Archive for category: The Point by Gian Carlo Minardi

McLaren put on show all its technical supremacy, giving us a battle between Norris and Piastri that was as good as it was fair, especially in the first 20 laps.  Luckily, they were there to entertain us, otherwise there was little to see behind them, except for a few good battles. Their technical advantage is such that the two drivers can battle it out cleanly, and now it seems that they can only lose the races.

One of the main protagonists was out of the running right from the start, Max Verstappen, having been hit through no fault of his own by Antonelli who made a rookie’s mistake. I do not want to make excuses, but part of the responsibility also lies with the Mercedes team: they made some serious mistakes in qualifying, sending him onto the track too late. He started from a position that did not reflect either his value, or that of the car. I hope that he can quickly forget this episode, arriving in in good spirits at Silverstone where he took his first win in Formula 2 last year.

We saw a Ferrari that is improving, even though it still loses an average of 3 tenths of a second per lap. However, Leclerc’s third place and Hamilton’s fourth place were two encouraging results for the rest of the season, as we await the next developments planned in Great Britain. Furthermore, the Team took back second place in the World Constructior’s championship, behind McLaren. This too is a good sign for morale.

There was also a great performance by Racing Bulls, with Lawson deserving special praise, especially considering what he went through at the start of the season.

Fernando Alonso was equally impressive. He battled with Lawson for 70 laps, and he was fantastic defending against the attacks from “his” driver, Bortoleto. His gesture towards the Sauber driver at the end of the race was also very nice. The experience shows all his worth in battle.

It was an important grand prix for the second-tier teams which took valuable points, especially Racing Bulls, Sauber and Haas, making the most of the absence of a Red Bull and a Mercedes.

Gian Carlo Minardi

In Saudi Arabia we saw a weekend under the banner of McLaren, but especially under the name Oscar Piastri who forcefully took the number one spot within the team led by Andrea Stella, as well as the lead in the ladder by taking his third win of the season. He is confirming that he is a complete driver.

Always present is Verstappen, the author of an extraordinary pole position after the difficult weekend in Bahrain. However, I do not agree with the penalty. I believe that 5” are too few considering the advantage obtained by his action and also because they came at the start of the race. He had plenty of time to recover, crossing the finish line in second place, little more than 2” from the Australian. A drive-through would have been more consistent.

Leclerc’s grand prix is also to be applauded. Not only did he give Ferrari its first podium of the season in a GP, but he hid and lessened the car’s real problems which were instead very evident with Hamilton who had a pace that did not line up with a seven times world champion. At the present time it is rather inexplicable.

Antonelli’s defence right against Hamilton was excellent. Mercedes is the second force of the world championship with a pair of drivers with very little difference between them. Russell is in splendid form, as he showed with the third place in qualifying and fifth in the race.

It was a negative weekend for Norris. He is racing inconsistently, and his difficulties are obvious. The comeback in the race was certainly positive, also the result of a good strategy, but the mistake in Q3 was very heavy. Despite having the best car on the track, he could not overtake Leclerc. This makes the result achieved by the driver from Monte Carlo even more important. Norris is suffering heavily the “problem” of Piastri who exploits his McLaren to the utmost.

A positive weekend also for Carlos Sainz, who is on the upswing with his Williams, and who once again left his teammate Albon behind him, and for Hadjar, who gave the Racing Bulls the point of the top 10, with Lawson in twelfth place. Making a comparison with last season, the biggest disappointment is coming from Aston Martia, out of the points zone.

In two weeks’ time, they go to Miami, before landing in Europe at Imola’s Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit on May 16-28-

It was an Easter weekend of Motorsport. If in Jeddah we saw the fifth round of the F1 World Championship, Imola hosted the second round of the WEC World Championship, attracting more than 65,000 fans. I thank them one by one for the warmth with which they welcomed me, especially at the moment of the start of the 6 hours, just as I thank the entire Formula Imola team for their excellent work. Congratulations and thanks also came from the organizer of the WEC. With the arrival of F1 in four weeks time, I hope to be able to see an even warmer and bigger crowd. The fans are our “sponsors”, and the encouragement to continue to improve. We must put those who have to make certain decisions in difficulty.

Gian Carlo Minardi

The Chinese Grand Prix, the second round of the world championship, confirmed the values in the field with McLaren bringing home the team’s first one-two ahead of an excellent Russell, once again on the podium, Max Verstappen and the pair of Ferraris.

