[woodcote]

After one of 23 races, the constructors’ table looks good to me…

   

Of course, Ferrari, Haas and Alfa will be delighted, but I am guessing Mercedes would have happily taken a 27 point lead over Red Bull if it had been offered at any time since the Bahrain test days.

As a fan of F1, rather than any team or driver, it’s always a relief when a rule change genuinely mixes things up and delivers a significant improvement in the racing. Ross Brawn and his team of engineers should be warmly applauded.

As for the next few races… Sainz looked crestfallen after the race at not being able to match his team mate or to beat Max in a straight fight. I tip him to come back stronger in Jeddah. Red Bull and Mercedes both have work to do, but not as much as Aston, McLaren and Williams. It’ll be great if Haas, Alfa and Alpine can build on their early showings - and Alpha Tauri should be there again to pick up the pieces like last season.

I would love to see Bottas grab a win this year (however unlikely that might be…) and Zhou Guanyu get a podium. The latter certainly looked composed on his first outing in F1, following his experienced teammate through the field with plenty of clean overtakes. And Magnussen might turn out to be the bookies nightmare - although I can’t see Schumacher getting much higher than his eleventh on Sunday. On that note, it’s a travesty Oscar Piastri isn’t in a car this season.

[Kevan]

It'll be interesting to see what the F1 technical team do through the season, it seems they can tweak the spec to point F1 in a desired direction.

The cars look slow compared to last season, although two teams are certainly the cream of the bunch they're not miles ahead which bodes well for those trying to catch them.

I only hope there's no BoP talk

[Bazzer]

If you want a proper discussion here about f1 you could stop your childish behavior and spell Verstappens name right. Frustrations that Max won last year are still very strong, aren‘t they Kevin?

Henk

The problem is that with team radio so freely available we can listen to all the drivers outbursts, do you think that Max's swearing was becoming of a World Champion or was going to help sort the problem out if there was a fix? Turns out there was no fix but he did not know that when issuing the expletives.

No childish behaviour from me but that was not a good sign for the season, but I don't expect much more from someone who's father has been convicted of assault (broke someone's skull), this meaning that Max has had poor roll models during his upbringing. 

I would further conject that the reason for his very long contract with Red Bull is that it is unlikely that Ferrari or Mercedes would be able to accept him into their teams for all of the reasons mentioned above.

I predict a smashing season for Max.

[Kevan]

Word is there's potentially a 30 race season on the cards in the future...

...doing their bit for 'climate change' I see 

It's ALL about the money.

[dvd3500]

Word is there's potentially a 30 race season on the cards in the future...

...doing their bit for 'climate change' I see 

It's ALL about the money.

I was at the Hockenheimring in 2019 on the Wednesday before the F1 race...
MADNESS
So many cars, trucks, etc and the racing teams hadn't even shown up yet!

I was given tickets for the infield for a DTM race and I was told F1 was 10 times worse... you could barely move with all the trucks etc.
All for race series that are not really that interesting when compared to WEC, GT3 (British, German ADAC GT Masters, BTCC...etc.)

[Kevan]

Warning headline just spotted on the media sh*t stirring roundabout:

Charles Leclerc has 'never forgiven' Max Verstappen amid growing F1 rivalry

We've already foretold this...TBH I can't wait 

[JasonB]

Well done to Max Verstappen.

I hope for his sake he goes on to win a championship without any 'question marks' at some point. He's certainly talented enough.

[Kevan]

Well done to Max Verstappen.

I hope for his sake he goes on to win a championship without any 'question marks' at some point. He's certainly talented enough.

Of course he will, he's too good not to.

...it honestly looks like the long goodbye from Lewis

[JasonB]

In terms of predictions, both are low hanging fruit, but I'm happy to wait and see.

[Savage GT]

Was a good race but I am a bit concerned at the last virtual safety car, how did Max make up the over 4 seconds lead Charles had before the VSC, because it was nowhere near that when they restarted ?
No mention was made from the commentators, so either Charles was driving well under the delta, or Max was over it. Given it doesn't appear to have been protested by Ferrari, one assumes Charles was driving under the Delta.