Sebastian Vettel won the Brazilian Grand Prix for Ferrari, chased all the way by Valtteri Bottas, while Lewis Hamilton drove a sensational race from the pitlane to fighting for third place with Kimi Raikkonen on the last lap. It was a good show, but as the fans drifted away after the race, one could not help but wonder what would have happened in Hamilton had not crashed in the Q1 session of Saturday, an accident that required him to start at the back of the field. It didn’t really matter because the World Championships are all sewn up, but a win is a win and racing drivers want them…
– We look at Lewis Hamilton’s place in history
– The F1 engine discussions
– Do the FIA Stewards do a good job
– We talk to George Russell
– We remember the days when F1 cars had four-wheel-drive
– JS believes Liberty Media has the right idea
– DT believes Ferrari has the wrong idea
– The Hack wonders whether Ferrari is serious about quitting the sport
– Peter Nygaard works his magic with lens and finger
GP+ is the fastest F1 magazine. It comes out before some of the F1 teams have even managed to get a press release out. It is an e-magazine that you can download and keep on your own devices and it works on computers, tablets and even smartphones. And it’s a magazine written by real F1 journalists not virtual wannabes… Our team has attended more than 2,000 Grands Prix between them. We’ve been around the block a few times and we know the history of the sport and we love to share it all with out readers at a price that is a real bargain. We believe that by attracting more people at a sensible price we can achieve so much more than all those who exploit the fans. In 2017 you’ll get 22 fabulous issues for £32.99, plus the 2016 season review completely free of charge.
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joeblogsf1 
Puzzling why Lewis Hamilton crashed yesterday – normally he can tread the fine line between evading an accident and not avoiding one.
But today, great show! He dodged his way from the back to P4, fiddling through all those back markers.
showbiz? i guess Lewis finally (and RIGHTLY SO(if so) (with nothing to loose) ) wanted SOME RACING after all. GREAT display anyway!
First up, English is such an inconsistent language. (I’m a native English speaker but I also speak German, French and little bit of Spanish and so I admire those trying to communicate ‘Auf Englisch!)
So having laid out my mea culpa, may I most politely say that ‘loose’ is the opposite of ‘tight’ and the opposite of ‘win’ is ‘lose’.
(Run ’embarrassed’ emoji.)
err, well spotted man, shame on me
Like it haven’t been done before and recently passing the same cars including a red bull with a hugely advantaged car.
Ooooooooooo hand bags 👜👛
Why has this got your heckles up Sunny?
It was a great comeback.
“As if it hasn’t been done before!”
What do you expect ? Lewis to pootle about at the tail end just because it has been done before?” 😄 Hilarious.
You could say that Vettel really only wins from front because his race craft in a dog fight always let’s him down.
He can take a win from the front 2 on grid…like a Red Bull lead win yawn fest from the past.
But as soon as Max or Lewis or Ricciardo are in the mix he prefers to take a swipe (“I can’t win then nobody else can strategy” or “its my ball and I decide who can play”). Next year Alonso will be up there too giving Vettel grief and showing the art of actual combative fair overtaking.
As Rosberg said “this was the only chance Vettel had to get a title. Next year Mercedes will be way ahead. The new engine in Hamiltons car has shown another step up in pace.”
So yep enjoy the hand baggage swinging 😄
Yes the new engine in the back of 44 has shown another step up in pace when with 14 full power boosts left at his disposal it couldn’t overtake number 7 with a power unit nearing if not over its working mileage.
What 44 did in brazil have never been done before because when it has been done or bettered it was all down to the car and not down to the driver, and if you don’t believe me go ask any of his oneeyedfanboys.
😄😄😄😄
Have no idea of what a one eyed boy is. (Naval term?)
But no doubt it’s a trait that runs genetically in the banjo playing ‘Sunny’ territory of Stivala. Assume an accompanying reverse broom handle is used when a flag runs up your ceremonial pole when the full moon is out 🏳
Regarding overtaking Kimi. LH had used his tyres getting past the rest. Maybe if they’d kept him a few laps longer on the first stint he’d had the tyres to get past Kimi aka ‘the Dore mouse’ settled in the no. 2 role for the Beloved Son of Zee Fatherland &Ferrari Fan Boys
I thought that it was a great bit of showmanship from Lewis to crash out. It least it gave the media something to talk about on Sunday as both championships were already done and dusted.
that’s a good one BRUNO.
By the Sunny I am also a Kimi fan.
