BRITISH GRAND PRIX (#2)

This weekend's British Grand Prix went way better than I could have ever dreamed. Last weekend was another Hamilton victory at Silverstone - big surprise - which I thought was inevitable.

I guess I just had to wait til the second British Grand Prix weekend for what I really wanted to see, which was Max Verstappen winning for his first time at Silverstone.

It was also so emotional to see them feature and celebrate the 70s anniversary of F1. I especially liked the graphics of the old races over the new Silverstone paddock. It was a moving testament to how much this sport has meant to people over the years and choked me up a bit.

After all the chat last weekend about Alex Albon's performance at Red Bull, it was delightful to watch him battle his way up the field today and prove to everyone why he deserves that Red Bull seat. I honestly think he is the ideal teammate for Max and is a great driver to boot. For anyone who doubts, I will direct their eyes to this race.

It was some tense moments there when it seemed like Mercedes was going to try to go to the end on those tires. In fact, this whole race was just riveting to watch.

My only regret this weekend was that Hulkenberg didn't get the podium I was hoping we would starting from 3rd, but I'm just happy he was there. He seemed in good spirits, especially considering all the Racing Point controversy swirling around the paddock this weekend with the FIA's ruling on the brake ducts.

I miss Hulk. He drove a great race and I hope he comes back to F1.

Another thought: how is Charles Leclerc still managing to get performance out of that car? It was heartwarming to hear him happy on the radio with fourth at the end of the race. He's a star.

Finally, I think I'll end this post with a quote from Martin Brundle's race commentary: "Have I mentioned it before? Thank goodness for Max Verstappen."

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Here are my race notes from the weekend...

FP1

- these tires are softer

- This is the 70th anniversary weekend they’re celebrating this race even though the original anniversary was in May 1950

- Nico Hulkenberg is still in for Perez this weekend because Perez is still out for COVID when the test came back this morning

- Renault’s protest came back from the FIA today about Racing Point and the FIA have fined them 400,000 euros and cost them 15 constructor points but they’re still allowed to use the brake ducts this year so what’s the point of all this

- Announced that Bottas has signed on for another year at Mercedes

- P1 10902

- Karun raving about how great of a job Charles did last weekend especially compared to his teammate Vettel

- This session is all about assessing the new tires this weekend

FP2

- Lando waving at one of the Red Bull’s as he goes by

- Gio, Stroll, Kimi, Sainz all have wobbles and go off track, like all the sudden it’s like what is everyone doing

- There’s some strange footage of a bunch of Mercedes people riding scooters

- This extensive discussion of why Alex Albon isn’t doing well enough is totally unmerited

- Yellow flag at the end of the session because Seb’s floor collapsed and caused oil to go everywhere right before Copse and his engine totally failed and there’s oil leaking out the bottom completely

- Seb looking under the car where he parked it and seeing the oil coming out

- Seb’s failure caused a virtual safety car and there’s oil all over the track and it seems like they’re going to end the session early cause here’s only minutes left and they do red flag it

- Weirdly Gio has stopped at turn 12 at the red flag so he must have went off or had a failure but he’s getting out of the car

FP3

- it’s a blustery day but really beautiful

- Just announced that other teams are appealing the decision about Racing Point’s punishment as not enough and it’s a crazy complicated and dramatic story

- Seb’s car destroyed itself last session so they took a new power unit and they changed Charles power unit too as a precaution but the real question is why are Ferrari’s cars self destructing

- So will both Ferrari’s take grid penalties in the race for changing power units then?

Qualifying

- Ocon got HUGELY in George Russell’s way in Q1 and the stewards are investigating it and it could mean a 3 place time penalty and Ocon seems to know he will get a penalty

- Kvyat’s last flying lap deleted from Q1 because of track limits and he was really upset at himself after

- Out in Q1: Kvyat, Kmags, Latifi, Gio and Kimi

- In Q2, Hulkenberg has a big off through a dust cloud but is fine

- Pierre has an off through the dust just like Hulk

- Out in Q2: Ocon, Vettel, Sainz, Grosjean, Russell

- Bottas on pole!!! Stole it from Hamilton, yes!!!

- Top 3 is Bottas, Hamilton and then HULK in third!

- This is a really interesting grid

Race

- Bottas keeps the lead at the start!

