This corner will in no way claim to be an expert in Formula 1, but what will be said is that once one becomes acquainted with a given subject area, knowledge thereof tends to be ingested and retained fairly quickly. Thus, while it would never be claimed that yours truly is an aficionado of the chequered flag arena, enough of a grasp thereof is held to be able to comment lucidly thereon.
Then again, you wouldn’t have to be Murray walker or Ted Kravitz to decipher that there was something decidedly dodgy about the manner in which the 2021 season concluded. On foot of which race director Michael Massi became the fall guy. It’s worth noting, though, that the kerfuffle which resulted in Max Verstappen getting a more or less clear run through the lapped rivals only came about after Verstappen’s Team Principal, Christian Horner basically harangued Massi into altering recognised procedure to allow his driver basically do a one lap sprint to the title.
That is not to suggest the driver in any way engaged in any nefarious activity, more that his boss is a whiny, entitled pain in the ass! If he’s not bending the rules to suit himself – or at the very least trying to – he’s engaged in a seemingly never ending bitch fest against Toto Wolff and Mercedes.
Which leads one to wonder who cribbing Christian will blame for yesterday’s abomination of a performance by Red Bull when neither of their drivers – Verstappen and Sergio Perez – were able to complete their day’s work in Bahrain. Of more concern to the moaning head honcho, though, should be the fact that Verstappen is or at least was audibly irate with either something within the car or he’s of the opinion that there’s something more fundamentally amiss at the team. After all, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, he could be heard disagreeing with Horner’s instructions on at least two occasions.
As the old saying goes, one man’s thrash is another man’s treasure. Or in this case, the misfortunes suffered by Red Bull in particular opened the door for Ferrari to come roaring back into the limelight as Charles Le Clerc took the first chequered flag of the season and was followed over the line by teammate Carlos Sainz.
Elsewhere, the big stories of the day revolved around two of the biggest names in the sport. Via the abysmal showing from McLaren which left Daniel Ricciardo looking an unfittingly forlorn character. And the other somewhat unusual development was Hamilton’s seemingly unfancied Mercedes rolling him into third spot.
When interviewed by Kravitz pre-race, the seven time World Champion said he and his colleagues wouldn’t contend this season. Though you suspect tongue was firmly welded to cheek!
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