Formula One

I found this rather amusing.

Well done to Mercedes !  They had the best car and the second best driver !!

A bit of irony here:

So, the new FIA president refuses to rule out punishing Lewis Hamilton for boycotting the awards ceremony because rules dictate he should attend....

At the same time the FIA has launched an enquiry into events of Abu Dhabi  where race director Michael Masi appeared not to follow the organisations own rules.....

Left hand, right hand.... article made me laugh...

It would have been nice for Hamilton to have attended the FIA awards ceremony as it was congratulating all FIA drivers from racing to rallying but I suppose now he has been knighted he can look down on people from his humble start in the profession.

So the FIA have sacked race director Michael Masi following last years debacle at Abu Dhabi when Masi made up rules on the spur of the moment ensuring the Max Crashtappen won the drivers championship.

Hopefully more changes will be introduced to stop anything similar happening in the future.

The FIA have not sacked Michael Masi, only removed him from the position of Race Director. Apparently he will take up another position within the FIA according to the BBC website.

He has obviously become the fall guy for the FIA. Had he not done what he did in the final race the FIA may as well just stopped the race there and then. Instead the spectators got and exciting end to the race and the season. LH has been sulking ever since!

Being removed from your position by your employer is just politically correct HR speak for being sacked. If he is offered another position, lets hope it’s within his competency skill set. May I suggest serving drinks and sandwiches in hospitality.

As for being the fall guy, he brought it on himself with his indefensible decisions outwith the regulations. Good race management is not about engineering an exciting finish, its about correctly applying the rules.

Well done to Ferrari with a first and second place on the opening race of the season. Plenty of work to do for Mercedes on the aerodynamic performance of their car despite finishing third and forth with Sir Lewis on the podium, although they were almost second a lap off the pace of the Ferraris.

There must be plenty of worried mechanics at Red Bull with neither of their cars able to complete the race due to engine issues and Pierre Gasly’s Red Bull powered Alpha Tauri also suffering engine failure. Crashtappen also had steering issues following a pit stop with Christian Horner stating the steering was damaged when the car was dropped off the jacks, sounds like a bad design if that can happen.

Good result for both Alfa Romeo and Alpine with both teams finishing with both their cars in the top ten. Not such good news for McLaren with both cars struggling.

evening

Good result for Haas too. An interesting season opener. Obviously RB will sort their reliability issues and in a few races Merc AMG will have sorted their aerodynamics, let's hope though that all those other teams remain in the mix. Hats off to Ross Brawn for the hard work to make things more competitive eh?

JK

Certainly a dream return for Kevin Magnussen, I don't think he could believe it and his boss gave an interview without swearing, whatever next!!!

The Driver 61 channel on YouTube has some interesting observations on the Red Bull problems. Seems to be something to do with the fuel system (apart from Max's steering problem). Apparently all cars use the same fuel supply system so it is possible that others could have the same issues, according to that channel!

David