I’d rather see him driving at his best rather than playing Vettels shadow for the rest of his F1 career. Which will probably up to 2019 i Unless Ricciardo heads to Ferrari. That’ll shake the branches at Vettel Hq
I logged in and got Mexico again!
There was a Brazil glitch for the first hour but that was fixed
All I’ve read so far is DT’s story about Lewis. It needs to be posted somehow as a separate story – absolutely inspirational.
Peter
What the heck Joe? It’s almost twelve hours after the race and your 5 hour special still isn’t available to down load.
Yes it is
Hi Joe
At 12 hrs after the race latest download in Oz is still Mexican GP.
Is this a wider problem?
No, you probably need to close and reopen your browser. Sounds like it is caching things.
To be honest, with the current top 6 pretty much defined before the race starts, as soon as the safety car came out, it was clear Hamilton would reach at least P4.
But he drove a race like nobody drove before.
Considering there have been at least two occasions on which drivers have started from the pit lane and finished on the podium “nonsense” is not to strong a term for that ^^^^. Or Clark at Monza in 1967 losing a whole lap with a puncture and retaking the lead in the closing laps, only to suffer fuel pickup problems and finish third.
Or Jenson Button, Canada 2011, where he won despite qualifying seventh and having been at the back at the half-way point in the race. (BBC have an article on the subject, with a graph – it’s a mighty impressive picture).
No, nobody has ever driven a race like that Sunny {rolls eyes}.
I remember that race well as a kid – thanks for reminding me of it. My all time hero.
No worries Brazil has just appeared!
I was watching this “good show” race with my 4 year old son last night – and he kept asking “where are all the other cars” as we watched 2-3 cars follow each other around. It was an interesting race compared to a lot of the races we see , but lets face it, F1 is boring (and I’ve been watching for 40 years). Even England v Argentina was more interesting, and that was a terrible match 😦
Well, I don’t find them boring.
Thats my point Joe. I used to find all F1 races riveting – but now you have to be a anorak (in a nice way) to appreciate them. I find myself watching ‘highlights’ and even then I use the FF button! And I include myself as a bit of a F1 anorak but loosing interest.
I see F1 going the way of boxing. I used to watch all the boxing I could. I knew all the champions at all weights and versions plus all the challengers etc, but now with pay-to-see, uneventful matches and predictable results…… I’m still interested in boxing, but they’ve made it so difficult to be interested I don’t really bother anymore 😦
Fingers crossed that the 2020 regs breathe new life into F1.
I think in years to come when the next generation looks back and asks “what went wrong with F1” your observation will sum it up nicely: “They made it so difficult to be interested.”
The owners (past and present) don’t seem to realise that they have been able to discracefully gouge the fans at the circuits (indirectly via race hosting fees) because they have such a large pool of replacement cash cows reared for milking through FTA television. They need these millions of viewers to find the thousands who will pay so much to attend the races. Sadly they’ve chosen the same path as the former bookshop owner in the north of England who charged people just to browse the contents in his shop. His product didn’t change but the interest in it evaporated.
Try attending a race.
Go to Spa, camp in a field, sing with the crazy Dutch fans, be amazed at how steep the Eau Rouge climb is. Expensive, certainly. And It’s devilishly hard to get out of when the grass in the campsite gets wet. Really annoying, too, when your favourite driver gets punted out. And if you’re not in a grandstand you can get very wet and freezing cold or sunburned, just depending on the year.
For Spa, you could substitute Singapore, Silverstone, Quebec, Austin … there are loads of brilliant circuits, all with a different character, almost all worth a visit.
Lots of negatives you could use about F1 …….. but ‘boring’ isn’t one of them.
Anything is boring if you let it bore you. I have never ever been the slightest bit interested in 22 men/women kicking a bag of wind about for 90 minutes and sometimes putting it into the net, but I realise that many people find it fascinating so I’m not dissing it. But as I find it immensely boring, I don’t watch it…
I think you’re getting football mixed up with RUGBY! 🙂
I do not think he is. 22 people, 90 minutes is definitely association football / soccer. Anyway rugby football is the better game!
No sport can be guaranteed to be exciting all the time. I watched Wales vs Australia, which was excellent for all the 80 minutes and more. It also happened to have a lot more blood than I’ve seen in televised F1 for the best part of the last 20 years!
Yes, F1 can sometimes be processional, predictable or even monotonous. But you show a regrettable lack of imagination in choosing the ‘b’ word to describe an exercise which involves putting 20 of the world’s most skilful drivers into the fastest high-tech cars that money can buy and sending them down a fiendishly twisty road for 90 minutes at speeds exceeding 200 mph, with a huge stack of gold awaiting the winners at the finish line.