- Max gets past Hulk for third at the start

- Yellow flag because someone has spun and it’s SEB AGAIN having seemingly lost it completely on his own and miraculously not hit anyone even though he spun across the field almost hitting Sainz

- Albon goes in for a really early stop to change up the strategy

- Lando locks up going into the pits

- Max is giving Lewis the hardest time and I love it

- Max is going for it and he says he’s not going to drive like a grandma

- Kevin under investigation for hitting Latifi even though they’ve still kept running

- The tyres aren’t performing at all like they expected with the different compounds available this weekend and Max made a way better decision and the Mercedes have both pitted and wrecked their newer tires and Max is flying

- Sainz has a bizarre pit stop and almost hits Ocon on the way out

- Maxy pits and Bottas gets ahead and then Max passes him again in JUST ONE CORNER with his new tires

- Kevin gets a 5 second time penalty for hitting Latifi earlier

- Hamilton accusing Max of cheating and having less pressure in his tyres or something but that’s ridiculous

- Seb on the radio to Ferrari telling them calmly they know that they’ve messed up

- quick yellow flag when DANIEL spins to avoid Lando but keeps running

- They’re worried Hamilton will try to go to the end on a one stop but they can’t

- Hamilton May get a penalty for speeding in the pit lane

- Hamilton does get past Charles for third because Hamilton got new tires but Charles is still running a fantastic race

- Kevin Magnussen has to retire

- Hamilton passes Bottas for second because they gave Hamilton the preferential strategy at the cost of Bottas again

- MAX WINS AT SILVERSTONE

- And Charles is so happy about 4th too!

- Could not be more proud of Max, Charles, and Alex Albon this race

BRITISH GRAND PRIX (#1)

Eventually, one of the drivers was going to get COVID and it happened last weekend when Sergio Perez tested positive. The big news was that Nico Hulkenberg, who was shamefully cast out of F1 last year after an illustrious career in the sport, was going to be driving for Perez. Racing Point (I still call them Force India and I know better but it's habit) gave reasons why they didn't use either of their reserve drivers, Vandoorne or Gutierrez, but the main thing was that Nico was available. And, bonus, everyone wanted to se him back.

Unfortunately, the Hulkenberg story got nixed when his car suddenly wouldn't fire up before the race and he didn't get to drive last weekend after all. But there's always next weekend. It would have been a great story if, after all that time Hulk was in F1 and never got a podium, he returned to F1 and got his first chance to stand on one of those step. I'm still hoping for that this upcoming weekend.

Plus, it was the first of the two British Grand Prix this year, which is always an event. I'm American, but I can feel the great British pride beaming through this sport whenever they're at Silverstone and it's a great thing to behold. How lucky are we that we get to have two British Grand Prix at Silverstone this year?

By the end of the race, it was pure madness. There was a lull in the middle where you thought you knew how it was all going to end, but then, in the last TWO LAPS, there was a classic case of last lap madness. All hell broke loose.

As you all already know, I am not a Hamilton fan and I think Mercedes has some explaining to do why their car was able to still beat every other car in the "same" series when it had a puncture getting to the finish line. To me, it's just not right to call that the same category of car.

And let's not even talk about Ferrari right now. I'm just so proud that Charles Leclerc was somehow able to drive that unholy mistake home in one piece AND ended up getting a third place podium. Is he future champion material or what?

Max Verstappen's race was excellent as well and I couldn't have been happier for his second place. But I do think that if this was all the right way, then Max would have won. To me, he did.

What I feel worst about this weekend was that Alex Albon is sure to get flack for that incident with Kevin Magnussen. People have already been comparing his drive to Pierre Gasly's infamous time at Red Bull last year, which I think is completely unfounded. Does no one realize that most of these collisions that Alex has been involved with have been because someone else crashed into him? I also feel bad for him because if he doesn't make the moves, he ends up being compared to Gasly. And if he does make the moves, some of them are bound to go wrong because making moves is risky, so then he is doing too much. To me, Alex Albon has done nothing but a fantastic job at Red Bull so far, especially considering it's only his second year in F1.

Here are my notes from this weekend...

