Top Gear America. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10:30pm (MotorTrend) new
Short week again, rolling into the final race of a F1 triple header, post-summer break. The Sprint Qualifying rules are back again for Monza, but before that, lets review Max's homecoming in Zandvoort. Max was everything we thought he'd be, over the weekend, in front of his home fans with all the pressure of trying to take the lead in the Driver's Championship back after a run of bad luck. Hamilton showed poise getting within a few hundredths of Max's pole time in Q3, but Max and the Red Bull was the superior package last weekend -- with a commendation going to the ability of the Ferrari to change direction very well and outperform their nearest rivals in papaya for another weekend. Gasly in his Alfa Tauri raced outstanding as well, finishing fourth in a generally quiet race with no one near him. Perez has more trouble on Saturday which lead to him racing from the backpack to points, but his Sunday skill was on display, finishing in 8th on a track where passing is no easy feat. Alonso had another solid race, taking 6th late in the race over his countryman, Sainz, with his tires going off. Bottas continued to play the team game despite what he wanted to do, get the fastest lap after a late stop by the team to cover off potential tire failure. He took 3rd, right behind Hams which has been typical of recent memory. Valtteri announced, post-race, that he'd be going to Alfa Romeo, replacing his countryman, Kimi, with a multi-year deal starting with the 2022 regulation change over. So this would point to George Russell making the leap to Merc, however, all should be revealed shortly (probably as I type). With the checkered flag dropped Max is in the lead of the Driver's, Mercedes remains in the lead of the Constructors and everyone looks forward to the power-friendly circuit of Monza. The scene of Zandvoort was incredible, the track design was old school, wildly banked, narrow and quick; most everyone enjoyed the track and I too look forward to the next race in Holland.
Chasing Classic Cars. Wednesday @ 10pm - 11pm (MotorTrend) new
Silverstone's race weekend (and first lap for that matter) was an eye opener to say the least; we had our first sprint quali session which determined the GP starting order after an exciting traditional quali session on Friday afternoon. Hamilton took pole on Friday and Max converted his second place finish into pole in the sprint quali on Saturday afternoon. Then the lessons learned from sprint quali lead to potentially one of a few more race incidents between Max and Hamilton. I won't get into fault and all of that, there have been plenty of talking heads with that analysis, including the chainbear vid below, but as well all know when two racing drivers want to win and don't back down, shit happens. In this case Max just so happened to get the worse end of the contact and Hamilton ended up with minor damage (broken wheel rim that got swapped during the ensuing red flag) and parlayed some good race pace on hards into a race victory. What made this situation even more unfortunate for Red Bull Racing, the sprint race turned out as bad as it could've for Checo. He spun out late in the sprint race which resulted in him having to start the GP from the pit lane; he drove himself back into the points, but instead of taking 8th (with a possibility of taking 7th), RBR pit him late to steal the fastest lap point away from Merc/Hamilton. Not sure this was the most logical decision on the face, but it's in the books. The primary thing to pay attention to here is how Max and Hamilton will choose to go forward, in races; will they be more apt to contact one another again while imposing their will? Will things get more chippy as races pass? There is a lot at stake here, specifically for Red Bull Racing as they're trying to snag a Constructors' (and Drivers') chip heading into the new regulations of 2022, with by all accounts is a better overall package this year. Meanwhile Merc is trying to lockout the first stretch of the turbo-hybrid era with an 8th Constructors title. Lewis is trying to take his 8th Driver's title and break the Schumacher's historic record. In the meantime, Ferrari has been looking better, Charles taking second after almost taking the win. McLaren had a decent day as well, which definitely suggests the Constructors' fight for 3rd will drag out until very late in the year. With the checkered flag dropped Max now has an 8pt lead over Hamilton, cut down from 33. RBRs lead over Mercedes AMG is now just 4pts. Ferrari is now within 15pts of McLaren. Hungary should tell us plenty about what will happen through the second half of this Championship, post-summer break.