Compared to what we saw a week ago in Melbourne, some positive signs certainly came from Ferrari, but I am convinced that even without the problem with his right front wing, Leclerc would not have been able to fight for the win. A win that, however, came in the sprint with Hamilton, who also took the pole position.

I believe it is precisely in this difference of performance, between the Sprint and the GP, that the real problem lies with the SF-25 which must race very low to be competitive. Qualifying, the Sprint and the race, are fertile ground, dictated by the limited mileage (100km), and less fuel on board. This situation changes drastically in the run up to the GP. To avoid wearing the skid pad, they are forced to raise the car, thus sacrificing performance. This, however, did not allow them to avoid the disqualification of both cars (even if for different reasons between Leclerc and Hamilton) that came when the race was already over, thus cancelling the fifth and sixth places.

Red Bull has quite a different problem, if we can call it that, in the sense that it finds itself once again racing with only one driver, Max Verstappen. However, it is not possible that whoever comes alongside him has such enormous difficulties. It is probably a very difficult car to drive and manage, having been built entirely around the Dutchman who has a particular style of driving, putting his teammates in difficulty. I find it hard to imagine a different explanation, since the same “cousins” let themselves be faster and better performing than Lawson.

Racing Bulls managed to wipe out an excellent job by the team and its drivers with a totally wrong strategy that kept them outside the top 10 despite Ferrari’s double disqualification. They threw away important points, to the advantage of their direct rivals.

Once again, I would like to congratulate the rookies. Particularly Isack Hadjar who redeemed the bad impression in Australia, while I found the Jack Doohan’s penalty excessive. Well done “Kimi” Antonelli, once again in the points with the Mercedes and without making any mistakes, he occupies fifth place in the overall ladder.

Now we move to Japan, to Suzuka, another demanding “old style” track characterized by sandy escape routes.

Gian Carlo Minardi

In this chaos of penalties, the only certainty is called Max Verstappen who took his latest win, demonstrating once again that he is a champion with a great vision of the race: from the mirrors he noticed the irregularity committed by Lando Norris.

Honestly, although probably necessary, I do not share these changes within the Federation a few races left in the world championship. The FIA must take another step forward in the professional management of its structure. In recent weeks we seen several changes, the fruit of palpable internal nervousness. Despite some penalties being dictated by the guidelines (we are still waiting for the decision on Piastri), other decisions have left me perplexed: Verstappen’s penalty in post-qualifying, both due to the motivation and the type of  penalty, or not “calling” the Virtual Safety-Car for the removal of the mirror lost by Albon, subsequently hit by Bottas that led to the punctures of Sainz and Hamilton.

On the race front, both Norris and Piastri were the protagonists of some ingenuities which are part of professional growth, but that they should try to avoid, above all for the sake of the team. In any case, I do not think McLaren will have problems taking the world constructors’ championship back to Woking, having, as of today, a twenty-one-point lead over Ferrari.

Ferrari said goodbye to Quatar with second place, as positive as it was unhoped-for. For once the wheel turned in their favour, especially for Leclerc who took himself within eight points from Norris.

Also, among the surprises were Gasly’s fifth place with Alpine and the first points for Sauber, thanks to Zhou’s eight place.  Gasly made himself the protagonist of a positive weekend, once again demonstrating his qualities in a team that found its stimulus again and the way to emerge by consolidating itself as the sixth force in the world championship.

We are heading towards the last round in Abu Dhabi, already the scene for unforeseen upsets in the past, with the open battle between Ferrari-McLaren,  Norris-Leclerc for second place and Alpine-Haas for sixth place.

As long as the Brazil Grand Prix continues to be scheduled in this part of the year, we will have races strongly affected by the rain and the weather.

We witnessed a Sprint Race won by Norris, ahead of Piastri with Max Verstappen the protagonist of some mistakes that took him to a penalty, something that he did not do during the grand prix managing to outclass the direct rivals. From the 46^th lap he made himself the protagonist consistently setting fast laps, outpacing his adversaries by more than five tenths of a second. The second fastest lap of the race is found a more than second slower (Verstappen: 1:20.472  – Norris: 1:21.517).

He gave an important signal, making it clear that his three titles were not won by chance, and that the fourth is coming. Let us not forget he started from sixteenth place on the grid. It will certainly not be easy for Norris to make up the 62-point gap, not only because there are only three rounds, but above all because he is up against a great driver who, once again, cancelled his teammate: absolutely irrelevant for the whole weekend, the protagonist of various mistakes and also ridiculed by Lawson.

