BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX

Well. This has been an emotional rollercoaster, hasn't it? All I wanted from this weekend was to see Charles Leclerc get his maiden win at Ferrari and little did I know that a cruel fate awaited me. Here are all my thoughts from this weekend.

FP1

- there was some kind of problem with Max’s car that meant he didn’t get into fp1 right away

- Super dusty around this track 

- Currently ranks in top 5 tracks for overtaking possibilities in the turbo hybrid era 

- Stroll had a needless spin into a wall ofc 

- Pierre has an engine braking issue apparently which is why he’s so low

- Hamilton goes wayyyy wide trying to beat Bottas time in first

- Albon got into Kimi’s way continuing Albon’s dangerous driving pattern from last race cause he clearly didn’t see kimi there this time 

- George Russell ended up backwards going through a turn 

- Charles #1 for last half hour of race 

- Grosjean ran over a kerb and knocked his front wing

- Uhhh Gio ran into the side of Hulkenburg, another rookie moment of recklessness #recklessrookies

FP2

- FP2 is at night like the race will be! FP1 was at day 

- Lol @ Martin Brundle really hates that matte red on the Ferrari and I really like it but to each his own

- People running wide including Gasly 

- No news on Daniel cause it’s early days but Hulk is way faster rn 

- The Ferraris are using each other for slipstream and they’re real strong anyway 

FP3

- Stroll got into the way of Hanilton’s fast lap. He got STROLLED

- Kimi’s kids watching from the Sauber (I mean Alpha Romeo) garage and it’s so relatable

- These guys they have running into the track are hauling and it cracks me up 

- Charles did a perfect lap

- I’m already at a point where I’m going “what has Lance Stroll done now” and it’s only been one race 

- Red Bull didn’t improve at the end and Gasly only improved from 18 to 12 or something I mean what the heck 

Qualifying

- Grosjean blocked Norris’s fast lap and you’re not allowed to do that or you could so get a penalty. They’re looking into it and it turns out they gave him a grid spot penalty. This was the major incident of quali

- Hulk out in Q1 after doing so well the rest of the weekend

- Ok what the heck, Gasly gets into Q2 but only in 14th place?? They should have sent Max out again just to be safe but someone said they might be saving his tires

- Stroll out in Q1

- Daniel came in 11th 

- Nice Nico (Rosberg) is there! I love that he is so impartial 

- CHARLES WAS SO FAST -- like a half a second faster than anyone else 

- Ok Ferrari put Seb out on a bad time and it ruined his lap so he has to go again on those tires he’s trying to save 

- Nice Nico says they put Seb out at a bad time and defended and agreed with him 

- ok LBP is out on Q2 again UMM like there are Mclarens and Saubers ahead of him

- uhhhhh it’s freaking me out that Seb is getting in and out of his car between q2 and 3

- CHARLES ON POLE CHARLES ON POLE THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN WAITING FOR OH MY GOSH CRYING 

- The quote I would use to explain Charles Leclerc this weekend is: "History has its eyes on youuuuuu" - Hamilton (the musical, not the driver)

A little watercolor I did of that lovely moment after Charles Leclerc secured his first pole position in F1.

Pre-Race

- the whole pre-race was essentially a Charles feature which I was completely taken with

- an especially stressful and non eventful grid walk

Race

- ok it's fair to say that this was one of those races that was *non-stop action*. NON-STOP.

