Allow me to explain why most comments you read about the Singapore start are wrong...

Hi, I'm back.

I had to jump in, for what it's worth, to explain why the response to the first lap crash at the Singapore GP was an even bigger clusterfuck than the clusterfuck itself.

I think peak bullshit came when the collective British and Dutch twitter contingent clutched their pearls after Ferrari put out a tweet containing a simple, if not fully grammatical, statement of fact:

VER took #Kimi7 out and then he went to #Seb5 #SingaporeGP

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 17, 2017

Yup, Max did bump into Kimi who then hit Vettel.   That is how the incident played out, mechanically.   Heavens forbid anyone describe the sequence of events.

What's more interesting is the WHY it happened.   And here, the Spanish fans, pining for Alonso blamed Vettel,  Italian Kimi haters blamed the Finn, the British mostly remarked on Hamilton's skill at being on the other side of the track while tisking at Vettel's "Schumi chop",  a move Lewis successfully pulled off at Monza two weeks ago.  The Dutch? They mostly showed class by blaming Italians for having better food that they ever will.  And Vettel fans, they pretty much blamed Max.

In short,  everyone just saw their bias. Is it worth it to assign blame?  Sure, but it was a racing incident firmly in the "shit happens when you point a bunch of cars into a corner you all have to get to first to win" bucket.

Two points, before we start

1) on a wet track, the "dirty" side has more grip.
2) Singapore, like Monaco, is a track you where, to win,  you have to lead out of the first corner.   Even more so in the rain.

OK so, to the start.  Vettel on the "clean" side has a poorer start than Verstappen and Raikkonen on the "dirty" side.  In fact everyone but Bottas has a great start on track left. Look at Alonso, Wow!





Verstappen, at the start, is pointing towards the right, hoping no doubt to cut off the Ferrari.

Vettel, for his part does what any driver in his situation would have done and is, by the rules, allowed to do, move to cover.






At this point Max realizes Kimi smoked him and and turns left to block him.   Notice how much room there is between Max and Seb,  the notion the Dutchman changed direction because of Vettel is not very likely.

Vettel cannot see the other Ferrari so it's plausible he though Max was going for the inside and increases the angle to cover more.

A-HA! you say...  Wrong.

That Vettel actually timed the "chop" on Max to perfection is demonstrated by him not hitting the Red Bull at any time.   By millimeters, yes but fully ahead of the blue car when Kimi bangs into him.

















Of all three, the one who is certainly blameless is Raikkonen, you can look at the clip and you can plainly see he is 100% straight up until the contact.

Vettel played a legal. but risky game and paid for it, no doubt. But you don't win a championship against Lewis and Mercedes by playing it safe,  Not in F1 and not on a track where you have to lead from the start to win. (unless you have Nelson Piquet jr.)

Max, as he has been known to do in the past, changed plans in the middle of something and shifted his attention from Vettel to Raikkonen.    He's aggressive and he has a lot to prove after the terrible season he's had so far.  That is part of his attraction but also something he has not quite worked out (see Hungary).

More interesting might be speculating if Vettel would have run into Raikkonen, had the contact not happened.   That might have been a possibility but, that's also science fiction and in the end, the stewards made the only possible call:

"Shit happens".

How Max Verstappen exposed Formula One groupthink.

"Max Verstappen is redefining physics"

Startling statement from Toto Wolff, a man now at the pinnacle of Motorsport and one who has some understanding of physics himself.

But what Max should really get credit for is exposing Formula One groupthink.

Because what Verstappen did was something many of you with even basic track experience will understand,  he drove classic rain lines!

Driving off line and avoiding apes?  That's Skip Barber racing in the rain 101.





We got driver coach Peter Krause  on the horn:  

"Max was doing everything Bruce MacInnes and other Skippy instructors have taught for four decades!"

So, the bigger question: are we to believe the top drivers in the world (and if you doubt they are, you didn't watch the race in Interlagos)  forgot how to drive in the rain?

Not exactly, but Verstappen exposed the rut many of them may be stuck in.