Formula 1 - Steiermark Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Practice 1. Friday @ 5:25am - 6:30am (ESPN2) live
Formula 1 - Steiermark Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Practice 2. Friday @ 8:55am - 10am (ESPNU) live
Formula 1 - Steiermark Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Practice 3. Friday @ 5:55am - 7am (ESPN2)live
Formula 1 - Steiermark Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8:55am - 10am (ESPN2) live
Formula 1 - Steiermark Grand Prix; from the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Race. Sunday @ 9:05am - 11:30am (ESPN) live
WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Six hours of the Glen. From Watkins Glen International Raceway in New York. Sunday @ 7pm - 10pm (NBCSN) same-day delay
Short week so watch the vid below to get caught up if you didn't watch the race. Red Bull did the old undercut double stop is better than your in the lead single stop race and have put Max and RBR further into their respective Championship leads. Bottas gets screwed out of a better result. Checo had a great race, so did Alonso and McLaren. Ferrari was no where to be found outside of street circuits. There are a lot of questions the Mercedes AMG strategists have to answer going into Red Bulls home race this weekend.
Merc takes another L, but Red Bull doesn't make them pay for it as dearly as they could've due to some exploding hard tires. Vettel gets his first podium after driving a great weekend and getting some good fortune. Hams leaves his brake heaters on and falls out of the points positions on a red flag restart with two laps left. Bottas has another forgettable weekend on another street track. Ferrari is still fast on slow corners and fast overall, Leclerc bouncing back from the no start in Monaco. Perez seems to be fitting into the Red Bull very well and gets his first race win as Verstappen's teammate. Verstappen was strong all weekend, was poised to take the win, but then he became the second driver on 30+ lap old hards to have them fail on the long straight at over 200mph; the first of those drivers to suffer a tire failure was Lance Stroll who was driving an excellent race up to that point and was running in 4th. A lot to unpack here, but the main items are Verstappen's DNF wasn't completely a disaster as Ham's mistake took him out of the points. Perez got 25pts (Viva Checo!) and made the race go how Red Bull has wanted for years; both drivers close together to maximize strategy and points hauls. Alpha Tauri was quick and Gasly parlayed it into a podium. Vettel takes second, looking like he still has the talent to compete if the circuit is right for the Aston Martin. Red Bull still leads the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships. Merc has two bad races and is working on getting back on track in France. Alpine will be at home this weekend, but are far from major contention, but have the ability to perform well in the mid-field. Ferrari is looking to continue putting a stamp on 3rd place in the Constructors' and McLaren is fighting for the very same position.
Bahrain turned into the close racing between RedBull and Merc we've been looking for, despite the podium looking quite familiar once the flag dropped. Merc was on the back foot heading into this race having some detrimental effects from the 2021 floor regulations which they have yet to counter with development. The car is much better than testing, but still slower than the Red Bull, which was proven out with Max taking a spectacularly large 4-tenth gap in qualy for pole. The race boiled down to two particular strategy decisions deep into the race; the first was Merc pitting Hamilton for his thirds set of tires to cover off a possible Verstappen undercut which didn't quite pan out (Max didn't stop for another ten laps to counter that strategy) and Max giving Hamilton his position back after passing him off course on the very corner Red Bull blew the whistle on Merc for taking advantage of most of the race. The latter became the big discussion point as you'll see in the recap below. However the ability of Hamilton to hold off Max with ten-lap older tires and a slower car for the last handful of laps of the race was impressive to say the least. Also, Perez had an electrical problem in the formation laps which forced him to start from pit lane -- he overcame that better than expected and took sixth, but he wasn't in the strategy to counter Valtteri because he was out of the mix all race, so once again Max was racing by himself. In the end, Hams took the win, Max came in a close second and Valtteri took third. Sound familiar? In other action the rookie Tsunoda is officially fast. Alpha Tauri was fast all weekend to be frank, but had difficulties on race day and Tsunoda finished 9th, but in the points; the only points for the team with Gasly's DNF. Also, Aston Martin didn't look great, also struggling with the new regulations, Vettel looking even worse after getting caught up in yellow flag drama during qualy and not slowing down. Lando and Danny did well, taking 4th and 7th respectively and Leclerc took 6th, staying up in the mid-field per usual. Sainz took 8th so he did decently on his debut given Charles is the benchmark. Lance took the final points spot in tenth for Aston Martin's first race. There's a lot to unpack here; Merc have to get some downforce back in the rear of the car, but still have the best pair of cars/drivers to score the most points until otherwise proven. Red Bull have to get past the electrical gremlins (Max was also dealing with some odd power delivery problem, sound familiar?) to be more consistent on Sunday. We'll be in Italy this weekend so it'll be interesting to see if Ferrari can make a strong showing now that they have their powerunit sorted out relative to last season. It'll also be good to see who can make the next best step forward between the top teams. I usually list the drivers standings at this point of the post, but I'll start that later in the season.
