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