FP1

• Perez tested positive for COVID and they brought in Hulkenberg to drive for him WOAH I’m so happy Hulk is back driving! He’s not the reserve driver but they still got him for COVID and driving and team reasons

• Max radios in because he can’t move his head because of these things next to his head rest

• Kimi goes into the gravel at a place you don’t usually see and yellow flags but keeps going

• Then immediately after Kimi yellow flag because goes off Gio also goes off and wrecks his cars tires and goes really fast going in and nobody understands why because he is damaging the tires and floor going back in so fast and his tire leaves a huge amount of exploded debris going back to the pits

• Red Flag to clean up Gio’s debris ALL OVER TRACK

• GIO DOES HAVE A PONYTAIL I’ve been wondering all season

• Seb’s car is still in the garage and they have some problem where the car is being taken apart

• Seb is out the rest of the session because of a cooling problem

• Gio incident will be investigated after the session, probably for wrecking the track

• Discussing the penalty after last race that Haas got for pitting for tires as told by radio before the race but it made the race more exciting so I think they should allow it

• Ocon was making gestures and ranting on the radio because he accused Max of being in the middle of the track but Max was way out of the way and they were talking about how their history is not a happy one together that goes back to formula 3 and karting

• Charles gives a great answer about being honest about Ferrari is doing terrible right now

FP2

• We still don’t know if Seb’s car is ready to go back out in this session

• They insist that Seb will be ready to go out

• Gasly goes off

• Charles has a spin at turn 4

• Max was seriously blocked by Grosjean during a fast lap and they are both furious on the radio

• Alex has a bad crash that was the result of a loose car. He caught the initial slide but then the oversteer slides it and it goes to red flag and medical car deployed but Alex is fine

• Ferrari apparently didn’t put Seb’s pedals on right earlier and Antony said it was a « grade a failure » which is why they probably didn’t advertise what went wrong this session

• Charles Ferrari has undulating back tires and says it’s so hard to get grip

FP3

• Alex Albon’s car rebuild went well but then when they started the car and there’s a huge energy recovery system problem and now it’s a race against time to get him out for this session

• They got Alex out

• There is still something wrong with Seb’s car by his pedals and they are having such a time trying to figure it out

Qualifying

• out in Q1: Magnussen, Gio, Kimi, Grosjean and Latifi

• Latifi has a bad spin at the end of Q1 and it caused a yellow flag

• George Russell under investigation for not slowing during the yellow flag at the end of Q1 caused by his teammate Latifi

• They’ll investigate the GR thing after qualifying

• Kimi is mad at Ocon for compromising his lap during Q1

• Bottas set the fastest lap

• Hamilton has an embarrassing spin into the gravel at turn 7 and keeps going but now they red flagged the session to clean up all his gravel so it ruined the second try at his fastest lap too

• Out in Q2: Gasly, Albon, Hulk, Russell, Kvyat

• Stroll got through into Q3 even though he set the exact same time as Gasly but Stroll did it first so he gets to stay in

• Kvyat will take a 5 place grid penalty anyway because he has a new engine part

• Hulk will be really disappointed with not getting out of Q2

• In Q3, Ferrari releases Charles into Lance Stroll and Stroll had to slam on his brakes and the stewards noted it and they’re going to investigate Ferrari for unsafe release after the race

• Hamilton on pole, Bottas in second, Max in third, but Charles did a great last lap and got fourth

Pre-Race

• now Nico Hulkenberg’s car is broken and they don’t know if they’re going to get the car started for the race after his return. I mean you couldn’t make it up

Race

• Kvyat and George Russell start with the grid penalties, Kvyat for engine stuff, GR for not slowing in double yellow in qualifying

• Nico Hulkenberg is not going to start because the car won’t fire up properly CONSPIRACY

• Hamilton gets away better than Bot

• Charles got a great first lap and was ahead of Max but then Max passed him back

• On the first lap Albon’s front left hit Kevin Magnussen and Kevin is out and it brought out the safety car. It shunted the Haas and it flew into the wall and lost a wheel when it hit. Alex’s car looks okay though so he’s going to continue. This is so unfair to Alex now because everyone was gonna yell at him if he didn’t do something heroic to gain places and they were gonna yell at him if he tried something too

• 5/52 safety car ending

• They pit Alex early on lap 7

• Stewards looking at Albon and Magnussen incident

• 7/52 Kvyat has a bad crash and HIS tyre comes off (but it was only the rubber and not the whole wheel coming loose) comes off too like Kmags and it triggers safety car and it was a hard hit at a high speed and big impact so triggers medical car