- ugh it’s so windy 

- the start of this race was so stressful that I didn't have time to process anything and by the time it calmed down for a second, it was already lap 15 or something

- Charles had a bad start and Seb got away faster, then the Mercedes started charging and I thought they were going to get Charles at one point or another, but they didn't. Charles was having huge problems with cold tires which gave him half a lap at the start of painful fighting with the car, then he got it back and even passed Vettel again for the lead and it was so triumphant and I *couldn't be prouder*

- Meanwhile, Max and Saint had a bit of a collision, which they said no further action on, but Sainz acted like Max had run into him like "I don't believe this guy" and it made me think there's bad blood between them which I wish there was not, I just want everybody to be best friends

- all the usual suspects were hitting things, and each other, this race: Grosjean and Stroll, Kvyat and Giovinazzi, Albon was pretty steady I think. But overall, not too surprising who was getting into scrapes

- for a while, it seemed like they were totally using Bottas to hold back Max in fifth while Bottas was in fourth, so that Hamilton, in third, could get the charge on Vettel in second and Charles in first.

- Grosjean retires from the damage with the collision with Stroll. Not surprising that Grosjean is the first out tho.

- Kvyat got a 5 second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane (of all things... I thought it would be because of that scrap and contact with Giovinazzi, but honestly, it was Gio who did the hitting in that situation imo)

- My nerves are shot and it's only lap 22/57

- Hamilton radioed in complaining that "he's in big trouble, man" cause of his tire degradation right after he drove off the track into the gravel

- I really, really, really wanted Seb to get Hamilton out of second place so it would be Ferrari in 1 and 2

- Seb passed Hamilton!!!!

- Then Hamilton got back on the radio complaining about it...

- Lando Norris challenging Kimi is so crazy to watch. They were saying how Kimi is literally 2x the age of Lando. Can you imagine being Lando Norris and having to think about challenging Kimi? That's the most intimidating thing I have ever thought of. The whole fight between them made me feel like Carl from Up was whacking Russell with his cane.

- SO ANYWAYS this whole deja vu moment where Lance Stroll in the pink Force India was trying to unlap himself past Max gave me the worst memories of when the exact same thing happened in Brazil last year. And we shall never forget what happened to Max in Brazil 2018 when Esteban Ocon tried to Dunlap himself past Max and then sabotaged his entire lead of the race. It was all just too familiar for comfort to see a Force India doing that again.

- SEB SPUN IN HIS FIGHT WITH HAMILTON AND NOW HE HAS TO WORK HIS WAY BACK UP AND TH EONLY POSSIBLE POSITION HE CAN GET BACK TO IS 5th PLACE. SEB. SEB, WHY??? WHY, SEB? And on top of all that, he lost his front wing and ran over it which created a huge fan of sparks and it was so extreme.

- The Renaults touch. Hulk ran over Daniel's front wing.

- CHARLES LECLERC REPORTS A PROBLEM WHY IS THIS HAPPENING

- FERRARI, WHY? WHY, FERRARI, WHY???? THIS IS JUST CRUEL BLOW

- So I spent the rest of the race (about 10 laps) b being absolutely soul-crushingly distraught over Ferrari's mechanical issue which caused the car not to be able to harvest energy they needed to keep up the speed, which meant that Charles was going way slow, so Hamilton passed him as well as Bottas and all would have been lost for Charles' first F1 podium if not for -

- BOTH RENAULTS FAILED AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. Hulk then Daniel just go right off as if they simply ran out of fuel. It could have been electrical or just total engine failure or something else, but whatever it was, it was completely unacceptable. Yes, can I just say: Renault is screwed.

- Because of the DOUBLE WHAMMY RENAULT FAILURE - as if anyone is surprised given their reliability history - the race ends under a safety car, securing 3rd place for Charles

Post-Race

- This was the most miserable, most crushing, most heinous moment of disappointment I've had in F1, just about equal, if not worse, than the time in Baku last year when the Red Bull boys ran into each other. I mean, it was that level of I-am-so-enraged-that-it-feels-like-I-need-to-run-four-miles-to-deal-with-this-anger-and-emotional-trauma kind of emotion. Because all weekend, Charles has been dominating and got his first pole which I am so proud of, but then it really looked like the race was going to be his. He lead most of it except that last few laps. I feel so devastated by the lack of foresight and reliability here. By no fault of his own, this entire race was completely stolen from Charles. And guess who got to stand on the top step of the podium instead? Just that same guy who is always on the podium's top step. Ferrari, please - just get it together so that you actually deliver a car that gets your two very talented drivers to that top step - NOT JUST CLOSE.

