1. Hamilton 2. Vettel 3. Kimi Räikkönen 4. Valtteri Bottas 5. Daniel Ricciardo 6. Max Verstappen 7. Felipe Massa 8. Sergio Pérez 9. Nico Hülkenberg 10. Carlos Sainz 11. Lance Stroll 12. Fernando Alonso 13. Marcus Ericsson 14. Kevin Magnussen
Greeting card WO on the win, but an even bigger congratulations to my colleague for taking silver—that was such a motivating way to head into the new season !!!!
Did anyone catch what Massu was doing out there during the race today? He spent most of the session glued to his phone, scrolling through comments on Reddit. Honestly, he wasn't even paying attention to the cars ahead of him, and I doubt the drivers behind him even noticed he was there.
Every major F1 journalist will be there for the big reveal. We're talking everyone from the print press to the digital media crews. And of course, we’ll be hosting the whole thing right in our brand-new motorhome.
It looks like Williams might have actually outsmarted everyone when it comes to prepping for heavy downpours. If you listen to the reporters on the ground, they’ve spotted what look like oars sitting right there in their garage, some of them looking short enough to be used for a canoe. As soon as McLaren caught wind of this, they immediately filed an official protest, demanding a full inspection to ensure those paddles actually comply with all the aerodynamic regulations.
What on earth is going on with Williams? They seem to be falling way behind the pack this season.
If you're looking strictly at Monaco, they actually look a bit better than they did last year. But if you take the whole season into account, I wouldn't say they've fallen off a cliff. They finished 3rd last season and they're sitting at 4th now. Honestly, I’d argue Red Bull Racing has made much bigger strides forward than Williams has taken backward. They even clocked some pretty decent sector times today; they just couldn't string them together into one cohesive lap. So, it isn't entirely down to the car—there's definitely a bit of driver error involved since they failed to make it into Q3.
Williams 👎 seems to have taken a massive step backward compared to the rest of the grid... Either everyone else has found a huge leap in pace while they stayed stagnant, or they’ve somehow managed to mess things up so badly that they're actually slower than last year...
It’s pretty clear that Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa aren't exactly "one-lap wonder" types. If I recall correctly from previous seasons, it usually takes them at least two or three laps just to nail a decent flyer. As for the car itself, they're likely waiting on a new nose and front wing in Bahrain to see what kind of progress they actually made over the winter. They'll just have to make do with whatever they can grab during this race. We’ll be much wiser tomorrow once the race is over. As for the heavy hitters, Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari seem to have landed right where you'd expect them to.
At this rate, Aston Martin will probably run through every single F1 team on the grid within two years. https://www.astonmartin.com/en/media...ng-state-visit It seems like their RapidE phase is turning them into a version of Williams. They'll probably end up teaming up with Mercedes to build an SUV, then partner with McLaren to make a bicycle. Maybe they'll tackle a tiny city car with Renault, and I'm sure they'll find something to do with Ferrari too.
I noticed an Aston Martin sticker on the RB car. http://prntscr.com/aggjds It makes me wonder if we're looking at a much deeper partnership down the road. Between those rumors coming out of the FIA about potential collaborations and Williams integrating battery tech into their electric Aston Martin road cars, it looks like they've ultimately set their sights on RB as their primary partner. Whether it’s just a standard sponsorship or something far more significant, I suppose we'll find out eventually.