F1 Suzuka, the report cards of the promoted ones
1. McLaren. On the day that consecrates Red Bull as champion, the prize will be awarded to the team that has significantly improved most throughout the year. It’s clear that Verstappen remains too distant a reference at the moment, but the 2023 McLaren gives everyone hope: we can get close. They get the car wrong (indeed, they don’t present it in February at all) but not the developments. Drivers spot on, Norris ringleader and Piastri rightly armoured. We don’t know until the Oscar will be awarded, but potentially the two young men are there fighting in 2024. First double podium since Monza 2021, where however Max parked on Lewis. Otherwise we have to go to the Button-Magnussen in Melbourne 2014, practically a decade and a lifetime ago. Welcome back!
2. The hunger of adults. And that is Schumaxer, Hamilton And Alonso. The three Michelin stars of F1, with two Michelin tires under there, showing the way to the newbies. Max: he can’t even lose at cards , let alone when he loses and someone questions his previous victories; wrecker on and off the track. Sir Lewis: between unwelcome overtaking and useless slowdowns, combs Russell like Bud Spencer with Piero del Papa, also on and off the track; George, after the race, changes to a more conciliatory attitude. Nando: second consecutive race in which the Aston Martin garage sweats cold. He says that we could have achieved more than eighth place: yet he had at least the fifth car on the track.
3. …and that of the little ones. And that is Piastri and Lawson. Two come from afar, the first on the podium and the second in points in the year since rookie, as they say in Cesano Boscone. Piastri, when he is completely stripped, could be a problem for Norris, who is also a gem. Lawson may not be anything special, but first of all he doesn’t do any damage and then when they both reach the finish line he continues to keep Tsunoda behind. Which, however, says more about Tsunoda than about Lawson.
F1 Suzuka, the report cards of those who failed
3. Who saw them/why do we see them? Zhou, Tsunoda, Bottas, Stroll, Sargeant: some more guilty, some less, but all from the anonymous to the unwatchable, passing through the mixed boiled meat. Five pilots that we can easily do without, some of these for more or less unfathomable reasons will remain to brighten up our Sundays in 2024. The only risk Sargeantwhich is the one who had the least time to learn and prove something. It’s right that it’s under discussion, it’s incomprehensible that it’s the only one.
2. FIA. Tell me what credibility a sanctioning system can have in which a driver commits three impeding and – with images available for hours – he is not punished, four days pass and whoever was supposed to sanction him says “Yes, we actually had to give him grid positions”.
1. Sergio Perez. Between the Federation and Checo there is fire on the Red Cross, but this is the reality. A retired driver, in whose presence Mercedes’ Bottas seems like Nuvolari. He deserves credit for only collapsing in his third year (but he also has more experience than Max’s previous victims) after even deluding himself into thinking he had the car in his hands. As I also wrote after Baku, when he was at -6, he is not and never will be Verstappen. Maybe though, hallucinated by dizziness, he thought he had become so, and when reality proved it wrong, the castle fell. For goodness sake, then it must be the highest paid and worst regarded job: Checo is in fact taking millions of dollars to be humiliated every Sunday by an alien who has the technical direction in favor, with a car in which if you are second you have done your duty; if you are third, poor piciu, you also get insults from the journalists’ best friend, Helmut Marko, who unfortunately decides your future. From here to providing performances like those of Monaco, Montreal, Montmelo, Zandvoort, Singapore, to name a few, however he runs. And yesterday frankly all that was left was for him to go the wrong way on a scooter on the 130R. His luck is that no one can undermine him, and that he will be there in 2024 too. At least at the beginning of the year.
#Suzuka #Report #Cards #podium #FormulaPassion