- Yes. And to everybody - and they know who they are - that shared patronizing "hard luck" messages (especially in-car radio messages) about Charles, I would just like to say that Charles is the champion of the future and I do not appreciate other drivers trying to appear magnanimous by saying how much they sympathize with him. You know what, it's fine if you mean it, but it's not fine if you're just saying it so you can appear to be the patron saint of F1. I do not appreciate that. I do not appreciate that one bit.

- At least Charles seemed in pretty good spirits after they got out of the cars. I mean, for the crushing blow that all of this has been, anyway, he was in good spirits. The maturity and positivity he showed in the face of all of this just further convinces me of his incredibly bright future.

- I know we are going to be hearing the national anthem of Monaco very soon.

Well. I guess I'll just go wallow in crushing disappointment and thank God nothing worse happened.

What a painful evening.

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Hello, and welcome to the first race of the Formula 1 season! Australia has always been the first race since I've watched and so we started a bit of a tradition. Since my family are US viewers, the Australian GP weekend happens in the middle of the night for us, so we watch the race live on Sunday morning, which usually ends up being around 12 am or 1 am. It's like watching a royal wedding, but so much better.

This weekend's long-awaited event in Melbourne was a rollercoaster. Check out my thoughts below, sorted by event.

They're not racing in Sydney, but this is pretty.

Thoughts during FP1:

- Woo! First event of the season! We're officially back and there's that First-Day-of-School Feeling

- Looking at the lineup names and color bars , I've never been more disoriented in my whole life

- why is Haas suddenly a gold bar and what were they before?

- Daniel's pastel helmet, yes

- Seb's moustache!! Wow I'm shocked. I love that he did that. Obviously the mustache has to go but I love that he did it.

- Hm these driver photos seem highly unflattering and everyone looks like artists renderings of cavemen

- The only spins / crashes were Alex Albon (who I know nothing about) at Toro Rosso and Bottas. Albon just did a spin into the wall and Franz Post looked like "really, day 1, event 1, you put it in the wall". Bottas spun very precariously after catching some grass but, against all odds, he didn't put it in the wall.

- Charles Leclerc in that Ferrari is such a thing of beauty and it makes me feel like dreams do come true. He was putting the times up there right next to Seb.

- Mostly FP1 was just the feeling of a preview of what's to come

Thoughts during FP2:

- All the rookies were sliding everywhere, especially Alex Albon, but George Russell and Antonio Giovinazzi also spun.

- Giovinazzi got int he way and ruined one of Max's fast laps. I know he's new there, so I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I still have to say that was lame.

- Charles radioed in saying there was something wrong with the car and a few minutes later, he spun and there was only like a minute and a half left in the session. So that was sad. But he had just said something was wrong, so I think it's really good he can sense that in the car.

- After Charles spun, the announcers were saying "oh, is he gonna lose sleep over that now that he's at Ferrari" and all this similar speculation demanding to know if he's good enough to deserve that seat. Um, okay, let me put that to rest right now. This kid is going to be a world champion. Maybe not this year, but someday. He's already proven he should be there just by being in that seat. I think one of the commentators summed it up really nicely, saying, "Nothing fazes this kid."

Thoughts during FP3:

- why are these times looking so out of place

- we can't be seeing everyone's full hand here, especially Red Bull, who have been so slow.

- No big action to repot

- ....Is it race time yet??

Thoughts during Qualifying:

- Pierre Gasly is out in Q1, qualifying 17th?????? OK but

- Max got in the top 5, but not without scaring me that they just had no speed this weekend at Red Bull. Early on, they said there was some fuel problem or they had to change the tank or chassis or something, so maybe it could be related?