For years, high downforce and very good rain tires allowed drivers to largely ignore rain lines, relying on car setup to drive the essentially the same places on the track they would in the dry.   In Brazil,  a combination of factors dropped grip  below a certain critical threshold  yet most drivers appeared to not adjust their approach.

We also asked coaching guru Ross Bentley to weigh in:

"Verstappen's performance in Brazil illustrates a few things.  First, with youth often comes a good form of not knowing what you shouldn't do. In other words, he's naive, but in a positive way. Too many drivers, after just a few years, start to follow what they think they should do. And they believe what they think they should believe. Verstappen doesn't believe he has any limits, and that's why he's doing what he's doing in F1. Let's hope he continues this way, because it's what Senna and Schumacher did longer than most."

When I hear people like Toto Wolff saying things like Verstappen is "redefining physics," it also shows how even people at the top of the sport can get into this "follow others" mindset. Verstappen isn't redefining physics. He simply drove further off line than other drivers because he wasn't set in his ways, and there is more grip that far off line. On one hand, what Verstappen did was nothing special - go to any junior formula race and you'll see a lot of that. On the other hand, what he did was special because he didn't follow everyone else, or the way others think.!

Peter Krause again:

This is the problem with the "funnel" approach. The higher they get, the narrower their view on what works. VES might be a tad immature, but he goes where there is grip, and he has ultimate confidence that IF he gets into trouble, he has the skillz to get out of it. Witness the epic save!

Yes "THAT" save, Let's have a quick parenthesis there.   I think even the most rabid Max fanboy will admit there was an element of luck involved but that said,  Max did everything he could, phenomenally right.     Pay attention how, once the car is sliding well over a 45 degrees to the direction of travel he locks the tires and straightens the wheel.  This gives him the best possible opportunity to prevent a tank slapper once the car straightens out in one direction or the other.    The true magic moment is the precision and timing of when Verstappen releases the brakes, taming momentum and catching the car.  



A lot of drivers made a lot of saves this year at Interlagos. They will not get the glory the Dutchman will get and,  in part,  that's because it's show business.

Ross Bentley:

When TV commentators and journalists rage about a driver's performance, and wonder how he's doing it, remember that they're being paid to entertain. Former drivers who are making comments know what's going on, but it's more entertaining to marvel at the situation. Or maybe they've just forgotten what it was like to be young and naive!

Young and naive FTW then,  it's all about an open mind.  A good lesson for all, no matter where you race or how old you are!

Verstappen needs to learn from Hamilton

Max Verstappen took a page from the old Lewis Hamilton, the one who never seemed to miss the opportunity to keep his mouth shut and just drive.

Lewis has learned, Max has yet to figure it out.  Not sure he should take advice on how to react in public from the ill tempered elder Verstappen.

What happened?

Jacques Villeneuve,   1997 World Champion, now amateur musician and TV commentator,  suggested what almost everyone in the media has since Spa: that Verstappen moderate some of his borderline racing moves before he causes a big accident.

Villeneuve said "before someone gets killed" which is a turn of a phrase. Bombastic perhaps but not unheard of in media talk certainly.

When asked about it, Verstappen replied with what no amount of backpedalling and blaming Google translator can excuse amounts to "he should talk because he did kill somebody".

What he was referring to is the accident at the 2001 Australian GP in Melbourne which resulted in the death of a marshal Graham Beveridge who was struck by debris when Villeneuve's BAR collided with Ralf Schumacher's Williams.

Two things about this "counterpunch" by the Verstappen:   in 2001 he was three years old so it's not like he remembers it.  Someone from his management team told him to use that comeback for Villeneuve.

The second point is that that accident was a result of a driver, sitting in the middle of the track and driving erratically.

Sometimes it's better to let go and have your driving do the talking.

The fine line between genius and Maxdonado

"I did not want to let them by because they wrecked my race,  Sure I was aggressive but I was correct, in fact the stewards did not penalize me"

Max Verstappen


Let's keep this short and sweet,  while you could argue the first corner incident between Versappen and the whole Ferrari team was a "shit happens" racing incident,  it's harder to argue it was the smartest move by the Dutch "teenage sensation".    Max was clearly beaten off the line by the two red cars behind him on the grid and tried a Kamui Kobayashi style dive bomb into a space that was not really there.