Restoration Garage. Wednesday @ 10pm - 11pm (MotorTrend) new
Everyone is back to play with 2021-spec upgrades. Vettel is at the newly titled Aston Martin racing team, Red Bull is quick and has two of the best drivers in the field. Merc is back to chase manufacturers title number 8, with our usual duo, but still has a bit more work to do based on Bahrain testing. Ferrari is supposedly fast again, but we'll find out what the ground truth is this weekend.
In other news, we unfortunately found out about the passing of Sabine Schmitz over last weekend. There were rumblings of her battling illness, but I had no idea it was for multiple years. Sabine was a great driver as well as a great advocate and personality supporting German motorsport and the legendary Nürburgring (specifically the Nordschleife), a place we hold in very high regard here on ROTL. Sad to see someone, with so much positivity and enthusiasm for others, be taken away at only 51 years of age. VLN and Endurance Racing veteran race driver, Ring Taxi driver, Agriculturalist, Ring advocate, Top Gear presenter. Her passing shortly follows the passing of legendary F1 commentator Murray Walker; it hasn't been a good month. RIP Sabine and Murray.
Garage Squad. Tuesday @ 9pm - 10pm (MotorTrend) new
Bitchin Rides. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (MotorTrend) new
Max and Charles out on lap one! GEOOOOORRRGGEE NOOO :(. CHECCOOOOOOOOOOO! That was essentially the race. Merc screwed the pooch and the Pink Mercs picked up the pieces. Russell was amazing all weekend and was leading the race by a good margin; he got a golden opportunity and took it with both hands -- he essentially took pole (2nd by .026secs behind Valteri), was leading the race and got bungled out of a race win via a horrible double stack pitstop during a virtual safety car, ironically, for a retired Williams. Then, to add insult to injury, he gets a puncture on his 'corrected' tires, making him pit again. He worked his way back to the points, which is the only silver lining here, taking 9th and his first career F1 points. Aside from Racing Point jumping back into 3rd in the Constructor's with a 1-3 finish, Renault and Racing Point were the biggest winners in the Sakhir GP. Mclaren would join that group, but with their competitors gaining points too, they relatively didn't do as well. Carlos took 4th, which was great, but Lando had a rough race but took 10th for the final point. On the sunny side of things, Sergio took his first F1 race win, so happy for him. Went from last to first place after getting clipped by an eager Leclerc, on lap one, who misjudged his entry and the cars ahead. He has no seat next year at this time, but apparently has options in '22. Meanwhile Albon came off his first podium to being nowhere in the last race. Hoping Checo gets that seat, but it looks doubtful. Mick Schumacher will be joining F1 in the HAAS next year after taking the F2 Championship; plenty of exciting new drivers to look forward to next year. Back to this season though, the mid-pack position fight in the Constructor's Championship, in Abu Dhabi, will be amazing. Looking forward to the final race of the season.
