Thursday, December 3, 2020

What to watch this F1 Weekend (Dec 4th - Dec 9th)

  • Formula 1 - Sakhir Grand Prix. From the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Practice 1. Friday @ 8:25am - 10am (ESPNNEWS) live
  • Formula 1 - Sakhir Grand Prix. From the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Practice 2. Friday @ 12:30pm - 2:05pm (ESPN2) live
  • Formula 1 - Sakhir Grand Prix. From the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Practice 3. Saturday @ 8:55am - 10am (ESPN2) live
  • Formula 1 - Sakhir Grand Prix. From the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Qualifying. Saturday @ 12:55pm - 2pm (ESPNNEWS) live
  • Formula 1 - Sakhir Grand Prix. From the Bahrain International Circuit in Manama. Race. Sunday @ 12:05pm - 2pm (ESPN2) live
  • Bitchin Rides. Mon/Tues @ 5pm - 6pm (MotorTrend) replay
  • Auto Mundial. Tuesday @ 7pm - 7:30pm (MotorTrend)
  • Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (MotorTrend) 
  • Garage Squad. Tuesday @ 9pm - 10pm (MotorTrend) new
  • Bitchin Rides. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (MotorTrend) new
We're back in Bahrain this weekend for a different configuration of the same track, for a night race. Last week's twilight race on the normal Bahrain circuit was crazy battle for 3-6th place in the constructors, but before we get to that the leading story was Romain Grosjean's close call after a pretty one-in-a-million accident on lap 1. He crossed tires with Kvyat while accelerating which shot him almost straight into an armco barrier that essentially split open, while tearing his chassis in half, releasing fuel and quite the shocking explosion. Fortunately, Romain successfully extricated himself from the car, while ablaze, with the help of track marshals and the johnny-on-the-spot safety car crew (driver Alan van der Merwe and Dr. Ian Roberts), who follow the drivers around the first lap before pulling into the pits. Thank the halo, thank Romain not getting knocked unconscious and getting out of the halo in a ball of fire, thank the FIA safety measures and the guys who acted quickly and without hesitation, but it's almost unbelievable that he made it out of that wreck with minor injuries given that impact and the resultant fire. I'm confident investigations will be deep to ensure this doesn't happen again. Thankfully Grosjean is doing ok and has since been released from the hospital. The very next lap (lap #2) Kvyat was involved in another incident, this time his fault, flipping Stroll onto his halo. Then the race actually started. Skipping to the end to keep this brief, Hamilton had another strong drive and took the checkered flag. Albon surprised many and ended up on the podium in 3rd, Verstappen took second and unfortunately the reason Albon was alongside Hams and Max on the podium is because Perez's engine went up in a ball of fire with two laps to go, taking away a potential 3rd place finish from Racing Point, which they desperately needed in order to seal up 3rd in the constructors Championship; instead they got a double DNF which helped McLaren and Renault out significantly. Now McLaren is solidly in 3rd place and Renault is 10pts behind Racing Point, in 5th, with just two races left. Bottas had a rough race but ended up taking 8th, the  Ferrari's were MIA and Renault did pretty well. Ricciardo is 4th in the Driver's Championship right now by two points. The other big story coming into this weekend's race is that Hams tested positive for covid the Monday after the GP so he'll be sitting out; there was a lot of conjecture on who would take his seat and after some work behind the scenes, George Russell made the cut to fill his seat for the weekend, which is an extraordinary opportunity for him. So this weekend will be a showcase for what George can do behind the wheel of a championship car. 

Enjoy your motorsport weekends.

Video courtesy of Formula1.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Monday, November 30, 2020