• The Kvyat incident triggers everyone to pit

• Kvyat pushes the camera away as he waits in the corner where he crashed, he’s embarrassed and angry with himself

• Apparently Ocon got held in the pit now super long

• Hamilton complaining that the safety car is going slow again but how long as Burt Mylander been doing this

• Ferrari tells Charles to watch his tires but Charles says he’s trying but the safety car is going really slow

• 19/52 green flag again and safety car ends

• Albon gets a 5 second time penalty for causing a collision which is ridiculous

• Sainz and Grosjean noted for incident when Sainz was trying to pass and Sainz said Grosjean was driving dangerously because he changed direction

• Grosjean gets shown the black and white flag for « unsportsmanlike driving » because of the change of direction for passing Sainz

• Grosjean is pissed he got a black and white flag

• Gio under investigation for a safety car infringement

• Max is bored because his gap is so large either way and so he’s joking around and telling Christian Horner to remember to drink on the radio

• Gio gets a 5 second time penalty for the safety car infringement which we don’t know the specifics of yet

• Grosjean has another questionable move, this time on Daniel, and that’s the second incident of questionable driving and then Grosjean pits and he couldn’t get the car going again but eventually he did and he went back out in last

• Gasly passes Seb for 10th

• Ocon and Stroll having some terrifying incidents

• Stroll shown a black and white flag for his dangerous move against Ocon

• Kimi has a front wing failure and it’s sucked under the car and yellow flags for spin

• Bottas has front left puncture

• LAST LAP MADNESS where Bottas, Hamilton have punctures, Bottas pits, Hamilton does not, Max pits from 2nd to ensure the place but if he hadn’t pitted he might have won but they couldn’t know what Hamilton would do and also the McLarens are losing their tires

• In the end, Hamilton STILL wins, even with that puncture through the entire last lap, and Max gets second and Charles gets third

HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX

Practice sessions at the Hungaroring last weekend may have been relatively quiet, but once qualifying and race day arrived, there was hardly a second to breathe.

This was one of the craziest qualifyings I've seen in a long time. Even Q1 was a total toss up because of track evolution, rain, and bizzare swaps in on-track dominance this year (looking at you, Ferrari).

I did watch the race and qualifying live, which made the stress all the more real. Luckily, I was tuned in live for the pre-race show as well, which was when I was horrified to see Max Verstappen slide into the wall as he was taking his car to the grid. It was massively slippery out there and it all looked like it was over for my favorite Dutch wunderkind, but thank goodness for those ace Red Bull mechanics who were able to get his car up and running with no less than 25 seconds to spare.

After all he went through, seeing Max on the podium at the end of this race really did feel like a win.

It was another fascinating race to watch, but it still feels strange to see all the mix-ups on the field. Mainly, Ferrari is breaking my heart and squandering the talents of Seb and Charles, both of whom are first-class drivers with impeccable talent. Then there's the strange case of Alpha Romeo, who had the worst time in Hungary out of anyone, except probably Pierre Gasly, whose entire weekend was basically a nightmare.

Also, I feel for Nicholas Latifi, the only rookie out there this season, who has been having a tough time getting that Williams in line. On the other hand, George Russell had a pretty superb weekend in Hungary, putting in some really impressive and exciting times for Williams for the first time in a very long time.

And, finally, I'd say: this was a CRAZY race, filled with constant stress. It was one of those that was impossible to take your eyes off of.

Here are my race notes...

FP1

- first person to get a time deleted this session is Esteban Ocon

- Talking about how Mattia Binotto is probably fired and who could fill the place

- Pierre Gasly didn’t go out all session because he had power unit problems

- Not a lot going on

FP2

- it’s rainy and they don’t know if they’re going to have running

- With social distancing it takes about double the time to change power units

- A lot of talk about Lance Stroll having bought his way into the team and if Seb could go to Racing Point

FP3

- Max has a big slide and spin on a fast lap

- talk about how the Red Bull seems so easy to spin this year

- Charles did a storming lap and talking about how he has to fight that Ferrari the whole time to get it to do anything

- These Mercedes engines are smoking like crazy and someone asked them to confirm the name of the new pope, it’s that smoky

- Chance of rain for this session is 90%

- The force india’s keep purple sectoring ugh

- Lots more talk about how Renault is protesting the Force India brake ducts as copies from Mercedes. Is this payback for last year when Force India protested Renault and got them tossed out of the Japanese Grand Prix

