Written by Nirek Dandanayak

Silly Season

As the annual ‘silly season’ in Formula 1 has kicked off with Sebastian Vettel setting off a domino effect on the rest of the drivers, catch up on all the driver moves here. 4-time WDC Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement in late July triggering a move from another fellow world champion, Fernando Alonso to take Vettel’s place at Aston Martin. This means that there is an open spot at Alpine racing team alongside Esteban Ocon. Many thought that this would be taken by Alpine junior driver and 2021 F2 driver’s champion, Oscar Piastri. However, by everyone’s surprise, Piastri joined Mclaren as Daniel Ricciardo was axed. This now leaves Ricciardo out of a seat in Formula 1 for the first time since 2011. Meanwhile, Alpine have their eyes set on Pierre Gasly as a potential replacement for their open seat. In other news, many teams may be sizing up Nyck De Vries as he put on an amazing show on debut with Williams to score points in Monza. The 27-year-old replaced Alex Albon who was undergoing care for his appendicitis. He put on a fantastic performance and ended the race in 9^th place. After this drive, the newly open seat at Williams may be an option for Nyck De Vries’ path to Formula 1.

Struggles in Formula 1

Whilst there has been so much accomplishment from many drivers, 7-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton has failed to win a race so far this season. If this trend continues, this will be the first season that Hamilton would not have won a race. He has come close on a number of occasions, most recently being the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. Lewis was leading the race but a late safety car and poor strategy on Mercedes’ part caused Max Verstappen to glide past him to win his home race. Prior to this race Hamilton ended his ‘no DNF’ streak this season at Spa in Belgium when he crashed into former teammate Fernando Alonso to retire his car and end his race early. This was shortly followed by a team radio message from Alonso expressing his rage for Hamilton saying, ‘he only knows how to race starting at the front’. This outburst of rage was shown by Hamilton after the Dutch Grand Prix after a team radio message released with Hamilton addressing his team, saying ‘I can’t believe you guys’. Shortly after, in an interview, Hamilton apologised for his outburst and explaining he was ‘filled with emotions’. His difficulties continue, however with the upcoming Singapore grand prix looming, Hamilton will be confident in his ability as he has won there 4 times prior to 2022.

Super Max

Whilst Hamilton may be struggling, his 2021 rival, Max Verstappen, has been finding his groove after the summer break. After winning two races in a row before the break, the French Grand Prix and an impressive climb from tenth place in Hungary, Verstappen has added to this streak. Starting with the Belgian Grand Prix by besting his Hungary Grand Prix performance and winning Spa from starting at 14^th place. This made his winning streak three wins in a row. Next was his home race in Zandvoort, Netherlands. He made a good start to the weekend by qualifying pole by 2 hundredths from Charles Leclerc. However due to strategy, Hamilton had the lead nearing the end of the race but because of a late safety car, we saw Verstappen retaking the lead with a great slipstream going into turn 1. From here it was elementary for Max to go on and add to his streak and increase it to 4 wins in a row. After this, Verstappen’s task was to take on Monza in the Italian Grand Prix. He lost out on pole position by 2 tenths to Charles Leclerc. However, it didn’t matter much as Verstappen had chosen to take a grid penalty like many drivers which dropped him five places. This put him at 7^th place on Sunday. After a poor start by Lando Norris, Verstappen easily passed him into turn 1. Then the Red Bull’s straight-line speed showed its true colours and facilitated yet another Max Verstappen win making it 5 in a row for the 24-year-old world champion. Now a seemingly unbreakable record held by Sebastian Vettel who set it in 2013, may seem breakable. This was the most wins in a row by a single driver. Vettel set an astonishing 9 wins in a row in 2013. This record may seem in sights for Max Verstappen as he needs 5 more wins to achieve 10 wins in a row. The Red Bull car seems unstoppable now and Verstappen is at the top of his game so we can only wait and see if he surpasses the former Red Bull driver’s record.