as has been proven in the starting races this season, records will be broken. What looked like a botched pass by Bearman saw him slide on to the grass before the Spoon curve and end up in the barriers and a 50G impact. Later it was determined that a battery deployment triggered the overtake on Colapinto with a closing speed differential of over 50kph forcing Bearman to take evasive action. Another critical safety issue to fix in the current battery era. 

What was Bearman's loss turned out to be a godsend to Antonelli and Hamilton who had not pitted yet...giving them a free pitstop. Antonelli ended up in P1 but Hamilton was held up by Verstappen coming into the pits ending up in P4 behind Russell who he tried to harry after the safety car restart. But the Merc proved to be too strong and Hamilton ended up in a usual battle with his teammate who pulled of a close but clean pass. Piastri meanwhile ended up in P2 behind Antonelli who with clean air before him, promptly proceeded to build up a sizeable gap.

A common tactic employed by drivers was to get their opponent to overtake them on the straight after the 130R forcing battery deployment and the proceeding to retake the position on the main straight. The subsequent technical sections comprising of the esses, Degna till the Spoon curve reward a mechanically and aerodynamically sorted chassis than outright performance, where the Ferrari had an advantage helping Leclerc keep Russell behind him till the end to secure P3 for Ferrari. Oscar held onto P2 unable to challenge Antonelli and untroubled by the Ferrari behind him.

The Red Bulls were more competitive with Verstappen overtaking a few cars before ending up behind the Alpine of Gasly and unable to pass without losing the position on the repass. Maybe one option should be to allow only 80% battery deployment and 20% reserve to defend against a repass. But anyway, there is quite a distance for Red Bull to go before making this a four horse race.

Has the racing become better. After 3 races especially one on a drivers circuit like Suzuka, I would say no. F1 used to be about the drivers who could maximise grip on the corners, brake late into a corner and use tools like DRS etc to overtake or defend on straights. With corners now becoming battery harvesting opportunities this capability has become secondary. For drivers like Max Verstappen who differentiate themselves by having more of this craft, and viewers like me who tune in to watch humans like him perform superhuman overtakes and passes the current battery managed spectacle is kind of a damper. We don't tune in to see the yo yo ping pong battle. And that is what corporate animals like Toto Wolf and Stefano Domenicali simply don't understand. Welcome to corporate F1. It was good while it lasted.

Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix - The Race

Hats off to Antonelli! Granted that Russell's misfortunes during qualifying setup the pole for him but Russell was still on the front row and Antonelli held him off. He then proceeded to fight with Hamilton and eventually get the better of him, in what is now standard fare for the last two races. A brief ding dong between the races and eventually one figures how to better manage the electrons than the other and speeds away. The issues of grip, aero, control are all sacrificed in at the altar of electricity. Ah well..but that takes nothing way from the young lad. He showed signs last year and it was a matter of time.

I feel for Russell though. He was never given a chance to really take the fight to Hamilton and even on Sunday's podium Toto looks happier for Lewis than he was for George. 

The scrap between Lewis and Leclerc post the safety car  was providential for Antonelli as it helped it eke out a very healthy gap from the next three, a gap that he comfortably maintained at around 6-7 seconds till the very end. 

Red Bull looked out of the game this whole weekend with only Hadjar providing some solace in 8th after Verstappen had to retire from 6th. Carlos Sainz drove a very measured race to give Williams their first points this season. And Ollie Bearman with another stellar 5th place finish.

So as a fan how do I feel two races in. Well let me try to put it this way. For me enjoying a car is the sum of it's parts and pushing it to the limits of my capabilities and what is legal on the road (well mostly!) It certainly is not enjoyable driving it fast and knowing that you and the car can push harder but having to back off as you have to watch the electric charge. You want to overtake when you have the chance instead of bother about your electric charge. Also with the combustion engine there was no getting back any of the capability expended. The driver needed to be judicious in choosing how he pushed the engine, knowing that if he wore it out beyond repair, he could not get back the performance in the course of the race. So while ding dong phases are enjoyable, I don't think the changes have made the entire racing anymore interesting than the last season. It's early days so let's see.

