Change in China?

The 2014 Chinese Grand Prix was not the most exciting race to grace the Formula 1 world championship, especially following the thrilling Grand Prix in Bahrain immediately before it. Lewis Hamilton repeated his unchallenged ease to victory that he enjoyed in Malaysia, something that could become common when the Mercedes drivers don't have one another to race. Nico Rosberg's drive to second was a great save considering the team ran the entire race blind with no telemetry fed to them from the car, and after he gave Valtteri Bottas a hefty whack at the first corner. Despite leading the world championship, Lewis is getting away from him a bit now having won all 3 of the races that he has completed and has recovered much of the points gap that Rosberg inherited in Australia. Both drivers will still be wary of reliability hurting their championship chances, but Hamilton has the early form and maturity to keep his head and do what he does best when chasing a points gap.

How long will Nico Rosberg have to wait before he can hold a winners trophy of his own?

Blog Update

I wanted to give a quick little update on why this blog has been quiet over the last week. A lot has been going on within the motorsport world that I haven't missed, but similarly haven't offered my opinions on.

I enjoy sharing my opinions on motorsport, both on here and in person - there is always something to talk about and prophesise ahead of coming races and meetings. By not posting for the last week, I have missed a number of topics (that I will revisit shortly) that are certainly worthy of discussion and review but I simply haven't due to the time investment in doing so. I have got myself into a pattern of certain repeat posts that I like to publish on certain days either preceding or following a Grand Prix or event. It was all going well at the start when the 2014 Formula 1 season started, but the expectation I had placed on myself caught up with me in Bahrain when GP2 entered the schedule as well. I intend / intended to write about Formula Renault 3.5 and GP3 as well being the strongest links to a F1 seat, but I currently don't know how that will work out. Formula Renault 3.5 especially is going to be difficult when I can't actually watch the races...

To keep this blog fun for myself as I always intended, I certainly don't want to worrying about self imposed deadlines for posts when I don't always have the free time that I would like to write them. Keeping my opinions relevant, I will have to look at shortening some posts or breaking them down into shorts to allow more periodic updating when I maybe only have minutes spare to share opinions. I would rather take the second option if it helps, as I don't feel it would be worth barely touching on topics in the pursuit of post shortening...

In the meantime, thank you to those that continue to read my posts when they do get published. I am glad that from a small project I started to stop me going mad in unemployment between jobs, I have actually found something which has helped more people understand and enjoy a sport that I have wanted to be a part of almost my entire life.

Brilliant Bahrain

The Sakhir circuit in Bahrain has never been associated with the best Grand Prix, but in 2014 it delivered one of the sports greatest ever races. Combined with the launch of the 2014 GP2 season and some FIA announcements, there is plenty to be talking about between now and the Chinese Grand Prix.

The first Bahrain Grand Prix under the lights became an instant classic.

GP2 2014 Preview

This weekends Bahrain Grand Prix will bring with the start of a new GP2 series, which will support 11 F1 weekends this season. It is a major feeder series for tomorrows Formula 1 drivers, with 18.4% of its drivers going on to race in Formula 1 and even more gaining test / development driver roles. The current Formula 1 grid includes 11 former GP2 runners, 5 of which were GP2 champion. The 2014 GP2 series looks set to be a fantastic duel between some of the best talents looking to make the final step up like Marcus Ericsson did this year. Take a look through those drivers and the teams running them with my pre-season form guide.

With the entire Formula 1 paddock watching, passes often explore the line between overly ambitious and spectacular.

Experience Shows in Malaysia

The 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix was not the most thrilling race ever, as Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes eased their way to a foregone conclusion. Regarding the overall season picture though, we learnt a lot about the current form guide within Formula 1 that was still clouded after Australia. It was qualifying however that produced a lot of the excitement as teams still seem unsure if they are lucky to escape Q1 or disappointed a missing out on Q3, and of course the great unknown of a monsoon shower.

Qualifying was worth the 50 minute wait. After seeing the Mercedes SLS struggle in the conditions, I thought it may be run Sunday morning instead.