POLE POSITION: Relentless grind could drive Max Verstappen away from F1
One thing to celebrate here at the Caspian Sea is that there is only one hour of practice and nothing more at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
It’s just right, and hats off to Formula 1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali for shaping the new format despite initial opposition.
Some of us were excited about the sprint races from the start, because they didn’t do away with qualifying, they did get rid of practice.
Fact is: qualifying is more fun than Friday afternoon practice; pulling a sprint is more fun than qualifying on Saturday afternoon. You still get the former and get the latter added. Fridays suddenly have something in themselves.
When sprints were first introduced a few years ago, they were widely complained about. Engineers were aghast. Drivers were hesitant. But what Domenicali realized is that the sport should run for the fans and not just the teams.
The new sprint race format will be introduced this weekend, where there will be only one practice session over the three days of action on the Baku street circuit
The drivers are supportive if somewhat conflicted about sprints, with the exception of two-time world champion Max Verstappen (pictured), who is an outright opponent of the idea
Qualifying for Sunday’s race will take place on Friday, while a mini-qualifying session will take place on Saturday that will set the starting grid for the sprint race that will take place on the same day
If you asked the teams, they would practice endlessly, collect data and take everyone’s pants off.
The drivers are now supportive if somewhat conflicted about sprints, with the exception of Max Verstappen, who is an outright opponent of the idea. “It’s harder for us,” said Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Baku. “But if it works for the spectators, it’s good.”
“Straight into action, but mentally and physically more demanding,” assured Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. “But overall it’s positive.” Lewis Hamilton thought it was good that the first sprint of the year is on the Baku street circuit, because this place offers overtaking opportunities.
Alex Albon, from Williams, said the new way of organizing a sprint weekend, making its debut here, is better than the old system, where qualifying determined the starting grid for the sprint and the results determined the starting order for the Grand Prix . .
Now qualifying on Friday determines the Grand Prix grid. Saturday is a standalone program: sprint qualifying and then the sprint. Points are awarded for the top eight, as before, but the sprint has no role in determining the Grand Prix grid.
I suspect Domenicali will add more sprints next year than the six already scheduled this season. He’s making his way there, perhaps hoping to run sprints every race weekend or thereabouts. To be clear, the practice qualifying grand prix format remains in place on non-sprint weekends as usual, confusingly enough.
What Domenicali has to watch out for is an extension of the season. Twenty-three race weekends is more than enough for the traveling circus. The staff will be lost to the sport. Marriages will go west. Common sense will be tested. The sport is approaching the breaking point.
Even Verstappen has spoken of leaving the merry-go-round long before he is 38 years old, as has Hamilton. This is not only because of the sprints, which he says go against the DNA of the sport, but also because of the relentless demands of the track.
One issue that needs to be resolved is the number of races per season, as the growing calendar could lead to the likes of Verstappen leaving the sport at a young age due to the demands
The two-time world champion is only 25 and has said he has his last contract that takes him past his 30th birthday. He looks forward to a future where he can race whenever and wherever he pleases, for his own pleasure, rather than slaving away at the five races in six weekends that now lie ahead.
There is a danger for Domenicali in this stated intention, which is again touched upon here by Verstappen. Sticking around to win a seventh or eighth title isn’t his thing.
Domemicali will probably add another round to the roster next year, which is not necessary except to generate hosting costs for the sport’s owners at Liberty Media in America.
Critics accused Bernie Ecclestone of greed when he was in charge, but going to 24 races is not something he came close to. In my opinion, 18 years a year is best for the rhythm of the championship. It also retains a ‘grand prix’ as something special. But it’s too late to go back to those kind of shorter seasons of yesteryear. It’s not what a new Netflix audience would appreciate. The sprints probably are.
Massa did not deserve the 2008 championship
Felipe Massa is considering legal action to claim the 2008 world title because Fernando Alonso’s Renault team undermined that year’s Singapore Grand Prix and, the theory goes, cost him a crucial victory.
None of the global TV audience can’t help but feel sympathy for the Brazilian after watching his family party in the Ferrari garage before Lewis Hamilton completed his final lap, passing Timo Glock’s Toyota who suddenly no longer had the car in front. was him and came in as the champion by one point.
The face of the father of the defeated man who fell to the ground when the sudden shock of loss was enough to break hearts
The subject of Crashgate – Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately jumping to help Alonso win after the introduction of a safety car to the city-state’s streets – comes up again as Bernie Ecclestone recently suggested the bad deed was known during the title fight was still alive.
But two reasons why Massa should leave sleeping dogs. The first is that as distorted as Alonso’s victory was under floodlights and as it cost Massa a possible victory, there is no guarantee how the season would have turned out had he been awarded victory. The dynamics of the championship would have changed at that point and cannot be rewritten now.
Felipe Massa is considering legal action to claim Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 world title
It comes after Bernie Ecclestone suggested that ‘crash-gate’ at that year’s Singapore GP – which arguably cost Massa the win of that race – was known at the time
The second is that, in brutal reality, Massa didn’t deserve the championship. He was in a Ferrari superior to Hamilton’s McLaren and couldn’t get out of it, although he had some eye-popping moments. In addition, he effectively disqualified himself as a worthy champion by his inferior wet performance.
If he wasn’t impressive at Monaco on slippery ground, he was embarrassingly bad at Silverstone, where he spun five times as Hamilton unfolded one of the greatest drives in history, making him look like an amphibian. Massa finished 13th, two laps.
That was, after all, as important as, and far more telling than, Singapore’s misbehavior. It’s the kind of inequality that separates the great drivers from the merely very, very good ones.
The European GP title was always a challenge
You know how hotel clocks sometimes tell the time in New York, London, or say Paris, sometimes Berlin. Well, not at my excavations in Azerbaijan.
They are Tehran, Moscow, Ankara and Dubai instead. And to think they originally called this the European Grand Prix. It was always a puzzle.