- Kimi in his Sauber (actually, Alpha Romeo now) kept jumping to the top of the times and stayed in till Q3. I love Kimi. Kimi could do this in his sleep.

- Charles was fastest of all in Q1

- Yeah, I still needed the Ferraris to be faster than they were though

- Bottas got me all excited that he was going to beat Hamilton's time for pole and then he had a bad sector time at the last minute.........

- LOL at Stroll out in Q1 and Perez in Q3

- Apparently, there's a little kid that famously called Daniel Ricciardo "Daniel Avocado" and they showed this kid decked out for quali day and it so adorable.

- Overall result: Pole - Ham, 2 - Bottas, 3 - Vettel

- Overall summary: Not good for Red Bull. Ferrari is capable of so much more. Please don't let the Mercedes domination repeat this year.

Thoughts during Pre-Race:

- wow I missed Martin's Grid Walk

- They started the season with a feature of Max and Pierre at the beach with Damon Hill and a surfing legend. Max wouldn't get in the water for fear of sharks and I am so proud of him for that.

THOUGHTS DURING THE RACE:

- Daniel drove right through some kind of hidden service divet in the track along the pit straight and it looked like he really broke the car. He just lost the wing right away, not even out of the pit straight. Totally thought he was just going to be out of the race, but they changed the wing and kept going...

- Bottas got ahead of Hamilton right away from the start

- Lap 8 - why is Pierre in a Red Bull still in 16th behind Kvyat in a Toro Rosso?

- Oops Car #16 you're in the grass. That's okay, Charles, we all make mistakes sometimes.

- ok this media stance that keeps trying to feed me lines about the new and improved "mature" Daniil Kvyat just makes me angry. Unless I see proof of this, I don't think anything is any different than it was before. Same old thing.

- So all the sudden, Crofty starts wshouting that Charles Leclerc had a problem and I'm panicking and then it turned out that Charles' transponder just went out, which caused it to look like he was at the end of the lineup, but it wasn't true. Nothing had changed and he was still in 5th. That scare was RUTHLESS but I'm so glad it was only a scare. I really couldn't handle anything else after that.

- so, anyway, Carlos Sainz was just minding his own business, driving his car on a lovely cool day like he was supposed to do, and then all of the sudden his McClaren starts smoking and goes up in flames - literal flames. They said it was a MGUK issue, but I really want to point my finger at their Renault engine. Right now, no one should have Renault engines. Its fine if Renault wants to risk their own drivers, but I don't trust them giving engines to anyone else.

- Wow. This pit lane is just too small. Nobody can get out.

- omg, Grosjean for Haas has ANOTHER wheel pit stop failure, just like last year. That pit stop took over 10 seconds and the front left wouldn’t go on. I'm having serious 2018 deja vu.

- Alex Albon fighting with Grosjean after the pit was very scary. I’m getting the impression he’s been ruthless all weekend.

- Kevin Magnussen squeezed Gio and it was so close.

- Daniel being lapped by Bottas race leader was a tragedy for me personally

- Hamilton saying he didn’t think he could make it to the end of this race was totally baiting other drivers into the pits and not legit.

- Gio’s pitstop was over 8 seconds, so even worse than Haas. Man.

- Gio's dangerous driving is not impressing me this weekend. Maybe he's still learning like a rookie has to when they just get to F1. But it's still dangerous.

- Max went after Vettel and it was amazing. He passed Vettel with DRS.

- They retired Daniel at around lap 30 (which I believe was due to the HOME RACE CURSE)

- Grosjean retired at lap 32 and didn’t crash but just parked it because of mechanical failure and looks like the wheel came off, just like last year.

- Here's a thought. Can we PLEASEstop showing Ocon in the Mercedes garage next to Toto? Ugh this "Poor Ocon without a seat this year" media campaign is brutal to watch and my eyes are getting tired from rolling

- I love when Jos Verstappen is there watching his son race

- Pierre is up to 6th in Lap 35 with no pit stop though

- Martin Brundle saying Daniil Kvyat did have a habit of “hitting anything that moved”

- Kvyat went down the inside way too fast and then went off. Ugh, amateur hour.