After the last two grands prix won, Ferrari partially disappointed with Leclerc only fifth. Who disappointed in particular was Carlos Sainz, who made mistakes in both qualifying and the race.

It was a decidedly favourable weekend for Alpine that, thanks to the double podium, took sixth place on the constructors’ ladder. An unhoped-for result only a week ago, which certainly came thanks to the weather conditions that mitigated the problems of the power-unit, but also to excellent work by the team and its two drivers. In these difficult conditions they were competitive.

Instead, it was decidedly underwhelming grand prix for McLaren that ended the long Sunday with only sixth and seventh places, and a number of mistakes by the poleman Norris.

It was a weekend decidedly conditioned by the bad weather that put a strain on the drivers – who made various mistakes – but also the race management that was first forced to delay qualifying until Sunday morning, and then to abort the start following Stroll’s  mistake in the formation lap, until the red flag was shown due to the difficult track conditions  and Colapinto’s  going off the track.

Precisely Williams was the “victim” of a number of incidents which had a major impact on costs. I believe that Colapinto could come into the financial operation aimed at balancing the finances considering that the team from Grove already has two drivers under contract for 2025 (Albon and Sainz) and that Red Bull is racing with only one driver…

So far, the race marshals have not commented on the investigation begun due to the departure of some drivers, despite the display of the flashing lights for an aborted start. In fact, at different times, all the drivers left the starting grid (with the sole exception of Sainz who started from pit-lane). I am of the opinion that any penalties should be assigned quickly, but, in any case, the track has already given its verdict.

In addition to the bad weather, the race was also strongly conditioned by the red flag, which was shown too quickly because they then restarted with the same conditions and tyres (intermediates). Among other things, it was shown in a time that strongly affected in a negative way the Racing Bulls that had guessed the strategy and the best moment for passing onto the full-wets. I find that the team was deprived of a very important result. It could have found itself in Alpine’s place.

It was certainly not easy for the race marshals and the Federation to manage this type of race, but I believe it would take a uniform work group throughout the season, especially for minimizing possible non-uniformity of views.

We leave this demanding weekend behind and prepare to experience the final three rounds in which rain should not be a problem.

Gian Carlo Minardi

The three races in America started with an extraordinary double by Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was the protagonist of a perfect start. That type of attack by Verstappen on Norris was probably expected.

The driver from Monte Carlo was just as skilled at the start after the safety-cay caused by Lewis Hamilton (protagonist of a mistake not worthy of a seven times world champion), maintaining a high pace for all the grand prix. Just as infallible was the strategy regarding Carlos Sainz that allowed the double taking them to only eight points from second place on the constructors’ ladder with five races still to be run.

This was a prestigious result for Ferrari and a good omen that confirms the important step forward, especially in the long run configuration. They must still improve something in qualifying, but we are talking about tenths of a second. Leclerc and Sainz can only recriminate for having blocked each other excessively during the sprint. Otherwise, they would have made it harder for Verstappen to return to success.

Third place for Red Bull with Verstappen, who found his smile once again, the fruit of a tussle with the poleman Norris and the subsequent penalty. Unfortunately, we do not know the guidelines dictated during the briefing between the race director and the drivers. It certainly seems to me that there was more permissiveness during the first lap compared to the rest of the race, because the two episodes – always with Norris and Verstappen as protagonists – are very similar.

George Russell and Lian Lawson also stood out. Both, starting from pitlane, were the protagonists of important comebacks with both finishing in the points zone. Sixth place for the Mercedes driver, with the mistake in qualifying that probably wiped out a result that could have been more important, and eighth place for the Racing Bulls flagbearer in his first race of the season. An important result for the direct challenge with Haas in view of sixth place, currently to the hands of the American team with a two-point lead, the result of both Hulkenberg’s eighth place and, above all, the better result in the Sprint.

Just as important, tenth place by Colapinto who put an unjudgeable Albon in serious difficulty. In just a few races the young man has shown that he deserves to stay in the world championship. We hope that correct choices are made in his regard. Until a few laps from the finish, he had also set the fastest lap of the race, taken away only in the final lap by Ocon with an action that has little to do with sport or technique.

Precisely for this reason I am absolutely in favour of eliminating this regulation. It would be fair to reward if it is done during the race. Used in this way it has so sense.

Gian Carlo Minardi