Perhaps you and your son would prefer to watch one of those circus acts which regularly show up on TV, like gymnastics or diving. At least they’re over in a matter of seconds, and in some of them you get musical accompaniment.
Nah. I race my historic Formula Fords (1968 Russell Alexis – ex-James Hunt car) or my Merlyn Mk20A for real excitment. Thanks for your advice on the use of the English language (which I will ignore) and your advice on what to watch with my son (which is also ignored).
+1 – Well said Kevin!
I don’t to perpetuate this tif but you’re actually backing up what The Hack wrote – F1 drivers couldn’t possibly say driving an F1 was boring, in the same way you wouldn’t say driving an Merlyn Mk20A was. Of course your race might just be boring the spectators Kevin! It’s all a matter of perspective isn’t it?
Kevin raises a longstanding issue though which has affected F1 for years, namely bad TV direction. Personally I thought the coverage wasn’t too bad even if Ch4 were able to elect to follow Lewis’s progress more closely, I suspect, by way of edited highlights. Liberty shouldn’t worry too much at the moment about the razzmatazz, rather the actual content of the televised show.
so watch indy or nascar then – there they all run(and crash) together in compact bunch
/F1 is boring (and I’ve been watching for 40 years)/
One might wonder why would anyone watch a boring show 40 times, not to mention for 40 years. I wouldn’t, actually, that’s why I hardly watch handball, marathon running and So-You-Think-You-Can-Dance-type shows.
But feel free to watch whatever is boring you.
I didn’t say it had been boring for 40 years – did I????
/I didn’t say it had been boring for 40 years – did I????/
You have definitely failed to specify when F1 became boring, actually.
I don’t think it’s got boring, it’s the same as it ever was. I think the lack of access to live programming is dulling people’s interest. Mine included.
As bad as the green lipstick was, it still wasn’t quite as bad as her blue lipstick from a few weeks ago…
Of the many things I don’t understand, doing something like that voluntarily is one of them…
p.s. Speaking of the family, I wonder if Max’s mother went racing while she was pregnant… if so, perhaps that might help explain his unreal feel in a car… can’t get a younger start than that…
I like it. It’s different.
Different for a fact, though it matched her dress. I found it distinctly off-putting.
No part of a cow goes to waste.
I guess you’re from ‘that’ sub-continent then?
They’re rather fond of cows……AIR.
what’s wrong with lipstick? – it was perfectly matching the cloth on both occasions. Original, brave but well thought and inspiring(hopefully) for other Women(and Men if they ain’t absolutely apathetic about their Women )
Nothing wrong with lipstick… just seems odd to make a point of matching one’s dress when doing so makes one’s face look ghastly…
I’d think color coordination would include at least some consideration of coordination with, well, skin… 😉
well, the last paragraph of your comment says it all. i’m very upset with you mate.
???
I’m obviously missing something here. Please explain the lipstick comment.
If you subscribed to GP+, you would get it!
I do and I don’t.
There’s a photograph in the magazine of a lady with green lip stick.
Then this discussion is as absurd as I feared. Lady wears coloured lipstick, men outraged at fashion faux par. You know sometimes it astonishes me just how bitchy men can be when they address a persons attire.
Outraged? Somebody says they think it looks bad and that means they’re outraged? Really?
I agree that somebody is being bitchy about this, but I don’t think it’s me… 😉
Jos’s lady friend wore a blue dress and blue lipstick on Saturday, and green ones Sunday. Neither worked well with her skin tone, according to two of us commenting.
…and you worried you’d get murdered in Texas, Joe!
No I didn’t.
Page 34’s mysterious hand… Sounds like a title for a novel. In your spare time, of course, of course.
The one thing no one is talking about is how Hamilton wrung the neck of that car all race long. No need to worry that this engine / ancillaries lasting 4 races. I’m going flat for the entire race. I’m no Hamilton fan, but boy did he prove what is possible with these hybrids if only the cars were allowed to be raced rather than being endurance racers. Well done Lewis, hopefully the top brass will take notice……..not a chance
It only shows what is possible if one car can have a new power unit and the others don’t. If everyone could have done it I doubt he would have got as far up the order.
As I said elsewhere, his drive was like nothing that have been done before, with an advantaged car on all on the grid and all, because when it was done before with a not advantaged car it was all about the car and not the drive, and if I am not believed, ask his fanboys.
I enjoyed the race, as per usual, but it certainly wasn’t a barn burner.