Formula 1 - Chinese Grand Prix Sprint

 For the second race running a familiar pattern emerged. Mercedes locks down the front row. Ferrari's blot like lightning from the start line to take the lead with George Russell in second, Antonelli botches the start to lose 4-5 places and then resumes a recovery drive.

Last weekend it was Leclerc who nipped in front of Russell, this week it was Hamilton. A cat and mouse then ensued with both drivers strategising their energy deployment to figure a way past each other. Hamilton in the process ruined his tyres which gave George, who was managing his tyres the ability to fight back and take the lead. Hamilton then proceeded to tussle with his team mate, potentially torpedoing Ferrari's only chance of taking the fight to Russell. At this point of the game, the joint objective should be to take as many points from Russell as possible. Hamilton, in my opinion, could have hung back and let Leclerc have a chance at challenging Russell forcing Russell to compromise his tyres. Who knows, this may have given Hamilton a chance at the win later on in the race.

Antonelli fought back passing cars with relative ease till he clattered with Hadjar earning a 10 second penalty for his favors. The Hulk's retirement brought out the safety car and a free pit stop which earning Antonelli a realtively less detrimental way of serving his penalty. This helped him end up fifth behind Norris thanks to a misjudged overtake by Piastri, who gave up the place on instruction from the pit lane rather than get a penalty.

Back down the order McLaren seem to be the third best with Red Bull coming in fourth - however the Red Bull looked really out of sorts at Shanghai, with Max terming it as undriveable. A messy start which him tumble down the order. After a recovery back to sixth, he then pitted during the safety car for fresh tyres which should have ideally landed him in the top five. However with the mid runners like RB, Haas not pitting and an extended safety car period leaving less than 3 laps of racing, it meant that he finished outside the points in 9th and 10th respectively.

Oliver Bearman is fast emerging as a standout talent continuing from his impressive performances last year. Thanks to him the Haas is regularly in the top 10 in all races so far. The development race is yet to show it's colors so we don't know what the eventual order might be. It's evident though that given the car the kid has terrific talent. Ferrari should pontentially on board him as a driver in the next couple of years.

What is emerging as crucial is the ability to harness excess power from the internal combustion engine as most of the top runners have figured out the electric side of thing more or less equally well. Mercedes extra compression volume when hot is proving critical. However this advantage doesn't seem to have extended to it's customer teams notably McLaren and Williams. Williams really seem to be in a spot of bother this season and don't seem to have figured out the Mercedes power plant all too well. 

Onto the main race tommorrow.

 Formula 1 is back. Not with a bang but rather with battery regeneration and energy recuperation. With 50% power coming from the battery pack, drivers have had to learn new tricks both old and new. So how did the racing fare?

Off the bat, it's evident that Mercedes has nailed the new regulations producing a car that is at the top of the pile. Leclerc in the Ferrari offered some opposition but Ferrari's botched VSC strategy put waste to that hope and Ferrari's chance of a potential win. 

Antonelli had a botched start but the ease with which he made up ground was testament to the car's performance and his quality as a driver.

The first couple of laps were interesting but flattered to deceive. The dogfight between Leclerc and Russell was very promising, with the requirement for energy recuperation leading to the positions being exchanged almost every corner. Once Leclerc pulled some sort of a lead, Russell seemed to have issues following Leclerc which was repeated in the duel between Max and Lando but that may also be due to the gap in performance between the Mercedes and Red Bull power trains.

I foresee that the smarts in the teams will now figure energy recuperation strategies, where to do so, how much to spend and overall come up with some pre determined strategy that takes the decisions farther away from the driver. Today's race being the first had some unknowns and hence the excitement but I don't think this is going to last.

Arvid Lindbad was the driver who stood out with his ability proving why he was promoted to the Red Bull sister team so quickly. He showed none of a rookie racer and always seemed quite confident and decisive during the race.

With the new regs a lot of teams seemed  to be in the mix in the top 10 positions instead of this being limited to the regular bit hitters like Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. But today's race will be debriefed threadbase, the data pored over and analysed several times over and energy deployment strategies developed for each track.

Unlike previous years, F1 teams have some powerful allies in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and a whole host of other models and agents to do this. Might be a great leveler, that.