Vettel was not without fault here, if anything a four time champion should know better than to just concentrate on his teammate.



But there is much less of a justification for the way Verstappen behaved later in the race when he once again displayed  some rather dodgy defensive moves against Raikkonen, Vettel and Perez,  all of whom eventually passed him anyway.







Is there any doubt Max is a huge talent?  No,  but he's got a lot to learn about being a grown up, the quote above along with his result today,  show it.

By the way,   he came within inches of the outside wall at Radillon on the first lap.  a crash there would not only have been huge for him but it would likely have taken off most of the field behind him.

More troubling is that the penalty happy FIA seems blind to his conduct,  something I'm sure has nothing to do with how packed the stands have been,  how could we be that cynical...

Rosberg did his job superbly,  Hamilton took advantage if his good luck with a very controlled race,  truly a champion's drive.   Ferrari and Red Bull could have had a nice battle today but it was not to be.

Great day for Force India, Williams were a bit disappointing but can we give "driver of the race" to ol' Fernando?   I think he and Hamilton had the most fun.

The same can not be said about Magnussen though and Renault need to figure out why the head protection collar came off in the crash

You be the steward: 2016 Hungarian GP edition.

The Hungarian GP was, like all the races this season except for Spain, a tale of two races.   There was the Mercedes class and the rest.

In Mercedes class, it was all over by turn one:  Rosberg, too busy looking behind,  got out-braked by Hamilton and Ricciardo.   He made a good move on the australian in turn two but by the end of lap one his teammate was already a second ahead.    The gap between the two varied but Rosberg never even tried to attack Lewis.  In the final stages it looked a lot like team orders to keep station were in effect.   The two silver cars finished a second apart but were a massive twenty seconds ahead of third place Ricciardo.    In post race interviews Hamilton revealed they were doing the minimum necessary to save the engine.    Pretty demoralizing for the rest of the field, bit dull for anyone but diehard Lewis fans.

Take the Mercs away though and you still had a rather old school Hungaroring, no passing race.    The only bright spot was that "washed up, good for nothing" Kimi Raikkonen charging from fourteenth on the grid to sixth.    Along the way,  the only real controversial on track incident, the collision with Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Crash to the Max: the 2016 Spanish GP:

It was bound to happen, everyone expected it sooner or later.

If there's little doubt the silver cars would have dominated the race had they managed not to hit each other, the Nico-Lewis fratricide set up a magic moment in F1 history.

Check out Max Verstappen making his dad nervous.

Kids, they get to be a certain age and they'll want to get their drivers license. It's then a parent's duty is to sit nervously in the passenger seat while their brood practice negotiating the streets.

Max Verstappen is still too young to take his driving test and, like many teenagers, had to find a closed off area to take his dad, Jos, for a ride.

Jos, trying to interview his son for the Dutch Sport1, is not too comfortable in the right seat of the Renault Clio RSport.  Max is loving it.  

Kids.

The sickening sound of a Renault F1 engine self-destructing

Painful, isn't it?

The Renault at the back of Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso exploded with four laps to go in the Chinese Grand Prix,  the second engine related retirement in three races for Verstappen ruining another impressive performance by the 17 year old.

Hope Cyril Abiteboul packed his boxing gloves for China too...

Packing up to Malaysia. Race (round?) 2. pic.twitter.com/RZ6p7Xln1w
— Cyril ABITEBOUL (@Cyroul) March 24, 2015

Adding injury to insult,  the Toro Rosso crew had to endure a less than white glove treatment from the track marshals who kept smashing their expensive front wing into a wall...  not their exasperated expressions.     Amazing the same series that races in Monaco where every station has a dolly jack for sliding cars could not get their shit together in China and forced the race to finish under yellow.

Lame.

Max Verstappen caption contest

Max Verstappen will debut this friday in the first free practice for the Japanese GP in a Toro Rosso.

Today is his 17th birthday.

Do your best/worst