Prateek's Musings

Farewell Sebastian Vettel

Before I start rambling, I have to speak about four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who announced that he will retire from Formula 1 at the end of this season. Seb would have loved to win another title after spending six frustrating seasons at Ferrari dealing with performance and strategy issues, but that didn't seem like a possibility with Aston Martin's current form.

This season was touted to be a big reset with the introduction of technical regulations, which got postponed by a year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. There were also some exciting driver line-up changes which opened up some possibilities in terms of competition for the championships and the midfield positions. Let's take a look at which drivers and teams have impressed and who have been underwhelming.

Title Contenders and Challengers

After 8 seasons of Mercedes dominance, the start of the season seemed to indicate that the Constructors' Championship would be a contest between Ferrari and Red Bull, with the latter taking over the Honda powertrain development after their exit at the end of last season. Although Mercedes drivers notched a 3-4 at the first race in Bahrain, that was because both Red Bull cars had issues. 13 race weekends in, Red Bull are comfortable at the top of the table, while Ferrari seem to be precariously close to losing the second place to Mercedes.

Ferrari's season so far has been a tragedy of errors. Both drivers have committed errors on multiple occasions and lost crucial points. Whenever they've done their job, reliability has cost them dearly. And when both the drivers and the reliability has been on point, their pit wall and pit crew have cost them because of poor pit stops and bad strategy calls. With only 9 race weekends after the summer break, Ferrari might have run out of time to be in the contention for the Constructors' title. However, Charles Leclerc might still have a chance to take the Drivers' title fight to the end.

George Russell - The Type of Guy

George has been the most consistent driver on the grid this season. He has finished every race (except Silverstone) in the top 5, and has been on the podium as many times as Charles Leclerc, i.e. 5. After coming pretty close to a pole position in heavy rain at Spa last year, he finally got his first pole position at Hungary this weekend. A maiden victory doesn't seem too far, especially with the way Mercedes has been overcoming the difficulties faced earlier in the season.

Liked By Pierre Gasly?

Pierre Gasly's Instagram game has been pretty strong so far this season. His performance, not so much. After getting demoted to AlphaTauri from Red Bull mid-season in 2019, Pierre notched his first F1 win at Monza in 2020. Ever since he has led the team from the front, finishing the last couple of seasons in the top ten. This year's car isn't that great, and if they don't improve there's a risk of Pierre slipping to the 14th or 15th in the championship by the end of the season. While he has been confirmed at the team for next season, Red Bull has an army of junior drivers ready to replace him if Helmut Marko's patience ends.

Alpine - The French El Plan

Alpine has been a decent midfield team for the last 5 seasons. But so far this season, under the leadership of Otmar Szafnauer, they have been taking the fight to their biggest competitor McLaren. Both Fernando and Esteban have consistently finished in the points, while former Alpine and current McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo is just not able to figure out his car, leaving his teammate Lando Norris to do the heavy lifting. Alpine are currently ahead by a measly 4 points, but they might just be able to retain this position by the end of the season if Ricciardo's woes continue. With Alonso's move to Aston Martin just confirmed, both drivers will be motivated to compete more often than collaborate, and that might play into McLaren's favour.

Aston(ishingly poor) Martin

After forming a bond (get it?) with the iconic British brand last season, it hasn't been smooth sailing for Lawrence Stroll's team. While they have managed to replace Vettel with Alonso a lot sooner than expected, the remaining season is still going to be somewhat painful, and their only target would be to give Vettel a decent send-off and prove to Alonso that they are improving, as they build the new development facilities.

Silly Season Predictions

After Vettel's retirement and Alonso's move, there are five potentially vacant seats on the driver grid. Oscar Piastri's debut at Alpine seems all but confirmed so not much ambiguity there. Could Helmut Marko relegate Yuki Tsunoda to a Red Bull reserve driver role for a season and bring back Alex Albon into the fold, and then get Yuki back when Gasly leaves at the end of the 2023 season? Would Zhou Guanyu and Mick Schumacher swap seats at Haas and Alfa Romeo? Would Jost Capito choose his new drivers from the current F2 grid or give Nicholas Latifi a new contract and sign up Nyck de Vries alongside him? I will wait with my jar of Nutella until action resumes four weeks later at Spa Francorchamps.