- Gasly’s pit stop means he gets out in front of Kvyat but then Kvyat passed him legit. What the heck? Why let Kvyat through?

- Seb: “Why are we so slow” Ferrari: "We don’t’ know at the minute”

- Hamilton is 24 seconds behind Bottas leading and Max is just behind Ham and going to have 10 laps of fun at the end to get Ham

- How has Bottas only had 3 career race wins and none were last year in 2018? ...

- Near the end of the race, Charles got within a half a second of Vettel after a previous 12 second gap and then backed off (almost as if he got team orders)

- There was a mad scrap for that one point for fastest lap at the end

- Paul DiResta said he didn’t remember the last time that Hamilton was beat fair and square by 22 seconds. By a teammate. “We heard him fragile on the radio”

- Someone at Mercedes radioed to Bottas after the win: “that was payback for last year” about winning this race ......

- Race result: 1- Bottas!, 2 - Ham, 3 - Max!!

Thoughts during Post-Race:

- the cars can’t get into the parc ferme wtf it’s too small here

- Bottas seems genuinely shocked by his win

- Martin Brundle asked Lewis if he had Max's attack covered and Lewis said “yeah it was no problem” .... LOL no

- I think they should have placed the aborigine musical act somewhere more appropriate so it could have the feature it deserved

- Getting to the podium looks so confusing

- Bottas and Maxdy chatting before the podium like friendly friends was something I loved

- Wow, that was way too much confetti on your winners there

Conclusions:

- is the Renault more fragile than the Red Bull which is why Daniel broke his car so early on? I think the Red Bull is made for a bit more off roading than the Renault appears to be.

- Mattia Binotto, I trusted you to give Ferrari a strategy and now they finished 4 and 5.This isn't the worst result ever, but they are lacking in pace so much that they finished almost an entire minute behind Bottas leading. How did this happen after being fastest in winter testing?

- I really could not be more thrilled for Bottas and his win. But I do have to ask my usual conspiratorial questions: was this a) a legitimate win for Bottas, or was this b) Mercedes giving Bottas a win early in the year to use as a bargaining chip later in the year when the people and the media backlash over team orders (see: Russia 2018) which will require Bottas to further babysit Hamilton to another championship win?

- We need to talk about Red Bull. Last year, I was so used to Daniel getting a crappy situation that put him at the back of the pack, only to then move up through the field super quickly. I think that expectation makes Red Bull's Gasly situation look extra bad this year. How is it possible for one Red Bull Driver to grab a 3rd place podium and the other driver, with no apparent damage, to spend most of the race stuck behind Kvyat and to finish out of the points? What was that???

SEASON PREDICTIONS

I wrote these predictions before the Australian GP this weekend (new post up soon with the DL on that!), getting all amped up for the first race of the season. With this hue change in the grid lineup this year, it's going to be hard to make any predictions, but we all can't help but try.

2019 Season predictions:

- My most anticipated duo / team-up: Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari*

*Normally, this would be Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen at Red Bull, hands down. But then Daniel decided to head to Renault, so this year, it's Set and Charles for me. I would love to see Seb mentor Charles at Ferrari and have them work together for a great comeback.

- Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari will be unbelievably fast

- Stroll and Perez at Force India is the time bomb of 2019

- Expecting a lot of crashes from Kvyat and Grosjean

- Max Verstappen will carry the Red Bull team. Even though I'm a fan of Max's new teammate, Pierre Gasly, I still really need to see him prove himself worthy of that Red Bull spot.

- No podiums for Daniel Ricciardo at Renault, which is what he expects, too, I'm sure. But it will be very painful to face a a season without a DR podium.

- Williams will be last again because they're just a mess (and, sadly, everyone knows it)