Don’t mention the war!! – It has been suggested many times that F1 lives in it’s own little bubble. Well this was never better epitomised than during the opening race weekend of the 2022 calendar. I didn’t hear a single mention of the tragic war being waged by Russia on Ukraine.
Yes, the pre-race F1 focus was on UNICEF which is a way better organisation to support than pseudo racist political organisations. Even Mercedes resisted their driver Hamilton’s calls to retain the black colour for their traditionally silver cars.
TJ13 has criticised smaller teams for almost a decade when they take two inexperienced drivers and the money from their wealthy sponsors. This is just not the way to go.
And this weekend as the result of the ‘unmentionable’ war, saw the perfect reasoning which should be used as the example for time and eternity that inexperienced drivers cost you big time as a team. Two of them leave you in the wilderness.
In the 2021 season opener in Bahrain, Haas Russian – now ex-driver – didn’t make it through turn 1. Caused a safety car and the writing was on the wall for Haas season.
Team Hass this year chose to ditch their ineffective Russian driver after his homeland declared war on Ukraine. There is a point of view he needed to be ditched due to his useless performances in 2021. But money talks.
Mazespin – as we affectionately named him – had his F1 seat paid for by his father who is close friends with war criminal Vladimir Putin and made his fortune by stealing what was the birthright of ordinary Russians.
The result…. Enter gladiator and Viking descendent Kevin Magnussen for his second F1 revival. Recruited by Haas to replace the Russian, the Dane proved again that recruiting two novice drivers is beyond stupidity, even if the financial up front cash is good.
Magnusson easily qualified best of the rest during Saturday’s qualifying and claimed Haas a race finish of P5 and 10 points. This is second only to Haas best ever finish by Romain Grosjean who scored a P4 in Austria 2018.
Mick Schumacher was tagged by Esteban Ocon on lap one, so we can’t see how he compares with a team mate who is a superb team driver.
But we can be sure, the early results are not going to make the son of GOAT Michael look a fantastic F1 prospect, and unless he improves significantly during this season, this could be his last in F1.
I was honestly surprised by Mick’s lack of pace. Thought the second straight year would give him some kind of advantage compared to Magnussen
Which only proves… money nor name equals talent
It is said about Mick that he is a slow starter and need a couple of races to get used to things. With the new cars, it could be that he needs more time to understand the car.
In any case, Magnussen raised the bar quite high for this season and last race should be a wake up call to Mick that he should really improve his game.
I have sympathy for Mick, whose career must have been damaged by spending his first F1 year in an obsolete, evil handling POS car with a clueless gimp as his teammate.
Which is not to say there is a mega talent hiding there – I’ve always felt he is closer to Ralf than Michael, journeyman not genius. Maybe I’m wrong…
This just high lights that Prema was given leeway with Mick by the Fia. Helps when your manager is JT’s son and everyone wants the name back in F1 (like F1 paying Alonso’s salary so Renault would take him)
For the first time in micks f3, f2 and F1 career, his team mate has an equal car and he got smacked in quali and in the race.