I would not say I agree with Kevin in that it was boring, but more so the result predictable even though we had 2 top runners way out of position at the start. My son wasn’t happy when Daniel got his 10 place penalty but I said, don’t worry he will get top 6, same with Lewis.
So I think this keeps coming back to F1 not being a level playing field due to uneven income distribution and Ferrari having their way for far too long- mainly Bernie E’s doing I guess. I cant blame them if they are not happy been given 100m Euro less than they have been, but for the future of the sport this needs to happen.
Like many I don’t know the answer. Maybe split 70% of the pot equal to each entrant, they 30% as prize money based on performance. That’s simplistic I know but maybe a good start.
Also would be to remove the teams in having a say in the rule making – yes they would jump up & down and threaten to quit but if Liberty want to make big changes for the better maybe step on the feet of the big teams in one swift swoop?
Any chance that McLaren’s opposition to keeping the shark fin is because they don’t have much need these days for the extra billboard space?
Not so much “need”, as “use” for something they can’t currently sell.
For me, part of the spectacle has been lost through the ability of the TV cameras to do trick close up shots which allow fantastic coverage of details of the cars and cars running close together, but the camera locations have changed to allow for that compared to 20’or more years ago.
I watch GPs from the 70s and 80s and the actual footage is more engaging than much of today’s technically brilliant coverage.
Perhaps the directors could study the old footage and determine how they can replicate the excitement felt by the viewer instead of doing something because it is technically feasible.
Agree they need to look at the use of cameras. Just because they have the technology for ultra close up views they do not use them so much. I like to see the line a driver uses through a bend and this is best done from a distance. For instance I watched Hamilton’s pole lap in Japan and you could barely tell where he was on the circuit and it gave no appreciation of his speed and skills.
I know what you mean and it frustrates me that I can’t explain why…… Obviously the late 80s cars are the some of the cleanest looking F1 cars with great liveries but this wasn’t what the be all and end all….somehow the package worked well even when Mclaren lapped the field
A not-so-dull race because LH was allowed to race his engine, charging through the field. How many viewers are lost for each ‘procession-type’ race we have?
And it would be oh-so-easy to correct. Give a full set of points in qualy (with points for everyone finishing) and then reverse the grid, again with a full set of points for all finishers. Thus, we have incentive to compete for every position in qualy, and then numerous overtaking manoeuvres in the race.
Question for Sunny Stivala: Do you view anything positively in life?
Yes I do, its the great British F1 sites and their writers.
DT, just a note about your piece on Hamilton, he is contracted until the end of 2018, not 2019.
Hi Joe. It was said on some news that Martin Birrane is selling his Lola’s wind tunnel. . . That would give him a few nice quid and since he owns Mondello Park racetrack, could it be some indication that he is about to upgrade it to more higher, maybe even grade 1 event so hat it could be Irish GP at some time in near future, Moto GP or even F1 ?
Well having Lewis start at the very back obviously is bound to create race with some excitement.
I wonder if the Liberty chaps have ever seen a UK Formula 1 Stock car race. They should like it, its on an oval, it has large unsilenced V8 engines developing 650 hp and is normally on a shale/speedway surface. Oh and the field starts in revese order, with full contact allowed.
Admittedly it is some years since I went, but it is an unforgettable experience.
I was pleased to read of Gordon Murray’s latest venture, and greatly admire his new manufacturing techniques which hugely reduce tooling/origination costs.
Though sadly his city car did not take off in the commercial sense.
Pity he chose Dunsfold as it is looking like it will be covered in houses if the Inspector rules in favour of the council.
sidekick – the ”magic” of incognito.
I guess commenting incognito gives one the feeling that – alright – i can post whatever, good stuff or bullshit and nobody knows who i am and so on. but i just thought – but what if it turns out i have(had) a brilliant opinion or version or thought or idea, – what it does for me if i post all this as incognito/nickname? nothing is the answer. And so i decided that i rather post nothing or i post whatever i feel being interesting, important etc i’ll post with my true name from now on. See You later. Regards. Kardaans
Thanks for nothing K
I see that the F3 Macau GP (all sessions) is to be streamed on the FIA website!
(And on their facebook page)
Mr Norris seems to be doing very well at the moment.
Enjoyed GP+ as usual and listened to the podcast that you had pointed to previously, which I had not done before. I know you spoil us, but will there be a notebook from Brazil?
So can I be the one to coin the term “FerrExit”?
Only 3 PUs? Higher revs, increasing failure rate!
It is high time we had a team point penalty, say 5 team championship points instead of penalising the driver, who most probably did not build the engine. Otherwise it will become ludicrous, some say it has done so already.