- Hamilton had a lap time deleted for track limits

- Lots of traffic because rain and little time running in previous practice sessions

- Gasly reporting low power even though they just rebuilt the car in the last day

- Everyone’s trading super fast laps at the end. Even George Russell got in the top ten

- Hamilton almost destroyed the car on the way into the pit entrance at the end of the session

Qualifying

- rain is coming almost immediately and everyone needs to get out there right away or it will be wet for the rest of Q1

- The track rubbered in and the rain ended so the end of Q1 is a total tossup because they all have to go out again

- George Russell and Latifi put down awesome times for Williams in Q1

- Gasly reporting engine problems in Q1 again like all weekend

- This was the most stressful Q1 I’ve seen in a long time

- First Alex was on the bubble and then Max was. Pretty much everyone we care about was on the bubble

- Williams have 2 drivers through into Q2! Both made it out of Q1

- The track evolution was CRAZY

- Out in Q1: Mags, Kvyat, Grosjean, Gio and Kimi is last somehow

- Everyone is raving about how good George Russell’s Q1 lap was. Awesome

- Sainz and Gio investigated after the session for Sainz impeding Gio

- Lance Stroll randomly weighed with four minutes to go in Q2 and he needs to go out again but he couldn’t restart the car himself from the weight bridge so they had to push him back down the pit lane

- Ocon got stranded in the pit lane trying to get out at the same time as everyone else

- Albon had a really frustrating session and is having a hard time on the radio

- Out in Q2: Ricciardo, Russell, Albon, Ocon and Latifi

- Super surprised Albon is out but he had traffic and his car was not great

- Charles did a great lap at the last minute and shot up the charts

- Perez didn’t get a good lap in at the end of Q2 but Stroll did so now Stroll looks good and like Perez didn’t deliver

- Max reports a developing engine problem in Q3

- DARN IT, it’s Ham, Bottas and Stroll on top three

- Max only went 7th fastest

- Seb out qualified Charles but they were right next to each other

Pre Race

- a good Seb interview

- Max hit the barrier at turn 12 taking the car to the grid because of the rain and the car hasn’t been sticking at all this weekend and there’s no grip out there

Race

- they got Max’s car working again just in time

- Kvyat wants to put before the race and start from the pit lane because of the rain developing but they say no but the two Haas pit and start from pit lane

- Bottas may have jumped the start

- Stroll is somehow in 2nd still by the end of lap one

- Crazy start with almost Ferrari’s hitting

- Everyone is going in on lap three for slicks because of the rain conditions like wait what we’re already putting

- Hamilton kept the lead and on lap 3 he’s already 7 seconds from the second Lance Stroll

- Seb gets caught in traffic in the pit lane when everyone is pitting and loses seven seconds

- Latifi has a little spin and then a puncture

- Charles is the only one on soft tires now in the top 12

- Perez went wide with new tires

- Latifi and Sainz incident in the pit lane where Sainz hit Latifi going out of the pits

- Kimi gets a five second time penalty for being out of position on the grid when he started but he started last so what

- Charles kept Bottas behind him with some really good driving

- Charles is unhappy on the soft tires because they’re terrible and he’s the only one on them so why is that Ferrari

- Latifi got a five second time penalty for an unsafe release even though when he hit Sainz Latifi came off worse from it but he is still penalized

- Seb has a lockup and goes off track and Albon used it as a way to get past and it was a great move

- 18/70 Gasly’s car blows up after the worst weekend ever, he went through an MGUH and a turbo in practice and quali and then in the race it just blew up

- 43/70 Latifi has a spin at turn 5

- Red Bull is going to be called to the stewards after the race for allegedly illegally drying the track of Albon’s grid spot before the race and no one noticed because everyone was focused on the other Red Bull getting repaired in time for the race

- Bottas gives Max a run for second place on the last lap but Max holds him off

- in the end it was Hamilton winning by a huge margin, then Max in second after almost not even getting to start the race, then Bottas in third

- They didn’t end up giving Albon or Bottas penalties, but they did give penalties to both Haas cars for the team giving them instructions before the race to pit for slicks and gaining an advantage which is apparently not allowed until the race has started so it goes under the infringement of aiding a driver